La Düsseldorf was a German band formed by the former member of

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

, multi-instrumentalist

Klaus Dinger Klaus Dinger (24 March 1946 – 21 March 2008) was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of New wave music, new wave group La Düsse ...

, his brother

Thomas Dinger Thomas Dinger (28 October 1952 — 9 April 2002) was a German drummer, singer and songwriter who was active in solo pursuits in addition to having been a member of Neu! and La Düsseldorf, both with his brother Klaus Dinger, and 1-A Düsseld ...

, and Hans Lampe. La Düsseldorf released a string of successful albums (with sales totaling over a million) during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and were considered highly influential by

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

and

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

, with Bowie going so far as calling La Düsseldorf "the soundtrack of the eighties". The release of their third record ''

Individuellos ''Individuellos'' is the third album by the German band La Düsseldorf. It was shortly before the time ''Individuellos'' was released that La Düsseldorf's piano player Andreas Schell committed suicide. This is marked by a cross next to his c ...

'' was followed by a "years-long legal dispute" with the record company

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and disagreements between the Dinger brothers.

Overview

Core members

– vocals, guitars, keyboards *

– vocals, percussion * Hans Lampe – percussion, electronics

Other members

* Harald Konietzko (1978) – bass * Andreas Schell (1978) – piano * Nikolaus Van Rhein (1976–1981) – keyboards (''this is a pseudonym of Klaus Dinger''.)

Discography

Albums

* 1976 – ''

La Düsseldorf La Düsseldorf was a German band formed by the former member of Neu!, multi-instrumentalist Klaus Dinger, his brother Thomas Dinger, and Hans Lampe. La Düsseldorf released a string of successful albums (with sales totaling over a million) durin ...

'' ( Teldec Records) * 1978 – ''

Viva Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Energy, an Australian petroleum company * Viva Entertainment, a Philippine media company * Viva Films, a Philippine film company ...

'' (Teldec Records) * 1980 – ''

'' (Teldec Records) The following albums were released by

without the participation of any other band members. Due to legal disputes, the albums could not be released under the La Düsseldorf name, but were subtitled "La Düsseldorf 4" and "La Düsseldorf 5" respectively. * 1985 – '' Neondian'' ( Teldec Records, released under the name "''Klaus Dinger and Rheinita Bella Düsseldorf''") * 1999 – ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

'' (Captain Trip Records, recorded between 1985 and 1987, released under the name "''

La! Neu? La! Neu? (stylized as ''la!'' NÊU?) were a German band founded by Klaus Dinger. After around 1985, Dinger had difficulty getting records released and distributed in Germany, but the Japanese record label Captain Trip Records signed him in 1994, set ...

''") In 2006 Klaus Dinger sought to revive La Düsseldorf properly, but was again blocked by legal problems. He instead chose to release under the name "La-duesseldorf.de" (also the name of his most recent website) or "Klaus Dinger + Japandorf". This project features only Klaus of the original band. * 2006 – '' Mon Amour'' (

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

, a re-release of ''Neondian'' with extra tracks that was only briefly in print) * 2013 – ''

Japandorf ''Japandorf'' is a 2013 album by Klaus Dinger and several other musicians, released under the name "''Klaus Dinger + Japandorf''" by Grönland Records. It was recorded in the year before Dinger's death on Good Friday 2008 and is the only one of t ...

Singles

* 1976 – " Silver Cloud/La Düsseldorf" (Teldec Records) * 1978 – " Rheinita/Viva" (Teldec Records) * 1980 – " Dampfriemen/Individuellos" (Teldec Records) * 1983 – " Ich Liebe Dich (Teil 1)/Ich Liebe Dich (Teil 2)" (Teldec Records)

Maxi-singles

* 1978 – " Rheinita/Viva" (Teldec Records) * 1980 – " Dampfriemen/Individuellos" (Teldec Records) * 1983 – " Ich liebe Dich/Koksknödel" (Teldec Records)

Video

* 2004 – ''Rheinita 1979'' (a live performance of Rheinita that can be viewed for free on Klaus Dinger's website *'' Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock'' (2019) ''The booklets of "Neondian" and "Blue" also hint at the existence of videos for "America" (Neondian) and "Ich Liebe Dich" (single) although neither have been released.''

References

External links

La Düsseldorf site DingerLand
"Official" Klaus Dinger site

by Patrick O'Hearn, Perfect Sound Forever, November 1997
Myspace site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dusseldorf Musical groups established in 1975 German electronic music groups Krautrock musical groups Musical groups from Düsseldorf Radar Records artists Decca Records artists 1975 establishments in West Germany