YMCÄ

Watch in awe as Finnish band Gregorius rock out on The Village People’s YMCA:

I’m speechless. Brilliant.

Update: Phax, of Finnish persuasion, comments:

The bassist is actually Pekka Pohjola, who played with Finnish prog band Wigwam and Mike Oldfield among others and was reportedly supposed to record with FZ himself, as “FZ especially liked to play with Bassist Pohjola, whom he had met already during his previous visits. He was planning to record something with Pekka, but this plan was never realised.”. Small world eh?

Small world indeed.

17 thoughts on “YMCÄ”

  4. The bassist is actually Pekka Pohjola, who played with Finnish prog band Wigwam and Mike Oldfield among others and was reportedly supposed to record with FZ himself, as “FZ especially liked to play with Bassist Pohjola, whom he had met already during his previous visits. He was planning to record something with Pekka, but this plan was never realised.”. Small world eh?

    (source:
    http://www.palasokeri.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=341
    )

    (and this video makes me ashamed and proud to be a Finn at the same time, go figure.)

  8. Simply shit! I gave up after 1:06…..make me buy THE FLOSSER… But thanks for this Pohjola info anyway!

  9. Video is originally from Elävä Arkisto (http://www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&a=3339?s=s&g=4&ag=29&t=400&a=3339) which is Finnish broadcasting company’s (YLE) service where you can see odd number of historical Finnish television programmes. (I’m not sure whether you are able to see this out there abroad.)

    This is supposed to be a funny musical number for a show called Hepskukkuu which was a funny show for saturday evening á la Saturday Night Live except for the ‘live’ part. And the ‘funny’. Funnier now actually.

    Lineup for the ‘band’: Esko Nick (voc), Olli Ahvenlahti (keys), Pekka Pohjola (bass), Heikki Laurila (gtr), Tapani “Nappi” Ikonen (drums).

  10. Those Finns really got rhythm…makes me want to sell everything, move there, and become just another Finnish dancin’ fool! Care to join me, jane23?

  12. It’s a skit in a sketch show and they’re all studio musicians except for the ‘singer’. In those days it was more or less the same line-up playing in almost every tv-show with music.

    The Finnish (quite literal) translation is hilarious, though.

  13. It’s funny, I couldn’t stop watching the bass player. I looks like he is reading a chart. Fin Power!

  14. You know, no matter what language you translate the song to it’s still REALLY gay. Not a judment call, just an observation.

    Funnily enough I have three of Pohjola’s albums, including “Keesojin Lehto”/”The Mathmatician’s Air Display” Which a composer/keyboardist (ex)friend of mine claimed for years that PP had ‘stolen’ from him. He actually passed the album off as his own work for the final project for his composition class at Baylor in ’85.

    Then when I had him play it for another guy years later, this guy had the PP album (as an Oldfield bootlegg) and my buddy spewed a story about how Pohjola had been an ‘Artist In Residence’ at Baylor and the day after he returned to Finland my friend’s master tapes were gone.

    Wanker.

    Great album though.

  16. The singer reminds me of Vivian Stanshall from the Bonzo Dog Band. Looks like something he might have done!

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