Icecross - LP 1973


A dark-rock herald out of time...


"One rainy day in early 1972 Axel and Ásgeir knocked at Ómars door, suprising him by asking him, a guitar player, if he would join a band with them playing the bass. All of them had been playing in different bands and knew about each other. They told Ómar that the aim was just playing their own music. By that time it vas not likely that one could earn a living if not playing The Beatles or other commercial music, but Ómar was willing to try. They did practice in some garages to develop or create a 'new' sound. At this time Ámundi Ámundason was one of the agents who arranged a job for many bands.

One of the first jobs they played was in The Westmann Islands, a little town of five thousand, which was on the world news the next year when a volcanic eruption started just outside the town. Later Westmann Islands was again on the news as the new home of the whale Keiko. Ámundi sent a stripper along with that unknown band to be sure that someone would show up. Soon after the band started playing the public started asking for their favorite songs. And when they did not succeed there were growing rumblings of discontent. Suddenly the muscleman of the town (Bjössi á Klöpp) stepped up to the stage with his brother (Goggi), announcing in the microphone that he liked the band, and so should the public. After that the band could keep on playing without interruption. But soon they found out that Iceland was too small to build up a group of fans, so they went to Copenhagen Denmark looking for fame and fortune. The band traveled from Iceland with a Flag Ship 'Gullfoss' bringing a car with them, an old military leftover from the US army. From the back of the cover you can see a glimpse of it behind the guys.

They stayed in Denmark for a year, playing mostly in Kritianía and also at the Revolution club. Playing up to 6 times a week their music got better and better, and they knew that they had to make a record. So they walked one day into the Rosenberg Studio and no other than Tommy Seebach was their Recording Engineer and also played the piano beautifully in Ómars song: 'A Sad Mans Story'.

Axel and I had joined a band earlier and have been friends ever since. One day I got a phone call from Denmark. Axel was on the phone asking me if I and a friend of ours Sigurður Guðmundsson (Lilli) could do something to help financing the record. My aunt was married to a man that was running a small printing facility, Ingólfsprent in Reykjavík. He printed some tickets for us, and Lilli and I sold some of them as an advanced buying of the coming Record. Later he also printed the album for us. I do not recall being charged for it.

There were only 1000 copies made. And the boys in the company, the 3 in the band and Lilli and I , ended up with a lot of a hard selling project. We used them as Christmas and birthday gifts. And still it might be possible to find a copy or two among our families and friends. I recently sold one of my two un-played copies on e-bay. A CD of the original source is in the making, since the one on the market today is a bootleg."