In the early eighties I started to get published in local newspapers and within a couple of years I moved into mainstream media in Sweden and by 1987 I had stuff printed in Europe and America. Here´s a few examples of articles from my time as a freelance journalist. All photographic content is owned by professional photographers and is under copyright. Photographer Michael Johansson took the shot of Ritchie Blackmore in the article seen above.
THE DEEP PURPLE REUNION 1985
When Deep Purple reuninted in 1985 it was easy to get articles printed and as a former editor of a Deep Purple magazine I had interviews with people like Jon Lord (whom I had met just a couple of weeks prior to the event) and David Coverdale (still in Whitesnake, but good stuff) that I could use. These articles helped me to establish a bit of a name in swedish media at that time.
POPPIS (Jon Lord photo by Patrik Hökby, Deep Purple photo by SPS).
ÖSTERSUNDSPOSTEN (Ritchie Blackmore photo by Göran Holmquist).
RECENSION (Ian Gillan photo by Michael Johansson).
POPPIS
POPPIS (photos by Michael Johansson), first two pages of three.
POPPIS (photos by Michael Johansson), first two pages of three.
HELSINGBORGS DAGBLAD 1981 Whitesnake article (David Coverdale and Jon Lord photos by Hasse Ivarsson). Read the Jon Lord interview here.
RECENSION 1983 Black Sabbath article (Ian Gillan photo by Michael Johansson). Read the story here.
POPPIS 1985 Dio article (Dio photos by Michael Johansson).
METAL HAMMER Judas Priest 1987 article (dutch edition, this article was also published in the UK edition and possibly in others), first spread of two. Photograph by Tom Farrington. Read the story here.
METAL HAMMER Scandinavian Metal article (march 1987, german edition). 220 Volt, Treat and Europe photos by Michael Johansson.
METAL CREEM CLOSE-UP Scandinavian Metal article (US publication, 1987). Europe and Treat photos by Michael Johansson. 220 Volt on page three, not shown here.
METAL CREEM CLOSE-UP Europe article (US publication 1987), first two pages of five.
METAL HAMMER german & UK editions of 220 Volt article (1988). Many articles in this magazine were published in several european editions. Photos by Michael Johansson and Ola Bergman.
METAL ATTACK article from 1988, german edition (this was published in the UK version of the same magazine as well). 220 Volt, Treat and Electric Boys photos by Ulf Magnusson.
BRIGHT EYES MAGAZINE Deep Purple 2000 article, first two pages of three (photos by EMI, Polydor and BMG).
CODEX Dio 2001 article (photos by Michael Johansson), first spread of two.
CODEX Nightwish 2003 article (photos by Spinefarm Records), first two pages of three. Read the story here.
OKEJ Lucy Lawless/Xena 2000 article (photos by Alberto Tolot, Corbis Outline, Scanpix & TV 3) first two pages of three.
CODEX Xena 2002 article (drawing by Patricia Parker, photo by Xenarealm.com).
FIGHTER Karen Sheperd 2002 article. First spread of two. Karen sent me a bunch of great photographs herself from different occations of her career, including her guest role as The Enforcer in the tv-series "Hercules". Read the story here.
CODEX 2003 article about war comics.
Cancelled CODEX Ingrid Pitt 2001 article (photos by Hammer), first two pages of three. Yep, when you are a writer you never know what fate has in store and this particular article didn´t survive the arrival of a new editor in chief, so it was bad timing more than anything (the magazine later quit in 2004 and I don´t think anybody would mind if I show you this layout now). In the end I used this story in my DEEP PURPLE FOREVER magazine as a bonus in a archive issue and I still have plans for some of this stuff. As for the actual interview, you can read that here.
I did about 120 radio shows in the late eighties in a local show called Heavy Rock Paradise. This flyer was used to promote it (Black Sabbath photograph by Michael Johansson, 220 Volt photograph by Mikkaela Ahlin).
ATLANTIS ONLINE
Read some of my classic interviews in english on this site.
Michael Eriksson