CD / DVD | Merchandise

THE HARDEST WORKING BLUES-ROCKBAND IN EUROPE!

28 years, 16 albums and over 4 000 gig’s all over the world!

Clas Yngström, known as one of the worlds greatest Hendrix- interpreters, have for almost 30 years been running he´s musical project Sky High with a lot of different constalations and bandmembers. They constantly return to what was in the beginning a pure “powertrio” and all
glorious possibilitys with it.

Today Sky High contains of the one and only Clas Yngström on guitar and vocals. On drums: the american super drummer James Bradley Jr, with a past in Chuck Mangiones big band, Anita Bakers band, Beasty Boys etc. And on base Ulf”Rockis”Ivarsson, known as a creativ newthinking musician and Tomas Di Levas favourite base player.

The new group who toured intesively for 2 years will in april proceed in to Freedom Sound studio in Hinsnoret outside of Falun, together with Clas Yngström and technician Roberth ”Bacon” Ekholm, were they will complete the new album released by Virgin Records in summer 2007.

Rocking thru the years:

1978 – The band was formed in Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast by Clas Yngström – guitar/vocals, Uffe Åhman – drums and Hans Olausson – bass. The song list then was mainly built on Jimi Hendrix covers, also the name of the band which was taken from a Jimi bootleg.

1980 – First album “Sky High” produced and released by the band – 9 original songs and one Hendrix cover, “I Don’t Live Today”, all featuring lyrics in Swedish. The band was a big success at a Jimi Hendrix Memorial fest in Amsterdam, Holland. After Sky High’s set Clas and bass player Börje Olevald jammed with Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell.

1982 – Second album –“Still Rockin´”, produced by English Lou Stonebridge, who just had produced “The Blues Band’s” second album. “Still Rockin´” got a great review by the late English blues man Alexis Korner on his Sunday night blues show on BBC’s radio 1.

1985 – Band signs with Danish Mega Rock label and releases album # 3 – “Freezin’ Hot” - which became a big seller throughout Europe, much due to the cool rock video for the single
“I Ain´t Beggin´”. Sky High were able to make the video much thanks to their connection with ZZ-Top and their publishing company. “I Ain´t Beggin” is to this day one of the group’s biggest hits.
1987 – Sky High becomes a quintet with the addition of a female vocalist and keyboards. The new album –“Humanizer” – is the bands biggest commercial success. Single “Don’t Move” made it to number six in the national top selling single list.

1988 – Big festival year! Glasnost Rock in Estonia, where Sky High headlined together with P.I.L., Big Country and Finnish Leningrad Cowboys, drew a crowd of over 300.000 people! The band was also invited to the New-Orleans Jazz & Heritage Jazz Fest in New-Orleans by no one less than Chuck Berry, for whom they’d opened during a number of gigs the previous summer.

1989 – “Have Guitar, Will Travel”, album no 5, was recorded in San Francisco by a very special line-up featuring: Prairie Prince – drums, Ross Valory – bass and Norton Buffalo – harp. The band did a tour of Sweden under the name “Sky High Special Project”.

1991 – Back to basics with “Safe Sex” a live album again featuring the original trio-format.
The band plays music and music media conference “South by Southwest” (“SXSW”) and brings down the house at Austin’s legendary “Steamboat” club.

1992 – A tour to India! Sky High got an invitation from the official Indian Culture Council and played a three week tour all over the Indian continent. The tour was well documented and was later shown on national TV in Sweden.

1994 – “Fuzzface” new album release gets top reviews in the big papers – tours, tours, tours!! One goes to Ecuador where the band meets with the national band “Los Chigualeros”.
Together they perform both with one separate set and a finale where the two bands fuse their different music’s to special mix of blues-rock and Latino grooves, not unlike the style of f.ex. Santana. The two bands conclude with a tour of Sweden the following summer.

1996 – Brings Clas Yngström back to USA, this time to record a solo album for New-York City based Viceroy Records. The album “Fat Guitar” is produced by long term Cream associate Pete Brown and feature guest appearances by Mary Wilson, Dick Heckstall-Smith and the power horn section Uptown Horns.

1998 – Clas release a Jimi Hendrix/Big Band project:- “Purple Haze, a big band experience” AND a “best of” album by Sky High, the double ”Sky Highlights”.

1999 – “Bluester” is the new disc (Sky High’s 10´th), Clas also writes for tracks for Swedish blockbuster movie “The Hunters” (Jägarna). Back in the US Sky High play the LMNOP (Louisiana music, New-Orleans Pride) festival in New-Orleans.

2001 - Tour of Japan and second time around at SXSW in Austin, TX. The band share bill with Delbert mc Clinton, Marsha Ball and Eric Johnson. At the same gig the band meets with the editor of Blues wax e-zine (www.blueswax.com) who features a Sky High-special featuring an interview with Clas Y later that year.

2002 – “Freedom” a new album featuring re-recorded takes on some of the bands original material together with a couple of Hendrix-tracks is released on US label Grooveyard Records.

2003 – now signed to Virgin Records, the band releases it’s 12´th album “On The Cover/25 Years Of Madness” a double set featuring one disc with sky high-ified cover versions of songs by the Pet Shop Boys!!, Prince, John Fogerty, Eurythmics and more. The other cd offers a re-mastered “greatest hits”- collection.
2004 – An extended version of the band “Sky High –XL”, with horn section, female vocalist and keyboards record the latest album – “Soul Survivor” - live at Stockholm’s Jazz club Fasching.

2005 – New line-up! Back to the original trio-format this time with former L.A. master-drummer James Bradley Jr, known for his work with Chuck Mangione, Anita Baker, Beasty Boys etc. and top Swedish side man Ulf ”Rockis” Ivarsson – bass. The band are touring and recording, a new album is to be released in the fall of 2006.