From The Hue to The Cheese

The Hue was formed in late 1989. The 17-year old Morten Kuhlmann approached the threee years older Michael "Billy" Hansen asking if he was interested in making a band. Having spent most of his musical career jamming to tapes and records, Michael didn’t hesitate and ventured into the project. The unnatural choice for a guitarist was Morten’s friend Mikkel Steen with whom he had spent a great deal of his childhood - and they even had a rap-group together earlier – The New York Indians!

The first practice-session took place at Sønderjyllandsskolen in 1989 – the three members going through various blues-jams and – without a doubt – several takes of Smoke On The Water. The Hue was taking shape, but no band without a bass-player!

The Hue – which they weren’t yet called at this point – didn’t waste time and the next day they found the perfect archetypical bass player, calm, collected and almost zombie-like on stage… And they didn’t have to look far, Mikkel’s classmate also happened to be Michael’s younger brother – and so Morten Hansen joined up. At the next practice session they were four as they would be for the next couple of years…

The practice sessions now took place in Mikkel’s father Ole Steen’s basement. At the time a simple home-studio but with a load of interesting instruments and a great musical atmosphere. The early practice sessions consisted mostly of coversongs and long jam sessions, among the “victims” were Led Zeppelin’s Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You and What Is And What Should Never Be. Also songs like Deep Purple’s Child In Time and – naturally, considering the somewhat limited skills of the guys at the time – Smoke On The Water…

The guys eventually also chose a name, obviously by throwing little paper balls with suggestions against a wall - M&M&M&M and Led Purple among the suggestions. The little paper-ball with the name The Hue landed closer to the wall...

The Hue started to create their own songs and in February 1990 Ole Steen finally gave in, and let the young band record four songs. The first official recording The Hue I saw the light of day (Tracks 01-04 on disc one of Revolution In Your Balls) and the guys could for the first time hear what they needed to work on in order to improve.

It wasn’t long before The Hue played their first ever concert. They signed up for the local Rødovre Rock Championships. The Hue put on a spirited performance and stole the second place in front of some very surprised, competing bands. This second place can generally be contributed to the fact that The Hue – already then at their first gig – put on a classic stage show and to the fact that around 25 percent of Mikkel’s former girlfriends, girlfriends and girlfriend-prospects turned out to vote in their hero’s favour…

But no matter what others commented on the band's second place, it gave The Hue the confidence they needed to go further…

The songwriting flourished and it wasn’t long before The Hue had a bunch of new songs ready to put down. In between an ever more busy concert schedule – mostly schools and social functions – The Hue went into the studio for the second time to record what came to be known as the Skytape (Tracks 05-13 on disc one of Revolution In Your Balls). Nine new tracks all composed by the band themselves.

The band went on gigging into 1991, and they soon developed a stageshow that was – mildly speaking – bizarre. But this seemed to go down well with the growing following of drunk, teenage, highschool friends that frequented The Hue’s performances. It didn’t just go down well, it was expected that The Hue was to make a spectacle every time. For this reason some of the energy that should have gone into the musical performances, was channeled into the “comedy-act”… but the guys enjoyed themselves and did find time to improve their musical skills.

And their stage-act remained second to none…

In the autumn of 1991, the band again went into the studio. The Black Hole tape (Tracks 01-04 on disc two of Revolution In Your Balls) showed a much improved group that had benefitted from the numerous concerts.

1991 also produced one of the bands greatest moments. In Aabybro in Northern Jutland, The Hue – one of a few bands from the Copenhagen area to appear that far from home – went into a Youth Rock Championship competiton. With a combination of their unusual stageshow and two very solid performances the group managed to – once again – snatch the second place spot. The difference this time being that they competed with 76 (!) other bands. Hugely popular with the more openminded members of the Jutland audience, the guys returned home with pride and a 3000 Danish kroner prize-check. This to date remains the single biggest payment The Hue/Cheese ever received for a concert…

In early 1991 The Hue once again appeared at the Rødovre Rock Championships, this time sweeping away all competition and for the first time trying the sweet taste of victory. The victory earned them a support-gig for the - then slightly famous - band Boghandle and a radio-intervies (Track 01 on disc four on Revolution In Your Balls)

The Hue during 1991 and 1992 also played four successful concerts in Poland - where Michael seemed to be spending more and more time, because of a female acquaintance. The concerts were arranged by a friend of the group - Dariusz Wróblewski - who acted as the manager of foreign affairs...

The first - in Wrocław (pop. 750.000) - was in a famous jazz-joint Klub Rura, where The Hue's stage-behaviour kept the unexpecting Polish audience at the edge of their seats. Following the Hue's act, the premier blues-band in Poland - Obstawiam Prezydentem - performed and were filmed live for Polish TV... had they only appeared an hour earlier, The Hue would for sure have had greater exposure in Poland.

Following a blurry concert in a Wrocław student club - where the highlight of the night was a member of the audience trying to sell The Hue one kilogramme of cannabis - the group played two concerts in the smaller (pop. 40.000) town of Brzeg. The first concert was at the Brzeg Annual Town Fair, where The Hue played a 30-minute set standing in an empty swimming pool - leave it to the Poles to come up with something like that...

The town fair concert - which was attended by approximately 1500 people, the largest ever audience at a Hue/Cheese concert - was followed by what was maybe their finest ever live-performance...

On a rainy Tuesday night, the night before the final exams in all the town schools, The Hue appeared at a small club in Brzeg. After desperately having searched for a drum-kit for the first part of the night, The Hue arrived half an hour before the gig, and found the club completely empty. After drowning the disappointment in Polish soup and beer, the group returned to the stage only to find that the club now was packed to the last place. The Hue responded with the one of their most energetic performances ever, for two-and-a-half hours the band bombarded the Polish youths with hits like Metallica's Enter Sandmen and Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and of course their own arsenal of hard-hitting songs... The party that followed the concert is still today remembered with big smiles...

Once again The Hue recorded more material, this time the Invite Your Friends Over For Tea tape, eight new tracks written by The Hue. The newcomer to the band, keyboardplayer Tim Jorgensen, added a new dimension to the sound. And Tim - through his calm nature - also helped calm down the worst of the onstage-mayhem Mikkel and Michael came up with... The stage-shows went from anarchy to controlled anarchy!?

A crucial 1993 return trip to Jutland, for the third time attending the Youth Rock Championships in Aabybro with two second places in their luggage, was to result in the first major crisis in the band's history. The Hue failed to qualify for the finals. A very sloppy performance, a set of ruthlessly honest judges and to top it off a tape with the catastrophical final round performance, meant that The Hue took a break from playing. The decision made on the nine-hour trainride back to Copenhagen where the band unfortunately analyzed the tape... Beer undoubtedly also playing it's role in the quarrels...

Another factor was the ever more absent Michael - writer of the protest-lyrics on the early songs - who had embarked on a financial adventure in Poland, meaning that the band had less and less time for rehearsing and writing new material.

In the end of 1994 the guys couldn't keep their hands off the guitars anymore and they started practising again - this time without Tim on keyboards, but with a new drummer. Morten Steen, Mikkel's younger brother, despite his sarcastic attitude to The Hue and their at times madman-like behaviour, decided to give it a shot and joined the group. Copenhagen was chosen as the new name for the group and a few concerts followed - one of them played under the name Superpubæ (Tastefully translates into Fantastic Excrement). The band took yet another one year break, Mikkel went of to see the world, Michael saw a lot more of Poland and Emmeth and Junior hung around in Copenhagen doing their things…

In march of 1996, The Cheese - which the guys came up with after years of what could best be described as an identity crisis - continued to play various concerts, and furthermore took part in the nationwide Danish Rock Championships - with limited success.

The new set, consisting partly of new material that Mikkel had prepared during his globetrotting months, formed the set at most of the concerts sprinkled with a handful of the better pieces of the earlier material. The new material was also good enough for the guys to decide recording yet another album, this time a 13-song disc.

A fully digital studio was purchased and the guys started recording, again in the basement of Kongeslusen 21, what was to become “It Stinks” – an overproduced masterpiece. The recordings started in late 1996 and the final product saw the light of day during a huge barbeque and record release party in July 1997. Guests including Nicholas Ivin, Red Kasper, Sune, Giant Tim and Mikkel’s new flame – Linda…

Sales of the CD, moderately priced at 100 DKK, peaked the first week after the release selling in double figures – 15 or 20 – but slumped significantly in the months to come, despite the price of the album dropping to nil. A good couple of houndred CD’s remain on stock even today – for future generations to enjoy…

Michael Hansen, Mikkel Steen, July 2003