Jeronimo was a German

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band of the early 1970s. They had chart success in Europe with singles "Heya" and "Na Na Hey Hey", and released three studio albums in 1970-1972.

Band history

Jeronimo were founded in 1969 by Rainer Marz (lead guitar, vocals), Gunnar Schäfer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ringo Funk (drums, lead vocals). Their first two singles released in 1969-1970, "Heya" and "Na Na Hey Hey", became hits in several European countries. In 1970 Jeronimo toured successfully through Germany with Steppenwolf. The same they performed at the legendary Progressive Pop Festival in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. Following that, Jeronimo shared the headlines with such groups as

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

and

Golden Earring Golden Earring (originally known as The Tornados) was a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on t ...

at various European open-air festivals. On June 9 and 11, 1970, they represented

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the ''Barbarela de Conjuntos 70'' contest held at the Barbarela Discotheque in

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, but were disqualified for running overtime.Billboard - 27 Jun 1970 - Page 60 "Focus, a Dutch group representing Luxembourg, and Jeronimo from Germany, were disqualified for running overtime on the second night." Jeronimo's first studio release was a pink vinyl split with Creedence Clearwater Revival called ''Spirit Orgaszmus'', which was a success throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. All of the Jeronimo's six tracks made their way onto the band's debut longplay ''Cosmic Blues'' (1970, Bellaphone), its music described as "

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

meets

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...

."Jeronimo
at the RockFaces Encyclopedia (Russian) In 1971, Jeronimo's biggest stage-performance in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

for

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was televised worldwide. Jeronimo could be seen in numerous European television shows and in Germany they were on ''Hits a Gogo'', ''Beatclub'' and ''Bananas''. In 1971 Marz departed and with Michael Koch the band released their second album, ''Jeronimo'' (1971). The third one, ''Time Ride'' (1972), now on Bacillus Records, proved to be their final one. In 1999-2000, their hits "Heya" and "Na Na Hey Hey" were re-released on numerous hit-compilations. After some negotiations with the record company in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, Ringo Funk successfully acquired the rights to all of Jeronimo's songs in November 2000. In the spring of 2002, 4 CD's (''Jeronimo'', ''Cosmic Blues'', ''Time Ride'' and ''The Best Of Jeronimo'') were released, digitally remastered from the original recordings, with bonus tracks on each of the CD's.Band history
Official Website The original line-up reunited in 2001 to play live but no new material has been released.

Discography

* ''Spirit Orgaszmus of Jeronimo and Creedence Clearwater Revival'' (split LP, 1970) * ''Cosmic Blues'' (1970) * ''Jeronimo'' (1971) * ''Time Ride'' (1972) * ''Best of Jeronimo'' (2003, CD) * ''Timevision'' (2007, DVD)

References

{{Authority control German musical groups 1969 establishments in Germany Musical groups established in 1969