Like many other teenagers in the middle of the 1960’es I was fond of the wave of music floating in from Britain with the invasion of bands playing a new kind of rock and roll, widely known as ‘beat music’. In 1965 I got together with some boys of my age, bought my first electric bass guitar og formed a band trying to copy our British idols. We dreamt like so many others about “being like The Beatles”.
Erik Sørensen was already the owner of an electric guitar and had taken lessons for some years; Niels Rasmussen was able to play a little on a piano so be bought an electric organ; Bent Lohmann bought a drum kit; my cousin Erik ‘Skeeter’ Thornsen had a good voice so he was the lead singer and bought a Shure microphone; I bought a red bass guitar and an amplifier and started to take lessons.
And with this ballast we formed in 1966 a band in the spirit of time. For a start we called ourselves “The Dustmen” but changed it later to “Shrimps” – without ‘The’ just to be different from everybody else.
We rehearsed in the former offices of my father. His consultancy business had moved to larger offices downstairs and now only used the former premises when making large blueprints of project drawings. I got permission to transform it into a permanent practice room, with the walls decorated with posters of all the idols. Later I built a bar in the corner and we used the room also for parties when not playing.
I acquired a red “Höfner” bass guitar and a “Dynacord” amplifier and built a large loudspeaker bass-cabinet covered with black vinyl. Niels bought his first electric organ in the summer 1966 for 2400 DKK – a substantial amount when his monthly salary as an apprentice was only about 300 DKK.
”Shrimps” played at dances and in youth clubs at various music venues on Zealand until we stopped after a couple of years. We participated at championship competitions in beat music at both county and regional levels.
Press cuttings and adverts from the scrapbook 1965 – 67
The organisers and journalists often had difficulties with spelling the name of the band correctly. The name ‘Shrimps’ appear in a range of variations in miscellaneous adverts and press cuttings in the following: Strimps; Shimps; The Skrem; The Schimps; Scrimps; Shrimbs. How difficult can it be?
Participation in The Zealand Championship in Beat Music 1967
In the autumn 1966 the youth magazine BØRGE invited amateur bands from around Zealand to participate in “The Danish National Championship in BEAT Music 1967”. The first hurdle was to participate in the regional “Zealand Championship” so we decided to enrol for the first competition in Ringsted on 15 January 1967. Unfortunately, Shrimps were not placed among the required top-three, but the participation alone caused a few gigs around on Zealand.
Participation in The County Championship in Beat Music 1967
We enrolled for participation in “The County Championship in Beat Music ’67” to take place 5 February 1967 in Engelstrup Village Hall.
The closing of Shrimps in 1967
The drummer Bent Lohmann backed out of the band towards the end of 1967 because he moved to Copenhagen to take on a new job. He was replaced by Carsten Nielsen, but soon after this change we decided to stop taking new gigs and close the band.
Both Skeeter, Niels and I continued to play in various other musical relations, but neither Erik nor Bent played actively after the Shrimps days.
A reunion, 2016
Skeeter, Niels and I met again in July 2016 at the “Rock Museum” in Roskilde to revive old memories from the 1960’es. Unfortunately, Erik and Bent both had passed away and could for good reasons not take part in the reunion.
It was a cheerful afternoon where joint memories from a good time of our life popped up as we passed through the various displays at the museum.
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