Kurkkurock, Askainen, Finland. 15th August 2026

When Remedy announced that they’d be playing in Asikainen, to say that I was surprised would have been an understatement. First I had to check where Asikainen was… and I realized that it’s actually a small village not too far from the RockUnited HQ. The village is known for its’ cucumber farming (”kurkku” in Finnish), hence the name of the festival ”Kurkkurock”. The festival was held for the fourth time in its’ current format this year. The location was on the yard of the restaurant Askaisten Holvi. There were 5 bands in the line-up, and due to my work schedule we missed the first two, High Octane, a tribute band to Finnish 70’s classic rock legends Hurriganes and Kakkupojat, who played ”a mixture of humppa and rock” and were very well received, according to our sources.

When we arrived to the venue, we were warmly greeted by the organizer Rami, who gave us a tour of the premises and we were invited to a great quick dinner backstage. The guys from The Top Guns were there too, so we had an informal chat with them. Vocalist ”Näverick” told us about the band’s history and their ”mission” to bring back the legendary songs of 80’s movie soundtracks. The guys were really familiar with their source material, we discussed all kinds of obscure movies such as ”RAD” and so on. Top guys!

The first saw on stage were THE GRAMMERS. They’ve been around for more than 20 years, and have released 8 albums so far. They got a kickstart to their career when they won the ”Rock Championship” contest in 2002, but despite their talent and effort, they haven’t made a major breakthrough. They play classic hard rock in the vein of Uriah Heep, Deep Purple with a bit of old Journey thrown in, which might explain that. The people who listen to this kind of music are mostly sticking to the classics and do not get to hear - or even want to hear - a lot of newer bands. Now with a new French female lead singer Monia Sommer the band does have a bit of a new edge, which might raise their profile.

The band played a solid set, with my favourite songs being the opener ”Sharp And Serious” and ”Journey”, which did sound a bit like Journey! Monia sounded good and handled the material well, even though it has originally been sung by a male singer.

Before The Top Guns were scheduled to play, we had a chance to talk to the guys from Remedy, who had arrived to the venue. More of that in a separate interview.

THE TOP GUNS started a bit late, but got the party started right away. Well, to be honest, the party had already started hours ago for many people in the crowd. This festival was also a gathering of the village people (not the band!) and folks from the area, who were busy mingling and drinking, not necessarily that interested in the bands.

Näverick had said earlier, ”with this setlist one can not lose” and he wasn’t wrong. The Top Guns started with a few slightly less famous songs like ”Hearts On Fire” (John Caffery) and ”Shakedown” (Bob Seger), before bringing out the big guns such as ”Eye Of The Tiger”, ”You Could Be Mine” and ”Danger Zone”, which summoned even some of the more dedicated drinkers to the front of the stage.

The band has a bit of a Steel Panther’ish image but they’re somewhat goofier, as you can see from the photos. They’ve got characters like Sport Boy (guitar), Cocky Balboa (bass) and Organ Seller (keys), so they are not taking themselves too seriously. The songs are played seriously though.

All in all, the band gave us a hugely entertaining show with some excellent tunes. Too bad they had to cut a few songs from their set. I hope to see them again!

REMEDY had some technical issues and I am sure that this gig won’t go down as one of their best, but they soldiered on and played a hit-packed set of their finest material. It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of their music, and I liked every song in their 60-minute setlist. ”Moon Has The Night”, ”Crying Heart”, ”Sundays At Nine”, ”Marilyn”…just one awesome track after another.

Guitarist Roland Forsman played stylish solos, vocalist/guitarist Robert van der Swan sang well and entertained us with his banter. His illuminated mike stand looked good, but it didn’t make the photographing too easy! The young bassist Jonas Dicklo brought Heavy Metal energy to the stage. Fredrik Karlberg’s drumming was visual and powerful. There was no keyboard player on stage, apparently he’s taking a break… as I’ve written before, live keyboard players are an endangered species these days.

Remedy were the headliners of the festival, although they aren’t really known in Finland yet. I asked Rami, the main man behind the event about this, and it turned out that the band was here because he really liked them. He had seen them support Nestor in Sweden, and immediately knew that he wanted them to play at Kurkkurock. Not the safest choice, some semi-famous Finnish band might have drawn more people but then again, I have to admire him for his dedication to great music! Fortunately it seems that Kurkkurock 2026 was a success and they sold more tickets than ever before. We’ll see what magic trick Rami pulls out of his hat for next year!

Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen

More photos: RockUnited.Com @ Facebook