Tyggegummibanden

Danish mid 70's pop/rock band with teenage-appeal and lyrics in Danish. The band was formed in 1974 by songwriters Morten Langebæk & Michael Jørgensen and bass player Henrik Bødtcher, who were members of the English-singning rock/pop band Anaconda and transformed it into Tyggegummibanden.

The first line-up was completed with then 17-year old wonderkid on drums, Kasper Winding, who in 1974 played with Henrik Bødtcher in the latin fusion group Buki Yamaz. It is a widely known 'secret' in the Danish music industry that Kasper Winding is the (uncredited) drummer on the first Tyggegummibanden-album, Nu Går Det Løs! However he left the band after the recordings were done, and thus the drummer whose image is featured on the back cover, Jan Sivertsen didn't join the band until after the recordings. On all subsequent releases the drummer was Jan Sivertsen. He joined the band right after the first album together with Michael Bruun, who also came from Anaconda. Side note: Bruun and Sivertsen knew each other from another project they had with Henrik Bødtcher, which in 1976 materialized as the jazz-rock fusion group Heavy Joker.

On the second album Fuld Fart - Rock'N'Roll in 1975, the band was shortly joined by Thomas Helweg-Mikkelsen, who replaced Bødtcher on that release only. At the same time Tyggegummibanden changed style to do cover-versions of rock standards with 'funny' lyrics, just like their competitors, Shu-Bi-Dua. However the band changed style once more and played own compositions again on the third album Banden 3 in 1977. At the 1977-release the group also changed its name to "Banden" to get rid of the teenage-image, but after protests from a theater group also called "Banden", the band changed its bandname back to Tyggegummibanden. One year after the third album, Tyggegummibanden disbanded in 1978.

The two incoming band members after the first album, Michael Bruun and Jan Sivertsen, later became important musicians as members of Tøsedrengene and Ray Dee Ohh, and both made rich contributions to the "golden age" of Danish rock-pop music in the 80's and 90's: Michael Bruun became a central figure as star producer of many popular Scandinavian artists, and Jan Sivertsen played with Lis Sørensen and Danser med Drenge and also produced several high-profiled pop albums in the 2000's.