Sleepy Sleepers

Sleepy Sleepers (commonly known as Sliipparit in Finland) is a Finnish pop/rock/punk/comedy band founded in 1974 by its two front-men Sakke Järvenpää and Mato Valtonen in Lahti, Finland. Between 1975 and their break-up in 1990 they recorded and issued a total of 19 albums. Sakke and Mato eventually went on to form and front the internationally successful Leningrad Cowboys. The Sleepy Sleepers' music is steeped in humour that is quite often outrageous and definitely politically incorrect. No topic is safe from parody, satire or ridicule. Politicians, religion, ideologies, music genres, public scandals, hypocrisy, alcohol abuse, sexual perversion, the ridicule of demographic and social stereotypes. Live shows made extensive use of costumes, props, prosthetics and stage makeup, in fact anything that helps intensify the shock factor. So much so, that back in 1977 their antics managed to upset elements of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with the album Takaisin Karjalaan (Back to Karelia). To many Finns, the loss the territory of Karelia to the Soviet Union during the Second World War is to this day a sensitive and controversial issue. No wonder then that The Sleepy Sleepers caused an diplomatic uproar at the time by issuing the single Kaapataan lentokone Moskovaan ("Let's Hi-jack a Plane To Moscow"), an adaptation of the Rolling Stones Paint It Black. Ever wary of potentially upsetting the sensitive Soviet regime at the time, the Finnish national broadcaster (YLE) decided to ban all Sleepy Sleepers music from both radio and television. For similar reasons, the band was also deemed persona non grata by many live concert venues of the day. It was not until the break-up of the USSR in 1989 that these bans were eventually rescinded. In 2007, the band reformed for some live shows and released the album Eurowiisut – Terveisiä perseestä (The Eurovision Song Contest - Greetings From the Arse (Ass))