Biography
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Years Active
1978 – present (46 years)
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Founded In
Kuusamo, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, Finland
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Members
- Sika Kukkonen
Zero Nine is a hard rock sextet formed in Kuusamo, Finland in 1978. The band first achieved mainstream exposure in 1980, when their debut single Down The Line won the poll in an episode of finnish TV show "Levyraati".
Their debut album Visions, Scenes And Dreams was released in 1982. It earned them to a support slot in Gillan's finnish shows, after which Ian Gillan expressed interest in producing them, leading the band to record the follow-up album Blank Verse under Gillan's helm in London, England. The resulting album was disappointing both musically and commercially and it was later revealed that Gillan had done most of his production work at the local pub.
By the mid-eighties, when most of the finnish hard rock acts were more or less laughingstocks, Zero Nine had become one of the first few to achieve any kind of commercial success in their homeland with a string of acclaimed albums, like 1985's White Lines and 1986's Intrigue. The band also appeared at a Monsters Of Rock festival in Stockholm, Sweden in 1986 alongside such metal legends as Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne.
After 1988's Voodoo You the band went on hiatus. Singer Kepa Salmirinne and guitarist Mara Mäntyniemi both released solo albums in the early nineties. Zero Nine didn't return until 1996 with Freakshow. The album didn't pale in comparison to their heyday efforts, but the times were different and despite a support slot on AC/DC's scandinavian tour it didn't reach the commercial heights the band had enjoyed during the late eighties.
The band have continued to record sporadically, in 2004 they released the disappointing N.E. Flies, on which the producer Jarski Jaakkola replaced the retired Elmo Harju on bass. Their latest studio album IX was released on September 9, 2009.
The rest of the band consists of guitarist Timo Käsmä, keyboardist Iro Murtola and drummer Dexta Korpela.
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