Ulf Dageby is dead. The man who scored the prog movement with classics like "Life is a party", "Children of our time" – and "Doin' the immoral schlager festival" became 80 years old.
The artist passed away in his house on Skaftö in the Gothenburg archipelago on Tuesday, reports Göteborgs-Posten.
We sat last week in Majorna and had coffee and talked about upcoming gigs and the future. Same as always, eager for the future, says concert organizer Birger Hult at management company Nöjet AB to TT.
Ulf Dageby was, together with Anders Melander, a leading creative musical force in Nationalteatern – a theater group from Gothenburg that became a cornerstone in the progressive music movement with a clear left-wing profile in 1970s Sweden.
Prog icons
The group was contemporary with bands like Nynningen from Gothenburg, but also Hoola Bandoola Band from Malmö and Blå Tåget from Stockholm.
”It is with great sorrow we announce that our friend and colleague Ulf Dageby has passed away. Ulf was not only an incredible musician and songwriter, but also a great person with a heart of gold. His creativity and passion for music touched us all and his work has left an unforgettable mark on our lives and in music history", writes Nöjet AB in a statement via GP.
Continued touring
Nationalteatern had its heyday in the 1970s, and the musical group Ulf Dageby created, Nationalteatern's rock orchestra, has continued to tour. A new tour was scheduled to start this summer, but Ulf Dageby passed away beforehand.
Several of the songs that became classics, such as "Life is a party" and "Children of our time", were written by Ulf Dageby and were intended primarily for theater productions. But they became immortal hits on their own, constantly recorded in new versions by new artists up to our days.
It's because they're not just poster songs. They're existentialist songs, said Ulf Dageby in an interview on P4 Extra as recently as Friday.
Became tired
Dageby has told that he became tired of the political tone and left the theater group in the early 1980s.
The dogmatic rigidity didn't suit me so much. But it was high ceilings in "Nationalen" so I could be myself, he said in the P4 Extra interview.
Instead, he focused on the music and continued to tour with Nationalteatern's rock orchestra, which in recent years has found a new audience – not least thanks to his participation in "Så mycket bättre" on TV4 in 2013. Dageby also created film music.
One of Ulf Dageby's most famous songs was "Doin' the immoral schlager festival", which he performed in the role of the character Sillstryparen at the alternative festival that was arranged in protest when the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Stockholm in 1975.
Mikael Forsell/TT
Facts: Ulf Dageby
TT
Born in Gothenburg. Member of Nationalteatern from 1969. Solo artist from the 1980s. In addition to rock music, he also made music for Stefan Jarl's film "A decent life", Björn Rune's "If I turn around" and a number of films about Commissioner Martin Beck.
Nationalteatern's rock orchestra has continued to tour. Among other things, they played at the Sweden Rock festival in 2022. The group had both concert dates in the summer and a tour in the fall booked.
Ulf Dageby received the Cornelis Vreeswijk Prize in 2023.
