Peer Günt

Peer Günt is a hard rock band from Kouvola, Finland.

Some time 1976, in a Finnish railroad town, south-eastern Finland, Kouvola - also known for the remorseless reputed army base located nearby - the first version of PEER GÜNT was beginning to form. The name comes from a rose and it wasn't until later that the band discovered, the Norwegian playwright Ibsen had a play by almost the same name based on the Norwegian composer Grieg's music. Nevertheless, right from the beginning, the spine of the band has been Timo Nikki. In his home town, he was also known as the guy who used to play his guitar loud, with the window wide open, through a stack of old tube valve radios as his amp. (This "amp solution" was also used with the band's first rehearsal sessions). The first form of Peer Günt was a trio with the following line-up: T. Nikki, guitar, P. Johansson, drums, and V. Suopanki, bass. After this constellation there were a couple of different line-ups. 1978, Peer Günt consisted of T. Nikki, guitar and vocals, the band's later-on trusty sound technician R. "Boss" Saarinen, drums, J. Loikala, bass, and Sefi, keyboard/synth.

Soon after this, the line-up had ghanged to T. Nikki, guitar and vocals, R. Saarinen, drums, a later-on famous entertainer T. Kipahti, (now known as Toni Rossi and who was in charge of PG:s stage lighting at a later stage), guitar and vocals, and P. "Crow" Korppi, bass. T. Kipahti's singing from his Peer Günt times can be heard, for instance, in "Dead Dog Blues". (This is a legendary power blues, which in the author's view should definitely be re-recorded and released).

Already back then, Günt was the loudest reputed band around where they come from and when they played their audience chose to stay 30 meters away from the stage. The band's music was solidly rhythm 'n' blues with a hard 'logger' touch. They released two singles at their own expense but never made any profit on them: ("Never Said I'll Fall"/"Don't Wanna Speeding", "Animal Lover"/"Liqueur and Drugs"). As T. Nikki remembers in an interview 1987: "The singles were sold for 10 cents each or sometimes some of the toughs around would threaten to bash the shit out of us unless we gave them a free copy of our single".

Current Peer Günt line-up:
Timo Nikki - Guitar & Vocals
Pete Pohjanniemi - Bass
Sakke Koivula - Drums

Former long time members:

Tsöötz - Bass & backing Vocals
Twist Twist - Drums

More information: http://www.peergunt.com