Galleon

Biography

There are three known bands using the name Galleon: 1. a progressive rock band hailing from Sweden and 2. a French dance group. 3. a four-piece indie rock group based in Adelaide, Australia. 1. Galleon started as a three piece named Aragon back in ´85 , experimenting with different kind of music and musicians , but never really found the "right" feeling. . . Because Micke Värn, guitars - Göran Fors, bass and Vocals and Dan Fors, drums had the idea , they wanted at least to document their swe...

There are three known bands using the name Galleon:

1. a progressive rock band hailing from Sweden and
2. a French dance group.
3. a four-piece indie rock group based in Adelaide, Australia.

1. Galleon started as a three piece named Aragon back in ´85 , experimenting with different kind of music and musicians , but never really found the "right" feeling. . .

Because Micke Värn, guitars - Göran Fors, bass and Vocals and Dan Fors, drums had the idea , they wanted at least to document their sweat and blood in composing the music they believed in under so many years , just in case . . .

When Galleon started to send around their first demo tapes under the name Aragon back in -89 , they initially got a friendly response but also a demand to change their name.

After they had come up with the name Galleon and was actually working on their first album , the drummer Dan Fors injured his foot badly and the album was delayed for six months..

During the recording sessions the Producer and Keyboard player Ulf Pettersson had joined the band , but left just before releasing LYNX-93, leaving them as a three piece band with music arranged for four.

After trying several different keyboard players with only the good response and sales of the CD keeping them from giving up , Ulf rejoined the band , which allowed them to play live and gave new dimensions to the song writing.

HERITAGE AND VISIONS - 94 was a kind of honeymoon where Micke , Göran and Dan , that had developed their sound since the early eighties , migrated that with Ulf's Very personal song writing and arrangements.
Delighted with the sound that seemed to appear when they played together but not to crazy about the actual CD they started to experiment under the work title of "Divina Comeda".

In 1995 , Galleon released the single AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME but their Asian distributor, the Japanese Label , ZERO CORPORATION wanted a full length CD , so the album KING OF ARAGON was released and gave the band the opportunity to try on odd ideas like the happy tune Illusive exhibition and the dark heavy Long lonely shadows.

Then after two years "Divina Comeda" became THE ALL EUROPEAN HERO - 96.
The reviews have been overwhelming with the highlight of GFT in England calling it "The melodic prog album of the year".
After that Galleon got enough courage to go on a minor European Tour with gigs in Norway, England and Germany.

They got a very good response , and started to work with the new material in springtime of ´97 and in the autumn Galleon went on tour again , presenting some of the new songs to the audience , who seemed pleased with the new material . . .

So right after the tour , Galleon went into the studio in Ljusne , and started the long and hard work of making a new album.

And hard work it became . . . . after almost a year , with ghosts , evil spirits , technical problems and hard labor pain , finally . . . . . Mind Over Matter saw the light of day in the autumn of 1998.

After the release of Mind over matter galleon took it very easy . And in April of 1999 Micke announced that he wanted to leave the band.

Ulf knew a Guitar player from he's old hometown and called him up and Sven Larsson was brought in on the Galleon ship bringing a new spark to the band.

During the summer of 99 Galleon started to work on the next record and in august they played a festival in their hometown ,the first gig with Sven.

In the fall they went on a tour again visiting England and the Rotherham Rocks , Belgium for the first time and Holland , after the tour Galleon continued the work and recordings in to February 2000 when the new record got finished.

Galleon had their release party at the rockclub Anchor in Stockholm in March of 2000 .

And in May Galleon went to Spain to play a festival.
Galleon also made a gig in a local club for the first time in June .

In the autumn of 2000 Galleon started the long and hard work to make a double album with one long track on one of the cd's, a long concept that Göran had been thinking about for several years.
The first small musical ideas was made by Göran and Ulf During the mixing of Beyond Dreams.

In february of 2001 Galleon made a short stop in the making of the double album for a gig in Gothenburg at Oceanen , and continued the work on the cd through the whole year and in to 2002 ....

’From Land to Ocean’ took almost 3 years to complete. By spending almost two years on ‘The Ocean’ only, The CD part ‘Land’ was still left to create. After an additional year of composing, arranging, and recording, ‘From Land to Ocean’ finally made their way to the record stores.

It was to be the only Galleon album up to that point, actually selling anything before it was released.

‘From Land to Oceans’ release party was held at a local club in Ljusdal and a two gig “tour” followed nearly a year later, in September 2004 in Belgium and Switzerland. The labour pains that supervened the creation of such a concept double album, was taking it’s toll on the Galleon camp, and the rehearsals for a live performance were tedious and difficult . Together with some changes in the personal lives of the members, it made rehearsal summits a rare occurence.

Then the “tour” itself was inflicted with technical problems on gear, transportation, and just about anything you can think of having a chance of going wrong, whereby Galleon took a brief time-out later that autumn.

But that was only to begin rehearsals for a fresh new album, in January 2005. However, the labour pains from the previous album still seemed to infest drought in the creative process, leaving Galleon to discover that no output had been produced for a whole year.

Now, in 2007 Galleon is still trying to find the vein where that creative blood flows, seeking out different approaches, and taking all possible measures to get back on the creative track.

In retrospect, Galleon has really gone through a tremendous development since their first album ‘Lynx’. And just maybe, sometimes such development might outrun each individual spirit, forcing them to catch up with it, before being able to take that development to the next level.

2. Coming from Marseille, France, Phil and Michel are forming Galleon in 2000.

3. The Adelaide-based indie rock band called Galleon were formed in 2008, named after their favourite cafe in St. Kilda, Melbourne. Their debut album should be out in 2010 sometime. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.