TURBONEGRO
On the threshold of what was by many expected to be a major breakthrough for the band, Turbonegro withdrew from the music business and appeared unlikely to ever return. While there were several reasons, fundamentally Hank von Helvete’s drug addiction made it impossible for him to continue. Leaving the band to undergo treatment for heroin dependency as well as his struggle with depression, Hank von Helvete returned to his childhood town in northern Norway. There he worked at a radio station and as a guide at a whaling museum.
Another issue was that the band was stuck in an oppressive record deal with Boomba. The arrangement saw very little money directed to the band. In 1999 Hamburg based Bitzcore Records who had been running the bands fan club and merchandise bought the contracts from Boomba. The band gave them their backing on the understanding that Bitzcore would never mention the word “reunion”.
Bitzcore then went on to re-issue the entire back-catalogue and a posthumous live album entitled Darkness Forever! Bitzcore’s master stroke was to record a tribute album with a line-up that includes Queens of the Stone Age, Nashville Pussy, Therapy?, HIM, Bela B. & Denim Girl aka German technopop star Blümchen. In order to promote this release Bitzcore produced a limited run of St Pauli Turbojugend Denim Jackets. These were in huge demand and when they saw one change hands on ebay for hugely inflated price they knew they were onto something. They then made it possible to order a jacket or “kutte” with your home town jugend on the back. (so long as you were able to order three – President, Vice-President and Ass-istant). These jackets have gone on to provide the band with a handsome income and showed that the Turbonegro fanbase were as strong as ever.
When Quart Festival approached the band in 2002 with the offer of more money for one show than they had seen for whole tours Turbonegro literally came back from the dead. The band continue to go from strength to strength with one of the strongest and most loyal fanbases of any band around.
www.turbonegro.com
www.turbojugend.net