Frames Index
- The story of The Soul Preachers
- Part one: 1986 - 1987
- The story of the band began when the guys, Jarmo, Pasi and Uffe were born, but their mothers wouldn't give me any details of those historical moments. They claimed that they were too painful experiences to recall again. That's why we jump directly to middle 80's when a group called The Soul Preachers was formed in Hälleforsnäs, Sweden.
- The lead singer and guitar player, Jarmo Haapamäki, had just moved to Hälleforsnäs after he had been living eight months in a caravan in Jordbro, a Stockholm suburb. A year earlier he had left his home country, Finland, and wanted to earn big bugs in Sweden. Jarmo had a well-paid industrial job in Stockholm but when the summer came he decided to leave the view of factories and gray concrete from the caravan window to small town environment.
- He had been playing in a band since the punk rock explosion came to Finland in the late 70's and now he wanted to start again. After a while he found a group in Hälleforsnäs that needed a lead singer.
- The group called themselves New Wall. They wanted to sound like Simple Minds or U2. It was 1986 and I'd guess every band in Sweden sounded a bit like them if they weren't more into the Europe hard rock sound. Jarmo had been playing music more inspired by artists like Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd.
- The line-up was: Jarmo Haapamäki (lead vocals & guitar), Pasi Taskinen (drums), Jari Pasanen (keyboard), Morgan Hellström (bass) and Torbjörn Olsson (lead guitar).
- After a short while the decides to get ride of their silly name. They got the name, Soul Preachers, from an old effect-box (I think it was a compressor) that was lying on the floor. It was called Soul Preacher. It sounded cool, the group could call themselves The Soul Preachers.
The first version of The Soul Preachers made couple of songs but split after only a few months. It was mostly Jarmo who wrote the songs, the rest of the band played them but didn't like them very much. It didn't sound like their music used to sound.
- A funny thing was, that both Jarmo, the guitarist, and Pasi, the drummer, played in other bands, too, during to autumn -96. They were a bit ashamed of it and kept it a secret, because they were playing Finnish dance music for elderly people, for money. In different bands. same kind of music. At the same time. Weird. Later, we know now, the guys would find each other again, but their ways separated in the spring '87.
- Jarmo didn't stop making music, though. He had found new friends in another Hälleforsnäs group called Dorian Gray. They owned a four-track cassette player that Jarmo was allowed to use. And he did! It was so fun that he made and recorded over 30 new songs in a month.
- Jarmo took the cassettes with him to Finland in the summer. He played the songs for the guys in 22-Pistepirkko, his friends from the time he lived in Northern Finland. They lived in Helsinki now. 22-Pistepirkko recommends Jarmo to play the tapes to Kimmo Helistö, a guy they knew in Radio City, the best rock'n'roll radio channel in Helsinki. Kimmo Helistö liked what he heard and said that he would arrange gigs in Helsinki to the band (Jarmo had written The Soul Preachers to the cassette sleeves), He just had to form a band that played the songs.
Back in Sweden wanted the friends in Dorian Gray help him out. Tero Larsson, the drummer, and Vesa Saarelainen, the bass player, joined the new band and called to their friend, a lead guitarist named Lars Carlsson. The Soul Preachers #2 was formed.
- The Soul Preachers #2 1987: Vesa Saarelainen, Lars Carlsson, Tero Larsson, Jarmo Haapamäki.
- After rehearsing a couple of months they sounded really good. But the songs that the Finnish radio guy liked so much weren't good enough for the rest of the band. In fact, only one of the songs from the tape was approved, and Tero Larsson had composed the music to that particular song. Anyway, The Soul Preachers made it's first gig in Flen, Sweden, in the beginning of December '87 and they played one gig in Helsinki just after the Christmas. In Helsinki the band lived at 22-Pistepirkko and were offered more gigs but Vesa. the bass player, was homesick already... The gig in Bat Cave Club in Helsinki was great, though. Fu¢king World (they had just won the Finnish Championship in R&R) and Shadowplay (a great Magazine-influenced band from Helsinki) played as warm-up acts before the Soul Preachers. But the buys had some trouble to get into the club. Only invited guests could get in and The Soul Preachers hadn't got any invitations...
(to be continued)
- The Soul Preachers, December 1987 in Turku, Finland. From left to right:
- Vesa Saarelainen, Tero Larsson, Lars Carlsson, Jarmo Haapamäki.
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