Abstract

A hardcore-punk band Terveet Kädet from the town of Tornio in northern Finland reached a global audience in the 1980s, and the location was essential for its music. As the sole border town to Sweden, Tornio was the place in Finland to keep up with the current international beat in music, comics and hardcore porn. The singer ‘Läjä’ Äijälä, the only permanent band member until the disbandment in 2016, mixed these sources of inspiration with a northern anxiety: a peculiar state of mind stemming from a harsh climate and an oppressive inward-looking society. The resulting mix is not only undeniably barbarous, but also unique and strangely appealing. Surprisingly, in 2010, Terveet Kädet transmuted from an unfamiliar oddity into local heritage. As with the case of the Sex Pistols and 6 Denmark Street, this was ill conceived by the general public, thus calling attention to the processes of heritagisation and sensemaking of the experienced past in the present.