Haikara in Finnish Rock Encyclopedia
The below text is the English translation of Haikara's entry from the book of Esko Lehtonen: Suomalaisen rockin tietosanakirja, osat 1-2 [The encyclopedia for Finnish Rock, parts 1-2] (Soundi 1983).
Kindly translated by Heikki Kippola. Thank you Heikki!
The leader of Haikara (who comes from Lahti), composer/arranger and singer/guitarist/keyboard player - Vesa Lattunen started his career within music in the middle of 60's when he was 15 years old. Beatles was the inspiration for his first band Roundbeats, which among the cover songs of Beatles and Hollies also played some original compositions by Lattunen. Roundbeats broke up when the drummer heard some symphony by Beethoven and decided he didn't want play in the band anymore.
The next move to Lattunen was to play Chuck Berry and other rock 'n roll music in the band called The Wanderers (which was not the same Wanderers as the band in the early 60's who played Shadows type of instrumental guitar rock). After Wanderers there was The Lords and after that there was Tinkle. Tinkle had some quite good gigs as they played a warm-up gigs for The Who and for Herman's Hermits. In Tinkle Lattunen sang and played guitar and mouth organ. Other members of Tinkle were Julle Kalliomaa on rhythm guitar, Jouni Heinonen on drums (he's the son of legendary Leo Heinonen) and Make Lehtinen on bass, replaced later by Tuhkala who used to be a DJ. Tinkle was quite popular in Stump Magazine's "Hairyheadlist" polls. They broke up in 1969, after which Lattunen jammed around with lots of different people.
In 1971 Lattunen met up with Markus Heikkerö in a bar in Lahti and they decided to form Haikara. Heikkerö was known for his surrealistic paintings. He had started his musical studies in Kuopio in 1963 playing tympani and xylophone. As he later moved to Lahti he continued his musical studies but painting became his priority in 1966. As Haikara was formed he returned to study music with vibraphone. Heikkerö knew Timo Vuorinen who became the bassist for Haikara, formerly Vuorinen had played guitar.
About half a year Haikara played as a trio playing music mainly inspired by Hendrix. In the summer of 1971 Vesa "Wellu" Lehtinen came aboard to become Haikara's lead vocalist, formerly he had been in Charlies. Now Haikara concentrated doing their own music: Lattunen was composing and Lehtinen did the lyrics. A little bit later Harri Pystynen came on board with his saxophone and flute, he had studied music when doing his military service. Later on he had studied in music school in Lahti. Pystynen have also played in Lahti Symphony Orchestra, where also Lattunen played (who's instrument was contrabass).
Haikara made a demotape and almost got a contract with Finnlevy Records. However Finnlevy wanted Haikara's music to be more commercial and the contract came to nothing. Mosse Vikstedt from Discophon Records however heard about the band and so the contract was made with Discophon.
The debut album came out at the end of 1972. It was produced by Heikki Virtanen. The album included five Lattunen compositions with lyrics written by Lehtinen. Subjects of the lyrics ranging between metaphysics and personal statements. Matti Tuhkanen from Lahti Symphony helped during the recordings playing cello, also a horn section from Helsinki of Kaj Backlund, Seppo Peltola, Mircea Stan and Markku Johansson was involved. Heikkerö's cover painting II katoava metsästys [II fading hunt] got a lot of attention and the album was praised by radio and press, and by reason, the album was good. Music on the album is progressive rock, where you can spot influences among others from Frank Zappa and our own Tasavallan Presidentti.
Even before the album was released had Lehtinen left the band to rejoin Charlies. He was replaced by Vesa's sister Auli Lattunen. At the end of 1973 Geafar was finally released, it was delayed by the oil crisis. All the six tunes are written (comp. + lyrics) by Lattunen. The album couldn't quite live up to the expectations raised by the debut due to somewhat uneven material, however it included some tasty moments like the almost 15 minute title track. In the album cover there was again a painting by Heikkerö (titled Ikaros). The helping hand was lend by a quite big string and horn section. Also this time around the album was produced by Heikki Virtanen. However the public was not interested in the album and so the record company demanded the next album to be more commercial. That was not accepted by Lattunen so they had to look for a new label.
Haikara's third album titled Iso lintu [Big Bird] was released on Jukka Kuoppamäki's Satsanga label. The album comprises of nine songs written by Lattunen (compositions, lyrics, arrangements). The music is more commercial than before but still the album wasn't any more successful than the previous ones because the record company didn't want to spend any money in advertising because of the high costs of the studio time. The style of the music on the album ranges from rock to barok. The lead vocalist on the album is ex-Charlies Matti Heinänen. Helping hand on strings and horns is lend by the Lahti Symphony, other quests are Igor Sidorow and Auli Lattunen-Kuparinen.
Haikara has been touring East Germany in the spring of 1974 when they broke up mainly because of the musical differenses inside the band. Vuorinen and Heikkerö joined Sleepy Sleepers for awhile and later on Heikkerö has for example been doing some cover art for LP's. Lattunen founded new Haikara with Eljas Holm (from Lahti Symphony, bassoon), Jorma Nikulainen (bass) and Hannu Rontu (drums). The new Haikara played more funk oriented music and in 1976 they made a single Pilven poika [Boy/Son Of The Cloud] (comp. + lyrics by Lattunen) for Hi-Hat Records.
The most famous composition by Lattunen is maybe Kuutamo [Full Moon]. It is a composition for pop group and symphony orchestra in five parts, including Preludi [Prelude], Kuutamo [Full Moon], Romanssi [Romance], Presto and Finaali [Finale]. The part called Romanssi had been included on Iso lintu LP. The premiere for Kuutamo was planned for the autumn of 1975 and a proposal was made for the board who manages the symphony orchestra. The proposal was denied without telling the reason why. Haikara decided to do the show anyway and they did it in february 1976 with the help of the horn section of Lahti Symphony, who agreed to perform without payment. The composition of Kuutamo on the whole has also been recorded for radio.
In 1977 Lattunen was involved with Robin on his album Moi taas Reipas (Liikuttaja Oy LJA 003) and in the next year he participated in Robin's single Basket Baby/Kiitos ei (LJA 004). Lattunen was also playing bass on the album Hölmöläisiä (Love Records LRLP 216) by Nostoväkinäyttämö (who are from Lahti), recorded in autumn 1976. The music on the album was written by Mari Renvall. In 1979 Lattunen did the arrangements for Nostoväkinäyttämö's album Pekka Puupää (Rondo ROLP 109), the album was again written by Mari Renvall.
Lattunen has also composed songs for poems (for example by Jorma Mattila, Bertolt Brecht, Nazim Hikmet, Federico Garcia Lorca), and also composed music for Jumalainen näytelmä [Devine comedy]. He has also worked as a conductor for the brass band of the Lahti's Työväen Musiikin Ystävät - society [Friends of the working class music - society]. In 1978 a group called Osviitta recorded the Lattunen compositions Koulusta kortistoon/Yhdessä (Työväen Sivistysliitto TSL 103), lyrics were written by Raimo Kariniemi. In the Music School of Lahti Lattunen has studied composing, piano, classical guitar and contrabass.
In 1979 Lattunen arranged music for the Evening of Bob Dylan Songs. Finnish lyrics for Dylan songs were written also by Rauli Nordberg, who is famous for his comics. Songs were performed by Lattunen and Liisa Lampi. The happening was famous and they got lot of offers to tour Finland which they did. Four of the Dylan songs were released on EP in 1979.
Vesa Lattunen died on 1.03.2005...