Wolf Maahn

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Wolf Maahn (born March 25, 1955 in Berlin ) is a German  singer and songwriter . He is also active as a music producer , film composer and actor . Of 19 of their own albums so far, 15 reached the German album charts. A larger audience was he by his live appearance as the first German artists in the ARD - Euro Visions telecast Rockpalast night was broadcast live known, the 1985 European in 17 countries.

life and work

Wolf Maahn at the Haldern Pop Festival 2017.

Wolf Maahn grew up in Munich. At the age of eleven he attended a Beatles concert in the Kronebau there . Even years later, Maahn was still impressed by this concert: "For me, the Beatles were simply inviolable".

With friends (including Helmut Zerlett , Dick W. Frangenberg ) and his brother Hans, Maahn founded the group Food Band , whose initially unpublished song Send me up to Mona became known in the broadcasting area of ​​the WDR and was released as a single in 1979. By 1981 the Food Band released two albums in English, the first of which was initially only released in England and only a year later with a different title ( Last Years Album , 1980) in Germany. For the 1979 release, the band played concerts in London at the Marquee Club and the Music Machine and was invited to a radio session at the BBC Studios. For the release in Germany, the Food Band played in the opening act for Bob Marley and Fleetwood Mac .

In February 1982 Wolf Maahn released his first solo single, an electro-pop version of the classic Tell me where the flowers are . In September of the same year his solo debut album Deserteure came on the market. He also called his companion band with former Food Band members the deserters . Under the pseudonym Neue Heimat , Maahn and other musicians released a punk version of the Heintje classic I will build you a castle . At the Roxy Music concerts in Germany , Wolf Maahn and the Deserters appeared as opening act in 1982.

In 1983 the album Deserteure was nominated for the German Record Award. Der Spiegel wrote: "Wolf Maahn, 27, sings and plays untiringly against this flat wave - with a solid hand and black mouth." In the same year Maahn played his first tour as a main artist and released the album Bisse und Küsse . In 1984 he undertook his second tour, playing in the opening act for Bob Dylan and releasing the album Irgendwo in Deutschland with the single Fieber .

Wolf Maahn und die Deserteure appeared in 1985 as the first German act in the 15th Rockpalast Night, broadcast live in 17 European countries,  in Essen's Grugahalle . The album Irgendwo in Deutschland stayed in the top 75 of the German album charts for nine months . In 1986 Maahn released the album Kleine Helden with the hits I wait for you and Karussell . The carousel video clip received the 1987 World Music Video Award. This was followed by the live album Rosen im Asphalt in a triple vinyl box and in 1988 the purely English-language album Third Language and on the tour of the same name an appearance on the center stage of Rock am Ring . Again in German, the albums Was? (1989), Maahnsinn (1991) and Heaven is Here (1992). At the end of 1993 Wolf Maahn released the unplugged album Direkt ins Blut - (Un) plugged . The concert recording was broadcast eleven times on German television, including at WDR- Rockpalast and twice on VIVA . The music broadcaster then began to put several songs from the concert on clip rotation. A 45-minute version was broadcast in 167 countries on Deutsche Welle TV.

This was followed by the studio albums Libero (EMI 1995), Soul Maahn (EMI 1999) with the radio hit Hallo Sehnsucht , and Zauberstraßen (Universal 2004) , which was produced with London session musicians (including Pino Palladino on bass ). In 2005 Wolf Maahn went on the nationwide Solo & Acoustic tour and made guest appearances a. a. in the Hamburger Schauspielhaus . On January 27, 2002, WDR television celebrated the 20th anniversary of Wolf Maahn as a solo artist with a Wolf Maahn Night and broadcast all of his Rockpalast performances as well as a 90-minute Rockpalast Wolf Maahn portrait over a total of five hours .

After the termination of his contract with Universal , Maahn founded his own label under the name Libero in 2007 and released the live CD Direkt ins Blut 2 - (Un) plugged as a continuation of his unplugged album from 1993 . After he had acquired the rights from Universal, he released his debut album Deserters again in February 2008 .

It followed in March 2010 United States , his first regular studio work since 2004 with exclusively new songs. He wrote one of them, This morning , together with Xavier Naidoo , who had already worked as a singer on a song of Direkt ins Blut 2 - (Un) plugged (I wait for you feat. Xavier Naidoo) . In September 2010 the album reached number 136 among the MP3 album bestsellers on amazon.com in the USA. In the lyrics, Maahn did not deal with the United States of America, but the overcoming of opposites in human coexistence. In July 2014, Maahn was included in the supplement Pop in Germany: 111 bands and their best songs in Rolling Stone magazine with Ich wart 'auf Dich .

Maahn also works as a producer and songwriter. He worked with Wolfgang Niedecken on his first solo album Schlagzeiten and with Klaus Lage on his albums Stadtstreicher , Schweißperlen , Heißeverbindungen and Amtlich . He also wrote the song Monopoli for Lage . He also produced for Purple Schulz , Schroeder Roadshow , Joseph Beuys , Anne Haigis , The Piano Has Been Drinking and Marianne Rosenberg , for which he wrote the single Tonight (EMI 1984) together with Rio Reiser .

Maahn composed occasional film music, for example in 1987 for the Schimanski film Tatort: ​​Zabou and in 1991 for the six-part ARD series Leo and Charlotte . For the crime scene episode The Murderer and the Prince (1992) he composed the song Cool and wrote the scenic music.

Maahn is socio-politically committed. In 1985 he took part in the Band für Afrika project and in 1986 wrote a single about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster . In the same year he performed free of charge at the Anti-WAAhnsinns -Festival against the planned Wackersdorf reprocessing plant . In 1996 Maahn was the initiator of Rock for Bosnia , an open-air concert for the benefit of the War Child organization . In 2000 he supported the election campaign of the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD and its top candidate Wolfgang Clement .

In 2009 Wolf Maahn took on the leading role in the rock opera Das Lied von Schillers Glocke . The work was staged on Friedrich Schiller's 250th birthday in Marbach, the town of his birth, and performed five times, including two in Ludwigsburg. In 2010 Maahn had his first role on TV. In the RTL series Unter uns he played the fictional role of Heidi's father ( Birte Glang ) for 16 episodes . He did this under his real name at his own request, as several Wolf Maahn songs were integrated into the plot, which he only wanted to present under his name. At his fictional “farewell concert” in the show with four songs from his album United States , a record audience of over 2.5 million was measured in January 2011. Wolf Maahn is offering his album "Break out of Babylon", released on February 7th, 2020 in a special edition for 1,000,000 euros. He hopes for the "super-rich" whose proceeds he would like to donate to nature conservation and social projects.

Former and current members of his band play or have played with BAP , Herbert Grönemeyer , Söhne Mannheims , Xavier Naidoo and Die Fantastischen Vier , among others . Maahn's brother Hans played as a bass player under the name Hans Bäär with Hoelderlin , Kowalski (band) , Fehlfarben and in Gianna Nannini's band , among others .

Wolf Maahn lives in Cologne-Dellbrück and is married to Angelika Maahn, who is his lighting designer and partner of his label Libero Records . As a photographer and graphic designer, she helped design several of his covers.

Style of play

Wolf Maahn is left-handed, plays the guitar like a left-handed person, but pulls the strings of his guitars like a right-handed guitar. As a result, he plays the guitar upside down, so to speak, in the mood ehg DA E.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE
1984 Somewhere in Germany DE25 (24 weeks)
DE
EMI
1986 Little heroes DE21 (15 weeks)
DE
EMI
1988 Third Language DE46 (4 weeks)
DE
EMI
1989 What? DE39 (2 weeks)
DE
EMI
1994 Straight into the blood - (un) plugged DE64 (8 weeks)
DE
EMI
1995 Libero DE80 (5 weeks)
DE
EMI
1999 Soul Maahn DE39 (5 weeks)
DE
EMI
2007 Straight into the blood 2 - (Un) Plugged DE71 (1 week)
DE
Libero / Rough Trade
2010 United States DE56 (1 week)
DE
Libero / Rough Trade
2012 Songs from the Edge of the Galaxy _solo live DE34 (1 week)
DE
Libero / Rough Trade
2015 Sensitive data DE47 (1 week)
DE
Libero / SPV
2017 Live & soul DE28 (1 week)
DE
Libero / SPV
2020 Break Out Of Babylon DE41 (1 week)
DE
Libero / SPV

More albums

  • 1982 deserters (metronomes)
  • 1983 Bites and Kisses (EMI)
  • 1986 Roses in Asphalt Live! (EMI)
  • 1991 Maahnsinn (EMI)
  • 1992 Heaven is Here (EMI)
  • 2001 Absolut - Best of (2CD) (Koch)
  • 2004 Magic Roads (Motor / Universal)
  • 2008 Deserters - ReRelease plus bonus track (Libero / Rough Trade)
  • 2011 United States - Deluxe Edition (Plus DVD Live at Fehmarn Open Air ) (Libero / Rough Trade)
  • 2011 Roses in Asphalt Live! (2 CD, Remastered Extended Edition) (EMI)
  • 2011 Direkt ins Blut (Un) plugged (CD + DVD, Remastered Extended Edition) (EMI)
  • 2013 Zauberstrassen - Revisited (Remastered Extended Edition) (Libero / Rough Trade)
  • 2015 Irgendwo in Deutschland - Remastered (Remastered Anniversary Edition) (Universal)
  • 2015 Little Heroes - Remastered (Remastered Anniversary Edition) (Universal)

Singles (selection)

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE
1985 Fever
roses in the asphalt 		DE67 (4 weeks)
DE
1986 Chernobyl (The Last Signal)
 DE24 (10 weeks)
DE
1992 Totally in love with you
Heaven is here 		DE68 (8 weeks)
DE

Video albums

  • 2003 Straight into the blood (un) plugged (EMI)
  • 2008 Direkt ins Blut 2: (Un) plugged (Libero / Rough Trade) DE # 21 (Music DVD Charts)

Productions

Albums

year Title
artist 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, artist , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH
1983 Up close
Purple Schulz & Die neue Heimat 		DE20 (22 weeks)
DE 		- -
Tramp
Klaus Lage Band 		DE20 (11 weeks)
DE 		- -
1984 Sweat beads
Klaus Lage Band 		DE3
platinum
platinum

(46 weeks)DE 		- -
1987 Musical beats
Wolfgang Niedecken & complizen 		DE5 (20 weeks)
DE 		AT28 (4 weeks)
AT 		CH14 (4 weeks)
CH
Officially
Klaus Lage Band 		DE11 (16 weeks)
DE 		- -

Further album productions

Singles

year Title
artist 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, artist , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE
1983 Rummenigge Rummenigge
Alan and Denise 		DE43 (12 weeks)
DE
1984 1000 and 1 night (zoom!)
Klaus Lage Band 		DE5 (22 weeks)
DE
Monopoli
Klaus Lage Band 		DE47 (11 weeks)
DE
1985 Faust on Faust (Schimanski)
Klaus Lage Band 		DE10 (21 weeks)
DE
1987 Maat et joot
Wolfgang Niedecken & Complizen 		DE47 (8 weeks)
DE

Further single productions

Filmography

Others

Theatrical role

  • 2009: Friedrich Schiller in Dieter Fuchs rock opera Das Lied von Schillers Glocke , directed by Sabine Willmann, in Marbach and Ludwigsburg

Book title

  • 2009: Straight into the blood - (Un) Plugged I & II (Bosworth)

Television role

swell

  1. ^ In: Rheinzeitung , November 29, 2001.
  2. ↑ Pop “Deserteure” with Wolf Maahn, Spiegel Online, accessed on January 8, 2017
  3. ↑ Wolf Maahn und die Deserteure , Rockpalast Archive, accessed on January 8, 2017
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ [3] accessed on April 27, 2018
  7. ↑ 111 Songs: Wolf Maahn - "I'm waiting for you" . In: Rolling Stone , July 18, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  8. ↑ Leo and Charlotte, accessed January 8, 2017
  9. ↑ Wolf Maahn: The climate problem can unite the world. Retrieved February 8, 2020 .
  10. ^ With Wolf Maahn in Dellbrück, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from January 19, 2015, accessed on January 8, 2017
  11. ↑ a b c d Chart sources: DE

Web links

Commons : Wolf Maahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Wolf Maahn  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Maahn, wolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer, songwriter, actor and producer
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin