Mellakka was formed in a small Finnish coast/industrial town called Rauma in year 1983. At that time the future members of the band were spending time together listening punk rock. Bands like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, U.k. Subs and Lama were the first big names, but the final kick for forming a punk band, came, when the guys got a hold of discharge's Hear Nothing See nothing Say nothin LP and WHy? Ep. That was the time when the first Propaganda compilation album was released too, the new finnish HC punk bands on that record, like Riistetyt, Kaaos, Terveet Kadet all sounded awesome. After getting their hands on some equipments, the guys started to practise in Jappe's parents garage. After practising for a while, the band was named Mellakka, and the first real line up was Pete-voc, Kapulainen-bass, Janne-guitar, Jappe-drums.
The band was ready to make its first gigs, and did, but quite soon the vocalist Pete left the band, and joined the other HC band in Rauma punk scene, Pohjasakka, as an bass player. In the meantime, Jappe met yet an other bass player called Holkka. Kapulainen was ready to sing and Holkka naturally took the job of playing the bass. This change seemed to work, and the band sounded much better than before. Soon Mellakka had enough new songs and it was time to visit the studio. The first EI ep, was published in autumn '84 by the guys themselves. The musical influences of the band can be spotted on the record. There was some disappoinments after finishing the ep, it didnt sound no where near as great as Hear nothing, but at the end of the day the guys had to be more than pleased with the result. The line-up for the EI ep was Kapulainen-voc, Janne-guitar, Jappe-drums, Holkka- bass. The guitarist Janne left the band right after the EP was released. Luckily there was a help near by. A guitarist named Perttula, was digging the Ei ep, hard, and was more than happy to join the group.
The band continued to practise, made some new songs. Soon it was time to hit the studio for the second time. ITSENAISYYSPAIVA EP January '85 was made for Rat Poison records run by Mr P. Jarvelainen. Rat Poison published other punk/hc music too at that time, bands like Kuolleet Kukat. After visiting one praccy session and hearing the new songs, Jarvelainen reserved new studio time for the band. Only 2 weeks before that, the singer Kapulainen had enough, threw the mic to the floor saying "FYA, i never gonna sing a goddamn note again", and just like that, it was over for him. Gotta respect that. Well anyways, the band was in trouble, new singers didnt grow on trees as they say. In desperation the guys even called to Mike Poison, who is/was known for singing for the great hc-band called DESTRUCKTIONS. He promised to visit to the studio, to see what can be done, but didnt sound TOO excited...It was getting clearer and clearer that only one man can do this job...
The band got together with the original singer Pete, and after a long discussion and convinsing, he desided to join the band again, and this time he stayed for good. The band did get the prac they needed before the studio and evertything went just right after all. The guys thought that the result was far better than the first time around, sound wise, song wise , in all the ways. The band added some guitar riffs, solos and other non hc tricks in their songs, which made this record a bit more interesting than the first one. But no success without some losses, soon after the 2nd EP was out, Holkka left the band...
Perttula's good friend Altti was to replace Holkka right away, as the band had some gigs to take care of. First he played bass, later the guitar. The year '85 went by making new songs again and practising, maybe more than ever. The band tried to find publisher for their LP, and there was some discussions but that was far as it went and it never came thrue. Anyways, The band desided to visit the studio just to make a demo if nothing else and have some fun. The result was 3 songs (Totuus II, Anti-kaikki, Turhaa taistelua) which have lotsa musical influences by metal/trash scene of that time (slayer mostly). The line up for the demo was Perttula-bass, Jappe-drums, Pete-voc, Altti-guitar. The demo was done in a hurry, in only 5 hours time, that was prolly the reason it never got released before. Mellakka had about 10-15 other songs from the same period of time than these 3 songs, but never got the time to record them. Damn shame...
After the demo was made the band continued for some time, but the guys of the band started to get bored with the small city and soon everybody was leaving the town to different directions. It was time to lay the band to rest. Mellakka has practised together few times after that. Last session was '93 when the band got together and played few days just for fun with the line up Perttula-guitar, Jappe-drums, Pete-voc and Satka-bass. This is propably the lineup the band would have if they should play together again......
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Hey Mellakka, thanks for adding me... "Turha Taistelua" is my favorite song... Almost 20 years ago Jake (Rattus) sent a lot of tapes with Finland's bands like: Attanas, Euthanasia, Evulaatio, Kumikristus, Maho Neitsyt, Mellakka (demo 08.03.1986), Rattus, Sorto... it was really a great oportunity to know the old Punk scene from your country! That's it, cheers from Brazil!
Copenhagen Underground Volume 1 Mød op - vi glæder os til at se dig!
Copenhagen Underground præsenterer stolt:
POWERGRILL - fyrer PunkRock'n'Roll af på 11. år
GOLDEN YOUNG LOVERS - KlaphatPunk, alle de gamle radiohits udsat for veteranerne fra den danske punkscene
THE HITCHCOCKS - 1234 PunkRock med slapbass
