TNT - Diesel Dahl

The artist known as Diesel Dahl was born in Trondheim and his parents gave him the name Morten Dahl. As he grew up in this Norwegian town in the sixties Morten transformed into a boy with two main interests. Noisy rock and noisy bikes would be this young man's main occupations as he grew up, and some time around the age of fifteen he started banging the drums. He hooked up with singer Dag Ingebrigtsen, and Burn was born. The band soon evolved into Burn II, which included guitarist Hans Aafløy and bassist Terje Storli (Stage Dolls). Most of these guys would be key figures in the growing hard rock scene of Trondheim rock city. Quite a lot of gigs were played with Burn II, including supporting Slade, but no records were to come out of these years. In 1978 Burn II had fallen apart, and the musicians drifted in different directions. Diesel joined Edge, and now things started to happen, at least the drummer got to release two songs on a compilation album of garage bands from Trondheim. The album was titled "7000 Riff" (7000 being the zip code for Trondheim) and included two songs from Edge, "Fortrock" (Fast Rock) and "Korlæng" (How Long). It all ended after the release of the compilation though, but Diesel was heading for a brighter future…

The years of 1980 and 1981 were spent with the band Hotlips, and this period culminated with the band being Norwegian Champions of Rock in 1981. Most important for the future though was the fact that the bassist in the band was a guy by the name of Morten Skaget, and he and Diesel would be reunited in the near future even though Hotlips broke up.

Dahl's old pal, Dag Ingebrigtsen, had some serious plans about starting up a hard rock band in the early months of 1982 after his former band The Kids broke up. Together with our man on the drums TNTbegan to take shape. The guys recruited Steinar Eikum on bass, and after having some trouble finding the right guitarist Dag heard rumors about some youngster from Raufoss. He managed to get hold of this guy who turned out to be Ronni Le Tekrø, and TNT was ready to explode. The hard work of writing and rehearsing the material for the debut album was all done in time for the band to record an album by fall, and as the guys were playing concerts as often as possible, the first single was released. "Harley-Davidson" (A song actually played regularly by Hotlips since Ingebrigtsen didn't find it suitable for poppy The Kids at the time) was the lead song, and backed with "USA", two future TNT classics had been released to the Norwegian hard rock fans. Early in 1983 the self-titled debut album from TNT got released, and even though all the songs were sung in Norwegian the album got some fine reviews around the globe. The following months were then spent touring all over Norway, and as the interest from foreign countries started to increase it was decided that something had to be done. The solution was to rerecord the lyrics for the four songs on side one of the album in English, and then release them as an EP.

The release of the EP was in the winter of 1984, and by this time Steinar had been sacked, and Diesel had brought in his old friend Morten Skaget on bass. Skaget changed his name to Morty Black, and it seemed like TNT was ready for international stardom. The recording for the band's second album began, but then it was suddenly announced that Dag Ingebrigtsen had left the band. The fans were in shock, but it turned out that no one really had anything to fear as the band recruited Tony Harnell from New York band The Jackals. TNT finished recording what was to become "Knights Of The New Thunder", and everyone just had to agree that TNT had made an album that just had to be a future hard rock classic. With excellent songs and a fantastic production both Ronni and Tony really got the chance to shine, and Tekrø was really beginning to get the recognition he deserved for his fantastic playing. Prior to the release of "Knights Of The New Thunder" TNT did their first American tour as they played the clubs on the East Coast in August of 1984. The tour was a success, but it would take some time before the band would be playing in the US again, even though the guys relocated to Long Island. A big tour of Norway in November and December actually turned out to be last we would be hearing from TNT for a while…

1985 was a year with quite a few big plans, and even though it was talk of tours with Kiss and other well-known American hard rock bands nothing happened. "Knights Of The New Thunder" got its American release in the summer, with "Eddie" added to the track listing, but this release and a handful of shows in Norway was really all that happened in 1985. Among these few shows were a couple of charity shows, and at one such occasion Burn II reunited as well. Also the next year ended up being one with little activity from the band. It looked promising when TNT was announced to be the support act on Mötley Crüe's European tour in the winter of 1986, but TNT pulled out, and it seemed like the band had some management problems. The management was McGhee Entertainment, which they shared with Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi among others. Now things really started to go slow for TNT, but two short tours of Norway were done in the first half of the year. On these tours TNT played a few new tracks, and they could promise a summer release of their next album. Nothing happened though, but with the help of Dee Snider the band at least managed to get a new management deal, this time with Freefall Talent Group who also had Twisted Sister on their list of clients.

In the fall of 1986 Diesel Dahl got time to do some activities outside of his main band, and it all started with the release of "The Grønne Glitrende 3 & Dag", a collection of hard rock Christmas songs together with Dag Ingebrigtsen and other friends. The album was followed up by an extensive tour, which reunited Dahl and Ingebrigtsen on stage for their first tour together since Dag left TNT.

In April of 1987 TNT finally managed to release their long awaited third album. It's title was "Tell No Tales", and with this record the guys had managed to deliver another classic in the genre of melodic hard rock. The album went platinum in Norway, and the lead single, "10.000 Lovers (In One)", was a huge hit in the band's home country. The album entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and tours with Loudness & Stryper and Great White & Twisted Sister brought TNT out to the large concert audiences in America during the summer and early fall of that year. In the summer TNT also did a successful club tour of Europe, so it seemed like everything was going the band's way for once. But then lightning struck again. After the conclusion of the Twisted Sister tour in October it became clear that Diesel Dahl would leave TNT. The band would continue with other drummers, while Diesel on the other hand would form his own band.

Before Diesel launched his new band he would be doing another Christmas tour with The Grønne Glitrende 3 & Dag, and this time the line up consisted of Ingebrigtsen, Dahl, guitarist Trond Øien and bassist Sid Ringsby. After the tour Diesel would reunite with TNT one last time as the band received "Spellemannprisen" (Norway's answer to "Grammy") for best rock album of 1987, and then he was on his own…

In 1988 Diesel formed his new band called TinDrum together with Trond Øien (ex. Evenrude) and Sid Ringsby (ex. Road) from the previous Christmas tour. From the Oslo based Miss Lead he borrowed singer Tove. It soon became clear that TinDrum hadn't adopted the slow working pace of TNT, and to get things going Diesel even mortgage his Harley-Davidson, and already in May of 1988 the band would release their first single "Drums of War". This catchy song quickly climbed to the top of the charts in Norway, and throughout the summer TinDrum toured Norway. The set list included both originals from the upcoming album as well as a few TNT songs. Then as the summer turned into fall the album "Drums of War" was released, and it became clear that Diesel had the intention of continuing in the style of the melodic hard rock he had played with TNT. With Øien he had another guitar hero and fine songwriter in his new band, and in Tove he had a hot looking female singer with the right high pitch voice. The album became a success, and the band headed for the road as an extensive tour was booked for the fall and winter.

Just as 1988 turned into 1989 Tove suddenly quit TinDrum and the band had to find a replacement as soon as possible. The easy solution was to ask Dag Ingebrigtsen to help out. Some of the fans had expected Dag to be the singer when Diesel formed TinDrum, but even though Ingebrigtsen wrote half of the band's debut album that didn't happen. Now the two old friends were suddenly reunited once again, but only on a temporary basis according to Dag. He claimed to be helping out as the band's singer until a permanent vocalist had been found, but when "I Love To Love" was released as TinDrum's next single Dag was still in the band. TinDrum had another summer hit with the song, and "How 'Bout This?!" was then released in October as the band's second album, still with Dag behind the microphone. The band then kept on touring throughout the year. More touring was on the schedule for the following year, and yet again a single was released just in time for the summer. "Detective of Love" became the single which lead up to the compilation album "Cool, Calm & Collected", which contained songs from "How 'Bout This?!" along with a couple of tracks from "Drums of War" with rerecorded vocals from Dag as well as the new single. The record came out on Starbeat, Diesel's own record company. This album got released in Europe, Canada and Japan as well, but even though TinDrum kept on touring for some time the band suddenly disappeared when Dag left to pursue his solo career.

A short lived new line up of TinDrum consisting of Dahl, Frode Henriksen (vocal), Baard Olsen (guitar) from Brød & Cirkus released the song "She'll Be Dancin'" on the compilation "Norwegian Hard Rock Ballads" in the fall of 1992.

From 1992 - 1994 Diesel seemed to disappear from the music business to achieve his goal to become member of Hells Angels Motorcycleclub.

It wasn't until 1995 Diesel Dahl returned with his new band Diezel. Frode Henriksen had survived from the last TinDrum line up, and two new guitarists, Jon Johannessen and Tom Sennerud, had been brought in. As when Tindrum was formed Sid Ringsby turned out to be the late arriver as the bass had already been recorded for the album "Willpower" when he joined. The guys began touring as "Love Has Got It's Hold" and "When Sorrow Comes Alive" were released as singles. The latter being dedicated to Dennis, Diesel's son who suffered premature death in 1990. The album got it's release in the fall and even though the band did some shows Diezel never toured as extensively as TinDrum had done, and before a second album saw the light of day Diezel broke up.

With the album "reCYCLEd" Diesel Dahl once again returned to the limelight in 1997 as he released this run-through of his last fifteen years in the music business. The album contained rerecordings of the TNT classics "Harley-Davidson", "Seven Seas" and "10.000 Lovers (In One)", performed by Diesel along with friends such as Ronni Le Tekrø, Terje Storli, Trond Øien and Frode Henriksen. Henriksen also put his voice on some of the now classic TinDrum songs, including a new recording of "The Show Must Go On" with Morty Black playing the four string. The album also included remixed versions of a couple of the songs from "Willpower". The booklet for "reCYCLEd" stated Diesel Dahl & Friends as the band for the rerecorded songs, and this would also be the name of Diesel's next touring band. Together with Trond Øien, Sid Ringsby, keyboardist Roger Gilton and singer extraordinary Jørn Lande the drummer began touring as Diesel Dahl & Friends, playing mainly songs from TNT and TinDrum along with some classic Rock covers. Also in the fall of 1997 the Dahl/Ingebrigtsen/Tekrø/Skaget line up of TNT reunited for a charity show in Trondheim.

During the late nineties Diesel returned to The Grønne Glitrende 3 & Dag for the traditional Christmas tour, and in 2000 he teamed up with the Norwegian all star band Gringo Starrs. This band were based around the music of singer Casino Steel and included members from bands such as Backstreet Girls, Divin' Ducks and The Kids. A handful of shows were played, but before the year was over the band had stopped touring.

As Diesel kept on doing shows with Diesel Dahl & Friends, with new singer Ida Haukland, the announcement came that the drummer had reunited with Tony Harnell, Ronni Le Tekrø and Morty Black as the classic TNT line up prepared for a comeback. Nothing happened with TNT for another couple of years though, but Diesel kept busy with other projects.

In between recording sessions with TNT Dahl joined up with Dag Ingebrigtsen again as the drummer for the singers solo band, and since then he has been drumming for his long time friend whenever the opportunity has been there. This means as long as he hasn't been busy with Diesel Dahl & Friends, TNT or The Hardtails. The latter is a band consisting of singer/guitarist Gil Edwards, Morty Black and Diesel. As for Diesel Dahl & Friends a line up change came in 2002 when Jørn Lande left, and Ida Haukland joined to bring the female voice back into Diesel Dahl's band. In late 2003 the band did a couple of shows under the name of TinDrum.

In the summer of 2003 Phoenix Records released a tribute album to Harley-Davidson called "100 - Tribute To A Legend", and for this release Diesel came up with a remake of his 1997 version of "Harley-Davidson", this time with Jørn Lande on vocals. Also on this album were a track by The Hardtails, and in the booklet you would find a picture of Diesel sitting in front of his Harley-Davidson. In October the same year Burn II were reunited as a part of Diesel's bachelor party when the band played nine gigs on nine different locations in one day as an attempt to set a world record.

The first public appearance of Diesel in any TNT related situations since he left the band in the eighties came when he and Ronni presented an award at "Spellemannprisen" in early 2002,

In the spring of 2003 TNT returned for full, and with a best of release in Norway called "The Big Bang", a mini album in Japan by the title of "Taste" and the "Give Me A Sign" EP in Europe the band were back with a bang. TNT toured Norway in the summer as well as doing the Bang Your Head festival in Germany, and at the same time they laid the finishing touches on their first full album with the classic line up since 1987.