The dark and misty fall of 1994. Varisto, city of Vantaa in Finland. Four high school attending young guys with the need to let out some fumes, decide to hook up and form a group, a rock group that is. It all started when the singer and guitar player Tommi, had received an electric guitar for Christmas years ago as a small boy. With a big smile and sparkle in his eye he looked to the future in his mind where he could see, feel and hear a roaring crowd of thousands in front of a huge empty stage with lights circling in the dark trying to catch a glimpse of a human character in the mist. At that point he knew what the stage needed and a dream was set, a dream that would be fulfilled when standing on that particular stage. 

An enthusiastic time period was spent learning to play the instrument after which it was necessary to find people who shared the same vision. He convinced his friend Veikko to join him and they had fun recording some high quality demos using a tape recorder with Tommi giving his stratocaster some heavy duty treatment and Veikko bangin’ Tommi’s Tae-Kwon-Do pads with drumsticks like a lunatic. During recording breaks they would relax by listening to Kiss, Deep Purple and Anthrax and watching Hard’N’heavy video compilations. During the years Tommi tried to talk Veikko over into buying a decent drum set but instead one beautiful day in the summer of 1994 he purchased a bass guitar and an amplifier. But still the two of them wasn’t enough…

A friend of theirs called Ville, had borrowed a drum set from his big brother’s friend Harri G. so they moved their equipment down to Ville’s house and started jamming. Now with Ville sitting firmly behind the drum set, legendary cover versions of Kiss, Nirvana and the Cure to name a few, were played and recorded. One of the best and most unforgettable was an Epitaph punk version over Queen’s “ I want it all” which was even filmed on video with Karo the IMF on vocals. The covers project dried and died away after the long hot summer, but Tommi and Veikko still wanted to continue in the “biz”.

The boys hired a training lot and started to audition some drummer wannabes but nothing quite worked out, it didn’t have the same magic that the summer sessions had.Then one time Ville stopped by to have a look and after that he never left. It seemed he had also been stung

 by the Rock n’Roll bee and just couldn’t stay away from the feel and smell of it. For a while they jammed with him on the drums until a pal of theirs from school, Saku who knew his way around the drums dropped in. Ville picked up the quitar, Saku grabbed the drumsticks, Tommi and Veikko held on to their weapons of choice and the first line up of Reprinted was born!!

The band began rehearsing and writing songs whenever they had the time for
it. On the 14th of December in 1994 their first gig took place as the four
young rock warriors dressed up in suits, climbed on stage and gave old
Beatles classics some punk rock treatment in a happening at their school
which was put up in the spirit of the sixties. Playing other bands' material was anyway boring and as Tommi was writing his own stuff all the time, the recording of a demo tape with their own songs on it became relevant. An own name was also needed and the guys had been brainstorming to come up with a decent name for some time, but nothing ever
sounded right. 

Name suggestions such as "Incognito", "The Project" and several others were tossed around but nothing was permanent. At one time they came close to calling themselves "Helpless Golf Project" by combining their name with  two other band names "Helpless" and "Golf" which were rehearsing at the same facility.At the brink of making the demo on Valentine's Day 1995, a name was badly needed so Ville stuck his finger at random in an issue of "Guitar Player" and happened to point out the word "reprinted". A moment was spent chewing on the name before it was fully digested and written on the demo cover.

The first demo was passed around in school and more chances to play live emerged. Reprinted played gigs at their school, youth clubs and at the now legendary local bar called Huvitorppa. Even in the very beginning Reprinted refused to go onstage wearing their ordinary street clothing. 

They wanted make their show an entertaining experience for eyes as well as ears, in true showmanship style paying a tribute to bands like KISS and PARLIAMENT. 

The search for an identity on stage began and all kinds of different stage
outfits were worn during shows. The band tried everything from all kinds of
hats, pants, jackets and sunglasses, to wearing wigs and sticking cardboard
spikes to their trousers in trying to look like a respectable rock band. Some of the ideas worked out OK and some of them, as you may have already guessed, were very quickly forgotten.

The first line up of Reprinted recorded two demo tapes "Demolotion" and "Again" and played about a dozen of gigs during the year and a half they existed. In the summer of 96 the band was put on ice because the whole band was attending their compulsory military service and there was hardly any time for rockin' or rollin' for that matter.1997 came around soon, everyone in the group was running free and the desire
to rock n'roll was back again. Unfortunately the landlord of the old rehearsal lot had stopped hiring the facility so it was necessary to find a new place to play.

Fortunately Harri's drum set was still lying around
unused in Ville's basement so naturally the rehearsing was to start all over
again where it all had started. But not entirely the same way as it did
three years ago.

 One setback had been coming in the air for some time. After a drunken rehearsal session and later talking it through it was decided among all of them that Saku and the rest of the band would part ways. There was now a band with all the necessary equipment including a drum set but
they lacked a drummer to play it. The most natural move was to ask the owner
of the set and as Harri had just returned to the neighbourhood after a few years of studies in another town he agreed to join in. In the summer of 97 the second line up of Reprinted was born and this time they meant business!!

2 BE CONTINUED.....