Glory Bell's Band (Swe)

Official Bio (from http://glorybellsband.com)
GLORY BELLS BAND was a hard rock band from Stockholm, Sweden, active 1980 to 1985.

1980 - When it began
The history begins in a suburb of Stockholm. Two different band joined together in 1980 and decided to start a new common band. The guys was Mats Andersson (guitar), Franco Santunione (guitar), Miguel Santana (guitar), Bo Andersson (bass) and Stefan Sverin (drums). Now the band needed a singer and contacted Glory North, who was available at the time, and he accepted.

When GLORY BELLS BAND started, Stefan Sverin played drums but he quit the band after a short while and went to SIZE 46, a synthpop band who later on changed their name to FAKE. Peter Udd replaced Stefan Sverin behind the drums in the end of 1980. Glory North became the bands front man.

Half of the bands songs was written by the guys together and the other half was written by Glory. All songs was arranged by the whole band together.

1981 - Record contract
GLORY BELLS BAND played live at clubs in Stockholm with surroundings. One night the band played at the rock club "Underground" in Stockholm. After the gig, a guy from a record company came forward and stuck a record contract in their hands. This was a very pleasant suprise for the guys.

During 1981, Glory Bells recorded their First album "Dressed in black" at "Decibel Studios" in Stockholm. Due to a shortage of studio time, they could not work with the songs as much as they liked!

The band gave Glory the honourable task to design and draw sketches to the covers of the bands albums. An art firm took over and fulfilled his ideas. The front cover of "Dressed in black" illustrates the bell ringing in the introduction of the track "Sir Lionheart".

1982 - Dressed in black
"Dressed in black" was released in 1982. The album got great reviews from the Swedish press. After the album was released the band did a minor tour in Sweden.

In 1982, GLORY BELLS wrote new songs for their next album. They had to make a demo tape for the record company which they recorded in their own rehearsal studio. A new experience for the band was that now the problems with the record company began to accumulate. A major one was that the record company made no payments to the band.

1983 - On strike
In 1983 GLORY BELLS BAND went into the studio and recorded their Second album "Century Rendezvous". Even this album was recorded under pressure due to shortage of studio time. The basic recordings was made at "Decibel Studios" and additional recordings were made at "Bastun Studios" in Stockholm.

The band had struggled with the record company ever since their First album got released. The guys decided to go on strike when the Second album was nearly completed. This led to a lot of arguments with the record company, but they finally got paid for their First album. Although the amount was not enough they decided to take the money and finish the Second album.

The album was mixed at "Soundtrade Studio" and the track "Big thunder" illustrates the front cover of "Century Rendezvous". The album release date was delayed half a year because the record company did not pay the engraver contractor in time.

1984 - Century Rendezvous
In 1984 the Second album "Century Rendezvous" finally got released. New gigs came up and the band visited a lot of places in Sweden. A memoralbe gig took place at Gröna Lund, a respected outdoors stage in Stockholm.

The Second album did also get great reviews from the press. The album was also released in Japan, Germany and the BeNeLux-countries. Local record dealers in many other countries imported the album for their markets why the album was distributed over all continents. The record company talked about a tour in Japan. This tour never came true, the record company pushed the tour date forward in time as with everything else.

In the early autumn of 1984, Miguel Santana (guitar) and Bo Andersson (bass) left the band because of all the problems with the record company. GLORY BELLS BAND played further on with only two guitar-players, instead of three. Tomas Nugis replaced Bo Andersson on bass.

One of the bands last gigs took place, the 13 of December, at Örnsköldsvik icehockey arena.

1985 - When it ended
The record company promised more than they could keep, GLORY BELLS and the record company was in constant conflict because of this. The problem weighed down on them until they finally had enough and, in the cold and dark time of January 1985, GLORY BELLS BAND dissolved!

The record company handled and administrated the bands fan mail which came from all over the world. They showed only some fan letters for the band why not all the letters was answered by the guys themselves. GLORY BELLS BAND would like to Thank their fans for everything! THANK YOU!

2002 - Reunion
A reunion took place in May 2002. GLORY BELLS BAND played for one night to celebrate Franco Santunione at his big birthday party. The line up was Glory North - vocals, Afro Santunione - guitar (Francos brother), Miguel Santana - guitar, Tomas Nugis - bass and Peter Udd - drums. The guys had been trying to locate Bo Andersson but could not find him at the time. Mats Andersson was on tour with his own band and could not participate.

The band kept the gig a secret from Franco, and when they went on stage that evening, it took him totally by suprise! The gig was really, really fun for the guys in GLORY BELLS BAND.

2008 - Tragedy
Glory North died in February after a long time of sickness. What a tragedy! He fought so many battles but he could not win the war. His death is unbelievable for us all and we miss him so much!

Glory had a true passion and love for music. He was a great musician and songwriter, and he encouraged us to play long beyond that we did not thought that we could do. We remember his sense for details, precision, patience and he was one hell of a singer and a true friend. We all have grief in our hearts and the world will never be the same!

Member Infos (from http://glorybellsband.com/band.html)
Glory North - Vocals and Background Vocals
Glorys real name is Glory Ove Nordh. He was born 1958 up in the highlands, in the middle of Sweden and he moved with his family to Stockholm when he was 6 years old. In the early 70's Glory was a member of  EARTH GRAVITY where he played guitar and did the vocals. The band played covers from the 60's and own songs, influenced by hard rock music. Then Glory went to the hard rock band MADNESS AGE as a singer. One of the members in MADNESS AGE was Pekka Adolfsson on lead guitar who was a good friend to him back in the 60's. When a couple of band members left the band and they where replaced by new members, the band changed their name to X-RAY FREE. Pekka went on to INTERMEZZO, a pop band, with Orup as a singer.

After X-RAY FREE Glory went to the hard rock band NASTY as a singer. Half of the songs were written by all the members in the bands mentioned above, and the other half by Glory alone. All arrangements were made together and so it continued when Glory joined GLORY BELLS BAND in 1980. He had the Glory Bells record contract and he was legally bound to it for several years ahead. The contract said that he must do one more album. Glory started his own hard rock band GLORY NORTH in the beginning of 1985 and GLORY NORTH went into the studio later the same year and recorded the album.

GLORY NORTH has nothing to do with the Swedish hard rock band GLORY, who acted during the same period. This name has caused a lot of confusion and many people have asked and wondered if Glory was a member of the band GLORY, but that is all wrong. The band GLORY NORTH and the band GLORY were two different bands! At first he did not like that the band had his name, but after a while he felt flattered.

Glory died in February 2008 after a long time of sickness.

Mats Andersson/Granberg - Lead Guitar, Keyboards and Vackground Vocals
Mats was born 1962 and raised at a southside suburb of Stockholm. He has changed his last name to Granberg which is his mothers familyname. In 1983, Mats produced an album with HARDLINE, a hard rock band from Norway. The name of the album was "Hardline" and it was released in Sweden and Norway.

After GLORY BELLS he founded his own company "Cowboys Sound AB". He built up his own studio and started to promote himself as a composer towards the TV/Radio market. It went well and the business grew. After a couple of years he expanded his business with postproduction. Until today, Mats and the persons, who have worked for him and still are working for "Cowboys Sound AB", are responsible for the sound of over thousand commersial spots and TV-programs. Mats has also composed several packages of stationID:s for several radiostations.

In 1986 he began to work as a touring musician and he has spent several years on tour with some of Swedens most famous artists. He has also been the musical director for three big theathershows, featuring many of Swedens popular actors!.

Today Mats is the leadsinger and guitar/keyboardplayer in his own coverband BRICKHEAD. He is also working on his first solo-album. At last but not least so was Mats dog "Trulsa", a black Labrador Retriever, GLORY BELLS BAND's mascot through the years. She was always with the band and followed them everywhere.

Franco Santunione - Lead Guitar
Franco was born 1962 and raised in Midsommarkransen, one of the suburbs west of Stockholm.

Franco started his music career as a singer in a punk rock band called THE SHAME, around 77-78. They used to rehearse tuning their guitars in to one chord and wrote anarchistic lyrics and listen to a lot of new bands coming out from the punk wave scene from Sweden and England. But the anarchy punk revolution never happened so Franco began to play guitar and worked part-time together with Mats Andersson (Granberg) in a music store.

Mats introduced Franco to Glory North, quote "I was hooked by his way of singing and producing such screams and the way he used his voice was something different around that time". Spending a lot of time in a newly built rehearsal studio they became good friends.

After GLORY BELLS BAND he joined the funk-rock band ELECTRIC BOYS where he played guitar from 1988 to 1992. Franco recorded two albums, "Funk-o-Metal Carpet Ride" and "Groovus Maximus", with the band.

From 1993-1995 Franco played guitar in the hard rock band REPTILE SMILE. Franco recorded an album with the band, which was supposed to be their third album, but this album was never released. After REPTILE SMILE had split up in the end of 1995 Franco was tired of the music scene and began to educate himself as a sound engineer and later on to a computer administrator. He played in a lot of cover bands during this time, just to keep up the guitar playing and having fun with friends.

Franco has played or is still playing in bands such as ERRORSMITH, HUSSE and QUEERSLING. Franco has also been working as a studio musician and he has worked together with some of Swedens popular artists. Today, Franco plays guitar in the funk-rock band LOCOMOTIVE.

Miguel Santana - Lead Guitar
Miguel Miguel was born 1963 and raised in a suburb located south west of Stockholm.

When Miguel left GLORY BELLS BAND he began to work as a troubadour, playing acoustic guitar. His repertoire is wide and includes various music styles. Miguel appears and entertains in pubs and at company parties even today, now and then. Miguel works as a webdesigner today.

Bo Andersson - Bass
Bo was born 1958 and raised in a suburb west of Stockholm.

During the late 70's Bo played bass in the rock band HIGHBROW, name idea from Bo. The band released a single named "Rock On" in 1978. The guys had material for a whole album and the record company promised the moon why the guys ordered jackets with their logotype and painted a very, very big background board, 4 meters in diameter for their gigs. But on the other hand, the record company where focused, and had their priority on other bands at the time, which was a frustration for the guys. When the band replaced their vocalist in 1979 Bo took the opportunity and left the band and joined the rock band TRANZE where he met Franco Santunione, on drums, for the first time.

After GLORY BELLS Bo went to a new band named THE ROCKER'S. The band profiled themselves as all dressed in black. They had wigs with long black hair, black t-shirts and tights. None of them had the driving force to get the band out on gigs which was needed but the band produced two demo-tapes. The first one together with Mats Andersson (Granberg) and the second one in a studio at Nacka, Stockholm. After a while Bo felt that this did not led him anyway and left the band.

In January of 1985 Bo found a new interest in self-defence sports and began to practise it. Gradually he became an instructor of self-defence and he has the grade of Fourth Dan Black Belt which is very impressive! Besides, Bo is a frequently radio listener of Swedish hard rock stations every night.

Peter Udd/Sandberg - Drums and Percussion
Peters last name Udd is a synonym of his real last name, Sandberg. He was born 1957 and raised in a suburb, north of Stockholm.

Peter played drums in the proggressive rock band RÅG I RYGGEN back in the 70's. The band released an album, the bands only one, in 1975 with the same name. Peter was amazingly only 16 years old when they recorded the album. Half of the albums songs was in Swedish and the other half in English. The album was re-released on CD in the end of 2005 and it includes three live bonus tracks.

Peter In the early 80's Peter played drums in Yngwie Malmsteens swedish hard rock band RISING FORCE. Peter signed up for GLORY BELLS BAND in the end of 1980. From 1990 Peter play drums in the hard rock band GLORY NORTH.

When GLORY BELLS Band was dissolved Peter began to work in studios as a sound engineer. He has mixed many different band with varying music styles during the years. Peters big hobby is sound and technical vintage sound devices. He builds own amplifiers, compressors and many more things from the 60's and 70's.