Belfegore
| Belfegore | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Dusseldorf , Germany |
| Genre (s) | Gothic rock , dark wave |
| founding | 1982 |
| resolution | 1985 |
| Founding members | |
Vocals, guitar |
Michael David Clauss (* 1959) |
Bass, keyboard |
Walter Jäger (until 1983) |
Drums |
Manfred "Charly" Terstappen (born March 26, 1953) |
| Later members | |
bass |
Raoul Walton (1983–1985) (* 1959) |
Belfegore was a German gothic punk / dark wave band from Düsseldorf that existed from 1982 to 1985.
history
Prehistory (1980–1982)
Band founder Michael David Clauss had played with the Düsseldorf punk band KFC from 1980 to January 1981 and then with Nothing , which was more likely to be attributed to the Neue Deutsche Welle . Since it was clear that the Neue Deutsche Welle would remain a phenomenon limited to the German-speaking area, Clauss got out of nothing in the summer of 1982 and decided to make darker and more aggressive music, as was being done at the time by bands like Killing Joke or Bauhaus became popular.
Beginnings as an independent band (1982–1984)
In January 1983 the music press reported that Michael Clauss was working on a solo album. With the help of the drummer Gigi Sessenhausen, he single-handedly recorded the debut album "A Dog Is Born" in the Lambertz-Grund studio in Düsseldorf and Can's Inner Space studio .
In April 1983, the independent record label Pure Freude presented the album in the music press with the ad “The man out of nowhere is Belfegore is Michael Clauss” . The LP was only released in limited numbers and is now a collector's item.
The album received good reviews in the English music press:
- Melody Maker (Great Britain): "Nightmarish travelogues of sly brilliance."
- Sounds (Great Britain): "[...] a trio of intelligent musicians whose debut LP, which is sung mainly in German, is very charming and direct."
- ZigZag (Great Britain): "One of the best albums of the year [...]"
- SPEX (Germany): “Creating the mood! Quite targeted! But the record isn't bad. The music actually manages to create this dark, mystical, oppressive mood, similar to Joy Division . "
Clauss put together a band with Manfred "Charly" Terstappen (drums, previously with Wallenstein ) and Walter Jäger (keyboard, bass) in order to be able to perform live. In June 1983, Belfegore gave three concerts supporting The Fall .
The last concert with Walter Jäger took place on August 28, 1983 at a festival in the Dia Foundation art gallery in Cologne, which was recorded for a live compilation that was planned but not yet published. His last release with the band was the maxi single "Belfegore" , which was released after his departure at the end of October 1983 and which was considerably more rock and punch than the album.
The new bass player was the New York session musician Raoul Walton, who had just worked on Gabi Delgado's solo album “Mistress” and who joined Belfegore through producer Conny Plank .
On October 7, 1983, Belfegore appeared together with other German independent bands at the Progetto Germania festival in the Teatro Spaziozero in Rome, the performance was recorded and two pieces appeared in May 1984 on the single "Belfegore in Roma" . This single marked the farewell to the independent Pure Joy label.
International success as a major act (1984–1985)
From March to May 1984 the three Belfegore musicians recorded their second album in the Conny Plank studio, which was mixed in New York. The American major label Elektra signed the band for 175,000 dollars, which was unheard of by German standards .
The album "Belfegore" was released on September 20, 1984 and was heavily inspired by US mainstream rock. B. with Billy Idol or the former Killing Joke hit "Eighties". The single "All That I Wanted" followed in December 1984, for which a video was also shot in New York with director Zbigniew Rybczyński (for example, on December 10, 1984 in Formula One and on January 3, 1985 in Paula Yates UK music show The Tube on Channel 4 and was also shown in the US on MTV and VH1 ).
The reactions of the music press have been mixed:
- Jamming! (Great Britain): “At best a blueprint for future developments, sort of a kind of push towards rough and daring. In the worst case, a terrible bombastic noise. "
- Creem Metal (USA): “There are really better bands than Motörhead .” - “Name one!” - “Belfegore!” - “Good, apart from Belfegore. Call me someone else. ”-“ The Beatles ”.
- SPEX (Germany): “You ask yourself whether you won't be beaten up if you don't know how to praise this record properly. Regardless of loss, that shouldn't stop me from polemically calling this record a bunch of shit. [...] a gloomy band with third-class song material, unimaginative arrangements and the usual spongy Conny Plank production. "
An appearance at the Pandora's Musicbox '84 festival in Rotterdam, which was scheduled for September 22, 1984 , has been canceled.
From November 14, 1984, Belfegore toured the United States as the opening act for Hanoi Rocks . The tour, which was scheduled to run until December 16, ended on December 4, when the Hanoi Rocks singer was injured and the drummer was finally killed in a car accident.
Back in Germany, Belfegore (together with Johnny Thunders , Marc Almond and others) performed on December 21, 1984 at the Music Convoy Festival in the Philipshalle in Düsseldorf .
A short tour of Germany followed from January 23 to 27, 1985, and from January 28 to February 10, 1985 Belfegore gave seven concerts in Germany, Zurich and Paris as the opening act for U2 .
A final Belfegore appearance was announced for the Two Years Loft Festival in Berlin on March 24, 1985.
Michael Clauss then disbanded the group because he "couldn't stand this commercial pressure, this fame."
After the dissolution (1985 to today)
Clauss withdrew from the music business and now works as a naturopath in Düsseldorf. Walter Jäger became a member of Die Krupps . Charly Terstappen and Raoul Walton still work as professional musicians today, both played in the band of Marius Müller-Westernhagen , Terstappen was the drummer for the Lords from 1999 to 2011 and runs his own small MGB recording studio in Mönchengladbach .
On September 30, 2011, Belfegore played a unique reunion concert in the line-up of Clauss / Walton / Terstappen at the Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf. On November 12, 2013 Clauss and Terstappen played an unplugged concert in the Haus der Jugend Düsseldorf.
Discography
LPs
- A Dog Is Born (Pure Joy, April 1983)
- Belfegore ( Elektra , September 20, 1984)
Singles
- Belfegore in Roma: Marble ( live ) / Heart breathes echoes ( live ) (Pure Joy, May 1984)
- All That I Wanted ( Edit ) / All That I Wanted ( Instrumental Dub ) ( Elektra , December 1984)
Maxi singles
- Belfegore / Holy Wars; Night in Sodom (Pure Joy, October 21, 1983)
- All That I Wanted ( Extended Cub Mix ) / Wake Up with the Sirens ( Remix Version ); Seabird Seamoan ( Remix Version ) ( Elektra , December 1984)
- All That I Wanted ( Edit ); All That I Wanted ( Instrumental Dub ) / All That I Wanted ( Extended Club Mix ); All That I Wanted ( Guitar Mix ) ( Elektra , December 1984)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Musikexpress magazine (1/1983, page 3)
- ↑ Spex magazine (4/1983, page 37)
- ↑ Mick Mercer in Melody Maker magazine (June 4, 1983)
- ↑ Dave Henderson in Sounds Magazine (August 13, 1983)
- ↑ Zig Zag Magazine (October 1983)
- ↑ Brecht Brozio in Spex magazine (5/1983, page 42)
- ↑ Spex magazine (6/1983, page 11)
- ↑ WEA Musik GmbH -Product Facts (information material December 1984)
- ↑ Mick Sinclair: Belfegore . micksinclair.com. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
- ↑ Jesse Grace and Martin Dio in Creem Metal magazine (5/1985)
- ↑ Olaf Karnik in Spex magazine (11/1984, page 52)
- ↑ http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SNzHCGLq1EM/SWVYqi_-v4I/AAAAAAAAAxU/7ig5kcT1b6Y/s1600-h/Cover+84.JPG and http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SNzHCGLq1EM/SWVl2gt6yaI /bBhKua4XNFM/s1600-h/Introduction.JPG : Festival program "Pandora's Musicbox '84" festival in Rotterdam
- ↑ Spex magazine (10/1984, page 6)
- ↑ Spex magazine (12/1984, page 36)
- ↑ Spex magazine (1/1985, page 47)
- ↑ Spex magazine (3/1985, page 47)
- ↑ Jürgen Teipel : Waste Your Youth ( Suhrkamp Verlag , 2001, page 343)
- ↑ Nathalie Riahi, Arno Gehring: "Michael Clauss - Vom Punk zum Aku-Punk-teur" ( Express , regional edition Düsseldorf, September 30, 2011, page 23)
