Alphaville (band)

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Alphaville
Alphaville live (2005)
Alphaville live (2005)
General information
Genre (s) pop
founding 1983
Website www.alphaville.de
Founding members
Marian Gold
Bernhard Lloyd (until 2003)
Keyboard
 Frank Mertens (until 1985)
Current occupation
singing
 Marian Gold
Keyboard
 Carsten Brocker
guitar
 David Goodes
Jakob Kiersch
bass
 Alexandra Merl
former members
Keyboard, guitar
Ricky Echolette (1985-1997)
Drums
 Robbie France (1995-1998)
Keyboard
 Martin Lister (1995–2014 †)
bass
 Maja Kim (2011-2016)

Alphaville is a German pop band that was founded in 1983 and became internationally known through songs like Big in Japan and Forever Young .

Band history

1981–1983: Foundation and record deal

In 1981 Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd founded the artist collective Nelson Community together with other music enthusiasts in the Westphalian city of Münster , with whom they had their first live performance in December 1981. A year later, Gold and Lloyd founded the pop trio Forever Young together with Frank Mertens and, at the end of 1982, performed their first joint and - typical for a future studio project - their last live performance for the next ten years.

In 1983, the three of them took the name Alphaville from the eponymous film by Jean-Luc Godard and used it as their new band name, under which they signed a record deal in the same year.

1984–1985: First successes with Big in Japan and Forever Young

In January 1984 her first single, Big, was released in Japan , which became a worldwide hit (including first place in the US dance charts). In May and September of the same year, the singles Sounds Like a Melody and Forever Young from the debut album of the same name followed .

After the success, Frank Mertens left the band at the end of 1984 and was replaced by the keyboardist and guitarist Ricky Echolette . In the spring of 1985, the formation released the last single from Forever Young with Jet Set , which also included Golden Feeling , the score for the German movie Der Bulle und das Mädchen , on which Echolette had already participated. In addition, the band took part in the benefit project Band for Africa in January 1985.

1986–1991: Afternoons in Utopia and The Breathtaking Blue

In June 1986, after almost two years, Alphaville's second studio album, Afternoons in Utopia , followed, but this did not follow the success of Forever Young . Only the single Dance with Me achieved notable chart placements in Germany and other countries.

After the re-release of Forever Young in the United States, Alphaville continued to work on the expansion of their musical style, which was expanded to include rock , classical , blues and jazz with the release of The Breathtaking Blue in April 1989 . The pioneer of electronic music Klaus Schulze contributed to the creation of this album .

One project was the resulting Songlines , in which nine directors from six countries interpret the songs on the album in small short films, including the Oscar-winning short film Balance by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein and a contribution by the Danish director Susanne Bier, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 .

1992–1999: First compilation and further albums

After the first best-of album First Harvest 1984-92 had been released in March 1992 , Alphaville gave her first concert in ten years in Beirut in the summer of 1993 (at the invitation of the German embassy of Lebanon ) . It was also the first concert by a western band in Lebanon after the civil war there.

Almost five years after the last studio album, Prostitute was released in August 1994, the band's most ambitious work to date, which further expanded the stylistic framework of Alphaville. Here the composer and arranger Rainer Bloss appeared for the first time as co-author of the new Alphaville pieces and became, so to speak, a "permanent unofficial fourth member of the band". In 1995, after more than ten years of pure studio activity, the first touring activities began, beginning with the Peace-on-Earth tour, during which the Briton Martin Lister established himself as Alphaville's additional keyboardist.

Alphaville at the German Evangelical Church Congress 2005 in Hanover

In September 1997 the fifth studio album Salvation came out, which is a return to the (synth-heavy) origins of the band and was also the last release of the line-up Gold, Lloyd, Echolette.

In January 1999, Dreamscapes followed , a box with eight CDs limited to 5,000 copies, which reflects the musical development of the band from its earliest beginnings to the present day.

2000–2009: tours and another record deal

The worldwide tours found their first expression in 2000 with the album Stark Naked and Absolutely Live , which was number one in the German alternative charts for three weeks . Furthermore, Alphaville gave their first concerts on American soil in Salt Lake City from July 15 to 17, 1999 . The July 17th gig was released on DVD in 2001 under the title Little America .

After the release of the remix album Forever Pop in 2001, Alphaville moved the entire production of their new work to the Internet, where an online audience could follow, comment on and download the songs for free. The result of this company was documented in 2003 in a 4-CD box and published under the title CrazyShow . Bernhard Lloyd announced his departure from Alphaville a few months before the release. Shortly before this box set was released, Marian Gold was a guest at Nokia Night of the Proms (2002).

In 2007, the play Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll premiered, and Marian Gold brought Nikolaus Buchholz , the author and director of the satirical musical Lighthouse of Passion , on board. Buchholz directed a series of promotional videos and the live taping of the concert in Salt Lake City.

The release of the new studio album Catching Rays on Giant , announced for 2007, had to be postponed due to the renewed termination of the contract with WEA .

In 2009 Alphaville gave a free concert as part of the Eurocityfest in Münster, their founding city.

Alphaville celebrated their 25th anniversary as a band on December 4th, 2009 with a concert in the Zofin Palace in Prague .

Since 2010: Comeback with Catching Rays on Giant and further successes

On November 19, 2010 the studio album Catching Rays on Giant , which had already been announced for 2007, was released . The first single I Die for You Today was released in advance on October 8, 2010 and reached number 15 in the German charts, which was the highest chart position since Dance with Me in 1986. At number 9, the album was also the highest position in the album charts for Alphaville since their debut album.

Long-time keyboardist Martin Lister died unexpectedly on May 21, 2014; Carsten Brocker was his successor. On September 27, 2014, the band's 30th anniversary was celebrated with a concert in the Parisian club Divan du Monde . An album was also released with a compilation of previous hits.

2017: 7th album Strange Attractor

On April 7, 2017, seven years after Catching Rays on Giant , the group's 7th studio album was released. Alphaville reported back with a new line-up with the studio album Strange Attractor . The single Heartbreak City was already available at the beginning of March 2017 .

former members

Frank Mertens, who left the band at the end of 1984, now lives in Schwäbisch Hall ; his successor, Ricky Echolette, left the band in 1997 and now lives in the south of France . Bernhard Lloyd left in 2002, initiated the Atlantic Popes music project with his music colleague Max Holler and now lives in Berlin.

Discography

Studio albums

year Title
music label 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1984 Forever Young
WEA Records 		DE3
Triple gold
× 3
Triple gold

(36 1 week)DE 		AT16 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH4th
gold
gold

(21 weeks)CH 		- US180 (14 weeks)
US
First published: September 27, 1984
Sales: + 1,500,000
1986 Afternoons in Utopia
WEA Records 		DE13 (13 weeks)
DE 		- CH12 (7 weeks)
CH 		- US174 (6 weeks)
US
First published: June 5, 1986
1989 The Breathtaking Blue
WEA Records 		DE49 (4 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: April 4, 1989
1994 Prostitute
WEA Records 		- - - - -
First published: August 26, 1994
1997 Salvation
WEA Records 		DE74 (2 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: September 1, 1997
2010 Catching Rays on Giant
We Love Music 		DE9 (12 weeks)
DE 		AT64 (1 week)
AT 		CH59 (2 weeks)
CH 		- -
First published: November 19, 2010
Sales: + 10,000
2017 Strange Attractor
Polydor 		DE39 (2 weeks)
DE 		- CH94 (1 week)
CH 		- -
First published: April 7, 2017
1 Forever Young reached eighth place in the German album charts as a Super Deluxe LP in 2019 .

Awards

literature

  • Dirk Horst: Synthiepop - The soulful cold: Stories of Synthiepop. 2nd edition, Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2011, pp. 107-108 ISBN 978-3-8423-3422-9 .

swell

  1. ↑ www.alphaville.nu .
  2. ↑ Alphaville keyboardist Martin Lister Dies
  3. ↑ The synth pop albums of the 80s. laut.de, accessed on April 22, 2018 .

Web links