Fullsteam Ahead For Venues

Juha Kyyrö, president of Finnish promoter Fullsteam, says the company will be looking to buy more venues if it turns decent profits on the two it acquired last week.

"We are probably the main club promoter in Finland and so it makes sense to try to benefit from the beer sales as well," he told Pollstar following the purchase of the Klubi clubs in Tampere and Turku.

Kyyrö – who co-founded Fullsteam Records in 2002, added the agency in 2006 and spent two years working as an agent and promoter at Live Nation’s WellDone – says much will depend on how the live music develops in the coming years.

"At the moment it’s impossible to say how things will develop. AEG or Live Nation may decide they want to buy venues in Finland," he said.

Apart from the live music division and the recorded music business, which owns the Fullsteam and 1000 Records labels, the company also has the Indie Center rehearsal room in Helsinki – where it’s based – and its own merchandising, publishing and management divisions.

It’s also a partner in the Supersounds Music distribution company. Kyyrö manages such acts as Disco Ensemble, one of the successes of last year’s European Talent Exchange Programme.

Klubi in Turku consists of three rooms with a total capacity of 1,000. The Tampere venue has two rooms, the 1,200-capacity Pakkahuone and the 450-capacity Klubi, and is also home for various film festivals, theatre productions and seminars.

During its 20-year history it’s hosted shows by The Ramones, David Byrne, Type O Negative, Kent and Black Sabbath.

Tero Viikari, who’s been responsible for booking the Tampere rooms since 2001 and is one of Finland’s main alternative music promoters, will continue running the venues.

Since its birth in 2002, Fullsteam Records has become one of the most important sources of new music from Finland, winning Musiikki & Media trade fair’s "independent label of the year" in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Last year Rumba music magazine readers voted 25-year-old Kyyrö Finland’s fourth-most influential person in the Finnish music business behind Juhani Merimaa, who has run Helsinki’s Tavastia Club for the last 25 years and promotes the Ruisrock and Akkarock festivals; WellDone chief Risto Juvonen and Sony BMG Finland MD Kimmo Valtanen. He’s climbed the poll steadily after finishing 18th in 2005 and then eighth in 2006.

Fullsteam has a strong roster of 20 or so mainly Finnish acts and in 2007 promoted international artists including The Flaming Lips, Billy Talent, NOFX, Gogol Bordello, Turbonegro, Róisín Murphy, José González, Mando Diao, Opeth, The Cinematic Orchestra, and Hatebreed.