Lead singer of alphaville. The history of the Alphaville group and its soloist Mariana Gold
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The Alphaville group (Alphaville) appeared in Germany in the early 1980s. Its history begins with experiments in the field electronic music two enthusiastic friends from the West German town of Engere, Bernhard Lloyd (real name - Bernd Gössling) and Frank Mertens. Having left the NELSON PROJECT group by that time, the friends began to write "synthesizer" music that was popular at that time. After a short experiment with synthesizers, they decided that they needed a talented vocalist, and soon they were joined by an old friend of Bernhard, who lived at that time in Münster, Marian Gold.
In 1981, in the underground club where Lloyd worked at that time as a DJ, the group gave their first concert.
The group gave the second concert only in 1983 and the musicians chose the phrase "Forever Young" as the name for their trio.
In 1983, the musicians signed a contract with the WEA record company. The first single released by Big In Japan immediately brought the group first places in the charts of many European countries. Then the idea arose to give the group a new name. Being big movie fans and science fiction, the musicians decided to call their band Alphaville (the name of the sci-fi film by Jean-Luc Godard).
This is how the German synth-pop group Alphaville was born, consisting of Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens, who left the group in December 1984 and was replaced by professional guitarist and keyboardist Ricky Ecollette.
Released in 1984 debut album bands "Forever Young" and hit singles ("Forever Young", "Sounds Like A Melody" and "Jet Set"), thanks to which the group, soaring to the top of the charts, achieved worldwide recognition.
By that time, the musicians already had their own studio in Berlin and were working on their second album "Afternoons In Utopia", which was released in 1986.
On the next studio album "The Breathtaking Blue", released in March 1989, Alphaville worked together with the legendary electronic artist Klaus Schulze. Nine directors, among whom was Russian actor and director Alexander Kaydanovsky, created a film called "Songlines" from the album's songs. One of the film's clips later won an Oscar.
In autumn 1994, Alphaville released the album "Prostitute". This work was unsuccessful commercially, but inspired the band members to the first European tour.
In 1995 Alphaville finally felt it was time to go live.
Having played for the first time at concerts in 1995-1996, the group successfully continues touring in Germany and other European countries.
In 1996, keyboardist Ricky Ecollette left the band.
In 1998, Alphaville came to Russia for the first time and successfully performed at the Disco Stars festival in Gorky Park and at the Metelitsa nightclub.
The group visited Russia several more times: in June 1999 Alphaville gave a concert in St. Petersburg, in June 2000 in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, in April 2003 - in St. Petersburg, where the group performed with the Russian team "Semantic Hallucinations".
In 2001, Bernard Lloyd stopped touring and switched to his new project"Atlantic Popes", very far from the work of Alphaville. And Marian Gold, in collaboration with instrumentalists Klaus Schulz, Rainer Bloss and keyboardist Martin Lister, uploads one new song per month on its official website.
Throughout 2002, the group has been actively touring Europe, including new songs in their concert program. From time to time Alphaville keeps giving like solo concerts and performances at various European festivals.
In March 2003, Bernard Lloyd officially announced his departure. The nucleus of "Alphaville" at that time was Gold, keyboardist Rainer Bloss, who had co-written many of the band's songs since the early 1990s, and music director Brighton Martin Lister.
In 2004, the group performed for the first time accompanied by a string quartet.
Today Alphaville, which began its work in the 1980s with synthetic music and went through an experimental path in the 1990s, is one of the the most interesting groups centuries.
Foundation date: 1982
Other names: ALPHAVILLE, A Ville, Alpha Ville, Alphavill, Alphawille, Ville, α Ville, αVille, アルファヴィル, Marion Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, Frank Mertens
Compound: Alexandra Merl, Bernhard Lloyd , Carsten Brocker, David Goodes, Frank Mertens , Hartwig Schierbaum, Jakob Kiersch, Martin Lister , Robbie France , Wolfgang NeuhausAlphaville is a German synthpop band formed in 1980. Its founders: Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens.
In the late 1970s, the Nelson Community project was created - a kind of "community", which included creative people engaged in art, music, literature. In 1980, Bernhard Lloyd also joined the project, which included Marian Gold. A couple of years later, Frank Mertens joined them, the participants came up with a name for their own team - "Forever Young". Soon the group recorded the song of the same name (which would later bring them world fame) and gave a concert.
But then the team "went underground" and appeared only 10 years later - already under the name "Alphaville". The project got its name from the 1965 film of the same name. Alphaville in the picture was a city of the future, in which love, romance, compassion and tenderness were forbidden.
At the same time, the group signed a contract with WEA Records. And in January of the following year, the band's first track, "Big In Japan", was released. By the way, this song was written by Marian Gold back in 1979. This composition became very popular in England, America, Greece, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
After that, two more singles were released - "Sounds Like a Melody" and "Forever Young", which were a huge success in Europe, but did not find a response from American listeners and critics.
In the fall of 1983, the band's first album, Forever Young, was released. Soon, despite the popularity of the group, Frank Mertens left the band. And Ricky Ecolette came in instead.
In the summer of 1986, the group's second disc, Aftternoons In Utopia, was presented. The first composition from this album, which was called "Dance With Me", was in most European charts. Almost all the songs were devoted to such a future, in which there is no place for various vices and injustice.
The third album "The Breathtaking Blue" was released only in 1991. In this project, the band members combined music and video sequence, which was a short film. Nine directors worked on the concept and its implementation - they shot short films for the tracks from the album. The overall project was called "Songlines".
Soon the video for the song "Middle of the Riddle" ("Balance") won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
The group then took a break. During this time, as part of his own project "So Long Celeste", Marian managed to release 6 original compositions and 4 cover versions.
In 1993, the band unexpectedly gave a concert in Beirut, although during their ten-year career they worked exclusively in the studio. This performance of Alphaville is considered to be the debut.
In the fall of 1994, the band's fourth album, Prostitute, was released, whose songs were heard in the most different genres: rock, pop, reggae.
Ricky Ecolette left the band in 1996. After that, the Alphaville tour group was assembled in London, which subsequently changed its composition several times.
In 1998, the group toured Eastern Europe and Germany, while working on the Dreamscapes anthology, which was eventually released on eight discs and included compositions recorded by the group for almost twenty years.
In the 2000s, the group toured around the world, and in addition, Gold, Lister and Bloss began work on a musical based on the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.
In November 2005, the team took part in International Festival, organized by Avtoradio, "Disco of the 80s".
In 2009, the band celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary at the Prague Zofin Palace.
Greetings, dear readers of our blog! Let's talk about the popular German group Alphaville. We know them well from the songs Forever Young and Big in Japan. In the 80s they achieved great success and were famous all over the world. So they passed the test of glory a very long time ago. But to this day, the group is known and often spoken about in Europe on the eve of big festivals, and Alfaville sometimes comes to Russia with full-fledged concerts. Little is known about the band members themselves. Therefore, in this article I will tell the history of the Alphaville group, as well as how the composition of its members has changed over the years.
The history of the Alphaville group began a long time ago, back in the late seventies, when Bernhard Lloyd and Marian Gold met. These are their fake names, and the real ones are barely pronounceable German consonances. So the guys did the right thing by choosing such simple and sonorous aliases. For example, Marian named himself after his grandfather, and took his last name from George Orwell's book 1984.
Big in Japan - Alphaville's first song
Both guys performed in the same group and lived in Berlin. A little later, Marian got fed up with all this, and he left for Munster. And Bernhard became close to another musician - Frank Mertens(and this is also a pseudonym). New friends began to write music together, wrote, wrote, and finally realized that they needed someone who would sing these songs, moreover, they needed lyrics for these songs. And then Bernhard remembered his old friend Marian and immediately called him. Marian came to visit, listened to the music, he liked it, and he immediately put his poems on it under the name Big in Japan.
This is a song about how easy it is to become a star in Japan. You can be completely stupid your name will mean nothing to Europeans, but in Japan you are the King. This song has another subtext, which Marian spoke about only once: this song is dedicated to his drug addict friends. This is a very painful topic for him, since the singer himself had problems with drugs, but in time he came to his senses and stopped all relations with them. Ever since the song took on a life, Marian has hated it.
Thus, the trio was complete. And the guys had only one task - to write songs. What they did. Then the question arose about the name of the group, and all three decided to represent themselves with the help of their most beautiful song, as it seemed to them then - Forever young. It was under this name that they gave their first live show, which went off with a bang, all three were satisfied. And they drove off to Munster to record their songs. There they organized a socialist commune for creative people.
Soon they returned to Berlin, where they signed a contract with a recording studio and began to prepare for the release of their first album. But before that, they had to change the name, because Marian suddenly decided that if in twenty years he would perform in a group under the name "Forever Young", it would look at least strange. Then he was 30, and his colleagues Bernhard and Frank were 24 and 23 respectively. Thus, Marian made it clear to everyone that he was not going to be a member of a one-day group and intended to give his all for the sake of creativity. And after the meeting, they changed the name to Alphaville. That was the name of their favorite film by Jean-Luc Godard, which told about a future where computers rule everything.
The first single of the new group was the very song Big in Japan, so hated by Marian. And ironically, she is one of the business cards group, that song that everyone will recognize. And the album, which they called Forever young, came out a little later. It was a completely electronic album, no live instruments. And if you ask Marian now what he thinks about all this, he will probably say: “Listen carefully, because we really didn’t even know how to play there.” However, the undoubted advantage of the musicians was that they managed to breathe soul into cold instruments. And although it was dance music basically, she made not just move, but think. This was also served by the undoubted talent of Gold the poet and his voice. The voice is now low, then soaring up.
The first could not stand Frank: he was not satisfied with the life of a star and everything that was connected with show business. Being naturally very shy and timid, Frank makes a serious decision to leave the group. His colleagues agree with him and respect his decision, so in Alphaville appears new person — Ricky Ecolette. With the departure of Frank, a lot has changed in the group. Never again will they record such a direct, sincere album as Forever young with its simple but sweet melodies. But one thing remains - the opposition within the group. Previously, the calm Bernhard and Frank were opposed to the energetic Marian. Ricky in this sense fit well into the empty niche and the balance was restored. But he brought a guitar with him.
The guys fired their managers, took off the stupid sweaters they forced them to wear, and set about building a new face for Alphaville. And the next single Dance with me was radically different from the style of the first album. Lightness was replaced by depth, and detachment from the world, so cruel and merciless, grew even more. Peace, tranquility and dreams reigned in the songs of Alphaville. And they even called the album in the end Afternoons in Utopia.
The group has improved significantly. But the fans did not forgive them for leaving the style of Frank Mertens, and their record company did not particularly support such experiments on the product that once brought success. But the guys bent their line, and still won the recognition of both old fans and new ones. Their fame quickly crossed the thresholds of their native Germany, flew all over Europe, looked into the USA, into South America and South Africa. It seemed that there was no place on earth where Alphaville was not listened to.
But then Marian started an old song about the tour, and Bernhard and Ricky didn’t want to hear anything about it. The topic was closed, and the group sat down to create a third album. But they had problems: something fell apart, they lost something. So they fussed in search of new ideas, because they did not want to stand still and give the audience Forever young No. 2 or Afternoons in Utopia No. 2.
New Producer - Klaus Schulz
And fate brought them together with an amazing man Klaus Schulz, the legend of German music. The acquaintance began with a playful promise to make a remix for one of the trio's songs, and ended with all four enthusiastically sitting in the studio and creating something. The result, which turned out in the end, amazed everyone: the musicians themselves, and their fans, and the producers, who could not let Alphaville do whatever they wanted. And then Klaus decided to produce his new friends himself. Thus, they got out of another scandal. Album titled The Breathtaking blue, came out in 1989. Its creation took the group three whole years instead of the expected one. But the wait was worth it. These songs were truly breathtaking. If it wasn't for Marian's voice, who would dare to say that all three albums were written by the same people: What's always captivating about this band is that they always go ahead with a plus sign.
Songlines
But the trio surprised their fans once again. Instead of filming videos only for the songs that will be released as singles, they filmed a video sequence for every song on the album! This project is called Songlines. Directors from different countries were invited and each of them was entrusted with a composition. The video for the song For a million was filmed by Russian actor and director Andrey Kaidanovsky. And all three unanimously still declare that it is theirs. best video. And for the video for the composition The middle of the riddle, German directors received an Oscar!
But the CD didn't sell well. Only loyal fans were prepared for such changes. New listeners chose not to notice the breathtaking songs.
Solo album by Marian Gold
After such a bright album, the guys decided to take a break. Bernd and Ricky began to remix old songs, and Marian started recording a solo album. He titled his work So long Celeste- a kind of hello to Leonard Cohen, one of Marian's favorite performers. The disc originally contained guitar music, since the author himself always believed that his voice was more suitable for the sound of a guitar than synthesizers, but the management of the record company considered that this was not at all like Alphaville. Therefore, the proud Marian had to give up his ideas and change the sound. As a result, he was not very satisfied with his first solo album. It was released in 1992 two months after the release of the collection best songs his group, which was called First harvest.
The beginning of the concert activity of the Alfaville group
And in 1993, something out of the ordinary happened for the Alphaville group and a very ordinary event for any other group - the trio gave a live concert in Beirut, Lebanon. Finally, Marian persuaded his colleagues to go on tour, even if at first it consisted of only one concert. You always expect from electronic bands that live they will look like a pale shadow of themselves. But Alphaville has become an exception here too. They took ten musicians on stage, but reproduced everything that they had done in the studio. And the voice of Marian, it turned out, was not only good to listen to in the recording. He looked even better live. And there is no need to say that after that the group's fans became even more.
Album Prostitute
And immediately after the concert, the trio started recording a new album. It was a continuation of the ideas of The Breathtaking blue, which they improved and presented from a different angle. The mood of the disc changed from hopelessness to light sadness. And in general it was a very sad album, although it is called the best. I was also struck by its name - Prostitute. The main themes were politics and religion. It seemed that they themselves lost faith in the Utopia that they presented to their listeners.
Unusual tour of the band Alphaville
After the release, the musicians of Alphaville came to a compromise: Bernhard and Ricky stay at home and rest, and Marian goes on a coveted tour and represents the whole group alone. Marian said that he was insanely happy that performances were exactly what he had been missing all these years. Between performances, the soloist also recorded his second disc called United. Now he confessed his love for another of his idols - David Bowie by doing a cover version of his song five years. And he did it quite well. This disc was no longer controlled as tightly as the first, and Marian should have been pleased with the result.
How did the trio become a duet?
In the summer of 1996, Ricky Ecolette left, turning the trio back into a duo. He chose his family after deciding he couldn't balance loving them and being in a band like Alphaville, to which he gave all his time. And Bernhard and Marian worked in the studio again. Fifth album is titled Salvation, although initially there was a desire to call it Inside out on the track that opens the disc and most clearly reflects the general mood of the album. It was a return to the roots, to the spirit of their debut CD Forever young. The spiral of history took them back to where they started and took them to another level.
According to the soloist, they planned to see how such music would be received by today's youth. The youth took it with a bang, but the old fans, already accustomed to marching forward, were disappointed. Exists famous question, which was asked to Marian as the author of the lyrics, why did such a rollback occur and the verses became quite simple? To which Marian, with his inherent sense of humor, replied the following: “I even know which song you dislike the most! It's Flame!" And then he explained that the verses are really simple, but each poem has a special line that changes the perception of the whole song. Sometimes it's easy to notice, like in Wishful thinking, sometimes it's hard, like in Flame.
Album Dreamscapes on eight discs and Crazy show on four
And then Bernhard and Marian made a real gift to their fans: in one calendar year they released 8 (!) Discs. This project included previously unreleased tracks from the band and was entitled Dreamscapes. 125 songs at once. A year later, the live album Stark naked and absolutely live was released. And Bernhard took up his own Internet project called Atlantic Popes. 2001 - a collection of remixes Forever pop where you can hear the new sound of their old songs. And at the beginning of 2003 - the next 4 discs with new and unreleased Crazy show compositions.
In 2003, Bernhard Lloyd left the band, citing the fact that he no longer takes part in the creation of Alphaville albums. And now the creative core of this team is the unfading and energetic Marian Gold, Martin Lister and Rainer Bloss.
This Alphaville group is strange. They either remain silent for years, or flood fans with their albums. They also love to meet fans. Almost every meeting official fan club you can see the figure of Marian at the microphone or taking pictures with fans, or Bernhard chatting with them or modestly hiding, who can also be persuaded to take a picture. Once they both showed up wearing fan club T-shirts with Moonboy written on them. And the fans, in gratitude, wrote an album of cover versions.
But Marian Gold prefers not to talk about his personal life. However, it is known that he father of many children and he has a wife.
Recently, U2's Bono confessed to his sin again. After loving words towards ABBA and a-ha, the great Bono said that he also appreciates and respects Alphaville very much. To which Marian Gold said: "Oh, I love U2 too!"
The beginning of the history of this German synth-pop group was laid in 1981. Then at Christmas Marian Gold (Hartwig Schierbaum, b. May 26, 1954; vocals) and Bernard Lloyd (Bernard Gessling, b. June 2, 1960; synthesizer) first appeared in public as part of the Nelson Community collective. On the next year Lloyd and Gold, with the participation of Frank Mertens (Frank Sorgats, b. October 16, 1961; synthesizer), organized the prototype of Alphaville, the Forever Young project, named after the song of the same name they wrote. In 1983, the trio performed live once, and it turned out to be last concert for the next 10 years. In 1984, the sign was finally changed to "Alphaville" (in honor of the film by Jean-Luc Godard), and the stamping of hits began. The first single "Big In Japan" was released, then two more EPs ("Sounds Like A Melody" and "Forever Young,") appeared, and by the end of the year the debut album arrived in time.
Despite the fact that the group's songs blew up many European charts, and the longplay itself was recognized as a synth-pop classic, Mertens soon left the group, and keyboardist-guitarist Ricky Ecollet (Wolfgang Neuhaus, b. August 7, 1960) appeared instead. On the second feature, released in 1986, the musicians worked with producers Peter Walsh ("Simple Minds") and Steve Thompson ("A-Ha", David Bowie), and, in addition, about 30 guests took part in the sessions. And although the critically acclaimed "Afternoons In Utopia" spawned a major hit with "Dance With Me", it was hard to compete with "Forever Young" in terms of popularity.
At the end of 1986, "Alphaville" got in touch with Klaus Schulze, and the famous electronics engineer helped the band record their third album, enriching the instrumentation with brass, strings, as well as electric and acoustic guitars. The work on "The Breathtaking Blue" lasted for two years, so the disc was released only in March 1989, but the CD, in addition to the songs, also included graphics (the prototype of the current DVDs). In addition, the musicians implemented an interesting idea: instead of banal clips, a short film "Songlines" was shot on the basis of the album, on which as many as 9 producers worked. In 1992, German romantics delighted their fans with a collection of the best things "First Harvest 1984-92", and Marian released a solo album. At about the same time, a new "alfaville" album was recorded, but its release, due to a number of reasons, had to be postponed for a couple of years. In 1993, "Alphaville" broke the vow of "live silence" and played their first concert in Beirut in the previous 10 years.
Finally, in 1994, the long-awaited "Prostitute" appeared on store shelves. Despite the fact that the album did not contain outstanding hits, a cocktail of jazz, new wave, swing, hip-hop, ballads and epic electronics in the spirit of "Pink Floyd" appealed to a number of critics, and they recognized the work as the best in the group's discography. The next year, the musicians, having gone to France, began to work on their fifth album. In the process, Ecolette left the team, but the sessions were continued in London under the direction of producer Andy Richards.
"Salvation" was the last release of "Alphaville" on "WEA", as relations with the label soured badly. And although for this reason the record was left without serious promotion, its success was quite comparable to "Afternoons In Utopia". However, this fact was explained quite simply - after all, in contrast to previous experiments, "Alphaville" returned to the classic synth-pop. After the release of the disc, the team, supported by keyboardist Martin Lister and guitarist Dave Goods, toured their native Germany, Eastern Europe and even reached Peru. The musicians liked the South American climate, and it was there that they worked on the "Dreamscapes" 8-disc box set, which included reworkings of old things, as well as live and previously unreleased tracks. Meanwhile, the band's touring activities were on the rise, and in 2000 Alphaville released their first live.
But the new studio material did not appear for a long time. Instead, the band offered listeners options such as the "Forever Pop" remix compilation or the "Dreamscapes" sequel, "CrazyShow". By the way, Bernard Lloyd no longer took part in the creation of the last box set, and in March 2003 he officially announced his departure. The following year, Marian and Martin began to write songs for the sixth album, however, due to the fact that the musicians had to be repeatedly distracted (either for anniversary celebrations, or for creating a musical based on Alice in Wonderland, or on tour), the release of "Catching Rays On Giant" took place only in the fall of 2010.
Last update 27.11.10Alphaville is a German synthpop band. Formed in 1984 with: Marian Gold (b. May 26, 1958; vocals); Bernhard Lloyd (February 2, 1960), Frank Mertens (October 26, 1961); Ricky Echolette (keyboards) It all started with the fact that Marian and Bernhard left the Nelson Project in 1982 and, together with Frank, an old friend of Bernhard, began to write "synthesizer" music that was popular at that time. Initially, the group was called Forever Young, but it was soon decided to rename it to Alphaville. The musicians recorded several demos, including Forever Young, Big In Japan, Summer In Berlin and Fallen Angel. In late 1983, the band was offered a contract by the record label WEA. The first single released by Big In Japan immediately brought the group first places in the charts of many European countries. In September 1984, the debut album "Forever Young" was released, which became "platinum" in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. In December of the same year, Frank Mertens left the band and was replaced by guitarist and keyboardist Ricky Ecolette. In 1986, the second album was released - "Afternoons In Utopia", which included the hits Dance With Me, Jerusalem, Sensations and Lassie Come Home. This album, which was planned as a musical, became a reflection of the attitude of the musicians, an expression of their concerns. global problems. On the next studio album "The Breathtaking Blue", released in March 1989, ALPHAVILLE worked together for a year and a half with the legendary electronic artist Klaus Schulze. Nine directors, among whom was A. Kaidanovsky, created a film called "Songlines" from the album's songs. One of the film's clips later won an Oscar. In 1994, the album "Prostitute" was released; It includes songs selected from huge amount material accumulated over more than two years of work. Keyboardist Ricky Ecolette left the band two years later. In 1998, the group gave a concert in Moscow during a European tour. The same year saw the release of a new anthology album, Dreamscapes, an 8-disc set covering the entire history of the band from the late 1970s, including live recordings. All songs were presented in a new, never before published form. In June 2000, the group's first "live" album, "Stark Naked And Absolutely Live", was released, which stayed at the top of the German alternative charts for a whole month. In January 2003, another studio album called "Crazy Show"; it consisted of 4 discs and was distributed exclusively on the Internet. On the day of the release, Moonbase hosted an online party for all the band's fans. It featured two new songs for download - Ways and Heartbreaker
Discography:
1984 - Forever Young
1986 - Afternoons In Utopia
1988 - The Singles Collection
1989 - The Breathtaking Blue
1992 - First Harvest 1984 - 1992
1993 - History
1994 - Prostitute
1997 - Salvation
1998 - Dreamscapes
1999 - Visions Of Dreamscapes
2000 - Stark Naked And Absolutely Live
2001 - Forever Pop
2003 - Crazy Show
2010 - Catching Rays On Giant
Internet resources:
www.alphaville.de
www.alphaville.narod.ru
www.alphaville.kiev.ua
