Fortune (Swe / Stockholm)

A Melodic Rock band in the usual Scandinavian tradition, Fortune have fared better in Japan than they have at home, although 'Calling Spirits' and 'Lord Of Flies' albums, both produced by Stone Fury's Bruce Gowdy, have since been made available in Sweden by the Empire label. Fortune augmented their line-up for the third record, 'Lord Of Flies', by adding second guitarist Emil Fredholm, although a roster change had also occurred with drummer Thomas Haukilahti losing his place to Sebastian Sippola.

During 1996 vocalist Benny Söderberg released a solo project titled Benz which featured ex-Glory guitarist Jan Granwick and former EUROPE men bassist John Levén and drummer Ian Haugland. Guitarist Henrik Bergqvist journeyed on to play with Southfork, Tiamat and in June 2008 joined The Poodles.

Official Biography (translated from Japanese issue of 'Calling Spirits' booklet)
The history of Fortune began when Benny and Jan, who had known each other since childhood, decided to form a band in 1988. However, they had difficulty choosing a guitarist and drummer, and in the end, Benny's friend Jan Granvik (GLORY) introduced Henrik to join the band in November 1989, filling the guitarist gap, but they still hadn't decided on a permanent drummer. They made a demo tape and toured clubs where industry people frequented, and were liked by "Dino Music" (now "Empire Records"), who gave them a record contract. They finally found a drummer named Thomas Hauk just one month before starting album recording.

In 1992, their debut album "Making Gold" was recorded in just 17 days, and was released in Japan in August 1993 with one bonus track added. After releasing the album, they played a few one-off shows in their native Sweden, but drummer Thomas left the band because he had lost interest in hard rock. Sebastian Sippola, who had contacted them after seeing a recruitment ad in a music store, replaced him, and the band began rehearsing and preparing for their next album.

They began recording the album at Stocksund Studio on December 6th 1993, and finished mastering their second album, "Calling Spirits", on January 22nd 1994. The previous album was self-produced by Benny and Jan, but this time Bruce Gowdy was brought in as producer. Some of you may be familiar with the name Bruce Gowdy, but at this point he may be better known as a musician than as a producer. He worked with Lenny Wolf (now Kingdom Come) in Stone Fury and Mark Free. Many listeners may have heard him play in Unruly Child with (formerly King Cobra, Signal, solo), and Worldtrade. He also produced Glenn Hughes' latest album "From Now On...", who is also signed to "Empire Records" like Fortune, and was asked to work on this album "Calling Spirits" through that connection.

After finishing the recording of "Calling Spirits", the band welcomed a second guitarist, a 23-year-old young man named Emil Fredholm. Fortune, now a five-piece band, is currently rehearsing for their first performance in Japan in late May as the opening act for Glenn Hughes.