Kingston Wall

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Kingston Wall
Left to right: Jukka Jylli, Petri Walli, Sami Kuoppamäki (photograph by Jouko Lehtola)
Origin	Helsinki
Country	Finland
Years active	1987–1994
Genres	Psychedelic Progressive rock Acid rock Rock
Labels	Trinity Zero (Japan) Zen Garden Sony BMG
Members	Petri Walli (Vocals, Guitars), Jukka Jylli (Bass) Sami Kuoppamäki (Drums)

Kingston Wall was a psychedelic/progressive rock group from Helsinki, Finland. They were formed in 1987. Influenced by such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, the group combined eastern themes, mysticism and vivid psychedelia with their unique, hard-edged acid-rock.

Group members were Petri Walli (guitars, lead vocals, b. 1969, d.1995), Jukka Jylli (bass, backing vocals) and Sami Kuoppamäki (drums, percussion). Walli was clearly the leader of the band - he formed the group, composed most of the songs and wrote all the lyrics. He was also Kingston Wall's producer and manager and even ran the band's own Trinity record label (under a pseudonym Pedro Cucaracha, an alias of a villain in an old Lucky Luke comic book). Perhaps even the band name was partially formed out of Walli's surname.

Kingston Wall released their first album, Kingston Wall (later referenced and re-released as I) in 1992 under the Trinity label. Their debut album consisted mainly of psychedelic hard rock along with a cover of Jimi Hendrix' song "Fire", which gained the group instant popularity among the Finnish radio stations. The album culminated in the heavily progressive, 21-minute track, "Mushrooms".

Their second album, II, was released in February 1993. This time the group brought in some more acoustic and folk elements to their songs, like acoustic guitars and violins in song "Istwan" (violin played by Ufo Mustonen) and saxophones in "Shine On Me" (saxophone played by Sakari Kukko). They even included a cross-genre cover version of the Donna Summer disco classic "I Feel Love".

The third and last album from Kingston Wall, III - Tri-Logy, was released in autumn 1994. It was a very different album compared to the two previous ones as it included more harder rock than the two previous ones, at times combined even into dub reggae with some techno music and synthesizers arranged by Kimmo Kajasto (from Koneveljet and Rinneradio). Most of the lyrics in Tri-Logy have almost religious philosophical/mythological tone in them, and they are partially based on the Bock Saga, an eccentric explanation about the origins of the alphabets, words and the whole human history.

This story of Bock Saga was told by Ior Bock, a man Petri Walli knew well and most likely got to know him during his trips to Goa, India, where Bock used to stay at wintertime and tell his tales. When Tri-Logy was released, Petri Walli said in an interview that it was probably the most expensive self-financed album made ever made in Finland. Tri-Logy was also considered by many as an almost megalomanic rock-epic in reminiscent of Pink Floyd's The Wall album. The last song on the album, "The Real Thing", runs for 18 minutes and again features Sakari Kukko on saxophone along with ambient synthesizer pads played by Kimmo Kajasto.

Kingston Wall was well known from their outstanding live performances. The band held their own Freak-Out Club three times in Helsinki. They started playing live from small local pubs and eventually the band was so popular that they could sell out the biggest clubs in Helsinki. Kingston Wall played their last public show in Lepakko, Helsinki on December 1994 and their last show ever was some days later in Sörnäinen' prison at Helsinki. After this, the band called it quits in a local cafeteria and each of the members went on their separate ways. Walli left for India and shortly after his return to Finland, on the 28th of June, 1995, he jumped to his death from the tower of Töölö's church in central Helsinki. It was the end for Kingston Wall. Walli was later buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, only about one kilometer away from his place of death.

All the original Kingston Wall albums and singles under the Trinity label have been since sold out and became precious collector's items. Before his death, Walli had made a printing/distribution deal into Japan, and the trilogy had been released in Japan by the record label Zero in 1995. However, there was a huge demand for Kingston Wall's albums and they were so hard to find even in Finland that local stores bought import copies from Japan. Subsequently also the Zero releases were sold out.

The trilogy was re-issued by a Finnish record label Zen Garden in 1998. A limited amount of 1000 copies included a bonus CD along with each of the three original remastered albums. The limited re-issues sold out quickly. The bonus CD's contained single B-sides and previously unreleased live recordings. In 2000, a remix album titled Freakout Remixes was released. This tribute album included techno and psychedelic trance remixes of the original Kingston Wall songs, made by such top-notch Finnish artists as Accu, Squaremeat and Texas Faggott. Kingston Wall has also influenced many Finnish rock groups and received cover tributes from artists such as The Rasmus ("Used to Feel Before" on Madness-single) and Amorphis ("And I Hear You Call" on My Kantele-EP).

Although Kingston Wall never played outside Finland apart from one gig in Tallinn, Estonia during their early days, the group is considered even by many Finns as one of the country's best hard rock groups. Their albums have appeared on the Finnish Top 40 album charts. The tremendous cult following status of Kingston Wall has also gained them a steadily growing fan base around the world, mostly thanks to the Internet and MP3's.

After a long period of silence, a live CD box set was released from Kingston Wall. The box set featured three CD's recorded from various gigs during the bands existence. The tracks were selected to this album by bass player Jukka Jylli.

Jukka Jylli and Sami Kuoppamäki currently play in the Finnish rock outfit Zook.

[edit] Discography

Albums:

I (1992) Trinity TTYCD 0002
II (1993) Trinity TTYCD 0004
III - Tri-Logy (1994) Trinity TTYCD 0006
Freakout Remixes (2000) Zen Garden GAR 29
Real Live Thing (3CD box set) (2005) SonyBMG Finland CD 82876705242

Singles:

We Cannot Move/She's So Fine/I Feel Love/Between the Trees (1993)
Stüldt Håjt/Have You Seen the Pyg-mies?/Time (1994)
The Real Thing, Radio Edits (1994)

Other:

"I" Reissue Bonus CD (1998)
"II" Reissue Bonus CD (1998)
"III - Tri-Logy" Reissue Bonus CD (1998)

All three Kingston Wall albums were remastered and re-released by Zen Garden in 1998 with the first 1000 copies of each title including a bonus CD containing unreleased/rare material. The Kingston Wall trilogy was also released in Japan in 1995 under the label Zero.