Tampere guitarist recalls cash-filled briefcase that kept Irwin Goodman’s 1980 Syksyn Sävel bid alive

A last-minute delivery of cash kept Irwin Goodman’s rushed bid for the 1980 Syksyn Sävel song contest alive, an episode recounted in Luottokitaristi, Jari Korkki's 2026 memoir of Tampere guitarist Ari “Kankku” Kankaanpää. Kankaanpää's backstage memories, including his time with Frederik, were earlier detailed in our previous coverage.

He arrived at Antti Hammarberg’s lakeside home near Lavajärvi in early September 1980 with the recording unfinished and a hard deadline: a finished tape had to be at MTV in Helsinki by 4 pm the next day. The session stalled amid six to seven bottles of Koskenkorva and growing impatience. Then a sharply dressed man appeared carrying a leather briefcase stuffed with cash, handed the money to Hammarberg and sent the group into town to drink.

The memoir paints Goodman’s on-and-off lifestyle vividly. At times he was driven and focused; at others he was absent for days, once returning from Copenhagen after a four-day run.