The birds of Lapland for 40 years – During the wild years, the beds were destroyed

Lapinlahti’s Lintujen concerts will take place in five cities, the first of which is Pori, says Mikko Kivinen. The legendary line-up can also be seen in Tampere, Seinäjoki, Helsinki and Turku. HENRI KARKKÄINEN

It was a group of friends from Helsinki full of like-minded humorists.

Everyone wanted to rebel against the prevailing social order, tease each other with ice and entertain.

The cocktail has worked: this year Lapinlahti Linnui turns 40 years old.

The band will take the festival stage in Pori in August, and head to four club gigs in October. Originally, round years were not supposed to be celebrated, but last summer’s Ukraine charity gig changed my mind.

– It sold out in a flash. The group sang songs by heart and there were quite a few young people there. I was excited that we could still do gigs, say the acting con artists Mikko Kivinen and Tapio Liinoja.

Unlimited joy

The humorous insights of Lapinlahti Lintujen are EVVK, Vittuilufeleni and Sedät can’t shake.

The Seven Deadly Sins, The Eight Wonders of the World and The Sixth Trigger TV series are a generational experience that has stood the test of time. Priima was reached because Yle gave an almost unlimited budget for making TV shows. A helicopter might have been ordered for the filming on the spur of the moment, because “the scene called for it”.

The band’s songs and sketches focus on the little person – the one who is always cheated and oppressed.

– The viewer is not as stupid as many imagine. Everything doesn’t have to be served on a silver platter, but more hidden. The felt horns were on display every time we walked on the streets or in bars, where we didn’t go, of course, but at church coffees, laughs Mikko Kivinen.

Everyone had to bring three new sketches to the meetings, and they were edited.

– This is a band where everyone was a leader, that’s why the struggle was so hard. No one was allowed to become a champion alone, even if someone had that idea, Tapio Liinoja describes.

– After all, it was said that our gig bus was a college of fucking. We used to settle things with our fists, Kivinen claims.

The ensemble, which started from a small and modest position, got really popular on gig trips. In the best years, there were more than 200 performances a year.

– Yes, several of our beds were destroyed, Mikko Kivinen admits.

In Kemijärvi, a high jump competition for bunk beds was held in a closed tunnel.

– Even the most nimble ones could turn around in the upper bed, and a hundred-kilogram man falls straight through the supporting beams.

Then we slept miserably from the fatigue in the bed frames.

– In the morning, a message was left at the accommodation that “the beds were weak, we are sorry.”

Joking big golds

In the creative field, there is a windy and sometimes slamming door in your face. The birds of Lapinlahti have also learned it in their skins.

– We received the Venla award, which was a great achievement at the time, when there were so few categories. However, we were not invited to the Venla gala, even though we won it. It was confusing, Kivinen and Liinoja say.

– It didn’t occur to them that the perpetrators could be invited.

According to the story, the band was not invited because it would have been too expensive to support a large group.

– Someone from the entertainment management boss at the time, who had opposed us in any other way, went to the podium. But I’m not bitter anymore, says Liinoja with a twinkle in the corner of her eye, and cheerfully curses after her.

– It’s still great to get Venla, but before it was more difficult when there were fewer categories, Kivinen adds.

Epic stories will also be heard in the one published in the fall by Timo Rossi in the book he is writing.

One of the topics must be how the big stars of entertainment made bad, complicated jokes for each other. A band member Matti Jaaranen for example, the toilet lamp was always removed from the hotel room.

– Matti wondered miserably, why always me. The rest of us were told that it was a bad guy. If he changed rooms, the boys got there first too, and the same thing happened again and again.

Sometimes Jäynä caused a riot when they were revealed, but afterwards they were laughed at.

Perhaps also in connection with future gigs, the old habit will come to life again. At least they are going to remember the late band members along with the hit song, such as Timo Eränköeh and Heikki “Hiski” Salomaata.

– There’s no sobbing, but the songs made by the gangs are performed, the two add up.