As the base player Jukka Jylli recalls, Kingston Wall was originally born in a bar called Natsa in Finland, where Jylli used to hang in 1987. One day Pete (Petri) Walli came to speak with Jylli and demanded to start a band. "One time I had been drinking a lot of beer and then Pete came to speak to me enthusiasted. I must have gave him my phone number because he called and visited me. He had kind of an obsession to start a rock band", says Jylli. Before Kingston Wall, Pete had been playing in Finnish underground punk bands such as Backline and Sekunda.

Also the band's drummer, Sami Kuoppamäki was found at the Natsa in 1990, but the two men didn't originally get Sami to join the band from the bar. First they had Petteri Ståhl in drums. After he left the band they were already recording songs to "I" with Timo Joutsimäki, when Walli and Joutsimäki got into serious arguments and Joutsimäki left the band.

Petri Walli immediately called to the USA were Sami Kuoppamäki was and somehow got the man to Finland to join the band. Kingston Wall recorded and produced on their own the band's first album, Kingston Wall - I, which was released in the end of January 1992. The first album, like the two ones after it, were released under the band's own record label Trinity which was run by the mysterious producer Pedro Cucaracha. The first two Kingston Wall albums were recorded in the basement of Lepakko (Batcave in English), an abandoned storage hall, a hangout place where bands used to play in central Helsinki - nowadays demolished. Kingston Wall's first long play also had very strong influences from India - probably because Petri Walli traveled to India on many occasions. The second album, which was somewhat more acoustic than the first one, was released in 1993 titled "Kingston Wall - II".

Jylli remembers that the 'mystical part' of Kingston Wall, like lyrics, were Pete's "own thing". "All these systems ... I couldn't ever think about them seriously. But Pete never demanded it. He thought it was okay, that we laughed at things. I have a feeling, that especially Sami wasn't interested in those things", Jylli laughs - "he's somehow like a drummer to the end".

The third album (Tri-logy, 1994) indeed broke the pattern created by the two previous albums. The place of recording was new and Jylli says it was also otherwise 'a different thing', beginning from techno-synthesizer sounds that were created by Kimmo Kajasto (Rinneradio, Koneveljet) to explaining a Kalevala-like mythology (The Bock Saga) that left many of Kingston Wall's audience quite confused.

Altough Pete was always the obvious lead character in the band, especially composing and writing all of the lyrics, the songs were always credited for the entire band. Base player Jylli agrees to what Pete also always said before his death - the albums were just kind of a "one play session, not a set of routines that should be played from gig to gig". They jammed the songs freely from gig to gig - that's why Kingston Wall lived mostly as a live band. They also played a lot of covers ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Donna Summer (!). Petri Walli also described his story (his-story - history?) of a lifetime project - Kingston Wall in the album release interview of III - Tri-Logy in Soundi magazine (read it here).

The original three albums and the four singles released under Trinity label (originally only in Finland) are nowadays sold out and very expensive (collectors items), so if you see the original copies, don't miss the opportunity.

Kingston Wall did their last gig at the Sörnäinen ('Sörkka') prison in central Helsinki 6th of December 1994, but their last public show was in Lepakko the day before (5th of Dec), where also the Tri-logy's re-release bonus CD track "The Skies Are Open" was recorded.

After the last gig, the band decided to stop playing and split up in a nearby café. Jylli said he doesn't know what happened after that. He didn't see Walli after Christmas 1994.

On 28th of June,1995, at the age of  26, Petri Walli committed suicide by jumping from the tower of Töölö's church in Helsinki, Finland. That was the complete end of the three-man three-album psychedelic music journey, unlike ever seen on the Finnish rock scene. Afterwards there has been has many questions about Pete's suicide, but as for the true reasons for why he did it, Pete took with him to the underworld. Nevertheless, there's strong hints that the lyrics of "For All Mankind" (in the album III - Tri-Logy) are actually his suicide note. Pete Walli is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, Helsinki, Finland.

Nowadays the base player of Kingston Wall, Jukka Jylli plays in a 60's/70's -style psychedelic rock band called Saunabadh and the drummer Sami Kuoppamäki plays drums in a band called Groove Convention and also teaches drum playing in Helsinki, Finland. He has also been playing drums in Fissio, another Finnish band. You can see him also playing drums on Finnish television every now and then in a show called Hotelli Sointu.
 

On 25th of February 1998, on Pete's 29th birthday if he had lived, there was a re-release gig of the three Kingston Wall albums (reissued by Zen Garden) which was held in a club called Tavastia in central Helsinki. The Rasmus, Amorphis and Edrian Sun Cycle, bands from Finland, Janne Joutsenniemi (Sub-Urban Tribe), Sakari Kukko were there to play Kingston Wall covers (Jukka Jylli was also there, but he didn't play). And on June 2000, the Kingston Wall trance-remix CD, "Freakout Remixes" was released. It included techno remixes of Kingston Wall songs made by top-notch Finnish underground artists such as Texas Faggott, Squaremeat, Accu and Possible Apple.
 

RUMBA-Magazine 4/98, Finland:

".. Pete Walli, Jukka Jylli and Sami Kuoppamäki played like angels.."
".. the music sounds damn great.."

Lion Music:

".. great musicians!"

Aural Innovations / April 1999:

".. Kingston Wall were one of the greatest bands to ever play rock music."
".. Petri played the guitar like no one else on earth, with so much melody and feeling.."

ProgRealAudio:

".. I am amazed at these gems that have been sitting dormant in my collection. The guitar playing is simulataneously flowing, powerful, expressive, emotional, ... Very nice stuff."

Merciful House / April 2000:

(review of 'I') : ".. This album is the wildest of all with some progressive energy and oriental sounds. To me a true classic in Finnish rock music." - 5 out of 5 stars

(review of 'II') : ".. another fine album .." 4 out of 5 stars

(Review of 'III - Tri-Logy') : ".. This album brings you down to your knees from the opening minutes and takes you to a magic carpet ride.." - 5 out of 5 stars

CITY magazine, Finland - "The 99 greatest artists in Finnish popular music":

"27. Kingston Wall - The trio from Helsinki mashed together progressive pompusness, elements imported from far east and Kalevalan mythology into a mixture, which is still probably ahead of it's time..."

Syn-Phonic:

"Brilliant space rock psychedelia."

Osmind:

"Killer prog psych/space rock...smokin guitarist"

Radio City - rock song votes 1998:

"Kingston Wall - We Cannot Move": 9,5 (out of 10)

Scandinavian Indie Digest Vol.98 #23 / March 3rd, 1998:

"The legendary Kingston Wall's all three long-ago sold out albums have just been re-released, and no man, woman or extraterrestrial being on earth can live without the third one "III, Tri-Logy" (except all those too-cool brit&indie-poppers who only listen to music by shoegazing men with too tight shirts)"

Expose #8 (review by Mike McLatchey):

"Kingston Wall are a Finnish power trio who seem to operate outside the normal 'progressive rock' distributors, yet would certainly be a crossover group of great potential. [...] Kingston Wall's second was a much more inventive affair. The band's music is certainly more expressive here with Walli's guitar playing exploring more exotic and eastern scales similar in ways to Ozric Tentacles. There are a lot of brilliant instrumentals [...] that remind me of early Black Sun Ensemble or a fuller Tangle Edge. The sound seems to have taken on a more ethnic bent, and there are a lot of psychedelic/new age references as well."

Underground Symphony:

(of "Kingston Wall - II"): "Great hard-progressive album, exceptional ideas & very variated. Their best work. Recommended"

(of "Kingston Wall - III - Tri~Logy"): "Very original group, they mixed prog sounds with hard-rock guitars with a touch of techno-space rock."

AMG All Music Guide:

"II was the album where Kingston Wall most successfully merged their hard rock, progressive, psychedelic, and Middle Eastern sounds. Much of this owes to the bandmembers' instrumental interplay, which is given freer rein and allowed to stretch out more than on their other two albums. Ranging from the soaring guitar (acoustic and electric) and violin piece "Istwan" to the Zeppelin-esque blues of "And It's All Happening" and "Shine on Me," to the high octane jamming of "Palekastro," the stylistic palette is varied."

John Chedsey / Satan Stole My Teddybear
(review of "Kingston Wall - I"):

The first Kingston Wall album is a somewhat jagged and rough around the edges rock release that still captures a vibrant, enthusiastic and enjoyable trio of musicians. Walli's guitar playing is loose, occasionally scattershot, but always enveloping and fun. The typical array of psychedelic effects, such as the wah pedal and ample echo, are used throughout and the songs are arranged in such a way that the three musicians have plenty of room to work without clashing into one another. Most importantly, the energy of the music is contagious, creating an album that is nearly as much for the listener as it evidentally was for the band to play. Fortunately Kingston Wall curtailed excessive jamming to focus on the songs, rather than endless noodling.