Vesa Haaja

Agents is a Finnish band formed in 1979, playing rautalanka, schlager and rock'n'roll music.

The head figure and musical director of the band is solo guitarist Esa Pulliainen.

Agents was founded in 1979 on the ruins of Tuomari Nurmio's band Köyhien ystävät.

All former members of Köyhien ystävät, with the exception of Tuomari Nurmio, played in the original Agents.

The band also recruited Esa's brother Kai Pulliainen and keyboard player Jukka Ollila.

The lead singer was Pekka Rytkönen, nicknamed Beat-Pete.

Agents started co-operation with Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki in autumn 1981, which also meant the end of Beat-Pete's career in Agents.

Jukka Ollila was also replaced by Petri Rantala.

The band's first album, Ikkunaprinsessa, was published in 1982.

The album included the hits "Ikkunaprinsessa", "Kuihtuu kesäinen maa" and "Muista hyviä aikoja".

Agents participated in the lyrics and music of the album.

The next album, Tähdet, tähdet, was published in 1983.

The title song of the album became one of Badding's best known hits.

Other hits from the album include "Nukkuja kaunein", "Yön hiljaisuudessa" and "Kun aika rientää".

Esa Pulliainen arranged almost all music in the album.

The last album made in co-operation with Somerjoki, Laivat, was published in 1985.

On the album, Agents plays under the alias The Young Beats.

Hits from the last Badding album include "Laivat", "Illan varjoon himmeään", "Lähdön hetkellä" and "Tahdon".

Co-operation with Badding ended in 1985.

During his last years, Badding performed with various bands, but Laivat was his last album.

Agents had already been performing on and off with Topi Sorsakoski, who now became the official lead singer of the band.

The keyboard player also resigned from the band alongside Badding.

With Topi Sorsakoski as their primary lead singer, Agents went on to record their next studio album In Beat in 1985.

The album, produced by Pedro Hietanen, was released in 1986 and it topped the Finnish album charts.

In Beat was a commercial success and it was certified double platinum in Finland.

The album provided hit songs "Surujen kitara", "Salattu Suru", "Eeva" and "Olen yksin".

In the next year, the band published another hit album, Besame Mucho.

To the surprise of many, Besame Mucho doesn't feature on the album, instead the name is a trick played on purpose by Agents and Topi Sorsakoski.

Hits from the album include "Kaksi kitaraa", "Kauan" and "Valot" (Badding's song as an instrumental version).

In 1988, the band published their third album, Pop.

The third album also sold well.

Hits from the album include "Tyhjää", "Varjojen yö", "On kesäyö", "Jo riittää" and "Nyt kaikki muuttunut on".

In 1989, Agents did not publish a new album.

The EMI record company decided to publish a collection album called Greatest Hits, which the band did not like.

The collection album sold well and reached a gold record.

In 1990, Agents' and Topi Sorsakoski's last album, Half and Half, was published.

Half of the album contains sung material and the other half contains Agents' rautalanka music.

One of the reasons was Topi Sorsakoski's financial troubles in the early 1990s, and he would have wanted higher commissions from their performances and records.

Topi had published his solo album Yksinäisyys in 1991, which anticipated the end of the co-operation.

Topi Sorsakoski & Agents split up in 1992 because of internal arguments.