Wonderfools

Location:
Grua, No
Type:
Artist / Band / Musician
Genre:
Punk / Powerpop / Classic Rock
Site(s):
Label:
Wild Kingdom
Type:
Indie
Wonderfools started out as a trio in a small Norwegian village called Grua in '96. Getting tired of constant winter and always having a moose in the backyard, singer and guitarplayer Tomas needed to battle his boredom. He got together with his friends Zito (drums) and Zugly (bass) and formed Wonderfools. They decided to become rockstars…
After releasing the 7" single "Get Real" they realized that they needed a little more power and recruited a sixteen year-old guitar wonder named Joey. The 'Fools recorded their debut album "Kids In Satanic Service" and went straight to Germany for a Christmas tour in '98. The album was released in '99 on Australian label "One Way Street" and German label "Radioblast Recordings". The bands' melodic punk-rock was well received by the few people who got their hands on the record. It contains twelve songs about the frustration of four teens from Grua with nothing to do but drinking and making fun of the locals. Highlights from K.I.S.S. are "Teenage Fartbomb", "Wimp City", "The Story of Mr. Brainache" and "Sick of Love". After a successful tour of Europe in the fall of '99, Zugly stole Tomas' girlfriend and the band split up. The four kids moved out of Grua and went their separate ways.
The next couple of years they all pursued a career in drinking. But something was unfulfilled in their lives. In the summer of 2001, Zito, Zugly and Joey met at Last Train, Oslo. By coincidence, "Wimp City" was suddenly blasting through the sound system. The three former friends got emotional and realized from the bottom of a beer keg that Wonderfools had to be reborn. Tomas was not interested in the band anymore, and was replaced by the only other singer from Grua named Thomas. Tired of drumming, Zito picked up the guitar, and a new drummer named Mags was recruited. To find the core of the music they all wanted to front, the five guys went back to Grua in the summer of 2001. After three months they returned to civilisation with a bunch of new songs.
With newfound confidence and eleven melodic punk-rock songs about downtown Oslo, The Wonderfools recorded their second album, "Doing Their Duty To The Nightlife" in 2002, and signed swedish label "Wild Kingdom" in 2003. The album includes future classics like "Alcohol", "Closing Time", "Fight For Your Money" and "Fornication".
Unfortunately, while rehearsing for the release tour, Zito chose to leave the band. Notorious ladies-man Chris, another guitar-star from Grua who knows his way around the boogie, replaced him.
Touring followed the release, and the lifestyle referred to on the album was lived out to it's full extent. Rumors would go ahead of the band that they were too drunk to play, and they were denied drinks at several occations. The amount of fun the band had together of course led to a number of bad break-ups and a lot of sad stories. The guys slowly turned their heads against women, and a lot of new songs were made about their kind, and how little is known about them.
In springtime 2004, the band was invited to do a huge tour with one of the biggest bands of Germany. This of course, came as a shock to everyone. Wonderfools was going to play shows for tens of thousands of crazy Germans. Since they had a lot of songs about how they dislike women, Wonderfools decided to dedicate their whole next album to solve the mysteries of the female gender. As they all knew, that was an impossible task. Still, the album was recorded in the summer of 2004, and by the first concert on the Germany tour, "Future Classics" was ready to hit the stores.
The autumn that year was the wildest 6 weeks in Wonderfools history, in all possible ways. A small filmcrew followed the band and got the ups and downs of touring Germany on tape. The result was a half an hour documentary about 5 guys from Grua living their dream, and it was aired on Norwegian national television in springtime 2005. The tour also led to a total clean-up of their live-shows, and made the band a better live-act than ever before.
Wonderfools are now done with their 4th album, "Too Late To Die Young". Further info will be announced soon.



Hangin' In Hangin' Out - From the album "Future Classics" - 2004
Footage taken from the 2004 Böhse Onkelz tour
Edited by Ola Refsnes



Never Gonna Make It - From the album "Too Late To Die Young" - 2008
Footage taken from the 2004 Böhse Onkelz tour
Edited by Ola Refsnes



Last Night on Earth - Live from Eurospeedway Lausitz 2005
Böhse Onkelz "Vaya Con Tioz" DVD 2007
All rights reserved



Music video from 2003
Made by Hallgeir Braastad and
Pål Gustav Widerberg
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