REVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Trondheim Rock is annual rock event held, like the name suggests, in Trondheim, Norway. The festival has a tradition of having high quality performers outside of the mainstream and ongoing trends. The history of Trondheim Rock includes such artists as Def Leppard, Jon Lord, Kamelot, Whitesnake, Gary Moore, and Glenn Hughes amongst many others. This year’s edition of the event included three bands: re-united the Darkness, legendary U.S hard rockers Twisted Sister and Norwegian band TNT who now celebrate their 30th anniversary in their original hometown.

WWW.TRONDHEIMROCK.NO

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MORTY BLACK

Morty Black (real name Morten Skaget) is a bassist, best known from his long career with Norwegian hard rock band TNT. Morty recorded seven studio albums with the band, including the classics TELL NO TALES and INTUITION. Altogether he spent 21 years with TNT before leaving the band in 2004. Morty later played for many famous Norwegian artists like JORN, Terje Rypdal, and Åke Aleksanderson. He’s also been doing session work for international artists such as Mariah Carey and he’s running his own booking agency called Intro Music. On June 2, 2012 TNT celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing a concert at the Clarion Hotel in Trondheim. The band performed with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra as well as both former TNT vocalists, Dag Ingebrigtsen and Tony Harnell but unfortunately Morty wasn’t able to do the show because of his other commitments. We met Morty on following day at the Clarion hotel and discussed about his ongoing things as well as his past with TNT and other interesting topics. Read on!

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TONY HARNELL

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY MARKO SYRJALA

Antony “Tony” Harnell is an American singer, songwriter and producer, best known for his work with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. Harnell joined bands ranks in 1984 and stayed with the band for next 22 years. During that period the band toured exclusively in Japan, Scandinavia and USA and released such classic and critically acclaimed albums as TELL NO TALES, INTUITION and MY RELIGION. Harnell quit with the band for professional and personal reasons in 2006, after finishing the tour supporting album ALL THE WAY TO THE SUN. Harnell’s other credits include working bands like Westwood, Starbreaker and Mercury Train, with whom Harnell released his latest album in 2010. On June 2, 2012 TNT celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing a concert at the Clarion Hotel in Trondheim. The band performed show together with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Harnell, who now performed for the first time with his former colleagues since his departure from the band. On following day we had a pleasure to sit down with the man himself and discuss about his thoughts about the show as well as his future plans and of course some blasts from the past as well… Read on!

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LEGENDS OF ROCK II

8′TH OF OCTOBER 2011

CLUB TEATRIA, OULU

REVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

The Legends of Rock festival was now organized for the second time in Oulu, Finland. The festivals organizers believe strongly in the name of 80’s hard rock and metal and this year’s edition of the festival included a string of interesting bands which haven’t been performing in Finland for ages…if ever. Canadian band Helix was headlining the event. It’s been 26 years since their last visit so it was finally about time to see them again here. Although Norwegian TNT and Swedish Treat are located in our neighbor countries, still, neither of them played in Finland until now. Originally it was announced that German band Bonfire was also on the bill but for some reason or another they cancelled and were now replaced by local act called Ghost Machinery. It must have a little disappointment for the organizers that only approximately 300 people breezed in for the evening. Perhaps it was such a high ticket price or an oversupply of concerts in Finland, but still I was waiting for more people to show up.  Anyway, there were no cancellations and all the bands were performing as announced. It was time to check out the today’s condition of the 80’s veterans…

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