Heinz Geisler

Heinz Geisler (* 1950 in Fürstenwalde / Spree ) is a German rock musician and composer. He became known as a guitarist and co-founder of the Bürkholz formation , the GRH project and the group Pilot . He was the first guitarist to use the mandolin and the mouth tube playing technique in rock music in the GDR .

Life

From 1967 to 1969 Heinz Geisler played in the school band Olympics , which covered songs by the Rolling Stones , for example . After graduating from high school in 1970, he began studying physics at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and became the guitarist of the band Robby's , in which Thomas Bürkholz played drums. The two became friends and planned a new band project together. Before that, Geisler founded the Vivace group , which is more of a transitional project. B. Played Latin rock in the style of Carlos Santana .

In 1972 Geisler moved to the Leipzig University of Music and became a member of the Bürkholz formation founded by Thomas Bürkholz , which established itself with top placements in the GDR charts, television, radio and legendary live performances. After less than a year, however, the band was banned. On the recommendation of the public prosecutor's office, the Leipzig department head for culture took a live concert in June 1973 as an opportunity to break up the Bürkholz formation on July 20, 1973. At the concert mentioned, there were riots by the audience against the security forces present. The event had to be canceled. The band's performance brought about this escalation, it said in the reason for the forced dissolution. Like the other band members, Geisler had to pay a fine of 300 marks and was not allowed to work as a musician for a year.

In 1974 he founded the group GRH-Project (Geisler, Rixrath, Hoffmann; later, Manuel of sending them) and composed, among others, the hit "brother in front there," the temporarily the No. 1 ranking in the East German television program broadcast took . In this piece he was the first GDR musician to use the mandolin as a full-fledged instrument in a rock formation.

In 1975 there was a collaboration with the Schauspielhaus Leipzig. Geisler wrote the music for the performance of the play "Seventh Commandment: Steal a little less" by Dario Fo .

From 1976 to the end of 1977 Geisler was a member of the Magdeburg band Pilot . Here he composed z. B. the song "Sunday" or the hit "The First Race".

On the night of January 9th to 10th, 1978, he put his long-cherished escape plans into practice by allowing two Berlin musicians to smuggle him into western Germany.

After his escape Geisler was a session and studio musician in the Cologne area and Frankfurt am Main .

literature

to the GRH project:

• HP Hofmann: Beat Lexicon. Performers, authors, technical terms . VEB Lied der Zeit Musikverlag, Berlin (East) 1977.