LORDI

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Страна: Финляндия /Finland
Жанр: Rock

Состав группы:
Mr. Lordi – Томи Путаансуу (вокал)
Kita – Сампса Астала (ударные)
Amen – Юсси Сюдянмаа (гитара)
OX (бас)
Awa – Лена Пейса (клавишные)

Биография:

Новая команда Lordi из Финляндии, играющая в стиле тяжелого рока, уже произвела впечатление у себя на родине. Ее дебютный альбом "Get Heavy", вышедший 1 ноября (в знаменитую ночь праздника Хэлловин) в Финляндии в прошлом году, через короткий срок попал в Top 5 национального чарта и уже заработал платиновый статус по количеству продаж. Не так давно прошли концерты группы в Германии, после которых пресса написала восторженные отклики о рождении новой рок-звезды.

Lordi заявили о себе уже летом 2002 года вместе с выходом первого сингла "Would You Love a Monsterman", ставшим настоящим хитом в Финляндии. "Мы знали, что эта песня обязательно выстрелит, ведь она очень верно характеризует нашу команду и то, что она желает донести людям. Цели наши достаточно просты: мы хотим, чтобы рок снова стал развлекательным жанром, уж слишком много скучных и серьезных групп развелось в последнее время" - такой комментарий принадлежит фронтмену команды по имени Lordi.

Услышать команду будет недостаточно, сами музыканты советуют не пропускать их шоу. И они правы. Это становится очевидным уже после просмотра их клипов: одетые в костюмы монстров участники группы предлагают зрителям настоящее феерическое зрелище. По словам вокалиста: "Каждым нашим клипом и живым выступлением мы хотим развлекать публику. Наше правило - максимально привлечь внимание и удерживать зрителя в напряжении".

У каждого есть мечты, даже у тех, кто совсем устал от жизни. У некоторых эти мечты чисто меркантильные, у других – возвышенные и благочестивые. Третьи же мечтают о чём-то совершенно нереальном. Их объединяет то, что мы относимся к ним с уважением, ведь они – движущая сила истории. И это одинаково верно и для мечты, которая затаилась глубоко в душе, и для мечты, о которой хочется поведать всему миру. Такой, как "Monsterican Dream”, что можно приблизительно перевести как "монстериканская мечта”.

Десять лет он, подобно доктору Франкенштейну, собирал своего собственного монстра. Герои из его детства, такие как Халк, граф Дракула и персонажи Маппет Шоу оставались с ним на всём пути от мальчишки, экспериментировавшего с маминой косметикой и снимавшего с друзьями фильмы ужасов на старую видеокамеру, до настоящего повелителя кошмаров. Его настоящее имя совершенно неважно. Как и то, что он родился и вырос в Рованиеми, небольшом финском городке за полярным кругом, в котором ночь длиться все долгие зимние месяцы. Однако мир, который он придумал, гораздо темнее. И теперь он Лорди, воплощение всех кошмаров, нынешних и минувших. Мальчишка, который превратился в монстра по собственному желанию, а не из-за несчастливого детства. Но никто не хочет быть одиноким, даже тот, кто зовёт себя «Фредди Крюгером от рок-н-ролла». Лорди занялся усиленным поиском родственных душ. А когда наконец отыскал, то совсем не удивился, что каждый из них оказался ветераном многочисленной армии поклонников группы "Kiss”. Но что еще более важно, все они были готовы отказаться от своего прежнего "я” и воплотить в себе собирательные образы ужасных монстров. Встречайте Амена, великую мумию, Энари, властную валькирью, Калму, зомби-байкера из Ада, и Киту, инопланетного человеко-зверя, объединяющего в себе всех известных человеку зверей. Возглавляемое Лорди, это темное воинство вооружилось гитарами и убойными песнями. И грянул гром!

Бросая вызов всему и вся, эта буйная стая величественно проносится по затянутому маревом пожаров Городу с привидениями. Дети ночи и Забытые манекены живут здесь в страхе Разбудить змея или попасть под горячую руку Пета Разрушителя и Кроваво-красного песочного человека. И даже не смотря на то, что Лорди заявляет: Мой рай – твой Ад, это страшное место тоже отражает состояние души, такое, которое позволяет вам вскинуть руки и подпевать, и оттягиваться всю ночь так, как вам заблагорассудится! И проникнув глубоко в монстриканские мечты, вы поймете одну важную вещь. Монстром быть очень весело. (Да и девушки не всегда предпочитают белых и пушистых, а?)

Музыка с альбома ”The Monsterican Dream” была создана совместными усилиями всей группы и известного продюсера Хиили Хиилесмаа (работал с группами "HIM”, "Amorphis”, "Sentenced”). Хиилесмаа отлично подошел для этой работы, так как он уже давно был известен как "Mad Scientist”, сумасшедший ученый, к тому же неплохо разбирающийся во всем тяжело-металлическом. Вместе монстры и сумасшедший ученый создали подборку из двенадцати взрывных гимнов во славу потустороннему миру: массивные, громкие, шипастые песни, которые в нужный момент умеют прикинуться кристально бездумными. Песни, которые и мертвого из могилы подымут.

Тексты песен – или все-таки истории ужасов? – были написаны лично самим Лорди. Специальное издание альбома также содержит и тринадцатую "страшилку”, в которой музыканты откладывают в сторону свои инструменты и на тридцать кроваво-красных минут становятся актерами. "Lordi’s The Kin” ("Кровное родство”) – это сюрреалистичный фильм ужасов, снятый режиссером Лаури Хауккамаа. И хотя вашим детям не рекомендуется его смотреть, ребенок в вашей душе будет вопить от восторга.

Лучший способ понять "монстериканскую мечту” – это посмотреть на шоу Лорди вживую. Не сковывая себя излишними условностями, оно содержит в себе все лучшее от Элиса Купера. Другими словами, отличное развлечение для каждого и никакой пустой изысканности!

”Создали группу, которая вам понравилась. Написали песни, которым вы любите подпевать. Вот в принципе всё, что мы сделали.”

Монстериканская мечта становится реальностью. Или оживают самые ужасные кошмары.

en.wikipedia

Lordi is a Finnish metal band. The concept for Lordi was conceived in 1992, however, the band was not formed until 1996 by Tomi Putaansuu (known as 'Mr. Lordi') of Helsinki, Finland. Members of Lordi are noted for their elaborate monster-like costumes depicted during live shows and in music videos. Lordi are also known as "The Finnish Monsters" and "The Monsters Of Finland."

Lordi won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with a record 292 points, giving Finland its first ever victory. Lordi featured on the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen when Mr. Lordi presented the award for rock, and they were also the closing act playing their single Hard Rock Hallelujah. They also performed on Britain's Making Your Mind Up for the Eurovision Song Contest. Lordi performed on the main stage at Ozzfest 2007 and later that year toured with Type O Negative and Twin Method until Halloween night.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Putaansuu played in a small band from Rovaniemi. He left the band when the other members didn't agree with the introduction of theatrical elements and KISS-style rock. Putaansuu started producing demos under the name Lordi in 1991 and continued to do so for a few years. In 1995 he made a song "Inferno" and a music video for it as a school project. The video has not been released because Putaansuu is in the video without a mask, but he has promised to put the video in the upcoming Lordi DVD.

After "Inferno", Putaansuu had a dream. In the dream he was at a concert and there was a skeleton on stage playing. When he woke up, he knew that Lordi should be a band full of monsters. The monster in the dream would eventually become the bassist Kalma.

The rest of the band members met each other for the first time in 1995 in Stockholm, where they had gone to see KISS perform. From the very beginning, they wanted their band to perform with spectacular pyrotechnics, 'monster style'. This, together with their masked image made several recording companies turn the band down, some saying that they should play black metal if they wear masks and some saying that they should play hard rock but lose the masks. Lordi almost got a record deal in 1999 but shortly after the contract the company collapsed and lost all their money. Finally, the BMG Finland recording company accepted them and in 2002 their first single Would You Love A Monsterman? became a smash hit and not long after that, their first album, Get Heavy, sold 66,000 copies in Finland.

Costumes

The monster masks and costumes the band use are made of foam latex. Mr. Lordi's mask was first cast and then glued together piece by piece. The other masks are solid helmets. It takes the other monsters about 20 minutes to put the masks on but it takes about 2 or 3 hours with Mr. Lordi. Mr. Lordi mentioned that their suits still have some original pieces from 1996. He has also said that the suits cost them "a few hundred euros". The band members do each others' makeup.

The monster costumes are such an integral part of Lordi's publicity image that they refuse to be photographed or even interviewed without them, even if in some cases it leads to their own discomfort. Lordi has done interviews without their masks but the interviews are always filmed from the back so that you can't see their faces. During interviews, Lordi speaks English to the cameras, not their native Finnish. In a brief segment on the BBC reporting about the band attending the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, they were shown lounging beside the pool in full sunlight, while wearing their costumes. During the segment, Lordi remarked that the costumes and the heat did not mix.

Lordi have stated that their costumes have been inspired by KISS and Horror Genre. Mr. Lordi himself has said that without KISS, Lordi probably wouldn't exist. The costumes have also drawn comparisons to the shock rock group GWAR, who wear similar foam latex monster outfits, even though their musical styles are quite different. Mr. Lordi has claimed in interviews that he had never heard of GWAR when he first formed Lordi. In a recent interview Dave Brockie of GWAR called Lordi "a kiddie version of GWAR" but felt that Lordi didn't rip off GWAR, as both bands owed their image to earlier musicians such as KISS. He seems to have a tongue-in-cheek rivalry with Mr. Lordi, as he has stated his desire to "remove Mr. Lordi's mask and expose him as a silly human." Recently, GWAR frontman Oderus has been producing a model of Mr. Lordi's head impaled on a stake, which then bleeds on the crowd.

Mr. Lordi's mask was auctioned for more than 6000 euros. It was bought by a Finnish businessman, Vesa Keskinen in an auction organised by YLE.

Unmasked by the media

Despite the band's strict approach in relation to their costumes, and due to their newfound success, multiple newspapers began publishing photos of the band members without makeup. On March 15, 2006, the Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat published a photograph of Putaansuu (Mr. Lordi) in civilian clothing, with his face partially showing. Lordi has called this an insult toward them, and an attempt to destroy the "monster image" they have worked for ten years to create. On May 22, 2006, the Daily Mail published what was believed to be an old picture of the band without their makeup or masks. It was later revealed that the band in the photo was actually Children of Bodom, a different band altogether. This was acknowledged on Children of Bodom's official website. The photograph did feature Erna Siikavirta, who went on to join Lordi as Enary, the band's keyboard player. However, Enary left Lordi in 2005, well before their victory at Eurovision, replaced by Awa. On the same day, Bild-Zeitung, a German tabloid, published what they claimed was a photograph of Putaansuu without his mask in its section "Bild Uncovered" with the German headline "He is the Grand Prix Monster: All of Germany discusses the Ugliest Winners of all Time". Later many other European tabloids and newspapers have published the same or similar photographs.

On 24 May 2006, the Finnish tabloid magazine 7 Päivää (7 Days) published an old picture of Lordi's face on the front page, and two days later another tabloid, Katso! (Look!), published unmasked pictures of the other four band members. Both magazines were heavily criticised by their readers for publishing these pictures, which led to swift apologies from both magazines and promises not to publish unmasked pictures of Lordi anymore.

On 26 May 2006, video footage was shown on television in Lithuania. It featured four men and one woman, dressed in black, sitting by the table at the airport in Athens. After a few seconds, Heikki Paasonen (the Eurovision Finnish commentator) in a black Lordi shirt came and stood in front of the camera, covering the view.

Lordi's costume is in the historical costumes section in Turku Castle.

Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Lordi represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 finals in Athens with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" after getting through the semi-finals. The band won by a significant margin, scoring 292 points, 44 points over second placed Dima Bilan, representing Russia with the song "Never Let You Go".

Having been voted for by all countries except Albania, Armenia and Monaco, Lordi scored the highest number of points for any entry in any Eurovision Song Contest to date. They received 12 points from eight countries: Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the UK. Coincidentally, Lordi also scored 292 points in the semi-final held two days earlier. They were also the first Eurovision entrant to win in both the Semi-Final and Final stages. Lordi were congratulated on their victory by both Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Lordi opened the 2007 Eurovision contest.

Controversy

The choice of Lordi to represent Finland spawned some controversy in both Finland and Greece.

In Finland the choice was criticised by some and a group of religious leaders went as far as calling President Halonen to veto their entry. In Greece, a number of organisations were trying to stop Lordi from competing. The Greek restaurant and bar owners' union President, Mrs. Niki Constantinou made a public plea directed to the people of Finland and Greece not to allow Lordi to perform in the contest, claiming the group is Satanic. Three other organisations in Greece initiated legal action against Lordi.

Mr. Lordi himself responded to the accusations and strictly denied Satanism. He said a Satanist group would not write songs such as "Hard Rock Hallelujah" or "Devil Is A Loser".

Despite, or maybe because of, the controversy, Greece ended up awarding Lordi 12 points, the highest possible, in the contest final.

Concert in Helsinki

To celebrate their victory in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi held a public, free, open-air concert in the Market Square in Helsinki, Finland, on 26 May 2006. At the concert, President of Finland Tarja Halonen made an official appearance to give Lordi a bronze key flag award for exemplary Finnish work. The concert was reported to have been attended by over 90,000 people from all over Finland and even other countries, some even on their first ever trip to Helsinki. The concert was the biggest public event to that day in Helsinki. On this occasion, the world record for most people ever to sing karaoke was (successfully) attempted by approximately 80,000 people, singing Hard Rock Hallelujah. The previous record was held by 50,000 Irish rugby fans.

New record label

On December 16, 2006, it was announced on The End Records website that the band had signed on to the label and would be releasing their latest full-length entitled The Arockalypse on March 20, 2007 with three bonus tracks and a DVD release. This same album was released in Finland as The Arockalypse Special Edition.

Tributes

A square in the centre of Rovaniemi, Finland, the home town of the lead singer Mr. Lordi, was renamed after them shortly after their victory at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was part of a redevelopment of Rovaniemi city centre.

Suomen Posti Oyj, the Finnish postal service, issued a Lordi postage stamp in May 2007 in recognition of their Eurovision win. Posti had already released Lordi's Christmas single, "It Snows in Hell" as a special Christmas card edition.

A brand of soda named "Lordi Cola" was named after them and was launched in September 2006, featuring labels designed by Mr Lordi and depicting either one of the individual members or one with the whole band.

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