Vaavi

VAAVI

Neljä nolattua neroa (1980)

Ruusuinen tulevaisuus (1981)

Mihin jäi punk (1981)

Ei palata voi eiliseen / Älä itke Iines (1986)

Romulaatikko (2016)

FinnArctic-esittely:

In the 1970's Finnish rock'n'roll record releases were relatively few, and cutting an LP or even a single was a big thing for rock bands. Thus rock'n'roll bands coming from a small town could get a large fan following with only a few gigs and no records.

Uutiset ja Sää (News and Weather) was such a local big name. In the small town of Salo, where the band lived, they were extremely popular, even though they only did about 50 gigs in two years and never released any records. The band consisted of Kari and Erkki Hipponen, Tommi Micklin and Tapio Nyman.

Another local band was Jawa (Iku Viitanen, Jari Nikkanen, Ilkka Isotupa and Mika Vuorio), which was formed later. When Uutiset ja Sää split in the summer of 1978, the two bands merged and completed the lineup with DIY magazine editor Jorma Nurminen on vocals. He also invented the name for the new band - as an antithesis to all the aggressive punk band names he came up with Vaavi, a rarely used word meaning an infant child. The lineup was: Iku Viitanen (vocals, bass), Tommi Micklin (drums), Kari Hipponen (guitar, backing vocals), and Nurminen.

Nurminen left when Vaavi became more professional and "less fun", so former Uutiset ja Sää member Tapio Nyman was brought in.

Vaavi churned out two albums, four singles and two EPs during 1979-1981. The best-known songs include the impressive first single "Mihin jäi punk" and the near-theme song "Tytöt hymyilee", which they tried to make their big single, and to some extent succeeded. Another song worth mentioning is "RARF (Rock Against Raija Forsström)", "ode" to the newspaper reporter who wrote a terrified and outrageously exaggerating article about Sex Pistols, who were about to perform in Finland in early 1978. This article resulted in the the Pistols being denied permission to gig here. Forsström has later admitted that she wrote the article by request of her religious boss, who didn't want his daughter to attend the Sex Pistols concert. The article was intended as a joke, but Forsström instead became a laughing stock of every punk in Finland.

The first album "Neljä nolattua neroa", released in 1980, is a bit heavy-going, but the songs tend to grow on you after repeated listening. Of course the lyrics are much about teenage feelings, love and relationships, frustration and boredom. In contrast, the bonus EP included on the first 1500 copies was lighter, including the joyful "Pogo Party".

Band leader and driving force Kari Hipponen pushed the sound to a more ambitious style on the second album "Ruusuinen tulevaisuus". This album had no hit singles, but a collection of material that again requires repeated listening to be fully appreciated.

Hipponen's desire to develop the style further resulted in him being kicked from the band in August 1981. An experimental (almost avantgarde) track from his last Vaavi sessions, "Juosta..." ended up on the b-side of his solo single "Vihreä talo". Hande Korkeamäki became his replacement, but without an initiative force who handled all practical matters, Vaavi were unable to get anything worthwhile done.

In December 1984, some demos were finally recorded, followed by a year of sporadic gigging until December 1985 work for a supposed third album commenced. This album never got off the demo stage. A couple of singles were released, some songs re-recordings of album material, but general disappointment in the songs resulted in the demos being left in the can and the band slowly dying.

A best-of CD, "Tytöt hymyilee", was released in 1995. With only one hour of material it's a lackluster showcase of Vaavi's output, and the 1981 singles compilation "Mihin jäi punk" has been almost essential to track down for anyone who's interested in this band AND owns a turntable.

Hope this will satisfy. Here is the first album "Neljä nolattua neroa"...

The second album showed a considerably more mature approach to making music even though the songs aren't radically different from the material on their debut.

"Ruusuinen tulevaisuus" (Rosy Future) is an ironic title, considering the last song is about World War III.

...and all single, compilation and EP tracks I have found - put under the "Mihin jäi punk" moniker.


Vaavin levyt löytyivät kaikki kirjastoista. Ei ollut temppu eikä mikään lainata ne jo 00-luvun alussa ja nauhoittaa kaseteille, ja vuonna 2008 lainata uudestaan, ripata koneelle ja postata FinnArcticiin. Vaan ostettavaksi niitä levyjä ei meinannut löytyä mistään. Kyllähän Hei Anne -sinkkua ja yhtä EP:tä näkee vähän joka paikassa, mutta isot levyt tuntuivat maan nielemiltä. Jaksoin kuunnella CD-R-kopioitani ja toivoa, että jonain päivänä LP:t putkahtaisivat esille.

Vaan sitten viimein tapahtui: Black and Whitesta löytyi kesäkuussa 2015 Ruusuinen tulevaisuus, Rolling Recordsista taas huhtikuussa 2016 Neljä nolattua neroa ja toukokuussa Mihin jäi punk. Ihan mieletöntä!

Tuotannon perusteellinen läpikuuntelu on puuduttava urakka. Ensimmäisellä älpeellään pojat eivät yksinkertaisesti osanneet säveltää. Kunnon sävellysten puuttuminen ja sen korvaaminen tauottomalla kohkaamisella ja sanojen kalloon survomisella aiheuttaa rasitusta kuulijaparassa. Ruusuisella tulevaisuudella oli opittu jossain määrin tekemään biisejä, mutta bändin vaikeudet saada kunnon hittejä aikaiseksi vielä sen jälkeenkin ymmärtää hyvin.


Artikkeliskannaukset:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MnLbel6z5SAkxPx9QbCYX-nk8IrM21nE