Turbonegro
The original Turboneger lineup formed around christmas 1988 in Oslo, Norway consisting of Thomas Seltzer on bass, Vegard Heskestad, Pål Bøttger Kjærnes and Rune Grønn on guitars, Pål Erik Carlin on vocals and a guy named TK on the drums.
Thomas and Vegard had formerly shared times in a band called De Dype - a noisy and subversive ensemble equipped with a certain amount of Butthole Surfers inspiration and a disturbing attitude that was basically meant to piss people off. Apparently early Turboneger continued their conceptional styles.
An explanation for the band's controversal name - once offered by Thomas - states:
"A Turbonegro is a large, well equipped, armed black male, in a fast car, out for VENGEANCE. We are his prophets.".
First rehearsals were made during the winter of 1988/89 being followed by their first ever gig at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark in late march and their Oslo stage debut in april 1989 . In the subsequent weeks they began recording songs for their debut single Route Zero and the Turboloid 12" both to be released on Straitjacket - a 'free' label that had been called into being by Thomas Seltzer back in 1983. The early pre-deathpunk Turboneger sound featured here offers fairly tormented and distorted noise rock (some contemporary reviews compare to a Halo Of Flies or early Mudhoney type-of-sound).
In the winter of 1990/91 Thomas Seltzer (now on drums) reformed TRBNGR with Pål and Rune. Norwegian punk veteran Harald Fossberg who had acquired fame in the late 70's with norwegian punk pioneers Hærverk was recruited as the new singer and in the subsequent months Bengt 'Bingo' Calmeyer joined them on bass guitar.
Bengt & Thomas had already teamed up in their early teens in Akutt Innleggelse, a band that amazingly had tracks released on Pushead's 'Cleanse the Bacteria' LP and Mykel Board's 'World Class Punk' compilation tape. In 1983 Thomas had started the label Straitjacket Records to release Akutt Innleggelse's first & only 7". Throughout the following years Straitjacket put out a couple of further singles by various Oslo bands as well as the debut of TRBNGR of course.
In the summer of 1991 the reformed lineup released the Vaya Con Satan 7" in the US being followed in early 1992 by their debut album Hot Cars And Spent Contraceptives on up-coming local label Big Ball Records. Both the single and the CD give an early introduction to the Deathpunk sound - Turbo's self acclaimed very own genre. Actually the musical pre-settings are already anticipating later 'Ass Cobra' era - dark death driven punk rock with occasional excursions into hardcore and metal as well as a certain tendency to disruptive and sarcastic lyrics.
Singer Harry finally had to quit due to serious illness and performed his last gig for Turbo in late march '93 at Sentrum Scene, Oslo. Since then Hans Erik Husby - nick-named Hertis or Hertugen as well (and later of course famous as Hank Von Helvete) - was chosen to become the new vocalist. Hanky - according to Happy-Tom: "A self-centered complainer. He fit right in!" - tried to quit twice but he was not allowed to do so ! "You guys better stop picking on me" he said at a crucial band-meeting through tears ... there has been several band-meetings.
Due to a new singer decisions were made to rename to STIERKAMPF ( the german word for 'bull-fight' ) - a change that apparently caused slight trouble for the band being suspected of 'crypto-nazism'. Offerings for gigs were refused, nevertheless they played a few shows as support for Poison Idea in Oslo ( Hanky's stage debut in april '93 too ! ), on the 1st of may in Copenhagen, Denmark & as support for The Ramones in august '93 at the Oslo Rock Festival.
The only release from that period has been the Grunge Whore EP on Sympathy. Its title is meant as some kind of reckoning with Kurt Cobain of Nirvana incl. precise predictions on his rockstar suicide which actually was to follow one year later ! In fact Turbo had once confronted the Nirvana singer at the Oslo Kalvøya Festival in 1992 that was headlined by his band. Turbonegro and Kung-Fu Girls were performing at the aftershow party and it is reported that Kurt escaped the party desperately holding his hands clamped to his ears after giving Turbo a listen for a couple of songs. In an interview for a greek fanzine Turboneger adviced the readers not to participate in the current Seattle grunge boom: "Remember that of e-v-e-r-y Nirvana or Alice In Chains record sold, one dollar of gold goes to the CIA's weapon's operations!"
In early 1994 their second album Never Is Forever was self-released with a friend at Oslo Musikk Distribusjon. In their own irritating words announced as "a tribute to Blue Oyster Cult" it is an attempt to dissociate from the Lo-Fi estethics of the garage scene: "When the rest of the punk oriented world tried hard to be lo-fi and 'real', Turbonegro as usual went the opposite way, creating a miniature suburban deathpunk opera. Seldom have pop culture, darkness and desperation blended so well." (Bitzcore). Its release was followed by their first european tour nick-named "Nihil Jung" in january - february 1994 with 17 shows booked in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland.
In winter 1994/95 Turbonegro had run through a brief episode of making up with afro wigs and painted faces - something that is refered to as the 'Al Jolson schtick' - which actually caused a couple of bizarre situations. Happy Tom remembers: "So there we were backstage with our black faces and wigs and little hats, smoking pot with our all-time heroes the Bad Brains, and the absurdity just didn't cross our minds. I mean, those guys didn't mention it, they were probably just embarrassed on our behalf."
The afro joke was dropped in may '95 at a gig in Oslo where the Turbo boys were entirely dressing up in sharp bulging denim complete with smart moustaches: "We feel that denim out-rocks leather at all levels. Leather is for empty, little people. Denim is for us big guys! And the kids LOVE it!" - as Happy Tom remarks on the superiority of the dark blue denim wear.
The improved & sexier image demanded a new sound as well !! Then recording engineer Chris Calmeyer states: "Even though we were in many respects happy with 'Never Is Forever', also musically, the band never sounded that way live. So, very early in the recording of the string of singles that forms 'Ass Cobra', we decided to make things more raw, trying to convey the power of the live performance, if not the sound." First fruits of the current recording sessions showed up on the fabulous Denim Demon and Bad Mongo singles released in spring '95.
n the summer of 1995 Turbonegro left europe again for their second tour in the USA entitled 'NAMBLIN in the 90'ies' that included eleven shows with talented luminaries such as Candy Snatchers, Ed Hall, The Gynecologists, Plainfield and even Pig Champion of Poison Idea who joined in on a couple of songs in Eugene, Oregon. Happy-Tom comprises: "At least we didn't get the shit kicked out of us like we did the last time we were in the USA".
In the fall of '95 Bingo finally decided to quit because he didn't like the direction Turbo was developing to musically - "less Slayer, more rock'n'roll". Pål was fed up with playing and wanted to travel. Thomas at the same time was suffering from some stress injury to his arms after the US tour - thus agreements were made to put the band on ice for a while.
With the departure of Pål and Bingo finally Thomas switched back to his original position on bass guitar. Therefore former Angst-member Anders Gerner became the new drummer and thee amazing 21 years old Gitarren-Wunderkind Knut Schreiner - soon to be introduced as 'Euroboy' - stepped in as the new lead guitarist. Knut had been playing before with Thomas in The Vikings and is furthermore fronting his own sensational combo Kåre & The Cavemen. In the summer of '96 Pål returned from Thailand and opened his famous 'Pamparius' pizza parlour in Kolbotn outside of Oslo. A few time later he rejoined for an updated engagement as keyboard player and 'dancer' which in fact allowed him more opportunities for getting drunk at gigs.
In late 1995 Turbonegro had run into Anthony X. Martin, who had formerly worked for the German Glitterhouse label and had recently moved to Hamburg to manage the european distribution office for Amphetamine Reptile Records - located next door to the CRYPT record-store 'Cool And Crazy' in Hamburgs red light district St.Pauli.
Obviously overwhelmed after listening to a tape passed on occasion he heralded in an early newsletter: "I just founded my new label Boomba Records. Its first release will be Ass Cobra, the third output of longtime advocates of bad taste - Turbonegro from Oslo. Brutal & straight punkrock stuffed with killer hooks. The Turbos lately stopped here on their way to Bremen, Germany and left a tape that totally blew me away. In an era of emocore and sensitive shitpunk, Turbonegro display a unique refreshing explosion of ugliness in league with a twisted sense of humour."
The release of their AWESOME album Ass Cobra in spring 1996 and the subsequent highly successfull european promo tour in september (with 8 dates in Germany plus one each in Groningen/NL, Copenhagen/DK & Prague/Czechia) finally got Turbonegro the indeed long deserved resonance. The apparently absurd idea of putting denimized Village People looks and a notorious Tom Of Finland fixation into punk rock context equally irritated and fascinated - and simultanously set middle-european underground into a feverish Turbo-euphoria. Punk rock lovers and reviewers aller Länder unanimously agreed on the simple fact that this must be one of the best punk rock records of the nineties - if not ever !!!
...some contemporary remarks: "The very best in obnoxious drunk punk, already a classic buy-or-die thing!" (Moshable) - "Ass Cobra sports 14 tracks of the most brutal punkrock I've had the pleasure of hearing. This is punk cooked to perfection ! A real blast of rudeness at a time when it is appreciated most. Tracks like 'Denim Demon' and 'Sailor Man' drive home the Turbos new found fascination with denim, bondage and discipline !" (Boomba) - "Each song is a little masterpiece full of rage, non-pc-lyrics, anger, incredible power and ready to piss people off..." (Bitzcore) - "Thee punk album of the decade, according to leading publications" (Rob Nero Tug, Turbo press officer)
In december/january Turbonegro continued spreading the deathpunk seeds on a tour with further 14 dates in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Denmark. The insignia of their stage performance - the bulging denim, Hanky's routine to stick a lit roman candle up his ass, Happy-Tom's sailor hat, Euroboy's lissom and sultry guitar choreography & Hanky's attempts in addressing the audience in their broken native tongue - sort of became the Turbo trademark for the upcoming boom.
In spring 1997 Turbonegro hit european roads again - this time with new candidate Christer Engen (aka Chris Summers, ex-Big Bang) treatin' the drums. Hanky's remarkable results in crossing Alice Cooperish' makeup styles with mansonesque frenzied looks and the excessive use of lipstick & rouge added a good portion of bizarre decadency to their stage performance. Musicwise - as later will be prooved on Apocalypse Dudes - it became obvious that they had meanwhile made a move into mid-70's punk & glam territory - in the spirit of proto punk pioneers á la The Dictators, The Ramones or late Iggy & The Stooges - plus a bit of New York Dolls' travesty thrown in (besides, they used to start shows with a cover of a modified Grand Funk tune ...'We are a norwegian band!').
The subsequent 'Summer Of Head' US tour in july broke relevant ground for their transatlantic prominence. An enthusiastic review from a show in Austin, TX states: "The Blue Flamingo was the perfect venue - intimate, fairly queer, and ready to get rocked by a confident bunch of Norwegian fags. Powerchords and screaching solo guitar work by guitarist 'Euroboy' and in-your-face rants about sex, drugs, giving head, more sex, and a healthy loathing for hippies kept heads, fists, egos and libidos banging".
While San Francisco - capitol of notorious P.C. excitement - had welcomed the presence of Turbo's blazing rock'n'roll circus with an intrigue for an absurd boicott by accusing them to be 'fascists, racists, homophobics'. In the end Happy Tom strikes the balance: "We sold one hell of a lot more t-shirts playing for black shipyard workers in Norfolk, Virginia than we did in Berkeley".
Further indications of approaching rock stardom revealed with their appearance at the PopKomm music fair held in Cologne, Germany. During their performance - where a wild-gone crowd destroyed a TV camera - Hanky pointed out an air-guitar ecstatic Jello Biafra meanwhile Happy Tom was introducing him to the audience as the 'Emperor Of Juggling' - another punk celebrity nominated due to their current 'War Against Motherfucking Juggling' campaign.
In the autumn of '97 recordings for the new album Apocalypse Dudes took place at Endless Sound studios, Oslo with new producer Pål Klaastad - and was after some delays finally released in march 1998 on Boomba! - and furthermore on Virgin in Norway exclusively. Euroboy's rather melodic and more versatile guitar playing contributed a lot to their remarkable change in sound - 'a new resurgence of 70's influenced glam'n'roll' as the Boomba announcement put it. No doubt their most successfull record ever with great bombastic hymns like 'Good Head', 'Selfdestructo Bust' and 'Get It On' - to name just a few.
Moshable magazine commented: "Apocalypse Dudes is the perfect mix of classic 70's US punk / rock'n'roll like Dictators, Heartbreakers & Ramones... every tune on this release is fucking brilliant". Even Jello Biafra judged: "The new Turbonegro record is possibly the most important European record ever!".
The subsequent sold-out tour in april / may 1998 was a huge success - 24 shows in total, 13 out of it in Germany, 2 in Sweden, 3 in the Netherlands and one each in Copenhagen, London, Paris, Vienna plus Belgium and Switzerland being followed by a bunch of appearances at various open-airs in the summer - amongst them the renowned Roskilde-Festival in Denmark and the Cologne' Bizarre-Festival in Germany.
In november they set up for the second part of their 'Darkness Forever' tour with further 16 dates in Germany, Belgium, France and Spain with then sensational support act Nashville Pussy, who had just released their 'Let Them Eat Pussy' debut LP on AmRep.
Hanky's occasional 'mental indisposition' obviously became a stronger problem during the tour - he had already been replaced on a gig in Sweden earlier that year by TRB's very first singer Pål Erik and furthermore refused to participate in Turbonegro's trip to their SXSW showcase in Austin, TX in april - so finally when they were back on their way from Strassbourg, France to Munich, Germany "Turbonegro broke up in the waiting room of a psychiatric emergency ward in Milan, Italy" (Happy-Tom). The remaining 5 shows in Germany got cancelled and a few days later Turbonegro officially proclaimed their definite split.
Nevertheless a last farewell show took place at Mars in Oslo on december 18th - supported by Sweden's Backyard Babies. Last ever song performed on stage has been the final encore 'I Am In Love With The Destructive Girls' - so "Yeah-Yeah! Yeah-Yeah!" were about the last words uttered.
Darkness Forever! On the threshold of their breakthrough Turbonegro had said goodbye to the circus and it seemt like they would never return. The reasons were diverse, the decisive one being Hank's drug addiction that made it impossible for him to continue.
Hank: "I had to return to my roots and family. I've been obsessed with demons!"
But there were several other contributing factors as well - the band was stuck in an oppressive record deal with their then label Boomba that basically didn't allow them to make money at all. A relentless touring schedule and the tour with Nashville Pussy cancelled half way just added to the disaster.
In retrospect Happy Tom comprised: "We'd rather quit than becoming a bad band."
In 1999 Bitzcore Records out of Hamburg bought the contracts from Boomba and began to reissue Turbonegro's entire back-catalogue of albums. Their early works "Hot Cars & Spent Contraceptives" from 1992 with former vocalist Harry Fossberg and "Never Is Forever" from 1994 that introduced Hank Von Helvete as the new Turbo singer & frontman - both had scarcely been accessible to the public before and were the first opportunity for many fans to discover the bands buried repertoire from the first half of the nineties.
1999 also saw the release of a posthumous live album entitled Darkness Forever. It captures selections from two shows in Hamburg and Oslo - and a great documentation of Turbonegro's exceptional larger-than-live stage antics it is.
The critics agreed: "It's just like MC5's Kick Out The Jams, except the girls in the audience have shaved arm pits, and the band is much better-looking."
Happy Tom, Euroboy and Chris briefly returned as Tom Lund Band with a hooligan remake of the immortal Turbo classic "I got erection" which was suggested as a possible choice for the official anthem of the Norwegian soccer team for the European championships held in 2000. Unfortunately their song entitled "Europas juvel" was rejected by the NFF committee.
However, half of the band was leaving the rock world behind after their decease in december 1998. Happy Tom operated as trend analyst and writer for a series on Norwegian TV channel NRK, Pål went to film school in New Zealand, and Hank disappeared to recover at home in Lofoten. Euroboy & Chris continued with The Euroboys with Rune as the bands manager, released a new album and embarked on a successful tour in spring 2001 with Soundtrack Of Our Lives, the new band of former Union Carbide Productions frontman Ebbot Lundberg, one of the true founders of scandi rock.
While the Scandinavian Rock wave of the late 90's - with which Turbonegro were associated but considered too smart to be an actual part of - was running dry into mediocrity, Turbonegro's shimmering rock legacy transcended beyond the latest trends.
Their appreciation among contemporary artists from diverse musical genres as rock, pop, punk and even black metal is utterly well displayed on Alpha Motherfuckers, a tribute album to Turbonegro that was compiled and in the works over a span of two years and finally released by Bitzcore in may 2001. The impressive line-up includes among others Queens of the Stone Age, Nashville Pussy, Therapy?, Him, Bela B. & Denim Girl aka German technopop star Blümchen.
The release party held in Hamburg in early june also saw a last glance of Turbo when Euroboy, Tom, Pål, Rune & Chris entered the stage to play "Get it on" with Amulet singer Torgny. Hank was missing but present by way of a telephone conference call from Lofoten Islands.
Turbojugend turned out to be another remarkable phenomenon.
Turbo Youth [sic] - originally a moniker that described their Oslo based fan club (beside t-shirts it offered a nifty Turbo diploma!) - and its famous logo that sports a black leather cap inspired by the "Scandinavian Leathermen" homo clubs - were soon to be adopted by the rising & loyal fan army - or "navy" for that matter - who organised in local Turbojugend chapters.
The early ones established in the epicentres of turbomania such as Norway, Sweden, Germany & USA but soon popped up in virtually every part of the rock'n'roll concerned world.
"The most insane fans in Rock" stated English Q Magazine obviously impressed by the unique display of fan devotion. Even the band is left speechless - and quite proud about the fact that the jugend movement developed and grew without their own intervention at all.
Solely Japan still misses out. Happy Tom: "Of all popcultural things the japs have ripped off and played with from the West, Turbomania they just couldn't handle. I'm proud, hehe!"
In fact the immense following and the tribute album revealed a huge interest that was certainly never received back in the day when they had quit. When Turbonegro were approached by the organizers of the Norwegian Quart Festival about a possible participation in 2002, Turbonegro agreed !!
Happy Tom: "They offered us too much money, we couldn't say no. JUST SAY YES."
Two further shows were confirmed for the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden and the Bizarre Festival in Germany and Turbo kicked off with the Res-Erection tour in the summer of 2002.
In fact what was initially meant to be a one-off affair to offer an opportunity to the many newly recruited fans to witness a Turbonegro performance, finally resulted in the bands reunion !! Apart from the tremendous response at the festival shows Turbonegro had also realized that they are in better shape and much more determined than ever before.
Happy Tom says: "We never wanted to break up in the first place. There was still an open account".
Shortly after the Bizarre Festival the band proclaimed that they signed a record deal for two new albums with Burning Heart Records, an independent record company from Sweden with a long tradition in the punk & hardcore sector.
Happy Tom explains: "The decision for Burning Heart was already made very early in the process. Unlike the major companies they agreed with everything that was important for us. They have the money but a soul too - a wonderful combination."
Burning Heart also licensed Turbonegro's most successful albums Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes from Bitzcore and reissued them as digipak CD's with additional video footage from the recent Res-erection show at Quart.
After a hiatus of four years Turbonegro are back !!!
Tom: "We’ve been in insane asylums, methadone clinics, we’ve been shot at on stage, beaten up - we’re the cockroach of the rock'n’roll world - you can’t get rid of us!"
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