Another legend gone

Well, if you’re a Swede, another legend’s gone…you guys have never heard of him, of course.
Kjell Alinge was to Swedish radio and my generation what John Peel was to British radio and your generation – combined with Spike Milligan…
The two radio shows that made him legendary were Hemma hos… (absurdist humour) and Eldorado (an interesting and personal selection of music combined with absurdist humour almost turning into spoken word poetry…)
Eldorado ran from 1980 until 1993, then returned for seven years, 2006-2013. On the “How did your ears open?” thread, I shamefully forgot to mention Kjell Alinge’s influence.
Eldorado was the place to hear new music of every genre imaginable and discover things that regular radio didn’t bother with. He only played what he liked, and if he really liked it he could play it twice on the same show. When Titiyo (Swedish singer, half-sister of Neneh Cherry) released her debut single Talking to the Man in the Moon he played nothing else for the entire show that week, in between telling you why it was so good.
He could turn obscurities into hits, making Rupert Hines a star in Sweden (and getting thanked on the sleeve of the next album), and giving the Swedish synth-pop duo Adolphson-Falk a huge audience in the 80s, to name but two.
And most of all, he made us laugh. His very distinctive soft voice, combining excited stutterings with pauses full of meaning, and stream of absurd consciousness-like speech; carefully scripted but sounding spur of the moment.
So, even thought this post will gather nothing but tumbleweed, I just had to salute him.
Thank you Kjell, it was a blast!

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