H-Blockx

H-Blockx H-Blockx at the Open Flair 2015 General information Genre (s) Crossover founding 1990 Website http://www.h-blockx.com Founding members Vocals , guitar , keyboard Henning Wehland Electric guitar Tim "Ink" Humpe (née Tenambergen) bass Stephan "Gudze" Hinz Drums Johann-Christoph "Mason" Maass (until 1997) Current occupation Vocals, guitar, keyboard Henning Wehland bass Stephan "Gudze" Hinz (until 2003 and since 2007) guitar Tim "Ink" tankard Drums Steffen Wilmking (from 1999 to 2001 and since 2003) former members singing Dave Gappa (from 1992 to 2000 and 2003 to 2005) Drums Marco Minnemann (from 1998 to 1999) Drums Martin "Dog" Kessler (from 2001 to 2003) bass Fabio Trentini (from 2003 to 2007)

Timeline H-Blockx   1990 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Maass   1992 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Maass, Gappa   1998 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Gappa, Minnemann   1999 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Gappa, Wilmking   2001 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Kessler   2003 Wehland, Humpe, Trentini, Wilmking, Gappa   2006 Wehland, Humpe, Trentini, Wilmking   2007 Wehland, Humpe, Hinz, Wilmking

H-Blockx is a German rock band that was founded in 1990 by Henning Wehland at the Wolbeck high school in Münster , Westphalia . It is considered a German pioneer of the crossover style . In addition to the seven albums and one best-of album, they wrote the soundtrack for the German movie Bang Boom Bang - Ein todicheres Ding .

The band name is derived from the term "H-Block", which was used to describe the characteristically shaped buildings of the " HMP Maze " prison during the Northern Ireland conflict.

Band history

The first single Risin 'High , which was able to establish itself in the charts with a second release in 1995, sold 10,000 times through word of mouth alone in 1993, without being explicitly advertised, and formed a solid foundation for the debut album Time to Move . With 62 chart weeks this not only advanced to the German album of the year, but also achieved gold status with over 750,000 copies sold . In addition, the H-Blockx were honored as German Local Hero at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994. Due to the great popularity of the music style in the snowboard genre, the band made a guest appearance in December 1995 at the sold-out Air & Style Contest in Innsbruck alongside Clawfinger . In 1995 they were also nominated for the " MTV Breakthrough Artist Award".

In the following year Risin 'High was awarded the VIVA-Comet for the best national video of the year and started a first extensive tour through Europe. After the release of the second album Discover My Soul in 1996, the H-Blockx appeared as the opening act for Bon Jovi at various open-air concerts and went on a European tour again.

1997 drummer Mason left the H-Blockx for health and private reasons; he was replaced in 1998 by Marco Minnemann from the Freaky Fukin Weirdoz . The third studio album, Fly Eyes , was completed that same year, and the band performed on the Warped Tour across Europe. After only one year with a new drummer, the band was again without a drummer after Marco Minnemann left H-Blockx in 1999. This gap was closed by Steffen Wilmking from Thumb , so that in the same year the soundtrack for the German action comedy Bang Boom Bang could be written and recorded, in which the band members can also be seen in smaller roles. The H-Blockx were also successful in the USA when they performed on the Warped Tour in 1999 alongside well-known artists such as Eminem , Ice-T , blink-182 and the Suicidal Tendencies . With Oh Hell Yeah they contributed the title track to the fourth official World Wrestling Federation sampler, which sold 1.4 million copies and reached number 4 on the Billboard charts . The accompanying music video was shot in Los Angeles with the participation of US wrestler Steve Austin . The H-Blockx then went on a six-week US tour to support Biohazard .

In October 2000 Dave Gappa left the band, 2001 Dog replaced the drummer Steffen Wilmking . In 2002 the single Get in the Ring became the official "walk-in anthem" of boxing world champion Sven Ottke . In 2003 Henning Wehland appeared in the episode “ The Concert ” of the comedy series Axel! by Axel Stein , in which the H-Blockx played the role of the headliner of the “Smash Festival”. Further single and album releases could also always be in the charts. Live concerts on several tours and appearances at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park were very successful for the group. The first best-of album was released in 2004 under the title More Than A Decade , the CD cover of which shows the east building of the National Gallery of Art .

For their 15-year stage anniversary on May 7, 2005, the group performed at the Eurocityfest on Domplatz in their hometown of Münster.

With the sixth studio album, Open Letter to a Friend , the band and management could not agree on the sound of the album and its marketing. In the course of the negotiations, a bet is made: "Unique in the history of the German record industry, a band offers itself to take on both the creative and financial responsibility." The agreement said that the record company would only then be responsible for the resulting marketing Costs arise if the video of the first single Countdown to Insanity on YouTube registers at least 100,000 views or the single can place in the top 10 titles in the German single charts . On August 6, 2007, YouTube reached 100,000. The video clip was viewed, which resulted in the H-Blockx winning the bet. On September 8, 2007 they gave a free show in front of around 5000 spectators on Münster's Domplatz. Their guerrilla tour bus served as a stage.

On May 25, 2012, the seventh studio album was released under the title HBLX , which arose from an idea from the 1990s, as abbreviations often had to be used when labeling 2-inch tapes for tape recorders . On the same day, the first single from this album, Hi Hello , was released, which had been recorded in the studio in three weeks from July 2011.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1994	Time to move	DE14th gold (57 weeks)DE	AT11 gold (21 weeks)AT	CH8th gold (24 weeks)CH	Chart entry: October 3rd, 1994 Sales: + 300,000
1996	Discover My Soul	DE7 (16 weeks) DE	AT5 (11 weeks) AT	CH15 (8 weeks) CH	Chart entry: October 14, 1996
1998	Fly eyes	DE19 (18 weeks) DE	AT20 (14 weeks) AT	CH44 (3 weeks) CH	Chart entry: June 5, 1998
2002	Get in the ring	DE14 (10 weeks) DE	AT21 (9 weeks) AT	CH45 (7 weeks) CH	Chart entry: January 25, 2002
2004	No excuses	DE14 (8 weeks) DE	AT23 (5 weeks) AT	CH53 (4 weeks) CH	Chart entry: June 21, 2004
2007	Open letter to a friend	DE14 (5 weeks) DE	AT43 (2 weeks) AT	CH51 (2 weeks) CH	Chart entry: September 4th, 2007
2012	HBLX	DE31 (1 week) DE	AT66 (1 week) AT	CH85 (1 week) CH	Chart entry: June 8, 2012

Live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2002	live	-	-	-	First published: November 25, 2002

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2004	More Than a Decade	DE66 (1 week) DE	-	-	Chart entry: November 8, 2004

Soundtracks

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1999	Bang boom bang	DE30 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	Chart entry: August 30, 1998

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1994	Move time to move	DE34 (18 weeks) DE	-	-	Chart entry: December 19, 1994
1995	Risin 'high time to move	DE34 (16 weeks) DE	-	-	Chart entry: March 13, 1995
1996	How do you feel? Discover My Soul	-	-	CH28 (1 week) CH	Chart entry: September 29, 1996
2000	Ring of Fire Get in the Ring	DE13 (17 weeks) DE	AT10 (13 weeks) AT	CH42 (12 weeks) CH	Chart entry: April 16, 2000 vs. Dr. Ring thing
2001	C'mon Get in the Ring	DE83 (1 week) DE	-	-	Chart entry: November 19, 2001
2002	The Power Get in the Ring	DE48 (7 weeks) DE	AT51 (5 weeks) AT	-	Chart entry: February 18, 2002 feat. Turbo B
2004	Leave Me Alone No Excuses	DE55 (7 weeks) DE	AT59 (4 weeks) AT	-	Chart entry: June 7, 2004
2004	Celebrate Youth No Excuses	DE42 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	Chart entry: September 13, 2004
2007	Countdown to Insanity Open Letter to a Friend	DE35 (9 weeks) DE	AT51 (5 weeks) AT	-	Chart entry: August 24, 2007

More singles

• 1995: Go Freaky
• 1995: Little Girl
• 1996: Gimme More
• 1996: Step Back
• 1998: Fly
• 1998: Take Me Home
• 1999: Time of My Life
• 2002: Get in the Ring
• 2002: Little Girl (Live)
• 2012: Hi Hello

Video albums

• 2002: Live
• 2004: More Than a Decade - The Best of H-Blockx

Band members timeline

Awards

• Comet
  • 1995: for "Video of the Year" (Risin 'High)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ planet-interview.de , Interview by Jakob Buhre and Stefan Lätzer with Henning Wehland, December 8, 2000
2. ↑ handfest-online.de ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Interview: Training Rock'n'Roll , July 12, 2002, p. 12f.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Bonus material on the DVD Bang Boom Bang - A sure-fire thing : "Music" section
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} H-Blockx ( Memento from March 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), biography at Gun Records
5. ↑ Bonus material on the DVD "Bang Boom Bang - A sure-fire thing": "Notes" section
6. ↑ IMDb : Axel! - The concert
7. ↑ Press and Information Office of the City of Münster: Eurocityfest: From H-Blockx to Elvis - three days of music mix, program on eight stages leaves nothing to be desired . April 27, 2005
8. ↑ H-Blockx: -, Die Wette / The Bet . June 11, 2007
9. ↑ ^{a b} MySpace : H-Blockx: Always changing to stay true to yourself - hard riffs and a clear line . May 24, 2012
10. ↑ H-Blockx “Time To Move” in the IFPI database DE AT CH

Web links

Commons : H-Blockx  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• official page
• H-Blockx at Discogs (English)
• Westzeit: Interview: 15 years of H-Blockx with Axel Nothen, November 1st, 2004.