Fred's Round Bar - Highlife

Fred's Round Bar from the city of Turku had a song on the "Vaahtopäät 2" compilation, and here you have their LP, the only thing they released. The group was a seven-man unit with vocals by a familiar figure: Hannu Takala from rock band Yellow.

Bassist Sami Piiparinen went on to bigger success in pop band Bogart Co. who made teen girls go wild in the mid-80's. A-P Kivinen, who assisted on drums on two songs was in Fabrics and Pasi & Mysiini as well, which means he played on every record released by the short-lived label Edge Records.

"Highlife" contains 9 easy pop/rock songs all written by rhythm guitarist Jukka Virtanen (no, not the guy from Levyraati) and spiced with saxophone (played by Esa Marttinen, later in Nite Time Jumpers, who specialised in 40's and 50's swing, R'n'B and jump music) and keyboards (Jari Piiroinen). Nothing groundbreaking, in fact "Highlife" doesn't really leave a permanent mark in your head. Pleasant goodtime music that's good to put on every now and then, and afterwards it's easy to forget about the record and spin something totally different.

Tracks:

1. Highlife
2. What a Day!
3. Dedicated to You
4. Memories
5. Theme of the Funk
6. Religious Song
7. Big Joe
8. One Step of Love
9. Grown Up Boy


http://finnishrock.blogspot.com/2008/09/freds-round-bar-highlife-1980.html