The early years
Anders started to play with Per Svensson in the band Spartacus in 1980. Per was the lead singer and Anders played the bass. When Anders cousin, Mikael wanted help to record a demo for his band Vulcan, he learned to know the bands singer and guitarist Peter Sundell and Peters younger brother the drummer Christian. Peter joined Anders in the band Mark V, a rock funk band with hornsection in 1983. A couple of years later in 1986 Anders, Peter, Per and Christian founded the band Promotion. Promotion were active a couple of years playing more heavy rock, AOR and some WestCoast inspired music. But when all were normal carriers took of the band were laid on ice.

The studio a vitamin injection
When Anders built his house in 1995 he also built a music studio. That was the start of a more active phase for Promotion that since the beginning of the 90's had been very little active. All the boys put there effort in first recording old songs from the early 80's era. Own good songs that they wanted to capture on tape but that also led to the writing of a lot of new songs.

Not for sale
In 1997 the first Promotion album "Not for sale" came out on there own label (and with some help from Georg Siegl at Aor-Heaven). A mixture of WestCoast, Aor and also some pop oriented songs.

Yeah Yeah
They immediately started on the next album. Yeah Yeah are more pop and groove oriented than the first album. Horns are used on nearly all songs and Anders thinks that some of his most well written songs appear on this album. Special songs for him are: Heaven, Trampoline and My daughters eyes. Yeah Yeah also introduces a new song writing partner for Anders in the lyricist Ola Karlsson. With Ola's help the speed of the song writing is shifting into high gear. The album were released in the end of 1998 at our own label.

Grand Illusion and The book of how to make it
Many reviewers wanted the band to go the Aor oriented path and to give it a try the band recorded a 5 song demo without horns and sent it out to a couple of labels. Khalil Turk of Escape Music Ltd, England replied direct and wanted to sign them on the spot. A week later the band decided to give it a try and signed a one record contract with options for two more albums. Khalil also wanted the boys to consider changing the band name. They thought out nearly 100 names and nailed it down to 4. Khalil Turk was then given the chance to chose the name out of these four alternatives and he choosed; Grand Illusion.

Nearly exact a year after they signed to Escape there first album under the new name came out in May 2001, The book of how to make it. Much heavier and more melodic than the previous albums under the Promotion name. It beacame the start of an new era and with a whopping 94 out of a 100 in the rock bible magazine Burrn in Japan, the highest score in the May issue the ball was rolling.

In the beginning
Due to the success of Grand Illusions first album, Escape Music quickly wanted to release there first Promotion albums under there new name Grand Illusion. The result became a double album with four new bonus songs giving it a total of 25 songs. Sadly enough the mastering engineer missed one song, After all, from the first album, Not for sale. It's credited on the album but not there in the audio. "After all" you could download in full length from this site in the download section. The album is named "In the beginning" and it went on the market in the autumn of 2001.

View from the top
The success of "The book ..." gave a lot of inspiration and all ready a year later in June 2002 the follow up "View from the top" was finished and on the market. This album was a new high score in the June issue of Burrn with the boys getting the same 94 out of a 100 as the previous album.

View from the top, is one step heavier than what Grand Illusion had done before but it was wery well recieved by both fans and the critics and established the band as a solid AOR act with som pomp influences. This albums also features lyrics from Chris Ousey and guitar work from Steve Morris, both from the brittish band Heartland. Nearly all guitar solos on this album are done by Roger Ljunggren from T'Bell.

The rest of the year 2002 Anders worked hard on staging his musical; Compagniet. During the summer he also made a record of the musical and Grand Illusion were temporareley put on hold.

The Gods 2003
In May 2003 Grand Illusion played live for the first time in 10 long years at the Gods festival in Bradford England. To be able to pull of that show they had to find a lead guitarist to help out during the show. That search led to the find of Ola af Trampe. Then a 23 year young guitar player from there own home town of Växjö. Ola quickly became a natural member of the band with his fluent melodic guitar playing. The Gods show were a big success and gave the boys new inspiration. Therefore the spring of 2003 was also the start of the recordings for the next album.

Ordinary just won't do
With the addition of Ola af Trampe as Grand Illusions's new guitarist new inspiration quickly came and soon there were 13 new songs written. The only problem was that lyricist Ola Karlsson divorced his wife and lacked inspiration. for writing lyrics. Chris Ousey of Heartland, Steve Overland of FM and Steve Newman of Newman helped out by writing two lyrics each.

This album is the heaviest of all Grand Illusion albums. Some songs are close to Heavy Metal but there also some reall classic AOR tunes as well. Many great reviews of this album especially in Europe when it was released in August 2004. The release was also celebrated with a big release party and the band once again played live.

Brand New World
With a new record label in Europe (AOR-HEAVEN) the comeback album released in May 2010 and the band is now reduced to a trio; Anders Rydholm, Peter Sundell and Per Svensson.Christian SUndell and Ola af Trampe still joins the band on live gigs but are not part of the recordings anymore. This album features guest performances by Gregg Bissonette, Tim Pierce, Mike Slamer, Danny Jacobs and Roger Ljunggren. On the Japanese release Demon "Kakka" Kogure joins the band on a big epic song. Lyrics for the album are writen by Arlene Matza-Jackson and Anders Rydholm. All music writte by Anders Rydholm.

Prince of Paupers
In November 2011 Prince of Paupers is released. This time the band is being joined by Steve Lukather, Paul Buckmaster, Gregg Bissonette, Tim Pierce, Muris Varajic, Staffan Stavert and Robert Säll. Lyrics for the album are writen by Arlene Matza-Jackson and Anders Rydholm. All music writte by Anders Rydholm.