The story of Rebels Revengestarted in 1997, when five school band members, Jan Ove Undem (lead vocals), Kristine Einbu (bass), Cato Ramfelt (Piano), Alf Lund Godbolt (drums) and Håkon Samland (Guitar) found out, that they want to start a Rock’n’Roll band. All of them liked the rockin’ sound
from the early 50’s to the 70’s. Because of their young age, they named the band “Teenwaves”. Inspired by artists like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles and of course the very famous Norwegian “Teencats”, they start to rehearse and got their first gigs on some local events and also one in Gothenburg, Sweden. In the beginning of 1998 Alf left the band, and they had to find a new drummer.
At the same time, Håkon saw John Sindre Lynghaug on the television, where he imitated Buddy Holly. He thought that he must have this guy in his band and called him. He heard admittedly that he is a drummer, but he was busy with his band “Johnny and the Corvettes” and “Teenwaves” found a new a drummer in Eivind Siljeholm.
In June 1999 Håkon wanted have a straight Rock’n’Roll/Rockabilly band, and split the “Teenwaves”.
After the summer, when he started the High-School, he met the blues guitarist Alf Thomas Hansen, who also love the 50’s style. Håkon asked some of the ex-members of “Teenwaves” (Jan Ove and Eivind) and together they wanted to start a new band. The only thing they needed was a bass player. Some weeks later John Sindre called Håkon and asked if they still need a drummer.
Håkon told him that they solved the “Teenwaves” and that they want start a new band, where they only need a bass player. John Sindre, who had a bass at home, but never played, told him that he want to try it and began to practice. After some weeks he handled the bass very well and stepped in.
That was autumn 1999 and Håkon Samland (Lead Guitar), John Sindre Lynghaug (Bass), Jan Ove Undem (Vocals), Alfie Hansen (Rhythm Guitar), Eivind Siljeholm (Drums) set up a new band.
They practiced almost every day and after some month they got the first gig, but no name. John Sindre had the idea to name band “Money Makers”, because they played nearly always for free. ;-)
Their style was a mix of late 50's Rock’n’Roll and the modern Teddy Boy Rock’n’Roll. Covering artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and of course Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers. But their main influences they got from the Norwegian Kings of Teddy Boy Rock’n’Roll , the TEENCATS!
Unfortunately in February 2000 the lead singer Jan Ove Undem left the band and guitarist Håkon, who have done the backing vocals before, took over the lead vocals. But now they had a problem, because the choir was very important for the “Money Makers”. In Øyvind Gossner they found very fast the right man and he joined the band as backing vocalist and entertainer. Shortly after that, the rhythm guitarist Alfie Hansen quitted also.
Unperturbed of that, the Money Makers goes their way and one day they got a call from “The Wild Bunch Rock’n Roll Club”, who asked for a support gig. “Money Makers” have done a great gig and afterwards, “the ball started to roll”, so that they got many gigs in Norway and Sweden.
Håkon and John Sindre become really good friends through the years and started to enjoy the English Teddy Boy Rock’n’Roll style.
Early in 2002, Håkon and John Sindre were not satisfied by the way, the band was going. They decided to solve the "Money Makers" and start something new, with some new members, in that style they like so much: TEDDY BOY ROCK’N’ROLL !!!
The result was, "Rebels Revenge" named after a B-17 bomber from the second world war.
After a lot of rehearsals and some gigs, with the line-up Håkon Samland (Vocals/Guitar), John-Sindre Lynghaug (Vocals/Bass), Joakim Høyland (Guitar) and Magnus Nilsen (Drums), they decided to record their first album. They went into the studio and recorded 10 songs (9 self penned and 1 cover) in September and released in December 2002 by themselves. As so many debut CDs, it’s was simply named like the band … “Rebels Revenge”.
Right after the album was released the drummer Magnus Nilsen quitted. He was soon replaced by Roger Kristiansen, who was known from the band “Wild Dogs”. By the end of 2003, when Sweden knocked on the door, rhythm guitarist Joakim Høyland had to quit, because of school. Tom Rudi Jackobsen replaced him in January 2004.
At the same time the Swedish label Old Rock Records showed their interest and invited the band to release their next album. The CD "Wild Bunch Boogie", which included 15 self penned tunes, was released in April 2004. The title is as a homage to that club, where nearly everything started … Norway’s biggest Rock’n’Roll club "The Wild Bunch Club”.
After that Rebels Revenge played a lot of gigs in Sweden and in September 2004, they began a re-recording of their first album, plus 6 new bonus tracks, in the current line-up. The album, which is simply called "The First Album", was also realised by "Old Rock" in the following April.
2005 was a very successful year for Rebels Revenge. They were booked for the first time to clubs and festivals outside of Scandinavia and they could place a title on the Finnish EP-Series “Bollocks To Europe Vol.3”.
In 2006 Rebels Revenge released the Picture-10” “That’s For Sure” which includes some new tracks, beside some from the last CD’s.
They toured a lot through that year, but one of the highlights was a concert in Bonn (Germany) in October, together with their friends Foggy Mountain Rockers. This concert was filmed and recorded live!!! “Revenge of the Rockers”, how it is called was released on the German label Part Records as a split CD in April 2007 and a DVD of that night will follow.
At the end of 2006 guitarist Tom Rudi Jackobsen shocked the band. He told them that he need a break, because of his work and personal reason. He was replaced for a while by Terje “Wild Terry” Ekeberg, who played with Roger in “Wild Dogs”, but since October 2007 is Tom Rudi back!
Over the last years Rebels Revenge get more and more popular all over Europe and played, beside their home country Norway, a lot of clubs and festivals in England, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and of course in one of their favourite countries Germany. There they played for example the 15th Anniversary of their friends FOGGY MOUNTAIN ROCKERS (find a video on the left) in 2007 or the Walldorf-Weekender in 2008. A song were given to the weekender CD and they are also performing one song live on the documentation DVD.
>>> Rebels Revenge stopped playing at the end of 2009!!!
At moment Håkon plays with "Trouble Boys" and Sindre has his own project "Johnny Knife & His Rippers"
