PANROBERTLELIEVRE.COM:  What did the band Pan mean to you as a musician, and what are your thoughts on the lack of success the band eventually ended with. From what I gather, Pan were well received by the press and on several occasions were featured on successful radio programmes such as "Dansk Beat" and "Radio Beat", so why then did the self-titled Pan record not sell too well?

"Pan meant everything to us. When playing together in a group these days you were almost married to each other. We rehearsed from morning to night during a year. We considered Pan as our primary work. It made us sad and desolated that the Pan adventure became so short for all of us. The reason why the Pan record did not sell very well may be that it was published in the middle of the Danish summer Holiday - and that some members left the group shortly after."

THOMAS PUGGAARD-MÜLLER:  "I think first of all, that the music was too original... so to speak, not commercial in Danish ears. Robert had some contacts in London who were interested, but somehow he was not keen enough, going after the ball, so to speak. To me his music was a great chance to play other things than blues and to play some very original music, which did not sound like anybody else. Robert himself WAS the music and he WAS his lyrics, it could not get closer to the core of origin than this. That was my inspiration. Also the record company did a very poor job of promoting the band. I think they had a lot of personal difficulties among themselves at that time."

MICHAEL PUGGAARD-MÜLLER:  "I was only 18 at the time and it meant a lot to me. I did not really know what success was - but we were successful in Denmark at the time. There was not really anyone who saw it as commercial. The music was too complex to sell very much - there was zero hit list songs."

HENNING VERNER:  "First of all we were very young, and it was a strange world at that time 1968 - 1970. To me it was a great experience to meet these very talented people and work with them on a professional basis. As a musician it meant a lot to start out at such a high level. About Pan's succes, I think we were quite successful while we were together - we had many jobs, but I think it started to fall apart when we started to split up - first I left, then Arne - new people came in and so on - and maybe Robert did not really believe in it anymore. - I am not sure - I was not there. The poor selling of the record - I think it was too ”un-Danish” - if it had come out in France, and other countries it might have sold much more."

JENS ELBØL:  "I was very young when I joined Pan in August 1970 and I played with them until the band split up. Pan was the first professional band that I had the opportunity to work with, I was still in high school, and I didn't have that much experience in the music business so I was listening and learning. I really liked Robert's music. Very original tunes with a lot of variation and everybody played great. Thomas played some really great guitar. To this day I still think that the Pan record is a fine album. I believe Pan would have had more success if the record had been released in other countries and if the band had done more concerts outside Denmark."

PRL.COM:  What was your honest opinion of Pan's singer Robert Lelièvre? And do you have any particular stories or memories of Robert to share with the site?

ARNE:  "My personal memory of Robert is that he was a fantastic musician, singer and composer. He had a big aura was good looking and always dressed with beautiful fantasy. He had his very own way of playing his guitar - very fast - and of composing. He played from morning to evening always exploring his instrument. Always composing a new song. He had a very special voice, and he was speaking and singing in English with a strong French accent. He had a great sense of humour, but he was also a nervous and very sensitive man. Robert had, as you may know, deserted from the French army. He did not want to go to war in Algiers and he had to go through many difficulties before he got asylum in Denmark. This uncertain situation tormented him and he developed an ability, always to praise all other places than the one where he was situated in right now. I think he missed France and French culture very much. He considered the Danish as provincial a bit foolish and superficial. Even if he lived for many years in Denmark, he never ever tried to learn to speak Danish. I think he enjoyed everyone had to talk to him in English."

THOMAS:  "I think he was a great singer. Full of passion and expression. Like I said before: "He was living the text and he was the music that he wrote".

MICHAEL:  "I think he was a really good folk musician and a fantastic one as such, but as an electric musician, not quite, or at least not the type of "beat music" that was popular at the time. He was much better on his own with an acoustic guitar. He was a very nervous person, just like myself. He was about 30 then."

HENNING:  "Robert was a very nice person, and a fantastic guitar player. I still enjoy very much to hear him play - I cannot think of anybody who can play like him. One thing I remember was his tuning of his guitar - he had many ways of doing that - and many of them he had invented himself. - and these tunings, I think, explains some of his very special sound. I think he was a great singer when he sang in French - not quite so good in English."

JENS:  "He was a nice person, a great composer and singer and a fine guitarist too, he used many different tunings on his guitar to get his sound. He was very creative and also very inspiring, the music was really important to him."

PRL.COM:   Do you remember recording a 2nd Pan album for Sonet in 1971? Apparently the band at this point only consisted of you, Robert, and Michael, and the album was going to be more folk-oriented with Robert singing most songs in French. Is this true? Also, will this unreleased album ever see a release some day?

ARNE:  "No".

THOMAS:  "This recording was a private project of the Director of Sonet Records. I was playing bass and guitar and the guitar player from Savage Rose - Nils Tuxen - played pedal steel and guitars. For some strange reason the album was never released. I shall try to look into the matter at a later date, and try to contact some people who might know what happened to the recording."

MICHAEL:  "I don't remember."

HENNING:  "No I don't remember that."

JENS:  "No."

PRL.COM:  Somewhere in 1971, Pan recorded music for a Swedish/Danish film directed by Stellan Olsson called "Sidste Frist" aka "Deadline", and also apparently the band contributed music to an unknown short film of the time. Do you recall recording music for either films, and if so, do you remember what songs were recorded, or were they just songs from the 1970 self-titled LP.

ARNE:  "No".

THOMAS:  "The music I think was recorded only for the film."

MICHAEL:  "I think we recorded music for the film, but also used pieces from the LP."

HENNING:  "Actually we acted in this film (as musicians), and I remember one scene where we play music in the film. I also remember one scene where you see Arne playing very beautifully solo cello. We have recently received a copy of the film on DVD - I think it came from Claus. I have not seen it yet."

PRL.COM:  After the demise of Pan in 1971, did you keep in contact with Robert Lelièvre, and also, what were your thoughts upon hearing the tragic news about his death?

ARNE:  "When I left Pan I lost contact with Robert. I started out a new way of my own as a singer/songwriter and had a brilliant career singing in Danish language only. I thought that Robert and I would meet one day. When the time was ripe, and take up our warm and close relationship. It was he and I who started Pan. I was therefore very shocked and touched when I heard of his death and funeral. At that time I was working in Sweden. As I said before Robert was a very sensitive person and I don't think he could administrate the loss of his family (he had wife and two children) career and national identity. It was a very big tragedy for all of us to loose such a beautiful and talented person so young of age."

THOMAS:  "I made this recording with Robert for his solo album that I mentioned before. I also kept contact with him for a year or so. When I heard of his death I was very touched and sorry, because I knew that he had a lot of very hard difficulties in his life. I had heard about him trying to take his life some times earlier, but still it was quite a shock to me. I am not aware of how it happened."

MICHAEL:  "I knew it was coming. He went back to France on visit a couple times and each time he came back, he had changed a little."

HENNING:  "I kept contact with Robert for some time - but not that long. And when he died we had not seen each other for several years. I don't know why and how it happened. I was chocked when I heard it - but in a way not surprised, cause I knew how sensitive he was and how much he suffered - not being able to go to France."

JENS:  "I remember seeing Robert in the spring of 1972 in Copenhagen. We went to a to Captain Beefheart concert together, I think he had just returned from France. I don't think I saw him after that and I was very sorry when I heard that he had died."

PRL.COM:  Pan's self-titled debut has been re-released by at least three different music-reissuing labels, the last being a 2005 reissue with 7 bonus tracks by the label Karma Music. What are your thoughts regarding these reissues?

ARNE:  "I think that the music in Pan deserved a bigger audience. Universal should have worked harder to spread out the record when it was published."

THOMAS:  "I do not like these bonus tracks. The recordings are made in the Danish Radio and the sound is strange and I don't think that we are playing up to the standard of the original album. I for my part am NOT proud of my own guitar playing on these tracks."

HENNING:  "I think it was great that somebody would do that job - we knew that these recordings were somewhere, but I never had them."

JENS:  "A lot of the music from that period is being reissued and I think it's all right. There were some good music and some bad music, and some of it is still worth listening to because it's good music!"

PRL.COM:  Lastly, if there is anything else you wish to say about your time in Pan, or about the Danish music scene of the time, please do so as I would very much like to hear any thoughts you may have regarding these things.

ARNE:  "The Danish music scene at that time was very ambitious. Our cooperation in the groups meant the life to us. To play together was like a marriage. The group gave us identity and pride. Therefore it was very hard if the cooperation stopped. Actually we did not know very much about how to work together in groups. To me it meant that I went solo after the breaking up with Pan. To speak the truth, music meant the life to us and we all walked the line. For some of us it meant loss of life like Robert. It is very sad but in it's own way meaningful. Maybe that is why the music from that time still is worthwhile listening to."

MICHAEL:  "With Pan we worked hard practising every day. Back then it was common that people would smoke a lot of dope where we would play and they would usually be unable or too tired to help carrying the heavy equipment we brought with us. We never drank or smoked in the group; but the audience would not believe us. Back then the music we played had to be inspired by spirits or some higher elements that came to us while on stage. (The stoned audience believed) it could not be through hard daily practise from 11am to 5pm. If you read music, it was not real music. The whole period is the most closed period in modern Danish history… it was stupid and one-sided to smoke dope and do drugs, while trying to change the world around you. It was well seen to be unable to do anything. For me as a young person it was depressing to see how little acceptance it was to work hard. We still suffer under this perception, but I am glad that things changed away from that, and left these childish misconceptions behind, so that more and more diverse people can get a chance to realize themselves, now knowing, that this freedom can be very frustrating."

HENNING:  "Well - I often wonder how much the world has changed since then. I guess we were sort of pioneers opening new frontiers - I mean we were quite few musicians in those days, and we all had taught ourselves what we knew. Today we have rhythmic music-academies and young musicians are incredibly good - and there are so many of them. But as my friend Jens (Rugsted) once said: I am proud and grateful for having lived in this period."

JENS:  "A lot of new things happened in rock music at that time and playing with Pan was a great opportunity for me, we really worked with the music and it's a bit of a shame that it didn't go further, but that's life! Later on in that period I had the opportunity to play with some other great musicians and bands, among others My Ship and Rainbow Band / Midnight Sun and I feel lucky to have been there and be a part of all this."