Hurra Torpedo

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Hurra Torpedo

Hurra Torpedo is Norway's most famous kitchen appliance band, formed in the early nineties. They are a part of the artistic collective Duplex Records, and all members of the band also play in a variety of other bands in Norway.

During recent years Hurra Torpedo have had annual split- and reunion tours. The band struck international fame when a television performance of the 1983 Bonnie Tyler power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart", using kitchen appliances for percussion, spread as an internet meme. The clip, from a Norwegian Saturday Night Live type show called Lille lørdag ("Little Saturday") (aired on Wednesdays - "the Little Saturdays" in the Norwegian week), was filmed in 1995. In early 2005 the clip was uploaded to the internet.

In the clip, the band, dressed in ill-fitting jogging suits, play on a stage surrounded by various kitchen appliances. Frontman Hegerberg plays guitar and sings in a slightly off-key monotone, Schau "drums" by hitting a stove with a stick and slamming the door of a freezer, while Guttormsgaard adds backing vocals, and at the climax smashes the top of an electrical stove with a large piece of metal on the beat of the song.

In October/November 2005 they became part of a viral ad campaign by going on a coast to coast tour in the US that was paid for by Ford in order to promote the Ford Fusion car. As part of the ad campaign, a mockumentary movie called "The Crushing Blow" is being made, directed by the "character" Pip Simon who is played by the actress Tara Copeland.

By the end of November 2005 a clip from The Crushing Blow was viewed more than 500,000 times in a couple of days from the web site iFilm, and some of the clips spread around blog sites.

The band played several gigs in Norway the first half of 2006, and the Garorock festival in Marmande, France, with aprox 5000 in the audience.

Hurra Torpedo had two showcases at the 2006 South by Southwest festival, and in June they went on new US Tour, starting in Boston, ending in San Francisco three weeks later. This tour has no connection with Ford.