Gert Thrue

Born and raised in the port town of Ebeltoft on Denmark’s rural Djursland peninsula in the mid-1950s, Thrue got his start as a self-taught musician on bass guitar and organ. When he was fifteen, he made friends with a younger teenager who played the drums and lived just down the street, Per Høyer. Not long after, they started practising in Thrue’s parent's basement in various short-lived jam bands. When they weren’t playing together, they bonded over progressive music of the day, like Jimi Hendrix.

Outside of jamming with Høyer, Thrue played bass in Fabel, a Danish language psychedelic rock group from the nearby seaport town Grenaa. Two members of the band, the Serwin brothers, played him albums by Hansson & Karlsson, a Swedish instrumental jazz fusion duo who’d performed and recorded with Jimi Hendrix and had a cult following across Europe. Hearing Bo Hansson play the Hammond Organ was a revelatory experience for Thrue, who purchased a Hammond TTR-100 Portable Organ in 1974.