Babylon (band)

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Babylon
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock
founding 1975
resolution 1989
Founding members
Victor Heyse (until 1978)
Guitar, vocals
 Bernd Bangel (until 1979)
Dieter Wiesjahn
Harald Wittkowski (until 1976)
Bernd Schwitzke (until 1976)
former members
guitar
 Wolfgang Densky (from 1987)
singing
 Detlef Volquardsen (from 1982)
Drums
 Carsten Heinrich (from 1987)
bass
 Hubert Ranft (from 1987)
guitar
 Frank Powileit (1980–1986)
guitar
 Andrej Horvath (1985–1987)
Drums
 Wolfgang Fuchs (1976–1978)
Drums
 Horst Trumpelmann (1980–1986)
singing
 Hilmar Holz (1980–1982)
Keyboard
 Manfred Hennig (1976–1978)
Keyboard
 Christian Weise (1981-1983)

Babylon was a German rock band . It was founded in 1975 in Berlin-Mitte and existed until 1989. After an initial frequent change of musicians and the associated change of style, the band developed into one of the most important hard rock bands in the GDR in the 1980s . The band was named after the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia .

history

After Victor Heyse, Dieter Wiesjahn, Bernd Schwitzke, Michael Peglau and Bernd Bangel left the Peter Holten Septet , they founded the amateur band Babylon in April 1975 in order to realize their own musical ideas. With the exception of Peglau, they had already played together in the school bands The Dandys and Combo 2000. Harald Wittkowski came from Joco Dev .

Already in 1976 there was the first line-up for the band. Wolfgang Paule Fuchs , who had previously played with Joco Dev, switched to drums , and Manfred Hennig, formerly Neue Generation , played keyboard . Typical for this line-up was the two-part vocals and the melody passages on both guitars. The first own titles were produced on the radio of the GDR ( Yesterday you came , every evening ) and the band was awarded the title "Excellent amateur dance orchestra of the GDR" and a gold medal at the workers' festival. Two concert tours through the Soviet Union followed. The band achieved their breakthrough with the title Dshigiten Legende (Text: Karl Werner Plath ). The compositions came from Wiesjahn, who was the only musician in the band until it was dissolved. But with the success, there were also differences of opinion about the future musical style of the band.

In 1978 Fuchs and Hennig left the band and founded the synthesizer band Pond. When Heyse was drafted into the NVA , the band became quiet. Wiesjahn then reformed the band. Frank Powileit (guitar), Hilmar Holz (vocals) and Horst Trumpelmann (drums) joined the band, whose musicians had meanwhile become professional musicians. The band began to distinguish themselves as a hard rock band and based on the sound of AC / DC . But there was no success.

That only changed when Wiesjahn reshuffled the band in 1981 and pursued a new musical concept with the new band. Detlef Volquardsen became the singer. Michael Hein (guitar) joined the band from Metropol and Christian Weise (keyboard) from Regenbogen ; Rainer Butschke was on the drums. He was born in the age of 49. With this line-up, other productions appeared on the radio, of which Dynamit was particularly successful. In 1983 Bela Ujlaki of the Leipzig band Rock-Phonie replaced Michael Hein on guitar. Further foreign guest performances and appearances in the youth programs of the GDR television made the band increasingly known.

In the summer of 1985 there were again extensive line-up changes in the band. Wiesjahn switched from bass to guitar and was replaced by Hubert Ranft. Andrej Horvath, who had previously played in Formula I , became the second guitarist . Carsten Heinrich came from the Triolog group as the new drummer. The band retired to a trial camp for several weeks and then successfully toured the GDR. At the beginning of 1986 the breakthrough finally came. The band had produced several tracks in the rehearsal room in search of a new sound that was ready for broadcast. The title witching managed in the scoring program " beat box " of the GDR broadcast went straight to number one and six weeks long held. Finally the GDR label Amiga reacted and published the title on a single. In January 1988 Horvath switched to the Modern Soul Band . Wolfgang Densky, who previously played in Formula I, became the new guitarist. The band played with this line-up until they broke up in 1989, produced new tracks ( Tschernobyl , Farewell ) and finally got the opportunity to release their first long-playing record in 1988.

Discography

single

  • 1986: Witching hour / We're rocking ( Amiga )

LP

  • 1988: Dynamite (Amiga)

See also

literature

  • HP Hofmann: Beat Lexicon. Performers, authors, technical terms. VEB Lied der Zeit Musikverlag, Berlin (East) 1977 (p. 65).
  • Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 .
  • Walter Cikan: Babylon . In: Melodie und Rhythmus , issue 2/1977
  • Waltraud Heinze: Hit the gas and come on . In: Melodie & Rhythmus, issue 10/1983
  • Walter Kutzner: tendency towards super-heavy hard rock . In: Melodie & Rhythmus, issue 11/1985
  • E. Leo Gehl: Babylon . In: Melodie & Rhythmus, issue 11/1988

Web links