Alphaville is a German

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

band formed in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

in 1982. They gained popularity in the

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

. The group was founded by singer

Marian Gold Marian Gold (born Hartwig Schierbaum; 26 May 1954) is a German singer-songwriter who gained fame as the lead singer of the German synth-pop recording act Alphaville, but also has recorded as a solo artist. He is known for his tenor multi-octav ...

Bernhard Lloyd Bernhard Lloyd (born Bernhard Gössling on 2 June 1960) is a former member and co-founder of the German synth-pop band Alphaville. Before he joined the band, he did not play keyboards – instead, he was previously a club DJ. In 2001, Lloyd al ...

, and

Frank Mertens Frank Mertens (born Frank Sorgatz; 26 October 1961) is a German musician. He is a former member of the German synth-pop group Alphaville. Personality wise, he is a shy and quiet person who doesn't like to talk. Shortly after the success of their ...

. They achieved chart success with the singles " Forever Young", " Big in Japan", "

Sounds Like a Melody "Sounds Like a Melody" is a song by the German group Alphaville, from the group's debut album '' Forever Young''. The single was released in 1984. The song was a big success in continental Europe and South Africa, reaching the Top 10; it toppe ...

", "

The Jet Set The Jet Set is a Polish R&B duo which consists of English-born David Junior Serame (South African ancestry) and Russian-born Sasha Strunin. They represented Poland in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki. Eurovision ...

" and " Dance with Me". Gold remains the only continuous member of Alphaville.

History

Formation

Alphaville was formed after lead singer

and

met in Berlin in 1981. The pair were heavily influenced by UK indie acts like

Tubeway Army Tubeway Army were a London-based new wave band led by lead singer Gary Numan. Formed at the height of punk rock in 1977 the band gradually changed to an electronic sound. They were the first band of the electronic era to have a synthesiser ...

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

and

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...

(OMD). Gold had written "Big in Japan" in 1979 after hearing the music of

Holly Johnson William Holly Johnson (born 9 February 1960) is an English artist, musician, and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, in the late 1970s he wa ...

's band Big in Japan. They first named their band "Forever Young" and subsequently changed it to "Alphaville" after the 1965 science fiction film. Together the three wrote ''Forever Young'' and recorded their first demo of the same name. The first Alphaville concert took place on 31 December, 1982 in Enger, Westphalia. In 1984, the newly renamed Alphaville released their debut single, "Big in Japan". In the early years, Gold said that "none of us could really play an instrument. The music was in our heads, but we were dependent on synthesizers and drum machines and things like that. ... The equipment we had at that time was basically toys – the cheapest monophonic synthesizers you could imagine. We had a little studio in a basement, made a couple of demos and sent them to some record companies to try to get a deal. We didn’t have much hope, but we had three offers and from that moment everything happened very fast."

''Forever Young'' (1984)

In autumn 1984, they released their debut album, ''Forever Young'', produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde. "Big in Japan" topped the charts in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, and the US

Billboard Dance Chart Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

(the group's only Top 10 on any Billboard chart). The single also reached the Top Five in the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Ireland and South Africa. It became the group's only Top 20 single in the UK, peaking at No. 8. The band's next two singles, "

" and " Forever Young", were also both European Top 5 successes, although the former track failed to make an impression on the American charts. The song "Forever Young" was written during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, where the singer said "hoping for the best, but expecting the worst; are you gonna drop the bomb or not?" Amid reports that pop star

Laura Branigan Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single "Gloria", stayed on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a ...

was featuring the song on her next album, '' Hold Me'', Alphaville's "Forever Young" was re-released as a single in the US. The Alphaville version was released a third time in the US in 1988, to promote ''Alphaville: The Singles Collection'', and peaked at No. 65, their highest charting (and also last) single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Despite the success of the album and its singles, the band did not tour. Said Gold, "we didn't feel we were good enough musicians o tour These days it wouldn't be a problem to go out and play with tracks, but at that time it was really complicated. We didn't feel like we were performers. We felt more like we were studio rats. The studio felt like a safe environment. So, much to the annoyance of our manager, we didn't play ivevery much." Despite their commercial success in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, Alphaville has never performed live in the UK. Soon after the success of the album, Mertens left the band in December. He was replaced in January 1985 by Marian's old friend Ricky Echolette on keyboard and guitar.

''Afternoons in Utopia'' (1986)

In 1986, their second album, ''Afternoons in Utopia'', was released and its first single " Dance With Me" was a Top 20 hit in Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa and in remix form on the US Hot Maxi Singles chart. It reached the Top 30 in Austria, Italy and in the US Club Play chart. The album's second single was "

Universal Daddy Universal Daddy is the sixth single by Alphaville (band), Alphaville, and their second from their album ''Afternoons in Utopia''. It was released only in Europe. Reviews This song was described as one of the album's best songs and reminiscent of ...

". For their third single, the band released "Jerusalem" in Germany only, while they went with "Sensations" for Austria, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The final single from ''

Afternoons in Utopia ''Afternoons in Utopia'' is the second album by German synth-pop band Alphaville, released in 1986 via Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986. A remastered and re-released version of the album, on both CD and v ...

'' was " Red Rose", in 1987.

''The Breathtaking Blue'' (1989)

Their third album in 1989, ''The Breathtaking Blue'', included the singles "

Romeos "Romeos" is the first single from Alphaville's 1989 album ''The Breathtaking Blue''. It was released a month ahead of the album, and was the first single by Alphaville to be released as a CD single, previous singles having preceded the format's r ...

" and "Mysteries of Love" and was released as a

CD+G CD+G (also known as CD-G, CD+Graphics and TV-Graphics) is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device. CD+G discs are often used for ...

, including black & white stills with original lyrics and German translation. As an alternative to individual music videos, the band enlisted nine directors, among them

Godfrey Reggio Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. Life Reggio was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to an old and distinguished Louisiana family descended from Francesco M. de Reggio, an Italian noblem ...

(''

Koyaanisqatsi ''Koyaanisqatsi'' (), also known as ''Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance'', is a 1982 American experimental non-narrative film directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. The f ...

''), to create a film entitled ''

Songlines A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia which mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dr ...

'' based on the album's tracks.

''Prostitute'' (1994)

The next album, ''Prostitute'', was not released until 1994. The first single released was " Fools", followed by the second and last single from the album, " The Impossible Dream". During the tour for this album Robbie France briefly joined the band on drums. In 1997, after the band went to record their next album, Echolette left the band because he decided to spend time with his family.

''Salvation'' (1997)

''Salvation'' followed in 1997. A limited edition box-set,

Dreamscapes ''Dreamscapes'' is a limited edition eight-CD set of rare Alphaville recordings, released in 1999. It features 124 tracks with a total playing time of around 9.5 hours. 43 of the songs had never been available before, and all of the remainder had ...

, was issued in 1999. In 2000 '' Stark Naked and Absolutely Live'' was released. In 2001, the remix album ''

Forever Pop ''Forever Pop'' is a collection of new (at the time) remixes of older Alphaville songs and singles. The people responsible for some of the remixes include notables such as Paul Van Dyk, Mark Plati, and De-Phazz. Reviews One reviewer had positiv ...

'' and a DVD entitled ''Little America'' of two concerts performed in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Bernhard Lloyd did not contribute to the second limited edition box-set, the 2003 '' CrazyShow'', and shortly after its release on 18 March 2003, he officially left the group, But he stays in contact with Gold. The core stage members of Alphaville then were Gold and new recruits, Martin Lister (keyboards), David Goodes (guitars) and Jakob Kiersch (drums).

''Catching Rays on Giant'' (2010)

On 19 November 2010 the album ''Catching Rays on Giant'', the first commercial studio album in 13 years was released and entered the German album charts at number 9 in its first week. The touring musicians became members of the band at this point. The second single from the album was the track, "Song for No One", released on 4 March 2011. It is available in two formats, one as a 12-track CD and the other a deluxe edition with CD plus four bonus tracks and DVD. It is also available digitally from various download platforms. The DVD in the deluxe package includes the video to the first single and a documentary titled ''Audiovision'', which is there in a normal version and also in a 3D version. The package contains 3D glasses. The band held an album release party, where they played a short unplugged set, at the Quasimodo Club in Berlin on the evening of 18 November 2010 to which their closest fans and friends were invited. The album featured band member Martin Lister on lead vocals for the track, "Call Me Down". In 2011 Maja Kim joined the band on bass. The first single and album releases were available at first only in Germany and through online shops and download platforms in German-speaking countries. The first single from album was titled "I Die for You Today", available as a digital download on 8 October 2010, released in CD format on 22 October 2010. It entered the German charts at number 15 in its first week of release and stayed in the top 100 for 8 weeks. Invited by the designer

Michael Michalsky Michael Michalsky (born 23 February 1967) is a German fashion designer. He is the founder and head designer of the fashion label ''Michalsky''. He is also the creative director of the luxury handbag manufacturer MCM since 2005. Besides his fash ...

, Alphaville performed songs from the new album as well as old hits at the

StyleNite StyleNite is a cultural event organized by Berlin's designer Michael Michalsky. It has evolved from Michalsky's fashion shows and takes place twice a year during Berlin Fashion Week. Since January 2010 the event is officially titled ''StyleNit ...

on 21 January 2011 during Berlin Fashion Week. In March 2011 Alphaville toured the album across Germany and had signed a new deal with the Universal Music Group. On 21 May 2014, Martin Lister died unexpectedly, announced by the band via their Facebook page and Yahoo mailing list, a few days later. He was replaced by Carsten Brocker. In 2016, bassist Maja Kim left in order to follow new challenges following the position was filled by Alexandra Merl.

''Strange Attractor'' (2017)

''Strange Attractor'' was released on 7 April 2017 after an extremely long production time, with a video for the single "Heartbreak City". In August 2017, they performed a Concert Tour in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and San Jose and

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2018–present: Collaboration and ''Eternally Yours''

For the 35th anniversary of the group in 2018, Alphaville held a concert on 25 and 26 May at the Whisky A Go-Go club in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 2019, the LA Concert Group issued a limited box set recording of this show containing five CDs, two DVDs and two

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

discs. In 2021, Alphaville teamed up with Schiller and released a new version of "Summer in Berlin" as Schiller x Alphaville. On 7 February 2022, Gold announced a symphonic album of Alphaville songs to be released by the end of 2022, supported by the release of three singles over the course of the year. "Big in Japan" was released on 29 April as the first song from the album. On 11 June, "Sounds Like a Melody" was released as the second song from the album, now titled '' Eternally Yours.'' "Dance With Me" was revealed to be the third song on 27 July, as part of a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

presented by Gold and his daughter Lily Becker. ''Eternally Yours'' released on 23 September 2022, containing new symphonic versions of sixteen Alphaville songs, plus a new song also titled "Eternally Yours."

Projects

Gold has released two solo albums ('' So Long Celeste'', 1992, and ''

United United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

'', 1996, both mixing personal creations and covers), alongside his work in the band. Lloyd also worked on a project named ''Atlantic Popes'' with singer Max Holler, releasing a 13-track CD. On 25–26 May 2018, Alphaville and Marian Gold played two nights at the

Whisky a Go Go The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed "the Whisky") is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boule ...

club in Hollywood. The two concerts were also

live streamed Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...

. On 15 March 2019, the album " Forever Young" was remastered for the 35th anniversary. On 7 May 2021, the albums "

" and "

The Breathtaking Blue ''The Breathtaking Blue'' is the third album by German synth-pop band Alphaville, released in April 1989. A companion video, ''Songlines'', was released in September 1989. The CD release of this album was one of the first commercial CD+G format ...

" was remastered after the successful reissue of the album ''Forever Young''. To support the upcoming release of the symphonic album ''Eternally Yours'' in 2022, Gold and his daughter Lily Becker began a podcast discussing Alphaville songs and the album.

Legacy

Alphaville's song " Forever Young" was featured in the movie '' Listen to Me'' (1989) featuring

Kirk Cameron Kirk Thomas Cameron (born October 12, 1970) is an American actor and evangelist. He first gained fame as a teen actor playing Mike Seaver on the ABC sitcom ''Growing Pains'' (1985–1992), a role for which he was nominated for two Golden Gl ...

in one of his first film roles. "Forever Young" was played in a high school prom-related scene in the 2004 film ''

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...

''. "Forever Young" was also featured in the Canadian movie '' 1987'' (2014). Swedish melodic metal band Embraced did a cover of " Big in Japan" on their 1998 Album '' Amorous Anathema''. In 2000,

Guano Apes Guano Apes are a German rock band formed in 1994 in Göttingen. The band consists of Sandra Nasić (vocals), Henning Rümenapp (guitars, backing vocals), Stefan Ude (bass, backing vocals), and Dennis Poschwatta (drums, backing vocals). AllMus ...

covered "Big in Japan" in their second full-length album, ''

Don't Give Me Names ''Don't Give Me Names'' is the second album by the German band Guano Apes, released in 2000. It includes the hit single " Big in Japan" (a cover of the Alphaville song), which peaked at #9 on the German charts and remains one of Guano Apes' mos ...

''. In 2008, "Big in Japan" was featured in the commercial for the Swedish TV show ''Stor i Japan'' (Translated: ''Big in Japan'') and was also used several times within the show, using different cover versions as the opening theme.

VH1 Classic MTV Classic (formerly VH1 Smooth, VH1 Classic Rock, and VH1 Classic) is an American pay television network owned by Paramount Media Networks. It was originally launched in 1998 as VH1 Smooth, an adult contemporary and smooth jazz channel. It w ...

's show '' 120 Minutes'' often features the song. In the first part of 2006, Australian guitar band Youth Group took their remake of "Forever Young" to No. 1 in the Official Australian Charts, thanks in part to exposure the track had received from being on popular US TV series ''

The O.C. ''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on the Fox network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, running a total of four seasons. "O.C." is an initiali ...

'' and its fifth TV soundtrack CD, '' Music from the OC: Mix 5''. "Young Forever" is the fourth single by American hip hop rapper Jay-Z from his album ''The Blueprint 3'' on the Roc Nation label. The song was produced by rapper Kanye West. It is a mild rework of Alphaville's 1984 song "Forever Young": the original melody is retained,

Mr Hudson Benjamin Hudson McIldowie (born 26 June 1979), better known by his stage name Mr Hudson, is an English musician from Birmingham, England. First rising to prominence in 2006 with Mr Hudson and the Library, Hudson later embarked on a solo career ...

sings the original lyrics (primarily during the chorus), and Jay-Z raps in place of the verses. Despite their commercial success in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, Alphaville has never performed live in the UK.

Band members

Current members

- lead vocals (1982–present) *David Goodes - guitars (2003–present) *Jakob Kiersch - drums (2003–present) *Carsten Brocker - keyboards, drum programming (2014–present) *Alexandra Merl - bass guitar (2016–present)

Former members

- keyboards, guitars (1982–2003) *

- keyboards (1982–1984) * Ricky Echolette - keyboards, guitars (1985–1997) * Robbie France - drums (1993-1995; died 2012) *Rob Harris - guitars, backing vocals (1995-2003) *Shane Meehan - drums (1995-2003) *Martin Lister - keyboards, backing vocals (1995–2014; died 2014) *Maja Kim - bass guitar (2011–2016)

Timeline

Awards and nominations

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Rockbjörnen Rockbjörnen (Swedish: ''the Rock Bear'') is a music prize in Sweden, divided into several categories, which is awarded annually by the newspaper ''Aftonbladet''. The prize was first awarded in 1979, and is mostly centered on pop and rock. In 2 ...

, Best Foreign Group , , - , '' Forever Young'' , Best Foreign Album ,

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Forever Young'' (1984) * ''

'' (1986) * ''

'' (1989) * ''

Prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

'' (1994) * ''

Salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

'' (1997) * ''

Catching Rays on Giant ''Catching Rays on Giant'' is the sixth studio album by German synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synt ...

'' (2010) * '' Strange Attractor'' (2017) * ''Eternally Yours'' (2022)

References

External links

Alphaville Moonbase
– Official Alphaville website
featured Alphaville Moonbase (official) - YouTube
– Official Alphaville YouTube channel
featured Alphaville Moonbase (official) - Instagram
– Official Alphaville Instagram account
featured Alphaville Moonbase (official) - TikTok
– Official Alphaville TikTok account
featured Alphaville Moonbase (official) - Twitter
– Official Alphaville Twitter account
Alphaville now!
– Archive-Link of the former official Alphaville weblog (the Domain is not active anymore) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alphaville (Band) Musical groups established in 1982 English-language singers from Germany German synthpop groups German new wave musical groups 1982 establishments in West Germany Synth-pop new wave musical groups Culture in Münster Musical groups from North Rhine-Westphalia Metropolis Records artists Hansa Records artists Polydor Records artists Atlantic Records artists