People & Groups Associated with Alphaville
Albert & The Heart of Gold
Listed as "our favourite band" by Alphaville. Albert and the Heart of Gold are credited as the lyricists of "Lady Bright" on Afternoons in Utopia (according to the Afternoons in Utopia music book, the writers of the song are Marian, Bernhard and Ricky).
Albert and the Heart of Gold appeared alongside Alphaville at the Tempodrome in Berlin at an Aids benefit concert in 1987, where they performed Islands (a cover version of the track by New Musik) and Big in Japan (both of which appear on the History album), and Underworld (which appears on Dreamscapes).
The band's line-up:
Rainer Bloss / Fairlight
Flo Florie / guitars
Stephanie / bass
Julie Ocean / additional keyboards
Dirk / drums
Gabi Becker / backing vocals
Marian Gold / Vocals
Alphaville Band Members
AtlanticPopes
See: AtlanticPopes
Band Für Afrika
Performed the song "Nackt im Wind" ("Naked in the Wind") at the
Band Für Afrika concert in December 1984.
Participants were: Alphaville, BAP, Ina Deter, Extrabreit, Geier Sturzflug,
Herbert Groenemeyer, Gitte Haenning, Hans Hartz, Hein Rudolf Kunze, George Kranz,
Klaus Lage, Udo Lindenberg, Wolf Maahn, Peter Maffay, Ulla Meinecke,
Marius Mueller-Westernhagen, Muenchener Freiheit, Nena, Rheingold, Rodgau Monotones,
Spider Murphy Gang, Spliff, Trio, Juliane Werding.
In February 1985 the song reached number 3 in the German Billboard Charts.
The Beatles
See: Cover versions
Big in Japan
The title of Alphaville's first single was inspired by the name of a short-lived but
hugely influential British punk band whose members included -- at various times --
Bill Drummond (JAMS/Timelords/KLF),
Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood),
Ian Broudie (Care/The Lightning Seeds),
Jayne Casey (Pink Military/Pink Industry),
Clive Langer (Clive Langer and the Boxes),
Ambrose Reynolds (Ded Byrds, Pink Industry),
Budgie (The Spitfire Boys/Pink Military/The Slits/Siouxsie and the Banshees/The Creatures),
David Balfe (Radio Blank/Dalek I Love You/The Teardrop Explodes/Lori & The Chameleons),
Phil Allen and Steve Lindsey.
Big in Japan released two singles before breaking up, the first -- "Brutality, Religion and a Dance Beat" -- being a double-A release with the track "Big in Japan" on one side, and "Do the Chud" by The Chuddie Nuddies on the other.
"Brutality, Religion and a Dance Beat" (Sep 1977)
"From Y to Z and Never Again"(Nov 1978)
Rainer Bloss
See: Rainer Bloss
The Boom Operators
See: Cover versions
David Bowie
See: Cover versions
Chinchilla Green
See: Chinchilla Green
The Cleaners from Venus
See: Cover versions
Aleister Crowley
Crowley is mentioned in the comments for "Red Rose" on the
First Harvest album.
Edward Alexander Crowley - later to be known as Aleister - was born in
Scotland in 1875, the son of religious fundamentalists. At an early age he
rejected his parents' beliefs, and turned to black magic (or "magick", as he
preferred to spell the word, to avoid confusion with more down-to-Earth
prestidigitators), alchemy and Satan-worshipping.
In his adult years, Crowley built up a large following who believed that
he was an Earthly incarnation of Satan - in fact, he encouraged them to
refer to him as "the Beast" or "the Great Beast of the Apocalypse." He used
their adoration to satisfy his tremendous appetites: chiefly for sex
and drugs.
His maxim was "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," a phrase
designed to justify his lack of ethics: by issuing this law, Crowley was
able to use his followers to amass a large fortune, which he subsequently
lost during the stock market crash in 1929.
Though he is largely unknown today, Crowley was infamous during the early
part of the century. The papers were rife with rumours about his lifestyle,
particularly his relationships with his acolytes. On more than on occasion
it was rumoured that Crowley used human sacrifices in his experiments,
though nothing was ever proven.
He died in 1947, penniless and alone.
Janey Diamond
She is credited as co-lyricist on "For a Million", "Feathers and Tar",
"Missionary", "For the Sake of Love" and "Cosmopolitician", and as lyricist
on "Sirens", "Heart of the Flower", "Legend", "Danger in Your Paradise" and
"Pandora's Lullaby". "Sirens" and "Legend" are both taken from "Elegy", which
appears on Dreamscapes. Some of her lyrics originally
appeared as poems in the Utopia Mirror.
See also: Songwriters
Furniture
See: Cover versions
German All-Star Band
Performed "Sag Mir, Wo Die Blumen Sind?", a German version of Pete Seeger's "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" at Anti-Waansinns-Festival, 1986. Particpants included Rio Reiser and Marian Gold.
Die Goldenen Zitronen
Their first album Porsche, Genscher, Hallo HSV (June 1987) features a version of
"Forever Young" recorded as "Forever Punk" with Marian Gold on backing vocals
and credited to "M. Gold." The group's name translates as "The Golden Lemons."
David Guetta
Remixed Forever Young with new material recorded by
Ava Max, released on 18 October 2024.
Romy Haag
Recorded Alphaville's Love Will Find a Way with Marian Gold, released on 14 December 2012.
Murray Head
See: Cover versions
The Headboys
See: Cover versions
Ideal
Hans Behrendt, Ernst Deuker and
Frank-Jürgen Krüger (three quarters of Berlin band Ideal, minus
the lead singer Annette Humpe), performed on the recording of "Heaven or Hell".
Ideal released four albums and seven singles between 1980 and 1983, and further single in 2010, in addition to
seven compilation albums. They have also worked with Klaus Schulze.
Hans Behrendt, who sadly died in 2023, was also a member of Chinchilla Green, and also played live with Alphaville from 1993 to 1995.
Die Lassie Singers
Marian Gold worked with this group, and sang on their song "Tantra Tantra"
which appears on their 1994 album "Stadt, Land, Verbrechen" (on which
Rudy Nielson also performed).
Eff Jott Krüger, who played
on The Breathtaking Blue, was a member of the band at this time.
John Lilly
Lilly is mentioned in the comments for "Red Rose" on the
First Harvest album.
John C. Lilly is renowned for his work with dolphins, especially his
experiments with communication.
Lilly also experimented with drugs and sensory deprivation through the use of
flotation tanks (see Ken Russell's film Altered States for an idea of what
Lilly was trying to achieve).
His early experiments with flotation tanks led to some very strange
experiences: he believed that on some occasions he entered other planes of
existence, populated by advanced and powerful beings. Around the mid-1950s
he tried to combine the flotation experience with LSD, and found that the
drug gave him even greater access to these other planes. Eventually, when LSD
was finally outlawed, he gave up on it and continued with the tanks alone.
Lonely Boys
See: Lonely Boys
Wolf Maahn & Unterstützung
Marian sang in the background choir on the song "Tschernobyl (Das letzte
Signal)", which translates as "Tschernobyl (The last signal)". The song was
released in 1996 by Wolf Maahn to help raise funds against the use of atomic
energy after the accident in Tschernobyl. The song reached about number 40
in the German charts.
Ava Max
Recorded new vocals for David Guetta's remix of
Forever Young, released on 18 October 2024.
Ulla Meinecke
Marian Gold toured with Ulla and performed on her double live CD
Kurz nach acht.
The Monochrome Set
Mott the Hoople
See: Cover versions
New Musik
See: Cover versions
The Other Ones
See: The Other Ones
Rough Trade
See: Cover versions
Roxy Music
See: Cover versions
Schiller
Schiller - real name Christopher von Deylen - collaborated with Alphaville on a new mix
of Summer in Berlin, released on 5 February 2021.
Klaus Schulze
A former member of Tangerine Dream, Schulze produced
The Breathtaking Blue for Alphaville. According to legend,
Schulze arrived at Alphaville's Lunapark for a couple of hours and ended up staying
for a year and a half.
He released several solo albums, and some in collaboration with Andreas Grosser, most notably Babel (1989), the cover of which features Pieter Bruegel's painting of the Tower of Babel (which also appears as the background to the cover of The Breathtaking Blue).
Marian Gold recorded a song called Duel on Schulze's
Trancelation album in 1994. The lyrics of the song come from an early,
then-unreleased Alphaville song called "Into the Dark". The CD credits read:
"Marian Gold appears by courtesy of ALPHAVILLE. His vocals were recorded by
Bernd Lloyd at LUNAPARK STUDIOS, Berlin." "Duel" and "Into the Dark" both
appear on Dreamscapes.
See also: Interview with Klaus Schulze,
Songwriters,
Musicians
Marc Simon
Credited as one of the writers of "Big in Japan" on the single and the Warner music sheet, though not on the album.
T.O.Y.
T.O.Y. - an acronym of Trademark Of Youth - is an German electro/synth pop act, formerly known as Evils Toy until 2000.
Current members are Volker Lutz, Helge Wiegand and Marc A. Nathaniel.
Former members are Thorsten Brenda, Cordula K., Christian "Léo" Leonhardt, Markus Helmert and Oliver Taranczewski.
In October 2022 T.O.Y. and Marian Gold collaborated on the single Turn On! (lyrics by Marian Gold,
music by Marian and Volker Lutz), which became a #1 hit on the German Alternative Charts.
Yello
Deiter Meier - co-founder of the Swiss synth-pop legends Yello -
directed the video for "Big in Japan".
His wife Monique appeared in the video as the Japanese girl.
See also: Songwriters, Musicians, Cover versions.
