Ultra rare Merrymakers promo clip

Here’s some really rare footage for all power-pop and Jellyfish fans in general but for fans of the Merrymakers in particular! Around Christmas each year I get a bit nostalgic and I tend to randomly pick something out from my old shoeboxes of archived VHS’s. This time I discovered something that looks like it was alsmot tailor made for putting out on the web although this was done some eight years before YouTube even existed. So there was not really much output for this clip except for the one single occasion it was made for. It was for 1997’s international EMI/Virgin world meeting which that year took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Virgin Records Sweden wanted to present their new signing – The Merrymakers – my former band. We had already achieved success in Japan and Virgin was now aiming for a broader international market after we had recorded our second album Bubblegun with Ronald Bood and Andy Sturmer (from the legendary band Jellyfish) as producers.

In the video we can see Anders Hellgren putting a cigarette through his head and stealing from a street musician, myself wearing a Spice Girls T-shirt and juggling with sugar cubes, and Peter Arffman keeping his constant cool until the very last moment when the “silly dance” begins…

The songs featured in the video are “Superstar”, “April’s Fool”, and “What about?” which can all be found on iTunes and/or Spotify. Please feel free to “like” The Merrymakers Facebook page to stay updated on future gems from the shoeboxes.