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LOLA EGO
BIOGRAPHY

Lola Ego was formed in Helsinki at the turn of 1980, and played The Jam-style pop. The band consisted of Pekka Hakala: guitar and backing vocals, Kaj Fuhrman (ex-Päät): drums and Hannu Virkki: vocals, and bass. Shortly they were offered a recording deal, to appear on a compilation album. They recorded two songs, Maailman ihmisiä and En asu täällä enää, for the infamous 3 vuotta myöhemmin compilation. The band themselves were dissatisfied with the results, but I think the songs are fine, despite some minor slips: in the former song lead vocalist sings "olet..." ("you are...") and the backing vocalists sing "olen..." ("I am"), and so on. In March they recorded songs for their only single Kaupungin tyttö/Eedenistä itään/Kaikki nuoret modit (the A side was re-recorded later, though), released on Turku-based Selecta label. Kaupungin tyttö is the song that got me interested in the band in the first place, it's a catchy pop song, a bit similar to In the city by The Jam. The song can also be found on Vaahtopäät compilation. Lola Ego was also featured on Spartakiadit EP (along with Woude and Oone Proot) with their song Yksi joukosta poissa, a quite good cover version of The Jam's Away from the numbers. However, by the beginning of 1981 the band had already broken up.

Later Pekka Hakala adopted a new name Jay Havanna and has worked as producer and musician on numerous recordings (for example on Pelle Miljoona's Kyynelhelmet single), and played in many bands, Päät, Suurlähettiläät and Jay & The Miracles to name a few. Virkki joined Shadowplay, and has been playing in it during the years whenever the band has been active. Lola Ego has later been covered by Raivopäät: En asu täällä enää (guest vocals by Veltto Virtanen) on Punkrock Jukebox 1 and Yksi joukosta poissa (guest vocals by Timo Ranta) on Punkrock Jukebox 2, although the latter isn't a Lola Ego original.

text by Vesa Vahtera, translation by Jarkko Kuivanen