Is there anyone outside of Scandinavia who has heard of kent, the band from Eskilstuna, which, in my estimation, has probably sold as many–if not more–albums than ABBA in Sweden?

A little historical background. kent was formed in Eskilstuna in 1990. There were five members: Jocke Berg (vocals and occasional guitar), Martin Sköld (bass, keyboards), Markus Mustonen (drums, backing vocals, keyboards, piano), Sami Sirviö (lead guitar, keyboards), Harri Mänty (rhythm guitar, programming, percussion; 1996–2006), and
Martin Roos (rhythm guitar; 1992–1995).

I first heard about kent when I went to Skellefteå festival in June 1995. I pulled a festival poster (as per usual for me) off a wall hoping to get some autographs. The real reason I went to the festival was to see two other bands; Suede and the Ramones. Also the Wannadies (a Skellefteå band) were playing and I liked them. At that time kent had only released a first CD entitled simply kent. I had an early copy and I made an LP-sized enlargement of the booklet cover, which I hoped to get signed along with two Ramones LPs and three Suede albums.

kent were playing on the smallest stage and after their show I asked Jocke Berg to sign my CD and the LP-sized enlargement. He got excited and asked if their album had been released on vinyl (which wouldn’t happen until 2015!)

I have seen kent at least ten times to date:
— Skellefteå festival — 23rd June 1995
— Hultsfredsfestival — 1996, 1998,
— Roskilde festival — 1998*
— Pontushallen, Luleå — 25th February 2000
— Kalas2000, Umeå — 22nd July 2000
— Hultsfred festival –15 June 2001
— Kalas2002, Umeå — 31st July 2002
— Skellefteå travbana — 4th June 2005
— Piteå Dansar o Ler — 31st July 2010
— 3Arena, Stockholm — 27th March 2025.
*I was at Roskilde but I can’t swear I saw kent there.

kent autographs from Pontushallen, Luleå, February 2000.

I was part of the the security crew at the Piteå Dansar o Ler festivals from 1999 to 2010 and together with the festival organisers Jan Wimander and Anna Carin Johansson, I curated three exhibitions of record cover art. In 2008, with assistance from Guy Minnebach, I organised an exhibition of Andy Warhol‘s record cover art. The following year we put on an exhibiton of Peter Blake‘s record cover art and in 2010 we did a major exhibition of kent’s record and poster art called kent – på nära håll (kent close by). Here’s pictures of the catalogue, made to look like a record cover with a paper record inside. All my kent record and CD covers are pictured on the inner spread. The “record” describes the exhibition and kent’s discography and some additional works from a previous kent exhibition in Linköping.

Like everyone else, I thought we’d never see kent again. There were regular reissues of their albums but no one expected the band to reunite. But in August 2024 they announced a final set of three concerts scheduled for MArch 21 st, 22nd and 23rd March 2025. Tickets went on sale on October 26th and the three concerts sold out within hours so three more dates were added 25th, 26th and 27th March and I was lucky to get tickets for the final date. 3Arena in southern Stockholm has a capacity of 40,000 and each of kent’s six concerts was sold out, meaning that 240,000 tickets had been sold! Each ticket cost SEK 999 plus a service charge of SEK 200 and a basic fee of SEK 130. So my two tickets cost SEK 2318 (about €201 or GBP172)!

So the concert on March 27th, the last of the six, would (potentially) be kent‘s last stand. During the concert Jocke promised twice that this really would be kent’s final concert. Well, they are all in their mid fifties now. It’s not like they were still 20-somethings.
Now for some pictures from the concert.

And here’s the setlist from the final, final concert. 24 songs in two hours and seven minutes:
— Stenbrott
— Ingenting någonsin
— En timme en minut
— Om du var här
— Kevlarskäl
— Hjärta
— Socker
— Romeo återvänder ensam
— Pärlor
— Var är vi nu
— Utan dina antetag
— Musik Non Stop
— Kärleken väntar
— Ingenting
— Dom andra
— Stoppa mig juni (lilla ego)
— Innan alting tar slut
— Sundance kid
— La belle epoque
— Förlåtelsen
Encore1:
— Sverige
— 999
— 747
Encore 2:
— Mannen i den vita hatten (16 åe senare)