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TALISMAN BAND PAGE
 TALISMAN
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CURRENT NAME
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Talisman | |
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FORMER NAMES
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- | |
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ORIGIN
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Stockholm, Stockholms Län, Sweden | |
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STATUS
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Active | |
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FORMED IN
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1988 | |
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LABEL
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Frontiers Records | |
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GENRE
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Hard rock | |
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STYLE
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- | |
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LYRICAL THEME
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- | |
| BAND ADDED | 2007-04-30, 13:15 | |
| LAST UPDATE | 2009-02-15, 12:52 | |
Biography | Band members | Discography | Shows | Forum
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In February 1989 the debut album was recorded in Stockholm with a line-up comprised of the axemen Christopher Ståhl (Power) and Mats Lindfors (Norum, Grand Slam), drummer Peter Hermansson (220 Volt, Norum) and Mats Olausson (Yngwie Malmsteen, Glory) on keyboards. Peter actually only did drums for a few tracks while Marcel programmed the rest. The album release was delayed since their label Electra Records went bankrupt. Meanwhile Jeff headed back to the US to record vocals for another band called Eyes who had just secured a record contract. A guy from the label who originally signed Talisman had found a new job with the Airplay / Vinyl Mania label who picked up the masters and finally released the eponymous debut album in February 1990. "I'll Be Waiting" became a radio hit and the album sold more than 33,000 copies in Sweden in two months.
In the summer of 1990 the band did several successful live gigs in Sweden with Saigon Kick's Jason Bieler on guitars, Jakob "Jake Samuels" Samuelsson on drums and Thomas Vikström (Talk of the Town, Candlemass) on keyboards and backing vocals. However, the band's label once again went broke and the album was never released outside the country. After the summer Jeff continued working on Eyes and Bieler's band Saigon Kick became increasingly popular. The success of Talisman had however been recognized by many and Marcel was contracted by major label Warner Records Sweden and had to come up with a new band.
He travelled to both the US and the UK in order to find the right people to work with but to no avail. Time passed until he met an old grade school friend called Matti Alfonzetti (they had also toured together in 1986 with Wasa Express) with whom he and Jake Samuels started writing and recording together in 1992. After a few auditions they also found a promising 19-year old guitarist named Fredrik Åkesson. Now the band was finally complete but the guy at Warner who signed Marcel left the company and the new guy in charge didn't want to deal with any acts he hadn't signed himself. The rest of 1992 they searched for a new label and frustrated with the situation Matti left to join Skin Trade.
Christer Wedin, who did press and promotion for the label that released Talisman's debut, had become the Swedish label manager for a Dutch / Canadian label called Dino Music (later on renamed Empire Records) and he wanted to release a second Talisman album if Jeff could join them again. At that time Eyes had split up, Jeff was back and now they had a record contract again. However, Jake Samuels had joined Zinny Zan's band and Marcel programmed all drums in the studio. The sophomore effort "Genesis" was conceived over a period of three weeks in December 1992 at the Stocksund Recording Studios in Stockholm. With Jeff came also his girlfriend at the time Julie Greaux (Billy Idol, Axel Rudi Pell) who ended up playing the grand piano on "All I Want".
As "Genesis" was released in early 1993, Dino Music also bought licenses for the debut from Vinyl Mania in order to re-issue it, adding six live tracks from various shows on the Swedish tour of 1990. The single "Mysterious", for which a video also was shot, was played on some radio stations and the album quickly shifted more than 15,000 copies in Sweden. For the very first time, Talisman also received some international attention and both albums were picked up by Zero for a Japanese release. A Swedish club tour took place in March with Julie Greaux on keyboards and Jake Samuels once again returning behind the drum kit.
While planning for a Japanese tour, Jake again parted with the band since he wanted to pursue a career as a singer and he was duly replaced by one of Marcel's favorite drummers in Jamie Border whose band Treat had recently broken up. The Japanese dates were followed by a European tour. Returning back home in early October they were supposed to fly to Los Angeles to record new material but instead Fredrik, Jamie and Marcel locked themselves in a rehearsal studio in Upplands-Väsby outside Stockholm perfecting the material for a third Talisman album. In January 1994 Jeff joined the rest of the band to record and mix "Humanimal" at Stockholm's Sound Trade Studios. Julie Greaux once again joined them to do some backing vocals and sound engineer Ronny Lahti guested on funky wah guitar on the track "Seasons". The album sold well but no tour followed.
In 1995 Marcel travelled to LA to work with Jeff on songs for a fourth album to be entitled "Life". Jamie came along to record the drums very quickly at Park Studios and Jeff recorded most of the vocals at home. At this time the band had several problems with the labels involved and once more no tour followed the album release. Fed up with the situation Talisman was put on hold for three years. Towards the end of the year Talisman did a few last shows opening up for Yngwie Malmsteen in Stockholm. Fredrik had left to create a more metal oriented band called Southpaw in the fall so Pontus Norgren (ex-Great King Rat) stepped in on guitars.
In 1998 Christer Wedin from Empire Records wanted them to do another Talisman album for them so Marcel left for LA again to write new material together with Jeff. Jamie and Pontus, who had now become part of the band, showed up a few days later to rehease and record the songs in a small studio. "Truth" was released later that year, featuring no less than three cover songs: Prince's "Darling Nikki", Queen's "Let Me Entertain You" and Madonna's "Frozen". No touring took place this time either.
A couple of quiet years followed for Talisman until 2001 when they did a Stockholm show and appeared at the legendary Sweden Rock Festival outside Sölvesborg in the south of Sweden. The festival turned out to be an exciting event for Marcel whose entire gear was left at the venue in Stockholm (where they played only two nights before the festival). At first he wanted to leave the festival when he noticed the mistake but the crowd really wanted to see Talisman perform and after an intense search Magnus Rosén of Hammerfall lent him one of his bass guitars.
The Sweden Rock gig was a great success and the show was recorded for a live album release in October 2002, charting at number 18 the very first week. The name Talisman was spreading all over the world and the same year their entire back catalogue was re-issued by Frontline Records in Brazil with some bonus tracks. While working on the band Humanimal in 2002 Pontus and Marcel didn't agree on various personal, professional and legal issues and Pontus was sacked from both Talisman and Humanimal (whose eponymous album surfaced at about the same day).
Humanimal was no more but Talisman continued and signed a new contract with the Italian label Frontiers Records who was already set to release Jeff's solo album "Love Parade". Now the band had to find a guitarist and while Jeff wanted Howie Simon from his solo work to join them, Jamie wanted to have Fredrik Åkesson back in Talisman. Eventually Fredrik recorded the album in the studio while Howie did some live shows as second guitarist. The band was offered to record entirely for free at the Music Planet Recording Studio in Acqui Terme near Turin, Italy where the new album was finished in two weeks before leaving for Boston to mix the album with sound engineer and friend John Ellis. "Cats & Dogs" was released in May 2003 and this time Talisman were finally able to tour Europe, including several high profile festival appearances such as Gods of AOR and Sweden Rock.
Starting 2003 the entire Talisman back catalogue was re-mastered and re-issued by the Swedish label GMR Music Group with a selection of bonus tracks, demos and videos. In March 2005 Frontiers Records released a double DVD packade called "World's Best Kep Secret" to celebrated the 15th anniversary of their debut release, including two complete shows from the 2003 tour and plenty more. The double live album "Five Men Live" was also released at the same time.
Talisman took a short break as the band members occupied themselves with other bands and projects: Jeff with Soul Sirkus, Fredrik with Tiamat and Arch Enemy, Marcel with Last Autumn's Dream and Locomotive Breath and Jamie with Last Autumn's Dream and the Treat reunion. Towards the end of 2005 Jeff, Marcel, Jamie and Fredrik started working on a new Talisman album entitled "7". Nine months later it had been finished and on October 20th, 2006, it was released by Frontiers in Europe and King Records in Japan. The album was recorded at XTC Studios in Älvsjö and at Mahatma Gandhi Location in Stockholm with all the vocals done at the Hampton in Northridge, California.
A European tour was supposed to take place during September and October but since Jeff had now joined the legendary rock band Journey it had to be cancelled. In the summer of 2007 the promised tour finally took place but Fredrik Åkesson bowed out due to obligations with another band and Brian Young stepped in for what was labelled the band's "Fareweel Tour". Brian had recently been playing with David Lee Roth but was also part of Marce's first post-Yngwie Malmsteen band L'Amour back in 1985.
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