Gotthard (band)
| Gotthard | |
|---|---|
 Guitarist Leo Leoni (left) singer Steve Lee |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Lugano , Switzerland |
| Genre (s) | Rock , hard rock , pop |
| founding | 1990 as Krak |
| Website | www.gotthard.com |
| Founding members | |
| Steve Lee (until 2010, †) | |
| Leo Leoni | |
| Marc Lynn | |
| Hena Habegger | |
| Current occupation | |
| Leo Leoni | |
guitar |
Freddy Scherer (since 2004) |
| Marc Lynn | |
| Flavio Mezzodi (since 2019) | |
| Nic Maeder (since 2011) | |
| former members | |
guitar |
Mandy Meyer (1996-2004) |
Drums |
Hena Habegger (1991-2019) |
Gotthard is a Swiss hard rock - band from Lugano in canton Ticino . Every studio album after the debut reached number 1 on the Swiss charts.
history
The beginning: 1990–1996
Gotthard was launched in Ticino at the beginning of 1989 under the name Krak . After the former Krokus bassist and mentor Chris von Rohr took on the band as producer and co-songwriter, they renamed themselves Gotthard in 1991 and signed a record deal with BMG.
The self-titled debut album was released in 1992 and immediately became a huge success in Switzerland. It landed at number 5 in the national charts and the band toured Switzerland as support for Satrox , through Great Britain with Magnum and through Germany as the opening act for Victory (in spring) and Magnum (in autumn). They also played at the Foundations Forum in Los Angeles and opened for Bryan Adams in Zurich .
With the line-up Steve Lee (vocals), Leo Leoni (guitar), Marc Lynn (bass) and Hena Habegger (drums), the band recorded their follow-up album in the USA in 1993. Dial Hard was released in early 1994 and became Gotthard's first number 1 album in Switzerland. A state that every other Gotthard album in Switzerland achieved (as of 2017). From 1993 Igor Gianola was on stage with the band as a tour guitarist. He accompanied Gotthard on tours in Europe and Japan until 1995, before switching to Ain't Dead Yet and later to UDO .
On the tour of the next album G. (1996) ex-Krokus-, Asia- and Cobra- guitarist Mandy Meyer joined the band. G. initially marked the farewell and at the same time the climax of the rocking years.
Gotthard Unplugged and the Consequences: 1997–2002
The unplugged live album D-Frosted , released in 1997, heralded a new era for Gotthard. Just two months after its release, the album reached double platinum in Switzerland. The band played a sold-out tour of Switzerland and Germany and played concerts in France and Italy. In November 1998 Gotthard played in the opening act for Deep Purple in France.
The 1999 album Open built on the success of the live album and presented a less rocky and more moderate band. The ballad Heaven from their next album Homerun (2001) brought them their greatest single success so far . The song reached the top position in the national singles charts. The accompanying album was awarded three times platinum. In June 2001 Gotthard opened for Bon Jovi in Zurich, Vienna and Munich, a month later they could be seen in the opening act for AC / DC in Turin.
New hardness: 2003 to 2009
The years 2003 and 2004 were marked by radical changes in the band. On the one hand, the band separated from mentor and co-producer Chris von Rohr in order to leave the commercial track desired by the producer in the direction of rock and on the other hand, Mandy Meyer left the band. He's playing for Unisonic today . His successor was Marc Lynn's former bandmate Freddy Scherer from China . Gotthard changed management, founded their own record label G.records in 2004 and signed a distribution contract with Nuclear Blast . In May 2003 Gotthard played as a co-headliner at the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg and had an appearance in the Moscow Kremlin .
The album Human Zoo was produced by Marc Tanner ( Nelson , American Hi-Fi , ...) and marks a return to the rockier side of the band. The album Lipservice , released in 2005 and produced by Ronald Prent (including Rammstein ) and Leo Leoni, hit the same line .
On December 8, 2005, a live CD and a live DVD were recorded in the almost sold-out Hallenstadion in Zurich . The CD Made in Switzerland was released in spring 2006. The DVD is contained in a double pack. In April 2007 Gotthard released their eighth studio album Domino Effect , which again mainly contains rock songs and was again produced by Ronald Prent and Leo Leoni.
In May, Lift U Up was chosen by Blick as the official fansong for the 2008 European Championship . The remix was released in June 2008 and was arranged by Mousse T. Likewise, in June 2008, the musical future was secured with another record deal, which includes three more studio albums by 2012. In January 2009 singer Steve Lee played two concerts with Deep Purple's Jon Lord, where the two were accompanied by a backing band and an orchestra. On September 4, 2009 of the same year, the band's ninth studio album, “Need to Believe”, was released. Although the style of the two predecessors was basically pursued, the album contains some new, much more modern influences in terms of its production and instrumental direction. This album was the band's biggest success to date. It was also at number 8 on the official charts in Germany at times. The release “Unconditional Faith” is also included on the soundtrack of the autobiographical feature film about the German boxing superstar Max Schmeling .
After the great success of the band in the opening act for Deep Purple on their Germany tour in 2008, Gotthard started a major European tour in 2009. In Germany, Gotthard played a headlining tour together with the Swedish rock legend Europe , for which stadiums the size of the Munich Olympic Hall were booked. After the successful tour, there were other concerts in 2010, including in Eastern Europe, before the band took a short break between the concert series, which enabled singer Steve Lee and bassist Marc Lynn to go on a motorcycle trip through the United States .
Steve Lee's death: 2010
On October 5, 2010, the singer Steve Lee had an accident through no fault of his own near the city of Mesquite in the US state of Nevada and died at the scene of the accident. The last appearance of Steve Lee with Gotthard took place on the occasion of the Miss Switzerland elections at the end of September 2010, the last concert in front of an audience at the Open Air Gampel in Valais in August.
On the official website the band announced in February 2011 that they are planning projects again after a long period of grief and are looking for a new front man. In a lead decision under labor law in 2012 , the Federal Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the band's applications for short-time work compensation for two employees, since the loss of a singer is part of the normal operational risk of music groups.
New start with Nic Maeder and the CoreLeoni side project
On November 20, 2011 the band announced that the Swiss-Australian Nic Maeder will be the new singer of Gotthard. On June 1, 2012 Firebirth , the first album with Nic, was released. The first single Remember it's me could be downloaded for free from the band's homepage before the album was released. The album is - despite the interspersed ballads - much harder and more straightforward than its immediate predecessor and the influence of new member Nic Maeder can be clearly heard.
On April 7, 2014, the follow-up album BANG! . On this the band consistently continued on the path they had chosen, but managed to improve their songwriting once again and to make it clear that Maeder had finally arrived fully in the band. After a successful tour, the new album Silver was released in January 2017 on the occasion of the 25th band existence . On this one, unlike its two predecessors, the band relied on much more moderate sounds and heralded the second part of the unplugged tour D-Frosted in 2018 , the first time after its successful premiere in 1997.
In 2017 the debut album by CoreLeoni was also released , the side project of Gotthard members Leo Leoni and Hena Habegger, which consistently dedicates itself to the earlier, rockier Gotthard sound and in which they use older Gotthard songs, which are no longer or with the current line-up of the band seldom played, recorded again. Ronnie Romero (including Rainbow), whom Leoni had already met before his career with Rainbow, when Romero and his band "Lords of Black" played in 2014 in the Spanish cities of Bilbao and Barcelona in the opening act of Gotthard, was selected as lead singer . CoreLeoni also primarily focus live on material from the first three Gotthard albums. The band's second album, II , was released on September 27, 2019 . In addition to two new songs, there are also new recordings of old Gotthard pieces. CoreLeoni have been on tour parallel to Gotthard with great success since 2017.
At the end of 2019, guitarist Leo Leoni announced that Gotthard had returned to the studio to start recording a new album. This should appear in spring 2020. For March and April 2020 the band has already announced a European tour with the British rock band Magnum in the opening act.
Time out from drummer Hena Habegger
After Gotthard drummer Hena Habegger had already been absent from the 2019 concerts, he announced in a statement in early 2020 that he would withdraw from Gotthard's activities until further notice. The reason he gave the birth of his two children and that he wanted to devote himself to his family and especially his children. His departure was coordinated with the band members, management and all business partners. It is not known when Hena Habegger will return to Gotthard.
Band name
Gotthard is not only the name of a mountain massif in Switzerland, it also stands for the tunnel leading through this massif and the mountain pass of the same name . A second sense emerges if you consider that the band usually spells their name with the second T of GOT T HARD rotated by 180 °. This T separates GOT from HARD and represents a phallus . In addition, “Got Hard” means something like a boner in English (cf. English: to get / got hard ) - a sexually related allusion, especially for hair metal -Bands of the 1980s and their lewd lyrics is typical. The band's logo was designed by Ron Habegger, the brother of drummer Hena Habegger.
Achievements and Awards
- Gotthard are the most successful Swiss rock band to date (internationally, Krokus are still ahead)
- Over 2,000,000 albums sold worldwide, 1,000,000 of them in Switzerland alone
- 17 number one albums
- 1 Diamond Award (1 million albums sold in Switzerland)
- 2 triple platinum album (homerun)
- 6 double platinum albums (Human Zoo, One Life, One Soul, Open, D-Frosted, Lipservice)
- 7 platinum albums (Gotthard, Dial Hard, G., One Team One Spirit, Made In Switzerland, Domino Effect)
- 26 single CDs
- 1 platinum single (Heaven)
- 2008 - Swiss Music Award in the category "Best Album Pop / Rock National" for "Domino Effect"
- 2010 - Gotthard in the Swiss charts with 13 albums at the same time
- 2015 - Swiss Music Award in the "Best Album" category
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
|||
| 1992 | Gotthard | - | - |
CH5  (35 weeks)CH |
First published: March 9, 1992
|
| 1994 | Dial hard |
DE60 (9 weeks) DE |
- |
CH1 (23 weeks)CH |
First published: January 31, 1994
|
| 1996 | G. |
DE49 (8 weeks) DE |
- |
CH1 (24 weeks)CH |
First published: January 24, 1996
|
| 1999 | Open |
DE21 (6 weeks) DE |
AT40 (4 weeks) AT |
CH1 × 2
(29 weeks)CH |
First published: February 1, 1999
|
| 2001 | Home run |
DE14 (8 weeks) DE |
AT51 (5 weeks) AT |
CH1 × 3
(48 weeks)CH |
First published: January 29, 2001
|
| 2003 | Human Zoo |
DE29 (4 weeks) DE |
- |
CH1 × 2
(35 weeks)CH |
First published: February 24, 2003
|
| 2005 | Lip service |
DE31 (3 weeks) DE |
AT58 (2 weeks) AT |
CH1 (39 weeks)CH |
First published: June 6, 2005
|
| 2007 | Domino Effect |
DE22 (7 weeks) DE |
AT33 (2 weeks) AT |
CH1 (34 weeks)CH |
First published: April 27, 2007
|
| 2009 | Need to believe |
DE8 (6 weeks) DE |
AT28 (2 weeks) AT |
CH1 × 2
(32 weeks)CH |
First published: September 2, 2009
|
| 2012 | Firebirth |
DE9 (5 weeks) DE |
AT33 (3 weeks) AT |
CH1  (24 weeks)CH |
First published: June 1, 2012
|
| 2014 | Bang! |
DE10 (4 weeks) DE |
AT23 (1 week) AT |
CH1 (26 weeks) CH |
First published: April 4, 2014
|
| 2017 | Silver |
DE7 (5 weeks) DE |
AT7 (4 weeks) AT |
CH1 (25 weeks) CH |
First published: January 13, 2017
|
| 2020 | # 13 |
DE7 (1 week) DE |
AT20 (1 week) AT |
CH1 (... week) CH |
First published: March 13, 2020
|
Live albums & compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
|||
| 1997 | D-Frosted |
DE71 (2 weeks) DE |
- |
CH1 × 2
(37 weeks)CH |
First published: September 1997
|
| 2002 | One Life, One Soul - Best of Ballads |
DE60 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH1 × 2
(41 weeks)CH |
First published: January 2002
|
| 2004 | One Team, One Spirit (The Very Best) |
DE77 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH1 (26 weeks)CH |
First published: August 2004
|
| 2006 | Made in Switzerland |
DE77 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH1 (33 weeks)CH |
First published: April 2006
|
| 2010 | Heaven - Best of Ballads Part 2 |
DE82 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH1 × 2
(36 weeks)CH |
First published: November 2010
|
| 2011 | Homegrown - Alive in Lugano |
DE28 (2 weeks) DE |
AT61 (1 week) AT |
CH2 (15 weeks)CH |
First published: September 2011
|
| 2018 | Defrosted 2 (Live) |
DE65 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH2 (18 weeks) CH |
First published: December 7, 2018
|
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
|||
| 1992 | All I Care For Gotthard |
- | - |
CH13 (16 weeks) CH |
First published: June 1992
|
| Hush Gotthard |
- | - |
CH26 (3 weeks) CH |
First published: November 1992
|
|
| 1993 | Mountain Mama Dial Hard |
- | - |
CH11 (17 weeks) CH |
First published: December 1993
|
| 1995 | Father Is That Enough? G. |
- | - |
CH21 (16 weeks) CH |
First published: October 1995
|
| 1996 | One Life, One Soul G. |
- | - |
CH4 (25 weeks) CH |
First release: March 1996
feat. Montserrat Caballé |
| He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother One Life, One Soul - Best of Ballads |
- | - |
CH10 (15 weeks) CH |
First published: September 1996
|
|
| 1998 | Let It Rain Open |
- | - |
CH10 (20 weeks) CH |
First published: November 1998
|
| 1999 | Blackberry Way Open |
- | - |
CH43 (4 weeks) CH |
First published: September 1999
|
| Merry X-Mas | - | - |
CH4 (8 weeks) CH |
First published: November 1999
|
|
| 2000 | Heaven home run |
- | - |
CH1 (49 weeks)CH |
First release: November 2000
after the death of singer Steve Lee 2010 again number 1 in Switzerland |
| 2001 | Homerun Homerun |
- | - |
CH61 (5 weeks) CH |
First published: March 2001
|
| 2003 | What I Like Human Zoo |
- | - |
CH18 (9 weeks) CH |
First published: January 2003
|
| Have a Little Faith Human Zoo |
- | - |
CH49 (5 weeks) CH |
First published: September 2003
|
|
| 2004 | One Team, One Spirit One Team, One Spirit (The Very Best) |
- | - |
CH17 (11 weeks) CH |
First published: July 2004
|
| 2005 | Lift U Up Lip Service |
DE95 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH3 (37 weeks) CH |
First release: April 2005
feat. DJ Energy |
| Anytime, Anywhere lip service |
- | - |
CH27 (13 weeks) CH |
First published: October 2005
|
|
| 2007 | The Call Domino Effect |
- | - |
CH17 (12 weeks) CH |
First published: March 2007
|
| 2010 | Need to Believe Need to Believe |
- | - |
CH28 (3 weeks) CH |
First published: October 2010
|
| Don't Let Me Down Need to Believe |
- | - |
CH41 (2 weeks) CH |
First published: October 2010
|
|
| Tears To Cry Need to Believe |
- | - |
CH61 (2 weeks) CH |
First published: October 2010
|
|
| 2011 | Remember It's Me Firebirth |
- | - |
CH58 (2 weeks) CH |
First published: November 2011
|
| 2012 | Starlight Firebirth |
- | - |
CH25 (1 week) CH |
First published: April 2012
|
| 2014 | Feel What I Feel ...! Bang! |
- | - |
CH19 (4 weeks) CH |
First published: January 2014
|
| 2016 | Stay with Me Silver |
- | - |
CH100 (1 week) CH |
First published: November 18, 2016
|
literature
- Chris Von Rohr: Banana flank . Steinblatt Verlag, Solothurn. ISBN 3-9520081-1-7 ("New stories from the rock jungle") .
Web links
- Official website
- Gotthard band profile at Nuclear Blast
- Full biography (English) at musicmight.com
- Discography on hitparade.ch
swell
- ↑ https://www.blick.ch/sport/fussball/euro08/fansong-aktion-gotthard-ueberragend-id158904.html
- ↑ http://www.glanzundgloria.sf.tv/Nachrichten/Archiv/2010/10/06/Schweiz/Gotthard-Saenger-Steve-Lee-bei-Toeff-Unfall-verstorben?WT.zugang=front_top
- ↑ Judgment 8C_741 / 2011 of May 1, 2012 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , intended for publication.
- ↑ René Felber : No short-time work compensation for rock band Gotthard , NZZ from May 16, 2012, p. 12.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from May 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/gotthard-to-release-bang-in-april/
- ↑ https://www.metal-madness.de/news/gotthard-hena-habeggers-statement-zur-zukunft-bei-gotthard_3977.html
- ↑ Steve Lee was planning a solo album Tages-Anzeiger from October 6, 2010
- ↑ http://www.swissmusicawards.ch/
- ↑ DRS 3 Swiss Music Awards: The winners and losers
- ↑ This is a record: Gotthard with 13 albums in the Aargauer Zeitung charts on October 20, 2010
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH
- ↑ a b c Awards for music sales: CH
