Tony Niemistö (born 10 February 1963 in

Danderyd Danderyd Municipality (''Danderyds kommun''; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is ...

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm ...

) is a semi-retired Swedish musician, best known as Tony Reno, the original drummer in the rock band

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

He played on Europe's first two albums, ''

'' and ''

Wings of Tomorrow ''Wings of Tomorrow'' is the second studio album by the Swedish heavy metal band Europe. It was released on 24 February 1984, by Hot Records. ''Wings of Tomorrow'' is the last album to feature drummer Tony Reno. The song "Scream of Anger" w ...

''. He was fired from the band by producer Thomas Erdtman without informing the band members before the second leg of the ''Wings of Tomorrow'' tour in 1984. He was replaced by

Ian Haugland Jan-Håkan "Ian" Haugland (born 13 August 1964) is the drummer in the Swedish rock band Europe. When he was eight months old, he and his family moved to the Stockholm suburb of Märsta, Sweden. He joined Europe in the summer of 1984, replacing ...

. In 1986 Niemistö joined the heavy metal band Geisha, replacing

Mikkey Dee Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou (born 31 October 1963), known professionally as Mikkey Dee, is a Swedish musician, best known as the last drummer for British heavy metal band Motörhead from 1992 until its dissolution in 2015. Dee also played temporari ...

. Niemistö changed his stage name to Tony Lace, but eventually he went back to using his real name. Geisha released the album ''Phantasmagoria'' in 1987, before splitting up two years later. Geisha's vocalist Yenz Cheyenne then formed the band =Y=, which Niemistö joined. They released an EP, ''=Y='' in 1991, and an album, ''Rawchild'' in 1992. Niemistö had not participated in anything related to Europe for 29 years. That activity drought ended in 2013, when the group was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of their original album. Niemistö autographed 30 copies of a canvas replica of the 1983 album's cover, and then later on took part in a 10-guitar auction (of which the proceeds from 'The Final Countdown' guitar benefitted the efforts of the ' Médecins Sans Frontiers' organization in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

), where he autographed the guitar containing art of the debut album. Niemistö is currently living in

Vallentuna Vallentuna is the seat of Vallentuna Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 33,219 inhabitants in 2018. Vallentuna's cultural landscape is well preserved, and human habitation in the area has been traced back as far as the Stone Age. Arche ...

, Sweden, where he works for a computer company.

Discography

Europe

*''

'' (1983) *''

'' (1984)

Geisha

*''Phantasmagoria'' (1987)

''=Y=''

*''=Y='' (1991) *''Rawchild'' (1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reno, Tony 1963 births Living people People from Danderyd Municipality Europe (band) members Swedish drummers Male drummers Swedish heavy metal drummers