Kohu-63 was formed already in 1977, so it can be said that they are one the pioneers of punk in Finland. They've had lots of good and bad things on their career, as you will see.
Their first recordings appeared on a legendary compilation, called Hilse LP, that came out in 1979. On the compilation they had one song (like anybody else.) called "Just Like Eddie, I Hate Teddy". Hilse LP was the first Finnish punk compilation and it really has all the important punk bands of the late 70's. After that compilation they only sang in Finnish. Their first record came out in 1981 and it was a 7" EP called Pelimannimusaa. It was released on Poko Rekords (PIS 085), as many other punk records of that time. The EP has 3 songs and it's one of those records you can't ever see even in Finland! If you have it, you're very lucky.
After that Kohu went more and more in a Hardcore direction and they released their MiniLP called Valtaa, ei loistoa, also on Poko Rekords (KOHU63, 1982). Jaska (bass), who also played in Sensuuri, left the band and they got a new bass player. But still somehow they managed to get an LP out the very same year. That LP was and still is their only LP and it's called Lisääverta historiaan (Poko Rekords, PÄP 37). The LP came with a big booklet and a stencil, but for some reason most LP's still don't have those. I don't know the reason for that. General Finnish lazyness or maybe booklets came later than records, which seems to be traditional in Finland.
So in 1986 they released a 3 song 7" EP called 3 vuotta myöhemmin, which appropriately means "3 Years Later". That 7" was one of the last punk records on Poko (PIS 172), but all the time they had released lots of other music than punk too. It was also last Kohu-63 record on Poko. Since they had had a break for few years and they had time to "grow up", they left hardcore to their past mostly and started to punk rock again, since that was the music they started. About the same time they re-formed, lots of old Finnish bands had gone to metal or split up. The scene was not having the best time ever in Finland. So things were slow and not too many shows were played etc. The band broke up again and had a break.
Anyway couple of years went and in 1989 they got things going on again and released two 7" singles the same year. The line up this time was very different. Lää as the only original member and he got some new members who had been playing in bands like Kaaos, Kuolleet Kukat, Sekaannus, St. Michel SS, etc. So they knew what they were doing. The first single was a funny record called "Hyppää ruutuun/Viva la U.S.A." That was on their new label called Wotan Records. That same year they also released a Christmas single called "Tervetuloa jouluun/Ottakaa joulupukki kiinni", which had a great Christmas slaughtering going on in the sleeve. And suited them just fine! Wotan Records stayed active the next year (1990) and released 2x7" called Hullabaloo 1990, that has one of their classic songs called "P.O.V.P.", which is a short for "Cops are Bloody Arseholes". That song became among younger punks in Puntala festivals the same year. Puntala festivals were very famous punk festival in Finland at the early 80's, now going strong again to this day!
In 1991 they released their last 7" EP called Viimeinen myyntipäivä (Stay Free Underground, SF-UR 01), which had 3 of their old songs and covers by Ypí¹µí¶©is and Pelle Miljoona. On the record cover they did some "recycling", the cover was from an old Popeda single (Popeda is seen as a red neck rock'n'roll band in Finland among punks) with some insulting drawings on top of it.
After that the band kind of faded away and nothing much happened. In the mid 90's almost all their records were re-released on CD. First came Merry Christmas, Vladimir! which had all the singles between 1989-1991. A year later was released a CD with the first three records. That CD made it easier for lots of younger punks to get some old Kohu-63 music into their hands. All those early records had became very rare and expensive.
But that is still not the end of Kohu-63. In 2001 there was released a CD (called Neljälla vuosikkymmenellä) that had lots of old songs re-recorded with a new line-up. Lää ©s still doing the vocals with his very recognisible vocal style and the rest of the band is old punks who have been into punk longer than lots of new punks have been alive. Among others there are some Bastards members in the band now. They are still doing new songs and planning to record something in the near future. which for them maybe is late 2002 or 2003. They are doing their first European tour in the summer of 2002, it's about time already for them to tour too. The children are grown up, nobody is in jail and some of them don't drink, so it should be good for the tour.
