Martin Creathorn works for Erlang Systems. He and the other members of the group are consultants who currently work at ERA, where they have daily contact with DSA staff.
   Besides Martin, the group includes Mikael Reimersson, bass, Ulf Bergqvist, keyboards, and Tommy Frölin, drums.
   Many people at DSA have heard Great Balls of Fire play at festive occasions all around town. Their latest successful performance took place at a Christmas party held at Hasselbacken, a Stockholm restaurant with fine old traditions. "Our musical link to DSA was established in the summer of '96. LK/A was planning a party, so they searched the Memo network for a rock band. That was how they found us," Martin tells us.
   When they called and asked Martin if he knew anything about DSA, he replied that three members of the group worked at DSA on a consultant basis.
   "LK/A danced all night at their party in Solna," Martin remembers.

 Eight Balls of Fire has been playing regular "gigs" within Ericsson since the end of 1995. Because they have been working so long at the company, they like to think of themselves as an "Ericsson band" - in fact, Memo is still their only advertising channel.
   The group's name is inspired by one of their all-time favourites, Jerry Lee Lewis' classic rock hit "Great Balls of Fire". Other rock'n roll greats such as Chuck Berry, Elvis, Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison have also been a source of inspiration.
   Martin, Mikael, Tommy and Ulf were all born in the '50s.
   "So actually, it's our parents¹ music," says Martin, who was playing punk rock and New Wave when he was in his twenties. "But the music is still holding its own. We want people to dance and have fun. We think it's fun to play, and when we have fun, so does our audience."
   Great Balls of Fire, That'll Be the Day, Don't Be Cruel, Only the Lonely, Pretty Woman - these are only some of the "golden oldies" the group plays.
   "Nowadays, when people have their fortieth and fiftieth birthday parties, this is what they want to hear," says Martin.

Do they make good money playing music?
"We're satisfied as long as we cover our costs," Martin replies," but a lot of work goes into it. Mostly, it's a hobby for us, a way of blowing off steam after a hard day's work at Ericsson. All the same, we put a lot of serious effort into the music."
   According to Martin, one of the reasons they play so well together is the fact that they have similar types of work. They understand each other. They all work a lot and have precious little spare time, and all of them have families.
   "We have to use our time very efficiently, that's why we benefit from having backgrounds in quality and project management. We use our skills in modern organisational thinking to help us plan our gigs, too."
   Eight Balls of Fire work according to a documented process, thereby eliminating the boring administrative side of handling the group. When they meet to rehearse, they can devote themselves to playing together, because the arrangements have already been worked out.
   "For us, it's natural to want things well-organised. When we get together once every other week to play, we've already done our 'homework'. Besides being a practical necessity, efficiency is a question of showing respect for other people's time," says Martin.
   "It's the same with system development. When a team meets in a real system environment, each team member should have designed and tested his bit on his own.Otherwise, they'll end up wasting each other's time and hindering progress."
   Martin rehearses the guitar parts by himself. Then, when the band get together for rehearsal, they co-ordinate harmonies, melodies and rhythms. Because they go in for making covers of classic hits, their aim is to sound as much like the originals as possible.
   "That's why we practice at home using copies of the same tape," says Martin. "We call the tapes our 'GASK tapes'." And as every Ericsson veteran knows, GASK is the name of Ericsson's product archive.