(Hard Rock/Prog Rock/Classic Rock) Yellow - Keltakuume - 1975, MP3, 320 kbps

Yellow was born in the city of Turku at the end of the 1960's, and on their first single "Murtuneen sydämen hotelli / Ala vetää nainen" (released on Love Records in 1971) they backed someone named Lasse Velmala, who sang his own translations of "Heartbreak Hotel" and Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life Woman". (Velmala did another single for Love Records in 1973, but I don't know who the "Kamikaze Men" were who backed him on that one.) Frequent lineup changes followed, and the band started to enjoy national fame - rare for a 1960's-1970's band who wasn't from Helsinki.

In 1975 they cut the album "Keltakuume" (Yellow Fever) for Finnlevy. The blues leanings of the first single had developed into burning hard rock, with British-born guitarist Melvin McRae providing most of the song material. Unfortunately, the album is a bit of a mess. The producer should have been shot for allowing the band to perform in two languages and not even have the sense to demand better Finnish lyrics. Songs like "Rokki-Riitta" are downright embarrassing. The band still makes good on these songs, the playing is top-notch and Takala has an excellent rock'n'roll voice. "Palaa" and "Arkeologi santaa kaivaa" are classics.

Yellow continued to gig, but somehow the band was stuck and never managed to get anywhere career-wise. The band folded temporarily - Takala, Österman and McRae formed Melvin McRae Band (album "Queen of Hearts" in 1976), re-formed Yellow after this but split for good in 1977.

Bass – Helge Koskela
Drums, Performer [Bottle-opener] – Raimo Österman
Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Slide Guitar, Synthesizer [Moog], Vocals – Melvin McRae
Mastered By [Cd-mastering] – Risto Ylihärsilä
Piano, Percussion – Hannu Takala
Producer – Vexi Salmi
Recorded By – Antti Joki
Vocals – Hannu Takala (tracks: 1 to 11)