Veljo Sepp, Janno Zõbin, Kaarel Arb, Imre Malva, Kristel Lipand, Maris Pajula, Sven Sapelson, Sven Oeselg, Mariell Raisma, Ants Tõnisson, Tauno Maarpuu, jt
Well, we are not actually the band but the team who organizes independent and free your mind style music concerts in Estonia and put out some unheard music :)
Currently we are dealing with organizing the beautiful music festival in wild south of Estonia - Kilingi-Nõmme! The festival is called Schilling, please never mess up with chilling, which is, the most exploited word in the whole planet...
Since now we have brought to Tallinn different bands like Ex-Girl, Mitch and Mitch, Cosmo Jones Beat Machine, Los Banditos, Aavikko, 22 Pistepirkko, Groovski, The Mutants etc...since 2002. Last few years we are doing gigs at club-bar "Juuksur", cosy place..the great amtosphere in Tallinn old-town! As you see from here: our next project is to bring some african and cuban music to Tallinn, Estonia.
Here is the story about our "Biit Piraadid" records, the collections of rare and absolutely fabulous Estonian 60..s beat music:
We are glad to report that Estonian 60..s beat music (often called as garage beat or Mersey Beat by the 60..s music lovers nowadays) compilation “Biit Piraadid” is finally out. It took half a year to collect material from the Estonian TV and Radio archives and to put together this extra rare compilation on CD format.
The idea of making this record came from Estonian beat music researcher Vello Salumets who had written amazing and complete book about Estonian rock music childhood. The book is called “Rockrapsoodia” (http://www.raamatukoi.ee/cgi-bin/raamat?302) and it describes Estonian beat music profoundly with fascinating excitement and also, sometimes with great sense of humor. Vello Salumets himself were singing, playing bass and keyboards in widely over the country known beat band called Optimistid. Optimistid were the first proper pop band in Estonia, their song “Mul on tunne” (actually the cover version of Herman..s Hermits.. “You Won..t Be Leaving”) broke the hearts of the young generation all over the Estonia.
The record “Biit Piraadid” is actually the first compilation of unreleased (lot of songs were even undigitalized till putting those on the record) material by NGO Rampade Org. The second volume of “Biit Piraadid” have been planned to release on march 2007 and there will be 10 live songs from the first official rock festival in Estonia. The event took place in cinema “Kosmos” on the 28-th of april in 1968 and it has been defined as the first public guitar bands appearance ever in USSR. The festival idea were generated by Estonian institution “Biitklubi” (Beat Club). It also took place thanks to the leader of the “Resting Parks Directorate” Fred Raudberg and the leader of the “Motion Picture Government” Paul Daniel who both put their heads on the block and risked really a lot in front of the public eye. The hall of the concert were more than crowded, the street around the cinema were bunged and the trams could not almost move. The hippies from Latvia and Leningrad with their colorful clothes were not also missing from the place…..
Most groovy, crazy and mind blowing bands of the time in USSR, as example Kristallid, Mikronid, Poissmehed, Poppojad and Langevad Tähed were performing there. After the concert were ended with performance of cult band Virmalised, the public reacted turbulently and Virmalised playd extra songs: Toivo Kurmet..s “In My Dream” and once more “You Were On My Mind Girl”. The atmosphere that was smelling like youth riot for the goverment officials pushed them to prohibit all kind of rock concerts in cinema “Kosmos”. But the story of Estonian rock festivals tradition had just begun.
The songs of the current record “Biit Piraadid” were actually mostly recorded in Estonian Radio or Estonian TV studios. The focus is more on so called Estonian mod-pop songs, of course there were no aware mod-scene or movement in Estonia, but I am just using the word only to make it more understandable for western Europe music fans. The bands on the record are Tallinn based Mikronid, Kristallid, Virmalised, Lüürikud, Optimistid, Toonika, Andromeeda, Omega, Toomapojad, Peoleo and Credo. The record also includes songs from Tartu..s Kogudus and Rapla..s Omega that was different band from Tallinn..s Omega.
Many young musicians who play or sing on this record became well-respected musicians later, during the years after the beat scene faded. Gunnar Graps from Mikronid and Toomapojad (he later formed unique and musically many-sided bands Ornament and Magnetic Band), singer Ivo Linna from Müstikud, so called “Kremlin Nightingale” Jaak Joala from Virmalised and Kristallid and the great composer Olav Ehala from Kristallid begun their musical career as beat bands.. members. One of the most fascinating band of the time was Virmalised (translated as Auroras) that had been leaded by Toivo Kurmet. We can say that Toivo Kurmet were living only for making music and he wrote approximately 300 original songs. You can find Virmalised songs on 2 different CDs that has been released by Jüri Lina who were also involved in 60..s scene.
