Blues Section (1967 - 1968)
Blues Section was a pioneering band in Finnish rock music who, during their brief career, managed to leave behind them a lasting legacy, not only with some memorable tunes of their own but also paving way for the future, when more bands and musicians, even a whole music scene, followed in their footsteps.
The band was started in spring 1967 by guitarist Hasse Walli (1948-) and bassist Måns Groundstroem (1949-). Blues Section took their initial cues from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Jimi Hendrix whose May 1967 concert in Helsinki had astonished also local musicians.
Blues Section found an inspired vocalist-songwriter from the British expat Jim Pembroke (1946 - 2021), formerly of The Pems. For Blues Section's first line-up, drums were played by Edward Vesala. He was replaced by Raimo "Raikka" Rautarinne, before the band finally settled themselves in for Ronnie Österberg (1948 - 1980). The up-and-coming alto saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen (1946-) added jazzy flavour to Blues Section’s musical arsenal. Thanks to Koivistoinen's personal contribution, Blues Section can also be considered one of the real progenitors of jazz rock that as part of progressive genre reached its flowering phase in the late 1960s and 70s.
Promoted by Jorma Weneskoski whose stable already included such domestic top groups as Jormas, Topmost, and Roosters, Blues Section soon became Finland’s biggest band, also doing gigs in Sweden, where they played among all at Stockholm's legendary clubs Filips and Gyllene Cirkeln. Blues Section's live sets had loud amplifiers and smoke bombs, and featured songs from Hendrix, The Bluesbreakers, Cream and The Yardbirds, though unlike most of their peers in Finnish commercial pop scene, Blues Section also wrote their own material.
Jim Pembroke has cited among his influences, alongside the more obvious R&B, blues, John Lennon and The Beatles, also Steve Winwood, Procol Harum and The Band, saying about the latter two groups:
"Both were two-keyboard set-ups. With Procol I liked the classical approach and with The Band I liked the country blues and rock vein. But Blues Section was a band which was totally different on record from what it was on stage. We didn’t do the songs from the records ‘live’. Mainly, we just did the basic blues material. It was very much a band that improvised. I wrote some bluesy songs at that time, too, though most of my writing was based around not too familiar chords and a bit of melody. I was always into that, but at the same time I always liked Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, quite simply for the feel."
[Source: Jim Pembroke's 1983 interview with Claes Johansen.]
Helsinki’s record label Love Records, founded by Christian Schwindt, Atte Blom and Otto Donner (a.k.a. Henrik Otto Donner), represented a totally new and progressive way of thinking in Finnish music. Blues Section became their first major act. Love Records’ house producer/jazz musician/composer Otto Donner would greatly influence the band with his vast musical knowledge.
Blues Section - 'Call Me On Your Telephone' (1967)
Jim Pembroke: "During the Blues Section time my favourite bands were like The Who, The Yardbirds, Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix. I saw myself in that kind of musical setup. Kind of pop music. So I was writing songs in that vein. 'Call Me On Your Telephone', I saw that as a kind of Who song. And then there was 'Hey Hey Hey', after I discovered Hendrix."
[Source: Jim Pembroke's 2000 interview with Esa Järvi.]
The recording debut of Blues Section was the single 'Call Me On Your Telephone' b/w 'Only Dreaming' (LRS 1005, Love Records) which came out in May 1967. The Pembroke-penned 'Call Me On Your Telephone' starts with Otto Donner giving out the count off, and with its clanking cowbell and slapping rhythm sounds almost like a funk track, decidedly planned to hit the record charts, the simple lyrics merely an impression to assist the rhythm.
"Sitting here waiting for your call.
Is it coming now, is it coming at all?
At all baby, at all baby,
yes, is it coming now.
Call me on your telephone, girl.
Call me on your telephone, girl.
Call me on your telephone now.
I’ve been waiting, waiting so long.
Is it coming now, is it coming along?
Coming along, are you coming along, along with me darling."
Blues Section - 'Only Dreaming' (1967)
The flipside, 'Only Dreaming', also by Jim Pembroke, is a more thoughtful tune, and might well be one of the earliest representatives of Pembroke's introspective writing style (though here with some psychedelic, or Dylan-esque, wordplay) that became familiar with Wigwam in the 1970s.
"Don’t you know you'd be all right.
Don’t worry 'bout tomorrow night.
The time will come to see the light.
And when does I’m only dreaming,
I’m only dreaming.
Things with wings and bats that sing surround me.
Girls with nails and snails with curls around me.
Snakes with teeth with gold beneath astound me.
Apes with saws and dogs with claws have found me."
Blues Section - 'Hey Hey Hey' (1967)
In October 1967, the debut single was followed by another 7", 'Hey, Hey, Hey' b/w 'Shivers Of Pleasure' (LRS 1006). This one found Blues Section getting deep into psychedelia, inspired by Hendrix and The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper. The freakbeatish 'Hey, Hey, Hey' features Hasse Walli's spiky wah-wah guitar to Eero Koivistoinen's alto-sax wailings plus effects, replete with some air raid sounds in the song climax. As to its lyrics, again the song functions as a simple rocker.
"Don’t talk about it 'cos I might feel so sad.
Don’t talk about it 'cos I might feel so bad.
Don’t talk about it 'cos I might feel so blue.
Don’t talk about it 'cos I’m in love with you now.
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey, hey hey hey, hey hey hey.
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey, hey hey hey.
Don’t talk about it 'cos you’re messing around now.
Don’t talk about it 'cos you make me feel down.
Don’t talk about it 'cos I can't take no more now.
Don’t talk about it 'cos I'm leaving for sure now."
Blues Section - 'Shivers of Pleasure' (1967)
On the flipside is found 'Shivers of Pleasure', a soul/funk-inspired composition by Eero Ojanen, a prominent jazz musician and another steady Love Records collaborator, with the lyrics by Atte Blom. The heavily effects-laden, "freak-out" type of song starts with the tape running backwards, followed by some further spiky soloing from Walli, ending with a repeating guitar loop.
Blues Section - 'Paint It Michael and Others, Maybe' (1967)
The album starts out with 'Paint It Michael and Others, Maybe', a sturdy and rather traditional-sounding rhythm'n'blues number with Pembroke's quirky and slightly surreal story of a shop man called Peter and a gang delivering papers, perhaps inspired by John Lennon's books of absurdist writings such as Spaniard in the Works.
"One summer morning
Michael came to visit my place.
We’d nothing to do
So we painted up Michael’s face.
He put a long coat on
And a cane around his neck in case.
We brought him to the shop
He walked straight through the door.
The customers were shocked
And I guess that they don’t go no more.
Pete fell in the fridge
And the rest of us fell on the floor."
Blues Section - 'Answer to Life' (1967)
Jim Pembroke’s own compositions, with their witty lyrics, leaned towards the British pop tradition of The Beatles and The Kinks (with a band like The Zombies being not too far as a point of comparison, either). One prime example of Pembroke’s early writing style found on the album is its second track, ‘Answer to Life’, a song that through some clever sardonicism juxtaposes the then-fashionable “peace and love” hippie lifestyle with that of a violent youth gang member, perhaps being something of a skinhead or A Clockwork Orange type.
"I go with a gang called the Vegetable Men
I smash up the hippies whenever I can.
They get on my nerves with their flowers and love.
They sit in Soho while I'm in a pub,
eating mince tart, I'm playing my dart.
I see if there's any crumpet near,
I don't want nothing more than my beer..."
Blues Section - 'The Day the Bird of Paradise Looked Down Through a Crack in the Cloud and Shed a Tear' (1967)
Track 3, 'The Day the Bird of Paradise Looked Down Through a Crack in the Cloud and Shed a Tear', is a brief 17-second oddity in waltz mode (it was the psychedelic era, after all), with Otto Donner on piano, Kalevi Nyqvist on accordion and Ronnie Österberg slapping on the drums.
Blues Section - 'Wolf at the Door' (1967)
The album's fourth song, Jim Pembroke's 'Wolf at the Door' is an effects-laden track where the narrator describes his hardships in the land of snow, reflecting Pembroke's feelings living as an expatriate who dreams of flying to the sunny San Francisco by "Trans-Love" Airways (a reference to 'The Fat Angel' by Donovan, 1966). (Alternately, "wolf at the door" might also be a description of a bad trip, with its feelings of the ensuing paranoia.)
"Clock strikes four, the wolf is at my door
Ain’t got no bread, so don’t come back no more
Clock strikes five, the wolf is still outside
I thought I was dead but, man, I’m still alive
No, no, no, I just can’t stand no more,
got to get myself together, that’s for sure.
I used to get mad at the things I would do
I just couldn’t see that my stars were all true
My past pages said that my life will be sore
The pain in my head and the wolf at the door..."
Blues Section - 'End of a Poem' (1967)
As track 5, we have one of the highlights on the album, 'End of a Poem', penned by Hasse Walli with lyrics by Jim Pembroke, a melancholic, jazzy Beatle-esque ballad of the ending of an abusive relationship, featuring a string section arranged by Eero Ojanen. The song was later covered (with Finnish lyrics) by Sinikka Sokka.
"I just can’t take this hurt and pain from you,
I gotta sit right down and think about starting anew.
I just can’t take this hurt and pain from you,
I sit right down and think about starting anew.
Let me be, set me free.
Let me go, now I know
it’s the end, we’ll be friends.
Hear me sigh, it’s goodbye."
Blues Section - 'Please Mr. Wilson' (1967)
'Please Mr. Wilson', referring to the UK's then-Prime Minister Harold Wilson, is the album's sixth track, where the song's writer Pembroke tells about the problems of a British expat who finds himself thousands of miles away from home. Again, the song's tone is sardonic and tragicomic, Kaj Backlund's trumpet adding to the somewhat Kinksian mood.
"Please Mr. Wilson,
Won’t you spare a thought for me?
I’m a thousand miles from home
and I’m still caught up by the freeze.
I’ve got worries by the column,
I’ve got trouble by the score.
If I stick my neck out further,
well, I’ll only ask for more.
Here’s some coffee, jam and bread.
Please Mr. Wilson,
won’t you spare a thought for me?
I’ve got a hat full of troubles
and it’s worrying me."
Blues Section - 'Once More for the Road' (1967)
Track 7, 'Once More for the Road', penned by Walli and Pembroke, is a traditional Chicago-style of blues song concerning some unrequited love and other familiar things from the classic blues lore.
"I’m in love with you, baby,
but you don’t love me.
Oh, why don’t you love me,
like old times used to be.
I hear bad things,
like you’ve been playing 'round town.
You’ve gotta stop your messing
'cos it’s bringing me down."
Blues Section - 'The East Is Red' (1967)
As number 8, we have another instrumental oddity, 'The East Is Red', Chinese national song from the era of Cultural Revolution. Jim Pembroke plays the gong and guiro, Eero Ojanen is found on celesta, Hasse Walli on guitar, Ronnie Österberg on congas and bongos, and Måns Groundstroem on the organ and recorder. (The arrangement somehow reminisces 'India', a track Otto Donner wrote for Ruusujen aika, or "A Time of Roses", Risto Jarva's 1969 science fiction movie, the soundtrack of which has the members of Blues Section appearing as session musicians.)
Blues Section - 'Carpets and Bags and Balls' (1967)
Track 9 is 'Carpets and Bags and Balls', penned by Otto Donner with his unmistakeable melodic flair and featuring lyrics by Atte Blom, starting charmingly enough as a jazz-tinged, waltzy song of a very young boy's infatuation with a girl but perhaps the story hints at something darker underneath and concludes with an improvised, somewhat dissonant finale.
"We play that she is a funny rag doll,
this pretty girl of mine.
She is not a boy,
still we can play so fine,
because I've made her my toy."
Blues Section - 'Apartment 51' (1967)
The album's concluding track, number 10, is a rhythm'n'blues type of song called 'Apartment 51', which is written by Hasse Walli, of a comfortable house party abruptly ending because of the neighbours' complaints. Guesting as bassist is Pekka Sarmanto (who was to join the band later on) whereas Måns Groundstroem plays the organ.
"Sitting in an apartment, many table, many chairs,
people drinking wine, disturbing neighbours upstairs.
Sitting with my baby by the fireplace,
suddenly before me is a neighbour’s face.
And that’s the end of the party,
and that’s the end of the fun.
And that’s the end of the party,
and that’s the end of the fun."
Blues Section - 'Parchman Farm' (Live at Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, 10 November 1967)
Blues Section - 'Have You Heard' (Live at Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, 10 November 1967)
As session musicians for Love Records, the members of Blues Section also did some film songs (for the directors Risto Jarva, Jaakko Pakkasvirta and Timo Bergholm) to Otto Donner’s or Eero Ojanen’s compositions, with such vocalists as Kirka Babitzin or Pepe Willberg. Love Records briefly (but in the end unsuccessfully) had plans to turn Ronnie Österberg, “the band’s pretty face”, into a pop star in his own right, so Blues Section also provided music for Ronnie’s two solo singles.
Obviously, the frenetic pace of gigging and recordings started to take its toll on Blues Section because their first album was also to remain their only actual LP. The rest (e.g. Some of Love and Blues Section 2) are merely compilations featuring non-album singles, film songs and one-off tracks, all from 1967-68.
In spring 1968 Måns Groundstroem left the band in order to concentrate on his studies. He was replaced by jazz bassist Pekka Sarmanto (1945-).
Blues Section - 'Semi-Circle Solitude' (footage from Eläköön nuoruus!, 1968)
The 7” single 'Semi-Circle Solitude' b/w 'Cherry Cup-Cake Twist' (Love Records LRS 1014) was released in September 1968.
'Semi-Circle Solitude', a wistful ballad written by Jim Pembroke may be considered one of the band's finest moments, even reaching some anthemic proportions, Otto Donner's Hammond organ adding to the Procol Harum-esque overall feel.
There are several possible interpretations to the lyrics. One might be a disillusion or bitter comedown after a beautiful trip, largely understood not merely as a chemical one but concerning the whole 1960s era in general, with its flowery dreams and visions; the narrator offering his help to the one who has sadly lost their way (or is in the middle of a bad trip) and is increasingly starting to feel the weight of the years, too; Jim Pembroke showing some prescience here for the bleaker era that would come along with the 1970s.
"I see it in your words and eyes,
you’ve reached too far out to the skies
in trying to catch those clouds
that flow too high.
The wind is dragging you behind,
the clock is ticking out your time.
You’re only sitting, waiting for that star to shine.
Can I do something to help you?
Can I get something to help you?
When you’re feeling pretty rough,
and you think you’ve had enough.
You know that you don’t have a thing to hide
from me or anyone outside.
Yesterday has come and gone,
you’ve got to try to carry on.
Bringing you up and then bringing you down
into that semi-circle solitude.
You’ll pace your room like in a cell,
you know you are but hate to tell.
The magic clown, he holds the key
but he don’t wanna tell.
He likes to take you for a ride,
but run or crawl or creep or hide.
Make it quick and don’t look back,
try and keep you pride."
Blues Section - 'Cherry Cup-Cake Twist' (footage from Eläköön nuoruus!, 1968)
The cryptic, psychedelic tune 'Cherry Cup-Cake Twist', with its spidery, creeping bass/wah-wah guitar theme, may or may not bear some Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention influence, possibly being about the singer worrying about becoming old when about to reach the ripe age of 23, but here your guess is as good as mine (it might also be an ironic answer to The Beatles' 'When I'm Sixty-Four', written by Paul McCartney). Eero Koivistoinen's limpid sax wailings in the middle eight, accompanied by Hasse Walli's wah-wah trappings leading to a fanfare-like guitar solo strongly indicate an early progressive rock sound which might well have been Blues Section's direction had the band continued their musical journey. Backing vocals for the song were provided by Sinikka Sokka, later of Agit Prop.
"When I’m old and feeling grey and things don’t seem so groovy,
will you still be by my side to watch the late night movie?
When I’m crawling back asleep and eat my Kellogg's cornflakes,
will you still be by my side to make me cherry cup-cakes?
Twenty-twenty-three is slowly creeping up on me and you.
Everyone will look through their window
and notice that the years drift by,
and maybe they’re gonna die.
When our pension’s running low and can’t affort the bus fare,
will you still be by my side to push my rusty wheelchair?"
Blues Section - 'The Straight and Narrow' (1968)
Alongside 'The Straight and Narrow' (a ballad that in its brevity sounds merely like a sketch for a full-fledged tune), both songs on the single were featured on Jaakko Pakkasvirta’s 1968 short documentary film Eläköön nuoruus! (“Long Live Youth!”), commissioned by Postipankki bank group, featuring Blues Section’s live performances, the “happening” style of audience participation and fictional “behind-the-scenes” dialogue from the band members.
"Straight and narrow ain't so wide,
if you slip, you'll start to slide.
When you slide, there ain't no place
to run or even hide.
Fingers scratching, try to find
the life you lost and left behind,
nothing doing, not this time.
It's straight on out and down the line."
Blues Section excerpt from Eläköön nuoruus! (directed by Jaakko Pakkasvirta, 1968)
Blues Section (vocals by Frank Robson) - 'Faye' (1968)
Then it was Jim Pembroke’s time to leave Blues Section. Another British expat, Frank Robson (1946 - 2024), formerly of Mosaic, took Pembroke’s place as a singer. The next Love Records 7” single, 'Faye' b/w 'Sun of Love' featured Robson’s vocals. Like Pembroke, Frank Robson also seems to reflect the impressions of a foreigner now finding himself in a strange new country, even though with 'Faye', composed by Otto Donner with lyrics by Robson, the experience is more bittersweet.
"Once it was cloudy in my mind,
now I find my way with Faye.
She dreams with me into
a land full of promised love,
conditions I'm strange to.
She leads me away from home.
I would be happy
but she's a restless one."
Blues Section (vocals by Frank Robson) - 'Sun of Love' (1968)
Featuring Robson's own composition and lyrics, 'Sun of Love', on the other hand, is more unabashedly romantic:
"The midnight sun meets the lovers in the mist,
it gently caresses thoughts with its mellow rays.
They gaze at the silence, smiling quite contented
and the sun has cast another spell again."
With Frank Robson as vocalist, the band played 50 gigs in 1968. It seemed Blues Section would soldier on, but the rest of the band members also had too much on their plate. Eero Koivistoinen was in high demand as a jazz musician and was to release his excellent Valtakunta ("The Kingdom") solo album (with Walli, Österberg and Pekka Sarmanto among the players) in December 1968, and he had already left the band in the summer of that year. Also Pekka Sarmanto had to serve his obligatory time as a conscript in Finnish Army.
Blues Section finally split in autumn 1968. After the official split, though, Blues Section was briefly reunited, for the gig filmed for Pakkasvirta's Eläköön nuoruus!, on the 23rd of September, 1968, at Helsinki International Student Club, that was located at Lönnrotinkatu 29. There was also one more gig at Helsinki's N-Club, 25 September, 1968.
After the band had ceased to exist, along the years there were several re-releases and compilations featuring Blues Section's music. The first one of these was Some of Love (LRLP 6) that came out already in 1968, featuring songs from the band's non-album singles, the previously unreleased 'The Straight and Narrow', also Ronnie Österberg's solo singles, and the tracks the band had recorded with Kirka Babitzin as vocalist.
One of the most bizarre re-releases of the Blues Section tracks was the 1970 American edition (on Verve Forecast label) of Tombstone Valentine album by Wigwam, a band that had followed in the immediate aftermath of Blues Section with the former members Jim Pembroke and Ronnie Österberg. Produced by the controversial Kim Fowley, the album was released in USA as a 2-LP, which contained alongside Wigwam's tracks also a second vinyl record with nine old Blues Section songs collected from the band's album and singles for Love Records, featuring also 'Anna suukko vain' ("Just give me a kiss"), recorded with Kirka back in June 1967.
Furthermore, in 1970 there was a various artists compilation from Love Records, called Reunion (LXLP 502), with two previously unreleased instrumental tracks from Blues Section. The first one of these is 'For Mods Only', originally a composition by Archie Shepp. The second one is an original Blues Section track called 'Lucy Jane', the composer credit going to the whole band. Stylistically and soundwise, both tracks are R&B-tinged jazz rock, representing the band's more improvisational side, familiar from their live performances.
Blues Section - 'For Mods Only' (1970)
Blues Section - 'Lucy Jane' (1970)
Ronnie Österberg reminisced Blues Section in Suosikki magazine 3/1971, citing personal differences as the main reason behind the band's split:
"It was the first proper band in Finland, even though it was almost entirely based on a single album by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Blues Section was an experimental band, there was something new in it, it never really became complete. And then it completely fell apart. The music would have been okay, but as people we didn't get along. We just didn't get along. First Jim Pembroke left, then Måsse Groundstroem left, whom Pekka Sarmanto could never replace, even though he is a great bassist. Then Eero Koivistoinen got angry, and the whole band quickly and surely headed towards its final destruction."
Hasse Walli also pondered the reasons leading to Blues Section's eventual demise in a 1997 interview for YLE:
"You have to remember that in the 60s these changes of styles and the arrival of new trends happened in such quick succession. Partly because of that, bands did not last long. Another thing was that touring was still incredibly tough. That travelling, when you travel 500 – 800 kilometres and keep seeing the same faces all the time, as someone has said, the guys live in each other's pockets. In that same car, the same hotel rooms, the same backstage at gig venues, and the same stages, so you don't really get a chance to get away from each other properly. And sometimes that leads to such boredom that the guys kind of get tired of each other. And for example, in the case of Blues Section, I feel that maybe Jim Pembroke at some point got a bit fed up. At some point it was quite difficult to communicate with him, as he withdrew into his own shell. And he perhaps had other plans of his own. Maybe he was just simply tired of touring, as we all were."
Eero Koivistoinen recalled his Blues Section days in a positive spirit in a 1997 interview for YLE:
"Maybe there was a problem that at gigs we always played different songs than the ones on the album. The whole thing just petered out, there were no other reasons for it. Perhaps the band had that lifespan which was necessary for it. It lasted about a year and a half. And then everyone got other interests after that. Which they had had the whole time, in fact. Maybe it was just the right duration for that line-up.
I was a young guy and I played in a popular band, so what could be nicer, with fan clubs and all that. Strange in itself, when you're a jazz musician yourself, but it was very pleasant. With all the extra trappings, nothing against it, it was a nice time. Musically, however, when you're drawn to jazz, it was a perfect duration for that band, but we're still good friends, all these guys who were involved. We did some kind of reunion gig and stuff like that. It was really nice.
I was in my early twenties at the time, it was a happy and good time. When I compare it to my own jazz recordings from that period, they were really clumsy, I don't want to hear them. At least we didn't play very well at that time. I've listened to those audio documents and records, and they don't sound that good to me. On the other hand, Blues Section still sounds surprisingly good to me."
Wigwam - 'Must Be The Devil' (1969)
It can be argued that Wigwam, a new band founded by Ronnie Österberg with Vladimir "Nikke" Nikamo and Mats Huldén, then joined by Jim Pembroke a bit later, took up where Blues Section left off. At the same time another big name in Finnish progressive rock, Tasavallan Presidentti, was starting out, featuring two former Blues Section members, Måns Groundstroem and Frank Robson. (Eventually Groundstroem would join Wigwam’s mid-1970s line-up.) Hasse Walli later played with the folk-prog ensemble Piirpauke. Eero Koivistoinen and Pekka Sarmanto are both now well-established names in Finnish jazz.
Three Blues Section reunion gigs were seen in 1996, with the line-up of Pembroke, Groundstroem, Robson, Walli, Koivistoinen, and Vesa Aaltonen on drums.
Even though Blues Section’s career was short, only 18 months or so, they left an indelible mark on the domestic music scene. However, in music histories written in Finnish, Blues Section has often been seen merely as a footnote to Wigwam or Tasavallan Presidentti, the bands that followed and managed to gain some foothold even internationally, or to the respective careers of the musicians Eero Koivistoinen and Hasse Walli, which have continued to this day.
Love Records, the now-legendary Finnish label who published Blues Section’s whole recorded output, went bankrupt already in 1979 but their back catalogue, now owned by Universal Music Group, has largely stayed in constant circulation, with a slew of re-mastered albums and compilations of singles, both as physical releases and streamed. Love Records’ history is thoroughly covered in biographies, documentaries and even fictional films.
There’s an ongoing nostalgic interest in the 1960s beat music, both as a collector’s market and seemingly endless industry of re-releases, band biographies, documentary films and so on. The psychedelic rock of the era and such related genres as garage rock and freakbeat (both names coined well after the 1960s) retain their fascination for new generations of listeners. Ever since the early 70s such compilation albums as Nuggets have built a constantly renewing audience for this music. Bands and rare singles also from outside the Anglo-American core area have ended up on these collections, often released on some smaller specialist labels.
Outside of Finland, though, Blues Section’s music has remained largely undiscovered or at least being familiar only for the most dedicated music enthusiasts and collectors. Undeniably, the band is part of “Finnish Nuggets”, so far merely a fantasy subgenre, as there haven’t been any official releases bearing that moniker. In 2021, though, there was a 6-CD box of the 1960s Nordic freakbeat bands on UK's Rubble label, called We're Gonna Change The World! (Savage Garage Punk From Valhalla 1964-1968), also featuring some Finnish bands and including one seminal track from Blues Section, ‘Hey, Hey, Hey’. Who continues from here?
Blues Section @ Official Wigwam Page
Blues Section image gallery @ Official Hasse Walli Page
Blues Section - all tracks @ YouTube playlist
Blues Section - all tracks @ Spotify playlist
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