History of TNT

1982

It was a little town in the northern Norway called Trondheim where a rock band TNT was born. They were four guys, Dag Ingebrigtsen (Vocal), Ronni Le Tekro (Guitar), Steiner Eikum (Bass), and Morten "Diesel" Dahl. At that time, there was no rock market around. They played at clubs a lot and started getting people's attention. Then they got a record deal at Vertigo. TNT released their first album TNT. Because all lyrics were in Norwegian, it was released only in Norway.

1983

Even though TNT released their first album, it was not a succeess. Steiner left the band (later he played in bands "Blonde on Blonde" and "Ketil Stokkan Band"). And a good friend of the rest of the band, Morty Black joined TNT.

1984

Because of Dag's personal problems and the band wanted an international success, he left TNT (now he plays in a band "The Travelling Tronders" with Torstein Flakne of "Stage Dolls"). In May, the band received a tape from a singer of a local band in New York called Jackal. His name was Tony Hanrnell who had a very clear and high tone voice. Even though Gary Barden (ex. MSG) was almost chosen as a new singer, the band decided to go with Tony only 3 days before they were going to the studio to record the second album. Their record deal was domestic through Vertigo, but after Tony joined the band, they got an international deal through Polygram. Later that year, they released Knights Of The New Thunder. To pursue the image of a viking band, Tony Harnell was listed as Tony Hansen like Dag Ingrebrigtsen had an English name D. D. Dynamite. Although Tony only added his vocals to already recorded tracks and he couldn't give any input to the band, the album sounded a lot better than the first album, and of course all lyrics were in English. They signed with the management in N.Y. called Freefall Production, toured the east coast of U.S. and played a few gigs. They were already famous in Norway and always sold out shows during the Norwegian tour.

1985 - 1986

The band started writing songs for their third album. Because they wanted to succeed internationally, they threw away all songs they'd written, and they restarted writing songs.

1987

Tell No Tales was released. Songs on this album were very different from their old ones. It was a great hard rock album with sophisticated arrangement and strong hook lines. Songs featured Tony's high tone voice, such as "10,000 Lovers (In One)" and "Everyone's A Star", were played on radio in US and the band supported Stryper and Loudness during their west coast tour. After the tour, Diesel left TNT because he and Tony didn't get along well and now Diesel plays in "Tindrum" and the first singer, Dag sings in this band. Later TNT welcomed Morty's old friend, kenneth Odiin who was an enginner for recording a demo tape of "Tell No Tales" as a new drummer.

1988

TNT won the Spellemannspris award (sort of like Norwegian Grammy Award).

1989

Intuition was released. With help of the producer Bjorn Nessjoe, Intuition became one of best hard rock albums. Their harmonies, clearness, dynamism, and everything fit perfectly and the sound quality was superior not only in 80s, but also still in 90s. The title track "Intuition" started selling in Japan first. Even though Tony didn't want that song to be on the album personally because he thought it was too 'pop', "Intuition" became a hit in Japan and they toured in Japan in August. They taped one show in Tokyo and released it as a live video Forever Shine On in 1991. After Japanese tour, Kenneth Odiin left the band because playing in a band was hard for him to be with his family. Also the band lost the record deal with PolyGram. Big sales of Intuition in Japan and Norway but nowhere else didn't satisfy PolyGram (even though PolyGram didn't promote Intuition well because lots of people in A&R quit).

1991

While TNT was supposed to be writing for their fifth album but not actuallying doing much, Morty formed a cover band of Thin Lizzy and later Ronni joined. They were called "Bad Habitz" and they released the single "Johnny The Fox Meets The Jimmy The Weed".

1992

TNT was looking for a new drummer and writing songs for a new album. The band realized that there was no better drummer than Kenneth in Norway, and Tony contacted Joe Franco (a drummer for Twisted Sister). Joe introduced the band one of his students named Johnny Macaluso. Then they got a record deal with Atlantic and released the fifth album Realized Fantasies. Although the quality of this album was not that bad, it was different from Tell No Tales or Intuition and didn't sell well. Also, Tony who lived in New York and wanted to succeed internatinally and Ronni who lived in Norway and was satisfied with success in Norway didn't get along well anymore and the band announced to break up. After the Japanese tour, TNT disbanded. Bad Habitz recorded their one and only album Bad Habitz. They toured Norway more than they did in TNT. John Macaluso joined Riot and toured in Japan in December. He played on their album The Brethren Of The Long House and released a teching video No Turning Back.

1993

Ronni and Morty formed a new band "Vagabond".

1994

Vagabond released their first album Vagabond. The sound was nothing like TNT. It was more like progressive rock and many of TNT fans who were expecting TNT-like hard rock were not happy with Ronni's direction. While Ronni and Morty were doing Vagabond stuff, Tony formed a band "Morning Wood" and released the self-titled album. It contains all acoustic songs and some covers including TNT's "Tonite I'm Falling". Also he sang some songs on albums Smoke On The Water - A Tribute To Deep Purple. Ronni teamed up with a Norwegian jazz guitarlist Terje Rypdal with Morty, Steiner Skaget (drummer of Vagabond), Dag Stokke (keyboard player for TNT at live and Vagabond), etc. and released an album called Rypdal & Tekro.

1995

Vagabond released the second album A Huge Fan Of Life. On this album, Ronni's guitar exploded and many fans were happy. Tony sang a song on Black Night : Deep Purple Tribute According To New York. After Morning Wood, Tony started working with Mark Wood (Electric violinist), but they did not release any albums.

1996

While TNT fans were waiting for reunion, PolyGram released Till Next Time (The Best Of TNT) only in Japan. In July, TNT announced reunion after 4 years since they had broke up. Line-up is Tony, Ronni, and Morty plus Dag Stokke as a support keyboard player and Frode Hansen as a support drummer. On New Year's Eve, TNT appeared on Norwegian TV and played some songs from their upcoming album "Firefly".

1997

In Jaunary, Firefly was released in Norway first, then in February in Japan following the single Daisy Jayne. In April, TNT started touring in Scandinavia then in Japan where they sold out all the shows. In September, Tony left TNT to pursue his solo career. The band was writing songs for the next album, but obviously they were forced to stop. In November, Rypdal & Tekro released the second album, Rypdal & Tekro II.

1998

On September 24, the manager of TNT, Alf Wigen, sent me e-mail and confirmed that Tony is back in TNT after almost a year of his departure. In October, Ronni and Tony spent some time in Spain to write songs for the new album. Until it comes out some time in 1999, fans can listen to Ronni and Tony's solo projects. Ronni's solo album Extra Strong String was released in Norway and will be released in Japan in January. Tony is singing one song on a soundtrack of Sega's Dreamcast game "Sonic Adventure" called Songs With Attitude which came out in Japan on December 2nd. His project Westworld released their self-titled album in Japan only on December 16.

1999

Their 7th studio album "Transistor" came out in August. Even though the fans were patiently waiting for the band to tour, they didn't do any shows (even in Norway).

2000

There was a plan to release a compilation album called "The Big Bang Anthology" which includes the full albums of Knights, Tell No Tales, Intuition, and Realized Fantasies as well as some unreleased trackes; however, because of problems between the band and Spitfire Records, it didn't happen. While TNT was on hold, Tony's WestWorld released their second album "Skin". Diesel is back in TNT, and they've been recording demos for a new TNT album. Also, Rypdal & Tekro 3 has been recorded and will be released soon.

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