The success of “Macken” led to pure hysteria.
In his summer talk, Jan Rippe talks about the chaos that caused the duo to cancel their tour.
– We had to flee from there before it could end with horror.
Jan Rippe.
Photo: Mehdi Kabirzadeh / SWEDEN RADIO
It was with the television series “Macken” that the comedy group Galenskaparna and After Shave had their big breakthrough in 1986. The main characters Roy and Roger were played by Anders Eriksson, 69, and Jan Rippe, 71, and the last episode of the series was seen by almost four million viewers.
In “Summer in P1”, Rippe talks about the extreme popularity of the series.
– At times it was almost like the Beatles hysteria of the 60s.
The hysteria was noticed, among other things, when they were going on a record signing tour after releasing an LP with songs from the series. In Rippe’s hometown of Mariestad, they slipped into the back way to the record and radio store where the signing was to take place, and were warned by the manager that there was chaos in the store.
– It was so packed with people, with a heat of over 30 degrees, and people had climbed up on shelves and torn down goods to see the small stage we were supposed to be on. At the front, there was such pressure that some fainted, says Rippe.
“Run away from there”
The premises had to be evacuated and they instead stood on the flatbed of a truck in the square outside. But after a while, people started trying to climb onto the truck, which became too much for Rippe.
– Then I pounded hard on the roof of the driver’s cab and shouted to the driver “drive, just drive from here now”. So we had to flee from there before it could end in horror.
At the signing tour’s second stop, in Eriksson’s hometown of Trollhättan, they tried to warn the organizer about the earlier hysteria.
– But then they just answered: “Yes, yes Eriksson, don’t think you’ve gotten so damn big”. But the same chaos, if not more, erupted there with demolished furnishings when people pressed. And after a while we had to break off and run away from there through a back road and sneak into the city library and hide there until everything calmed down.
After that, they decided to cancel the rest of the record signing tour.
– It had to be good that way, says Rippe in his summer talk.
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