(; ) is a German rock band from Berlin. The band has released 14 studio albums. The group consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B and bass player Rodrigo González. All three write and perform their songs.
History
1982-1985: Early years, debut album
were formed in West Berlin in 1982 by Jan Vetter (alias Farin Urlaub, a pun on the expression "Fahr' in Urlaub", meaning "Go on vacation"), Dirk Felsenheimer (alias Bela B, referring to Dracula actor Bela Lugosi) and bassist Hans Runge, alias . Bela and Farin had previously played together in the punk band Soilent Grün, established in 1979 and named after the film Soylent Green.
After Soilent Grün broke up in 1982, Bela and Farin decided to form another band. In the first two years (including Sahnie) they mostly played in clubs in their hometown, Berlin. Their first release was a contribution to the sampler 20 schäumende Stimmungshits (rough translation: "20 foamy party hits"), featuring a strong alcohol theme (for example, the chorus of "Vollmilch" translates as "you drink whiskey, he drinks beer, I drink milk"). In 1983 they won a rock contest in Berlin and with the prize money they recorded their debut EP Uns geht's prima... ("We're doing great..."). Finally CBS signed them, and they released their first LP Debil ("Moronic") with their second LP following in 1984 with Im Schatten der Ärzte ("In the shadow of ") a year later.
1986-1989: Success, controversies, line-up change, breakup
After the second album they parted ways with Sahnie due to internal problems. Producer Manfred 'Manne' Praeker played the bass parts on the third album. Later, Hagen Liebing ("The Incredible Hagen") took over as bassist for live concerts, although he never became an official member of the band, with Farin playing bass on the following albums. The third album was also the first time that Farin used distorted guitar sounds on most of the album, moving the band's sound towards rock. In 1987 the German Federal Centre for Media Harmful to Young Persons put the songs "Geschwisterliebe" ("Sibling love", a song about incest, from the album ), "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" ("Claudia has a German Shepherd", about zoophilia, from Debil) and "Schlaflied" ("Lullaby", about a monster coming and eating its victim after falling asleep, also from Debil) on the German List of Media Harmful to Young People (often called "the Index"). This prohibited the band from performing the songs live or promoting the two albums and, more importantly, shops were prohibited from openly displaying these records or selling them to minors. At their concerts they circumvented the ban by playing only the music of the prohibited songs, while the audience sang the lyrics. After several trials against shops that still openly sold the records, a lot of shops completely removed from their stock. The result was a drop in record sales and financial problems for the band. In response they released the best of album Ist das alles? ("Is that all?") with three new songs and the 10" compilation Ab 18 (Adults only) containing all indexed songs and some other songs with controversial, mainly sex-themed lyrics. Although advice not to sell the album to minors was printed on the cover, Ab 18 was also put on the index.
The inner sleeve was put on the index separately because it contained the lyrics. Some tour posters were considered misogynistic and were also put on the list. They contained a drawing of a tied up and gagged woman called Gwendoline that was inspired by bondage artist John Willie and is the mascot of the band. Since then, have used a skeleton version of Gwendoline in the artwork of most of their albums. Later, from 2000 on, live shows have featured two oversized Gwendolines that flank the stage (especially at outdoor concerts). The commissioned artist had first colored the figures independently. However, after the Hard Pop Days were played with these colorful editions and a houseboat at Popkomm in Cologne was adorned with them, they were recolored into classic black and white design.
The following album Das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit... ("That is not the whole truth...") was even more successful and got into the top 10 of the German album charts. decided to go out on a high note and split up after doing one last tour and releasing a triple live album, Nach uns die Sintflut ("Devil may care", lit. "After us the deluge"), later released as a double CD, that became their first number one in the album charts.
In 1989, they released one last single from the Wahrheit LP and a compilation of early EPs and rare recordings (Die Ärzte früher! ("Die Ärzte earlier!").