Music from the Polar Circle

[Stjofön Big]

Three years ago the band I was in, Shake Down in Umeå, lost our drummer. Lars Gillén lost his struggle against cancer. It was a hard blow, very much for the music we made, but as much for all the interesting conversations him and me had in the rehearsel studio. Lars read a lot, about four books a week, according to his wife. That's around 200 new books a year! Lars was an intellectual, but not an ordinary. He was a working class intellectual, which means he didn't fly off with different theories without having hiss foots firmly on the ground.
We both supported the Grateful Dead approach to music. Let is loose. See what happens. Roll with it. Or kill your darling in a mercifull way.
The clip I'm about to show you is from the last gig we did. Around the 26th of December, 2019. It shows Lars down to earth drumming. Nothing fancy. Just the way me myself prefer a drummers style. Lars was so tired, he said NO when it came to encore. I miss that guy, bad. His grave is close to my in-laws. Every time I'm there I stop and say Hello to Lars.
Hope you like it!

[Dave W]

I remember when you posted that on Facebook. I may have reposted it here. Hard to believe it's been three years already. I'm sure you miss him a lot.

[westen44]

Your band had a good solid sound.  I enjoyed the song. 

[Rob]

RIP Lars

[uwe]

May he bang those skins in eternity.