Jessica (band)

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Annual hit parade of the GDR
title
mummy
  GDR 16 1985
Hold me tight
  GDR 24 1985

Jessica was a music group in the GDR that was oriented towards New Wave music and the Neue Deutsche Welle . The band was modeled on the English band The Police .

Band history

Jessica was founded in the second half of the 1970s in Berlin-Lichtenberg as a school band by André Drechsler ( guitar ), Ralf Böhme ( keyboard ), Gerd Hering (second guitar), Ingo Felix (vocals) and Steffen Krause (drums). The band was named after the instrumental piece Jessica by The Allman Brothers Band . In 1981 Hering and Felix were drafted into the NVA . For them Tino Eisbrenner ( vocals ) and Janek Skirecki ( bass ) were added, who were also drafted in the fall of 1981, whereupon the band disintegrated for a year and a half. Drechsler played with Perl until 1983 . Böhme and Krause were called up for military service in 1982. In the autumn of 1983 the re-establishment took place with André Drechsler, Ralf Böhme, Tino Eisbrenner and Janek Skirecki, but now with the drummer Olaf Becker. The band came into the media through a contribution by an English television team from Tyne Tees Television , which was shooting a documentary about bands in east and west Berlin and discovered the band by chance. Then they produced the title Ich Such einer Traum in Gunther Wosylus' (formerly Modern Soul Band and Puhdys ) studio . The amateur band was named the most popular newcomer band in the GDR in 1984 by the newspaper Junge Welt and Radio DDR . From 1984 to 1986 they toured all the Eastern Bloc countries and in 1986 they released the album Player , which sold 180,000 times. In the studio production to I watch you played Thomas Klemm , the tenor saxophone . Volker Schlott wrote the brass arrangements for the LP player and played the soprano saxophone with the Fun Horns during the recordings for the LP . In the same year the band received a professional license . After conflicts with the general management of the committee for entertainment arts , the band was broken up and Drechsler and Becker were called up for army service. The reason for this was the band's refusal to produce a commissioned work for Rock for Peace . Then Eisbrenner pursued his solo career with some band members and guests, as the boss of the only record label in question , René Büttner, refused to release another LP by the band. However, he was ready to support a solo career with Eisbrenner. In 1988, Jessica failed to found a new company.

The titles of the band were composed by André Drechsler and Ralf Böhme, Tino Eisbrenner provided the lyrics. Trademarks were the music, which was particularly youth-oriented, and a red cap that Eisbrenner wore.

For the double CD Eisbrenner - I watch you - songs from three decades , the Jessica line-up from 1981 got back together. Old titles were recorded, but also a new song entitled Auf der Reise .

Discography

Albums

  • 1986: Player ( Amiga ) (new edition 2002 with bonus titles, Manana Records)
  • 2011: Eisbrenner - I watch you - songs from three decades (participation in eleven titles, Sony Music )

Singles

  • 1985: My courage / mom (Amiga)
  • 1985: First love ( Marion Sprawe ) / After school (Jessica) (Amiga)
  • 1993: You enchant me (BMG)

Films with music by Jessica

literature

  • Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 142.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR . 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9
  2. ↑ Interview with Eisbrenner at deutsche-mugge.de, accessed on January 5, 2016
  3. ↑ Jessica - Reunion 2011