Virus D
Virus D is a nationally known German rock band that was founded in 1983.
Band history
The forerunners: Wait a minute and The Maries / Odessa
Virus D was made up of members of two regionally known bands. For one thing, the band was just a moment of Haltern am See . From 1981 to 1983 Moment consistently made their own music with German lyrics, which was rather rare at that time. First songs from the pen of singer Torsten Schmidt († September 10, 2019), who later became Virus D singer, were redesigned into catchy rock songs, new songs were increasingly being developed together, the lyrics came from Torsten. This concept was consistently continued with Virus D and some pieces from Moment mal became an integral part of Virus D's program . The guitarist of Moment mal was Andreas Wessollek, also a founding member of Virus D , other members were Andreas Wiethoff (keyboards), Ralf Marmulla (bass), Jürgen Serucnik (drums). In the hometown of Haltern am See many moments are remembered for the local hit Rekumer Highway Blues .
The Maries were founded in 1964 in a Marl gazebo by Gerd Leschny (guitar), Ludger Rose (bass), Gerhard Jansen (drums) and Wolfgang Werner (rhythm guitar). The program was the music of the Beatles , and The Maries soon managed to be popular throughout the Ruhr area and booked throughout Germany. There were repeated changes in the line-up, until in 1973 Bernd Feller replaced the drummer Reinold Brenner, while Jürgen Wessollek joined the band on bass. Both were later founding members of Virus D . But not only the line-up changed. The musical program also changed and now played rock music by Deep Purple and Jimi Hendrix .
In 1975, the decision was made to part with the now outdated Beat image. Odessa was born. The band was active under this name until 1983 and known throughout Germany. While it was in existence, Jürgen Grundwald (keyboards, guitar and vocals) and Jürgen "Theo" Furchow (vocals) as well as Ullrich Genius (keyboards) joined the band. In early 1983, singer Jürgen Fürchow left the band to emigrate to Australia.
The end of Odessa and with it the beginning of Virus D heralded itself in 1983 at the "Kotten-Rock-Fete" in Wulfen . The atmosphere in the band wasn't the best anymore. Due to the previously inharmonious appearances, the band decided to seal their end if the next concert didn't go better. This was not the case, and so the band split from their singer Gerd Leschny. Torsten Schmidt (guitar and vocals) joined the band as lead singer for this. Virus D was born even before the concert was over . They quickly turned away from old cover versions and concentrated only on their own German-language creations.
Federal Rock Prize 1987
In 1987 Virus D appeared with the song Jetzt oder nie at the Bundesrockfestival in Hamburg - and was awarded the “1. Prize of the State Jury NRW as the best rock band of the State of NRW in the German Rock Prize 1987 ". For this price, the band was then competed against more than 1,000 competitors, while bands like Primavera , Dorian Gray and Double Q . The acquaintance of the band that came with this award led to numerous contracts with film companies. The band made its contribution to the WDR productions Das Büdchen and Der Todeskandidat .
First the colliery dies
Virus D , as a band from the Ruhr area, was very interested in the fate of the "buddies" who feared the colliery would close . In 1989 she therefore developed the rock revue "First the colliery dies - then the city dies". This revue was a great success and was performed all over Germany. The title became the miners' slogan and was, among other things, the motto of the human chain in the Ruhr area from 1997, in which over 200,000 people took part. Because of his commitment, Virus D was from now on a regular guest at the demos of the various mining organizations. For example in 1993 in front of 100,000 miners in Bochum or at the "Art for Coal - We for You" in the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund. In 2012 the song "First die colliery" was included in the songbook and lexicon "Glück Auf!" recorded by Klartext Verlag. The most famous and popular songs of the Ruhr area are gathered here (self-promotion Klartext-Verlag). In 2017 "Virus D" was part of the exhibition "Rock & Pop in the Ruhrpott" at Zeche Zollverein in Essen and in the book with the same title that was published at the same time. (Ruhr Museum / Klartext Verlag).
The temporary end of the band
Due to constant personnel changes, the end of the band slowly emerged. In 1997 the bass player Jürgen Wessollek died. His place was replaced by Andy Mohr, who soon had to leave the band for professional reasons. So it was finally decided with a heavy heart to give up the project. Therefore, on January 20, 2001, the farewell concert took place in the community center in Wulfen.
Follow-up projects
The remaining musicians from Virus D tried to set up a new project together with Andreas Wiethoff, but it did not succeed.
Bernd Feller and Andreas Wiethoff then founded the Betaplan project together . However, this project lacked the necessary seriousness, especially in its early days. After guitarist Andi Wessollek left the band and Uwe Brunn replaced his place, they began to seriously deal with new music. Uwe Brunn has since left the band and lives in Rio de Janeiro. In parallel to this project, Bernd Feller and Volker Krebs were also involved in the MoreMoore blues project.
Torsten Schmidt, lead singer of Virus D , had since joined the entertainment band Swinging Boys & One and left them again in 2017. His current project is called "Kraut & Rübe" and stands for carnival music. "Kraut & Rübe" can be seen regularly since 2016 in the WDR carnival shows and in 2018 for the third time in a row in the charts of the WDR-4-Jeck duel.
The revival
On the occasion of the closure of the last mine on the Lower Rhine, Virus-D was asked by the miners to play a one-off concert at a major event in Kamp-Lintfort. The musicians agreed spontaneously and after it was reported in all the important newspapers in the Ruhr area, the musicians decided to revive Virus-D and write new pieces. Virus-D 2012 are the original viruses Torsten Schmidt, Andy Wessollek, Volker Krebs, Bernd Feller, Jörg Schwarz, Karsten Blechinger and the new addition Dieter Beermann on bass.
With the so-called "Concert for Friends", a performance in front of invited guests in Haltern in early 2014, the band opened a series of public concerts with old and new songs.
In 2016 there was another change in staff. Jörg Schwarz, Dieter Beermann and long-time member Volker Krebs left the band and were replaced by Andreas "Wietie" Wiethoff on keyboards, Thomas Kersting on bass and Uwe Brunn on guitar. Uwe Brunn was a member of the band from 1995 to 2001. Jörg Schwarz and Volker Krebs are now members of the blues band "Hilbert & Friends", a project by Udo Lindenberg guitarist Kiran Hilbert, and a session band around Udo Lindenberg bassist Steffi Stephan.
Due to different ideas about the further development of the band, keyboardist Andreas Wiethoff left the band in spring 2018 and was replaced by Kalli Wälters.
At the request of the miners on the occasion of the last colliery closings in 2018, Virus-D wrote a new song entitled "The mining goes, the buddy stays". Virus-D presented this song for the first time at the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen, where a larger demonstration of the miners took place.
Andreas Mohr, who was a singer and bassist in the band as early as the late 1990s, joined the band again in 2019 as a singer and percussionist, while founding member Andy Wessollek left the band. While Virus-D was working on a new CD in the studio, the founder, singer, lyricist and composer of most of Virus-D's songs, Torsten Schmidt, died in September 2019.
Discography
| year | album |
|---|---|
| 1987 | LP sampler "German Rock Prize '87" |
| 1988 | Single "Tomorrow is a new day" |
| 1990 | CD "First the colliery dies" |
| 1993 | CD "Quicksand" |
| 1999 | CD "forensic evidence" |
| 2020 | EP "Neuland" |
The band has been under contract with the music publisher Bellaphon since the end of 2017. On December 22nd, 2017 the CDs "First dies die Zeche" and "Spurensicherung" as well as the single "Tomorrow is a new day" will be published in digital form for download on January 19th, 2018.
In June 2020 the EP "Neuland" will be published by Bellaphon. Singing fragments by the late singer Torsten Schmidt have been incorporated into the title song.
literature
- Songbook Ruhr Glück Auf -Lieder and Lexikon- by Fank Baier / Jochen Wiegandt (editor), Klartext Verlag.
- Rock and Pop in the Pott - 60 years of music in the Ruhr area - by Heinrich Theodor Grütter, Klartext Verlag.