History of Q4U
In the winter of 1980-1981 Q4U was born. The punk
movement hit Iceland relativelity late, about 1978-79,
but when it did it hit hard and the scene immediately
became very lively.
The members of Q4U were initially two couples, Steinþór
and Linda and Gunnþór and Ellý,
along with two of their mates from the local punk
scene in Reykjavík. They were Helgi the drummer
and Már the keyboard player. Those two soon
quit and no keyboard player was recruited until
later, but Kommi became the drummer instead of Helgi.
Steinþór, who was bassist with Fræbbblarnir,
a rather established band on the scene, played guitar
and Gunnþór, a roadie with the biggest
band on the scene, Utangarðsmenn, played the
bass. The two girls were the singers. This line-up,
Steinþór, Kommi, Gunnþór
and the girls appeared in the movie Rokk í
Reykjavík, which was premiered in the spring
of 1982 and showcased the Reykjavík punk
scene. Q4U became stars in the movie because of
their good looks and uncompomising punk stance,
and the song Creeps, based on The Model by Kraftwerk,
a hit. Even so, the obligations Steinþór
had with Fræbbblarnir and internal divisions
caused the breakup of the group soon after the premiere
of Rokk í Reykjavík.
The original Q4U never published any material besides
the three songs appearing on the Rokk í Reykjavík
soundtrack album. However, they recorded their whole
production in a demo session at their rehearsal
locale below a butcher´s shop with Árni
Daníel, who also contributed keyboards and
was regarded as part of the group at that time.
Then the group called it the quits. These demos
were not published until much later, in 1997, on
the CD Q2.
II
Ellý and Árni Daníel were writing
and gigging together with the group Handan grafar,
a synth unit. This group then became Q4U #2, when
Gunnþór joined on bass. Q4U #2 had
a different focus as it decisively cut with the
groups trash-punk past and worked primarily with
post-punk influences. The synth was important and
soon the drum machine TR 808 replaced the drummer.
The group appeared as a three-piece in the spring
of 1982 in Ísafjörður, but it was
decided that the sound needed beefing up and the
guitarist Óðinn Guðbrandsson was
recruited. In this way the group appeared in august
1982 at the punk festival Melarokk in Reykjavík.
Recordings of this concert are preserved both on
video and audio.
Q4U established itself with the performance at Melarokk
as a post-punk unit, of which there really weren´t
all that many in Reykjavík at the time. Almost
nobody experimented with synths and drum machines
besides Q4U. There was a further line-up change
later in that year, as Óðinn left and
was replaced by the guitarist Daniel Pollock from
Utangarðsmenn. In this way the group started
rehearsing for its EP, Q1, which contains six songs
and is a 12 inch vinyl record. It was recorded in
January 1983 and published in February to generally
good reviews. Most seemed to be suprised at the
transformation of the group, but of course it was
really only a part of the old group, with Steinþór
and Linda not participating, and especially Steinþór
was a big punk star in Iceland. One could even say
it was a totally new group, and the old name was
used really because no other could be found that
everybody was happy with.
This version of Q4U also had a hit with the song
Böring, now penned by the group itself. It
was about a rather boring experience the singer
Ellý had in Ísafjörður, where
the police arrested her for some minor offence,
but mostly because she was a punk rocker and punk
rockers were a bit too much for small town police
in Iceland at the time.
In the spring of 1983 Kommi joined again as the
drummer, and the drum machine was parked. It had
not really worked in live situations and there were
constant sound problems. So Kommi was warmly welcomed
and with this line-up the group played one of its
best concerts, warming up for the British group
Classix Noveaux in Reykjavík in the spring
of 1983. The group then recorded five songs in august
1983. They were not released at the time, and when
Árni Daníel quit in august the group
also called it quits. It was a time when the steam
had run out of the Icelandic punk scene and everbody
was rather tired of working hard for very little
rewards. The rewards for the scene as a whole were
to come later, but for some members of the scene
very little reward has ever come.
III
In 1984-1985 the group Þetta er bara kraftaverk
(ÞEBK) continued working on similar post-punk
synth music Q4U as had been working with. Ellý
and Árni Daníel teamed up with Árni
Daníel´s little brother Ingólfur
and later Óskar Þórisson joined.
This group recorded a few songs as demos, but did
not publish anything in its lifetime. Everybody
started having families, studying or working.
Then in 1996 the group came together again, under
the influence of the grunge movement and the interest
in punk and post-punk that blossomed at the time.
Now it was decided to put together a CD with some
of the unreleased material of the group and publish
it. This CD, Q2, contained much of the unreleased
demos from 1982, a demo from late 1982 with the
synth version of the group, the EP from 1983 and
the demos from August 1983. There was also one song
by ÞEBK on the CD. It was published in 1997
under the name Q2. Q4U followed the publication
of the CD up with a number of concerts in 1996-1998
and also with television performances, of which
some are available on the YouTube. One of these
is with the song Egó, which is otherwise
unpublished. The line-up was Gunnþór,
Ellý, Árni Daníel, Ingólfur
from ÞEBK and a new drummer, Guðmundur
Gunnarsson.
The group is currently rehearsing again after another
13 years abscence, with two gigs already having
taken place in 2010.
Reviews and Midia:
soon!
W032
W024
W021
W010
