Die Goldenen Zitronen
Having started in Hamburg 1984 Die Goldenen Zitronen quickly became one of the most important German bands around. The original line-up included Ted Gaier on guitar, Ale Sexfeind on drums, Aldo Moro on bass and Shorsch Kamerun on vocals.
In 1985 Fabsi, Managing Director of the 'Weserlabel', heard their first self-released song 'Doris ist in der Gang', and was totally blown away by it, and signed The Goldies to his label. The single got released officially on the Weserlabel.
The following year brought the release of the single 'Am Tag, als Thomas Anders starb'. After reaching indie hit status, the first album 'Porsche, Genscher, Hallo HSV' (which has sold 65,000 copies to date) hit the shelves in 1987.
In 1988 The Goldies released the maxi single 'Das ist Rock - Live in Japan', which didn't achieve the same massive success as 'Porsche' but didn't detract from the strong media interest. Around this time also lots of TV and radio shows happened. At the end of the year the album 'Kampfstern Mallorca dockt an' was released, it equalled the sales of the first record and contained the single 'Walzer nix gut'.
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Having started in Hamburg 1984 Die Goldenen Zitronen quickly became one of the most important German bands around. The original line-up included Ted Gaier on guitar, Ale Sexfeind on drums, Aldo Moro on bass and Shorsch Kamerun on vocals.
In 1985 Fabsi, Managing Director of the 'Weserlabel', heard their first self-released song 'Doris ist in der Gang', and was totally blown away by it, and signed The Goldies to his label. The single got released officially on the Weserlabel.
The following year brought the release of the single 'Am Tag, als Thomas Anders starb'. After reaching indie hit status, the first album 'Porsche, Genscher, Hallo HSV' (which has sold 65,000 copies to date) hit the shelves in 1987.
In 1988 The Goldies released the maxi single 'Das ist Rock - Live in Japan', which didn't achieve the same massive success as 'Porsche' but didn't detract from the strong media interest. Around this time also lots of TV and radio shows happened. At the end of the year the album 'Kampfstern Mallorca dockt an' was released, it equalled the sales of the first record and contained the single 'Walzer nix gut'.
The following year the band went to America for 2 shows - the New York gig was a big success, mainly thanks to Hans Platzgumer (H.P. Zinker). Big Cat USA created a sublabel especially for the Goldies and 'Jet Set' and 'Punkrock' were released in America.
The 'Fun Punk' phenomenon attracted dodgy characters like moustachioed squaddies and braindead football fans to the gigs. The band tried to introduce change by switching labels to the Berlin-based 'Vielklang' label and Psycho 1 joined the band.
In 1990 'Fuck You' was released - the first attempt to escape fun punk. The single 'Die Chinesische Schubkarre', with songs like 'Alles Was Ich Will, Ist Nur Die Regierung Stuerzen' and 'Haengt Joe' (an anti-rock song), showed the shape of things to come and another change happened: Enno Palluca replaced Ale Sexfeind on drums.
In 1991 they travelled to Rochester, Kent to record the album 'Punkrock' at Wild Billy Childish's studio. What has already been a sign on the wall with 'Fuck You' became reality on 'Punkrock'. The band wanted to react directly to what is happening in the political arena - see for example '80 000 000 hooligans'. Aldo Moro left the band and was replaced by Julius Block.
To put a final stop to the past, as the Vielklang label was too firmly rooted in the rock spheres which the band want to avoid completely, the band moved on to the Munich label 'Sub Up Records' whose sublabel 'Disko B' is one of the most renowned techno labels world-wide.
In 1992, they recorded and released the maxi single '80 000 000 hooligans' with the Hamburg / New York hip hop icons Easy Business and Eric I.Q Gray. Goldies went hip hop!
In 1994 the album 'Das Bisschen Totschlag' hit the streets, which is the band's most important step to-date : radical statements about current political affairs, with a suitably radical soundtrack : "a groovy crisis broadcast to the nation". Psycho 1 left the band and was replaced by Hans Platzgumer.
1996 saw the release of the album 'Economy Class' on which the Goldies concretised and expanded the sound of 'Das bisschen Totschlag' - 'No Wave', 'New Wave', 'Pseudo Free Jazz' and 'Punkrock' are all present.
On 10 August 1998 Die Goldenen Zitronen released their great new album 'Dead School Hamburg (Give Me A Vollzeitarbeit)' on Cooking Vinyl.
Expect the unexpected: Drums played like drum machines, almost eliminate guitars, bass guitars like samples and synthesizers and other machines. Famous guests include Chicks On Speed, Hanayo, Suzanne Zahnd and Sandra Bellet.
During their whole career the Goldies have always been a busy live band. They've undertaken numerous tours in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in the then still existing DDR. They played Roskilde and an open air in Pula (Yugoslavia), toured Czechoslovakia and Spain and played gigs in Chicago and New York.
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