Guru Josh

Guru Josh , actually Paul Walden (born June 6, 1964 in Jersey , Channel Islands , † December 28, 2015 in Ibiza ), was a British musician . In the early 1990s, he reached top 5 placements in Germany , Austria , Great Britain and Switzerland with his single Infinity . She held up for half a year in the German music charts and is considered a classic of the old school - House -music.

Career

Paul Walden was a trained dentist . He began his career as an entertainer and keyboard player in a nightclub under the pseudonym Syndrone . The success of his debut single Infinity , which stayed in the German top 10 for 14 weeks and reached number 9 in the German annual charts, was due in large part to the saxophone of "Mad Mick" Weston, with whom he wrote the piece. Another hit single followed, Whose Law (Is It Anyway?) , After which the music press and audience quickly lost interest in his music. The album of the same name, Infinity , received consistently negative reviews, particularly the listless cover versions of Popcorn and Louie Louie . When Walden also supported the politics of the then ruling British Conservative Party in an interview , he lost the support of the raver scene.

In 1991 he switched to the then still young industry of multimedia production, where in the following year, in cooperation with other artists, he pushed the project Dr Devious and the Wisemen (best known title: Cyberdream ) and co-produced the computer-animated video series Dance In Cyberspace .

In 1996 a cover version of the classic Infinity by DJ Taucher was released . In 2001 Mike Dragon released another cover version.

In 1999 Paul Walden started an advertising company called camouflage aerial promotions together with Diego Ignacio Garcia and Dave '10 inch Flipping Mental 'Evans , which was run from their former residence at Camping de Cala Martina in Es canar Ibiza. The special thing about this advertising company was that a paramotor plane and a banner with the name of the disco were flown on the coast of San Antonio in front of the Café del Mar at sunset . In addition, aerial photographs of hotels and buildings were made by order. Even then, the pseudonym Louis Fabrix was used in the flyer , which was a mixture of the first name of Diego's grandfather and the last name invented by Paul, Diego and Dave.

In 2007 Paul Walden founded Guru Josh Project together with Snakebyte (Anders Nyman) and DJ DazPerkz (Darren Bailie), who in turn led Guru Josh with Sonny Vice (Erhan Yücesan) . A new version of Infinity was released under the same name in 2008 , the remix was done by German DJ Klaas Gerling with additional vocals by Jan Löchel . This version had great success across Europe, among other things, it was a number one hit in the Belgian, Dutch, Danish and French singles charts, and also in the Czech airplay charts and the Euro Hot 100. In Germany, the remix reached position four and lasted in the charts for over 14 months. This means that the new version was placed much longer than the original in 1990 (26 weeks).

The melody from Infinity appeared in a cover version on Colors feat among others. Domino under the title Hold Me and Kiss Me (or Holding Me Kissing Me ). In 2012, a remix version of Infinity produced by DJ Antoine was used in a magnum ice cream commercial.

Guru Josh lived in Ibiza until his death . The heavily drug addict musician committed suicide on December 28, 2015 , according to the British tabloid newspaper The Sun.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK
1990	Infinity	DE23 (10 weeks) DE	AT15 (10 weeks) AT	CH22 (7 weeks) CH	UK41 (2 weeks) UK	First published: July 29, 1990

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK
1989	Infinity (1990s ... Time for the Guru) Infinity	DE2 gold (26 weeks)DE	AT5 (23 weeks) AT	CH4 (21 weeks) CH	UK5 platinum (15 weeks)UK	First published: December 18, 1989, 2008 again at number 50 in the UK
1990	Whose Law (Is It Anyway?) Infinity	DE12 (16 weeks) DE	AT18 (12 weeks) AT	CH14 (9 weeks) CH	UK26 (4 weeks) UK	First published: July 22, 1990
2008	Infinity 2008	DE4th gold (65 weeks)DE	AT3 (54 weeks) AT	CH2 (85 weeks) CH	UK3 gold (28 weeks)UK	First published: September 19th, 2008 as Guru Josh Project, remix produced by Klaas
2009	Let Me Know (Infinity)	DE71 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	-	First published: January 30th, 2009 Copycatz presents P. Six vs. Guru Josh Project
2010	Eternity	-	-	CH24 (10 weeks) CH	-	First published: March 14, 2010 with DJ Igor Blaska
2012	Infinity 2012	DE14 (17 weeks) DE	AT10 (13 weeks) AT	CH16 (12 weeks) CH	-	First release: May 14th, 2012 Remix produced by DJ Antoine and Mad Mark

More singles

• 1990: Freaky Dreamer
• 1990: Holographic Dreams
• 1991: Hallelujah
• 2009: Crying in the Rain (as Guru Josh Project)
• 2010: Eternity (with DJ Igor Blaska)
• 2010: Frozen Teardrops (feat. Lauren Rose )
• 2011: Love of Life
• 2012: I Need a Miracle (with Tom Franke vs. Coco Star )
• 2013: Ray of Sunshine
• 2018: Infinity 2018 (Klaas Remix Edit) (with Sean Finn )

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 2008: for the single Infinity 2008  Italy 2019: for the single Infinity 2008  Norway 2008: for the single Infinity 2008  Sweden 2009: for the single Infinity 2008

Platinum record  Canada 2017: for the single Infinity 2008  Netherlands 2011: for the single Infinity 2008 2 × platinum record  Denmark 2009: for the single Infinity 2008

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Belgium (BEA)	gold1	-	15,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	-	2 × platinum2	60,000	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	2 × gold2	-	400,000	musikindustrie.de
Italy (FIMI)	gold1	-	25,000	fimi.it
Canada (MC)	-	platinum1	80,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	platinum1	20,000	nvpi.nl
Norway (IFPI)	gold1	-	5,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Sweden (IFPI)	gold1	-	10,000	sverigetopplistan.se
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold1	platinum1	1,000,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	7 × gold7th	5 × platinum5

Web links

• Literature by and about Guru Josh in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official Website of Guru Josh (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rave hit "Infinity": Guru Josh dies , Spiegel Online , December 30, 2015
2. ↑ Discogs entry from Taucher .
3. ↑ The Guru Josh Project. In: musik-base.de.
4. ^ The Guru Josh Project home page .
5. ^ Guru Project. Retrieved April 12, 2019 . 
6. ↑ BigCityBeats brings "Infinity" into Magnum campaign. Accessed May 1, 2019 . 
7. ↑ DJ Guru Josh (†) cause of death has been determined. Gala , December 31, 2015, accessed December 31, 2015 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK1 UK2