History of Lothar
It was year 1997 in Provinssirock –festival,
when Anssi Nieminen and Sami Järvinen, amateur rock-musicians
from Keuruu, were drinking some booze under trees.
These
gentlemen then changed some words about great
rock’n’roll bands like The Nomads, Sonics and so on.
Both of them thought that it would be very nice to have band
something like that, a rockband that bases on having fun and
drinking booze.
Quality of sound and playing would not be that
important, though. It was natural to choose Nieminen play guitar
and Järvinen bass,
because these instruments were familiar from
former band projects like drunk-punk-groups Entropia, Kaasupullot
and Hiljainen kevät.
Usually ideas like that are forgotten quite soon.
During hangover no-one is usually very interested in brand new
bandproject.
But now things worked out well, and after one whole
year band was formed up, including wild and creative drummer
Petteri Virtanen,
also member of IMT at the time, group for rough
and heavy music. Good vocalist was not found, perhaps luckily,
and Järvinen had to do the job.
Name for the band was discovered from old classic comic, Mandrake, who´s "little" helper Lothar is.
What comes to repertoire, cover songs were chosen
by two criterias:
Firstly, they had to be excellent pieces of
rock, and secondly, they had to be simple enough to be played
drunken.
Also some own compositions were now maden, following
same principles. Easiest way is the funniest, though.
The show
must go on, and the performers to be drunken!
July 1999, first gig. Line-up back then as a three-piece.
This line-up was to last for a year. At that time
Teemu Jokela, who was like Nieminen ex-member of Entropia, came
in, playing organs priced 20 euros.
After that new songs were to
come out quite fastly and easily, and the unique Lothar-style
started to form.
Jokela’s weird and psychotic playing gave
new dimensions to whole band, covers from Sonics or The Kinks
were step by step left out.
Whole band started to play quite
spontanious way, new tracks forming in live rehearsal situations.
And the consequences were amazing - this kind of group
wasn’t seen nearby before!
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS - demo CD-R (2000)
song list:
1. I Got The Feeling 2. Long Way Back From Austin, Texas 3. All
The Way Down 4. Home Sick Blues 5. Drinkin' With Lee Marvin
Groups first demo, called "Philosophical Foundations",
including only original pieces, was recorded at the beginning of
year 2000.
Already on this tape you could heard what is to come.
The first real release "Ghostbastards" Mini-CD was
recorded year later and published in May 2001, showing more
clearer signs of new mature Lothar style.
CD included hits like
Party’s over!!, Telly Savalas Blues and Ghostbastards, nice
tunes but impossible to play very drunken.
Amazingly, when
compared to leading ideas, recordings were quite stressful, as it
seemed that these new tunes were too difficult to band itself.
Also the quality of sound seemed to develope in quite ambitious
direction. So the amazing boozing principle had to be led out.
Ghostbastards was released by band´s own label Lorna Records.
GHOSTBASTARDS mini-CD (2001 Lorna Records)
songlist:
1. Party´s Over!! 2. Telly Savalas Blues 3. Long Way Back From Austin, Texas 4. Inspector Callahan 5. Ghostbastards
Lothar taking a brake at
rehearsal place in 2001.
After that Lothar made some excellent live performances and
started to compose new material for new recording sessions.
During year 2002 came out the second official Lothar recording.
This Mini-CD, titled "Guts", included six new songs
full of energy and psychedelic, carried out by totally raw sounds.
In a way, a step backwards was to be taken, even not giving up
high artistical ambitions.
As at the last time, also now it can
be argued which tune is the best.
Anyway it is clear that
Movin’ On, The Breasts of Modesty and Beaver Fever are now
classical pieces of psychedelic garage rock’n’roll.
GUTS mini-CD (2002 Lorna Records)
songlist:
1. Movin 'On 2. Breasts Of Modesty 3. See my Guts Burning
4. Beaver Fever 5. Drinkin' With Lee Marvin 6. Men On The Loose
Lothar at Anssi's backyard ...
...and at the local rock club
2002
2003 when the band was planning next recording sessions
organwizard Jokela stopped playing in the band, due personal
reasons.
This was quite an shock to a band 'cause that weird howlin' organ
sound has became kind of trademark to
Lothar and also this four-piece line-up has
became quite solid unit when it comes to playing and composing.
Anyway it was decided that songs that were already written to the
next release, need to be recorded before Jokela's gone.
Before leaving the band Jokela played recording sessions and so five new masterpieces
were captured on tape.
Next mini-CD came out in 2004, and it was titled "Quality
Time".
Released once again through Lothar's own label Lorna Records.
QUALITY TIME mini-CD (2004 Lorna Records)
songlist:
1. Karzan - The Real King Of The Jungle 2. The Deal 3. Boulevard Of
Broken Heart`n`Vinyl 4. Plane Crash! 5. My Kind Of Girl (Smells Like
Gasoline)
After Jokelas leaving Lothar tried to find a new organ/keyboard
player and within next year and a half
few players came to play
audition but anyone of them never really fit the band, musically
or personally.
After jamming with young talent Saxlund (who was already familiar
with Järvinen from local rock'n'roll band F-43,
in wich they had
played together earlier) Lothar decided the search was over.
Alltough Saxlund wasn't organ player but the guitarist instead,
he was exactly what the band were looking for.
He filled the
hole wich Jokela has left.
First gig with Saxlund was the New year's eve party 2005 at the local rock club Bunkkeri at Keuruu
(check out pics below).
Also this gig is worth of mentioning ´cause it was kind of special case for two reasons.
At first, Lothar played two long sets with a lots of covers from Link Wray, Sonics, AC/DC etc.
And secondly they had two drummers that night!
Band's old friend Rossi (Hiljainen Kevät, IMT etc.) played second drum set and percussions beside Virtanen.
One hell of a gig, I can tell!
First release with the new line-up "Supercharged" mini-CD came out in November 2007.
SUPERCHARGED mini-CD (2007 Lorna records)
Keuruu, Bunkkeri. New years eve '05. First gig with the new line-up.
Picture on the middle: background Jarkko Rossi who played as an additional drummer that night.
Jyväskylä, Ilokivi 18th August 2006
