Sundsvall, Sweden. The mid 80s. A band called Common Sense plays indiepop and releases in 1986 a very fine single with “Eye to Eye” as the A side.

This record is listed on Discogs. Probably self-released as no label is listed. The B-side is “Sweet Surprise”. We also know that the songs were recorded in the autumn of 1986 at Alpha Recording Sweden.

The band is formed by Carl Sandberg on vocals, Peter Svedin on guitar, Thomas Johansson on bass and Niclas Holmgren on drums. The songs are produced by someone with last name Svensson. This same Scensson arranges and performs strings on the songs.

There are no other releases nor compilation appearances.

There is a photo of the band on the front sleeve of the record. Then there are individual photos of the band members on the back.

There is a venue in their town called Pipeline. They will perform 3 times there. The first time in August 22 of 1986  alongside Blue Parade, Krunch and The Grisblinkers. The second time would be on October 25, 1986 with The Congress. Lastly on December 26 of the same year they play with Brufords, Fyrtiosju, Crompojkarna and Red Marut Blues Band.

The website Blaskoteket has a post about them. It seems to be an interview from February of 1987 with Niclas Holmgren, the drummer. He mentions that their influences are The Smiths, Lloyd Cole and Prefab Sprout. He says too that “Eye to Eye” is a promotional single for the English market. Did that work at all? Did they get any attention? Would be good to find out. According to Niclas they were going to Stockholm for a promotional gig, maybe they were going to check them out there. Then the plan was to go and meet representatives in London.

That’s all there is about them online as far as I know. If anyone has more details about this really good sounding band let me know!

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Listen
Common Sense – Eye to Eye