Crown cooker
Crown Kocher , actually Edgar Kocher (born July 1, 1952 ), is a Swiss guitarist, songwriter, music and video producer as well as graphic artist and web designer.
He is the guitarist of the Solothurn rock band Kaktus and a founding member and mastermind of Killer , a Swiss hard rock band .
biography
Career as a musician
Crown Kocher began his music career in 1969 as a roadie with the Solothurn rock band Kaktus, where he was responsible for the equipment of the later Krokus guitarist Thomy Kiefer. Instead of receiving payment for his services, he received free guitar lessons from Kiefer and was subsequently influenced by this musician and his bluesy guitar playing. When another Kaktus formation broke up in 1975, drummer Duco Aeschbach formed the new line-up with him, bassist and singer Markus Brönnimann and keyboardist Fredy Lysser. After three released singles, including the near-hit with the bizarre name "Bomb-Multi-Top-Super-Irre-Wahnsinns-Hit" from 1977, this formation broke up.
After the split, guitarist Crown Kocher founded the new Swiss rock band Killer with Markus Brönnimann, who from then on appeared under the stage name Mark Broman, and the young drummer Ali Allemann. Chris von Rohr played a key role in this new formation because he contributed the two young musicians Many Maurer and Beat Kofmehl.
When the band produced their first single "Crazy Daisy" in NewSound Studio in 1980, producer Christoph Berger took the band under his wing. He launched Killer with the German record company Bellaphon and got them a record deal for three LP's. Her first LP "Ladykiller" from 1981, for which Crown Kocher was responsible for a large part of the compositions, started with a scandal. The record sleeve featured a picture of a bleeding woman lying on a bed and the tabloids tore the tape in the air. Women's organizations ran storm and Swiss television subsequently canceled an engagement in an evening broadcast because of the brutal cover. The LP landed on the index.
The band released their follow-up "Thriller" in 1982, in which Crown Kocher was the composer of most of the songs. As a result, the management of Motörhead became aware of the band and engaged Killer in autumn to support their Germany tour, which ended in November 1982 in a concert at the Volkshaus in Zurich.
During the preparations for the third killer album in 1983, differences of opinion suddenly arose within the band members. Since Crown Kocher did not agree with the stylistic change of course, he had to leave the band. Jann van Crow replaced him on lead guitar and Dany Crivelli took over the drummer job after Ali Allemann also left the band in favor of a professional career.
Intermezzo as a video producer
Crown began making VHS videos with his cactus band mate Duco Aeschbach. With their humorous filmed sketches, they won Switzerland in 1984. Videotage in Bern the special jury prize and one year later the first prize for the best music video at the Lugano video festival, where they filmed their 1977 “bombshell” hit.
First musical flashback in 1988
In 1988 Crown Kocher played with his one-night-stand band "Mad News" at a rock festival in the concert hall in Langendorf. The band consisted of a total of 6 different singers and was put together exclusively for a single appearance. Among others, Mark Broman (voc) Duco Aeschbach (key) and Jann van Crow (git) were part of the party. After this musical detour, Crown turned his back on the music scene and devoted himself more to his family, his two daughters and his future career as an IT technician
In 1995 Crown Kocher formed a party band called "Pure Dynamite" for an internal company event at his employer. As a result, the maxi CD "Pure Dynamite" was created in 1996 with 3 cover songs, including a satire of a German hit song that was made with the title "I never started anything with a bitch", but was never published due to the delicate song topic. Many Maurer and Martin Brülisauer recorded the CD in the Spinx Studios in Solothurn.
Killer reunion comeback in 2002
In 2002, for the 20th anniversary of their first major tour, Killer gave a unique concert in the original formation of 1981 in Kofmehl in Solothurn with Mark Broman, Many Maurer, Beat Kofmehl, Ali Allemann and Crown Kocher. The sold out concert even brought quite a few spectators from neighboring countries. Killer emphasized that this was a once in a lifetime experience.
Not so for Crown Kocher. Encouraged by the positive reactions from the audience, also via the killer website, he decided to start over with a new formation. After a failed attempt with an unsuitable formation, Kocher met lead singer Andy Lickford. With Dave Gugelot on bass, Dan Hammer on drums and Easy Iselin on guitar, the band toured Switzerland from 2006 onwards. The highlight of this formation was a successful gig at the Z-7 in Pratteln as support from Tesla (USA) A painful hearing loss from Kocher interrupted the band's activities and as a result he withdrew from the music scene to cure his ailment.
A cactus Intermezzo 2008 - 2013
A rather coincidental meeting with his old band mate Duco Aeschbach in the Kaktus rehearsal room, where Crown Kocher put on a guitar for the sake of testing, was the starting shot for the two Kaktus albums "Rocking Blood" (2008) and "No time to die" (2012) , where he acted as a producer for the former. After a concert at the Märetfest in Solothurn in 2013, the singer left the band and in the absence of a replacement another cactus formation disappeared into the eternal hunting grounds.
Back to the roots
In 2014 Crown Kocher and singer Andy Lickford went to the Zodiac studio in Solothurn, where he started a new killer album with sound engineer Kaspar Brossi. After completing 3 songs, Kocher suffered another hearing loss. The project was slowed down again. 2015 was to get worse. Kocher suffered a heart attack and was in therapy for 6 months. A slipped disc completed the disaster series in which the musician was.
In 2016, Crown had recovered and the two musicians resumed songwriting. In January 2017 her German producer Armin Weisshaar released the maxi CD "Pure Dynamite" with three new songs from the upcoming killer album. At the same time, Kocher presented a new line-up. The band was joined by drummer Roberto Antonucci and guitarist Peter Berger, who both play together with Andy Lickford in the Judas Priest tribute band "Cutest Beast", as well as bassist Emilia Meyer.
Discography
with the band Kaktus as guitarist
- 1976 Bünzlischwiizerhuus (single)
- 1977 Bomb-Multi-Tip-Super-Crazy-Madness-Hit (Single)
- 1978 Drink and sing about (single)
- 2001 Kaktus Singles 1976-78 (Compilation)
- 2008 Rocking Blood (album)
- 2012 No time to die (album)
with the band Killer as guitarist
- 1980 Crazy Daisy (single)
- 1981 Ladykiller (album)
- 1982 Thriller (album)
- 1982 Midnight Highway Rider (Single)
- 1982 Ladykiller (single)
- 1982 Take me, break me, shake me (single)
- 2017 Pure Dynamite (Maxi-CD)
with the band Pure Dynamite as guitarist
- 1996 That's Röck 'n Röll (Maxi-CD)
Web links
- Official killer website
- Crown Kocher at Allmusic (English)
- Crown cooker at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Solothurner Zeitung: Band history . In: AZ Newspapers AG (Ed.): Az Solothurner Zeitung . March 28, 2018 ( solothurnerzeitung.ch [accessed November 6, 2018]).
- ↑ Crown Kocher: KAKTUS 1977 - bomb hit video clip. Video clip with award ceremony Lugano. November 8, 2012, accessed June 21, 2017 .
- ↑ Official KAKTUS website . In: Official KAKTUS website . ( wixsite.com [accessed February 23, 2017]).
- ↑ KILLER Switzerland - German . In: KILLER Switzerland - German . ( wixsite.com [accessed February 23, 2017]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kocher, Crown |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kocher, Edgar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss guitarist, songwriter, music and video producer as well as graphic artist and web designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1, 1952 |