Thomas Eugene Stinson (3)

Work outside Guns N' Roses

Outside of Guns N' Roses, Reed played on albums for his former bandmates Slash, Duff McKagan, and Gilby Clarke. He also guested on current Guns N' Roses bassist Tommy Stinson's 2004 solo effort Village Gorilla Head. Reed is additionally a fan of Larry Norman, a pioneer of Christian Music, and played on Norman's Copper Wires album. Most recently, he has composed music for the film scores The Still Life, released in August 2007, and Celebrity Art Show (2008).

When he is not touring or recording with Guns N' Roses, Reed frequently tours with his hard rock cover band Hookers N' Blow, in which he plays keyboard and guitar and occasionally sings lead vocals. For his work with Hookers N' Blow, Reed was named Outstanding Keyboardist of the Year at the 2007 Rock City Awards ("Rockies"). Hookers N' Blow was also named Best Cover Band.

Reed has also dabbled in acting, appearing as 'Mumbles' in the 2005 film Charlie's Death Wish.

Before Guns he was in a band called Wild and release an album called Wild 1, featuring great rock songs like Motor Angel, High Rider, She drew blood, Hot 4 love and Mean Dream Queen.

Personal life

Reed has been married to Lisa, an author and teacher, since 1991. They have two children. When not touring, he likes to unwind by spending time with his wife, describing himself as very faithful to her and his children.

In 2005, Reed took the unusual step of seeking admission to a college fraternity well after the traditional age of inductees, and on January 22, 2006 was admitted to the Cornell University chapter of Zeta Psi.

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Thomas Eugene Stinson (2)

Music career

As an adult, Reed pursued a music career in Los Angeles. He was a founding member of the club band The Wild in the late 1980s, with whom he spent five years[3]. He also replaced August Worchell as the guitarist of the group Johnny Crash although the band split up shortly after he joined.

Reed met the original lineup of Guns N' Roses in 1985; his band, The Wild, rehearsed in a neighboring studio. He kept in touch, and in 1990 was invited by friend Axl Rose to join the group for the recording of the two Use Your Illusion albums. His induction into GN'R was far from smooth: former bandmates Slash and Izzy have said that no one in the band but Axl talked to Reed for the first two weeks.

In spite of the rough start, Reed soon became an accepted member of the group and his work was heared on the majority of tracks on both albums. As a member of Guns N' Roses, Reed has become well-known for his keyboard work during live performances, music videos and on such songs as November Rain, Civil War, Live and Let Die, Yesterdays, as well his contributions to some of the band's new tracks, including Chinese Democracy, "Shacklers Revenge", Better, "Street of Dreams" "If The World", "There Was A Time", "Catcher in the Rye", "Scraped", "Raid N' the Bedouins", "I.R.S" and "Madagascar", and When not playing keyboards or piano, Reed frequently provides backup on percussion and vocals during live Guns N' Roses performances.

Dizzy continues to record and play live with the current Guns N' Roses line-up, and has now been a member of Guns N' Roses longer than any other member besides Axl Rose. Since he joined the band in 1990, five years after its formation in 1985, he cannot be described as an original member. However, apart from Rose, he remains the only remaining link to the Use Your Illusion era and Guns N' Roses's heyday in the early 1990s.

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Darren Arthur Reed (1)

Birth name : Darren Arthur Reed

Born : June 18, 1963 (age 46) Hinsdale, Illinois

Genre(s) : Hard rock

Occupation(s) : Musician

Instrument(s) : Keyboards, Piano, Guitar, Organ, Bass, Mellotron, Calliope, Hammond organ, Percussion

Years active : 1990-Present

Dizzy Reed (born Darren Arthur Reed, June 18, 1963 in Hinsdale, Illinois) is a contemporary rock musician. He is best known for his tenure as the keyboardist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured and recorded since 1990. Aside from frontman Axl Rose, Reed is the only member of Guns N' Roses to remain from the band's Use Your Illusion era.

Reed was born as Darren Arthur Reed on June 18, 1963 in Hinsdale, Illinois, and was raised in Colorado. As a child, Reed was described as reclusive and introverted. His grandmother began teaching him to play the organ when he was a young child, and before he was out of elementary school, he formed small local bands. At the age of fifteen, he took up keyboard playing as a release from the constant bullying he endured at school.

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Thomas Eugene Stinson

Birth name : Thomas Eugene Stinson

Born : October 6, 1966 (age 42), Minneapolis, Minnesota,U.S.A.

Genre(s) : Alternative rock, Hard rock

Instrument(s) : Guitar, Bass

Associated acts : The Replacements (1979–1991), Guns N' Roses (1998-Present), Soul Asylum(2005-Present)

Thomas "Tommy" Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) is an American musician best known for his work as the bassist for The Replacements and Guns N' Roses.

He was one of the founding members of the 1980s alternative rock band The Replacements, along with drummer Chris Mars, his older brother Bob Stinson, and singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg. Tommy Stinson was only 12 years old when he joined the band in 1979. He dropped out of high school in 10th grade in 1983 to go on tour with the band.

Bob Stinson left The Replacements in 1986, but Tommy Stinson stayed with the band until they broke up in 1991.

After the Replacements disbanded, Stinson formed the band Bash & Pop who in 1993 released one album Friday Night Is Killing Me. In February 1995, his brother died at the age of 35 as a result of years of substance abuse.

After Bash & Pop broke up, Stinson formed a band called Perfect, who released an EP in 1996 titled When Squirrels Play Chicken. In 1997 Perfect's album Seven Days a Week was shelved due to record company problems, but was later released in 2004 under the title Once, Twice, Three Times a Maybe.

In 1998 Stinson appeared on Puff Daddy's "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)" along with Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. He also can be seen playing bass for the song in the music video.

Also in 1998, Stinson joined Guns N Roses, and he has been their bass player ever since. His bass playing is featured prominently on their long-delayed Chinese Democracy album which appeared in late 2008. Stinson has pursued a variety of other projects during Guns N Roses' abundant downtime.

Stinson played bass for the recording of MOTH's 2002 album "Provisions, Fiction and Gear".

In 2004, in addition to the long-shelved album by Perfect, Stinson released a solo album Village Gorilla Head which was well-received by the music press.

In the fall of 2005, Tommy joined Soul Asylum for a few gigs in tribute to Karl Mueller. Stinson and Dave Pirner (founding member of Soul Asylum ) were friends in high school in Minneapolis, MN. He and BT also scored the Jennifer Garner movie Catch and Release.

In between touring and writing, he managed to produce Bobot Adrenaline's debut album Unfurled.

In December 2005, he reunited with his surviving Replacements bandmates Paul Westerberg and original drummer Chris Mars to record two new songs for a greatest-hits collection. Stinson further collaborated with Westerberg on the soundtrack to the Sony feature film Open Season, recording bass tracks for 'Love You in the Fall' and 'Right to Arm Bears'.

On November 24, 2006 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, Axl Rose called the Eagles of Death Metal (one of Guns N Roses' opening acts) the "Pigeons of Shit Metal." Jesse Hughes, the Eagles of Death Metal's lead singer, told the New Musical Express that Stinson took his bass off and threw it on the floor saying "Fuck you, that's it" and threatened to leave the band. [1] Stinson did not leave Guns N Roses; however, the Eagles of Death Metal were fired from the tour. On December 2, 2006, Stinson issued a statement reading, in part: "Eagles of Death Metal were a suggestion of mine a while ago. Turns out they were the wrong band for our crowd. They were booed and did not play for as long as they were scheduled to. ... In the past I have thrown my bass. I have never thrown it at Axl or anyone else in the band nor has anyone thrown my bass back at me... yet. Axl has been a dear friend to me for nine years. We have no problem communicating and wish that people would stay the fuck out of shit they don't know anything about

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AXL ROSE

Name: Bailey, William Bill (Axl Rose)

Nick name: Axl Rose

Birthday : February 6th 1962

Hometown : Lafayette IN, USA

Occupation : Singer, Entertainer, Pianist, Guitarist

Bands : AXL, Rapidfire, Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Guns N' Roses

Some say Axl Rose is the best entertainer on the planet. Ax Rose certainly had the world at his feet back in 1992-1993. Back in 1991, when the whole world was awaiting (the first) return of Guns n' Roses, one could real in Rock music magazines : "What the world needs is Axl Rose".

Axl Rose was a choirboy, gospel singer, pianist, and even taught Sunday school in his childhood. His extremely strict upbringing led him to rebel by the age of sixteen. Getting into trouble left and right with over 20 terms (he only admits to guilt on about 5 occasions).

Axl Rose was once known by the name of Bill Bailey. Bailey being his stepfathers name. He took the name of Rose when he found out when he found out it was his real father's name.

Rose felt that leaving Indiana was his only option so he took off in search of his friend Jeff (Izzy) Isbell, who had already left to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. In 1986, William legally changed his name to Axl. Axl Rose is the singer of Guns N' Roses since June 6th 1985 (date the band lineup was finalized). Axl Rose is multi-talented with an extreme and powerful vocal range, piano skills, and has even recently taken up the guitar to add to his abilities. Axl Rose is currently the only original member still part of Guns n' Roses. Axl Rose has also bought the name "Guns n' Roses" and is the sole owner of the name.

The year 2001 will certainly be remenbered as the year of the second return of Guns n' Roses considering that Axl Rose did 4 concerts (we'll just forget about the twice cancelled European tour). Axl Rose also said he was working day and night on a new album to be called "Chinese Democracy". Doug Goldstein (Guns n' Roses manager) also talked about the soon to be released album.

2002 will be remembered for the European Tour, the Axl Rose performance at the MTV Music Video Awards, and the North American Tour complete with two riots (Vancouver and Philadelphia) that came to a crashing halt in Philadelphia USA after Axl Rose again failed to show for a concert so the tour promoter pulled the plud on the North American Tour.

Axl rose is now believed to be working hard to finish the upcomming album "Chinese Democracy". Checkout the latest Axl Rose press release about the upcomming album.

Does the world still need Axl Rose? You betcha!

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Dani Löble

Former bands: Höllenhunde, Glenmore, Element 58, Rawhead Rexx, Blaze

- Just until he got 12, Dani played on childrens' drums (like Markus today ;))

- Then he took his first drumming lessons

- The first musical steps he took with 14 with a garage-band.

- The first recordings followed with 17

- From 1991 on he played in several local bands

- From 1991 to 1994 Dani took lessons on the MSD (probably some kinda music school) in Zurich

- In 1994 he founded - together with Running Wild's Thilo Hermann - the band "Höllenhunde" ("Hellhounds" or something)

- From 1996 to 1999 Dani studied music at the ACM in Zurich.

- During this time he played at the Melodic-Metal-band "Glenmore".

- From 1997 to 1998 he additionally played at the acoustic-rock-band "Element 58".

- 1999 - 2005 Dani was Rawhead Rexx's durmmer

- Meanwhile he drummed for Iron Maiden's former singer Blaze Bayley (2004)

- Since Februar 2005 Dani is the drummer of legendary Helloween.

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Helloween’s history

Helloween’s history dates all the way back to 1978 when Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck formed a band called “Gentry“. Around 1981 Kai and Piet changed the name of the band to “Second Hell” and recruited drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and bassist Markus Großkopf who at the time had been playing in a band called “Traumschiff. In 1982 Piet Sielck leaves Second Hell to become a record producer and sound engineer and the band changes their name to “Iron Fist”. Michael Weikath of the band Powerfool tries to lure Kai Hansen to join his band, but in the end decides to join Kai’s band Iron Fist.

1984 comes around and an upstart independent label called Noise records invites the band to record two tracks on their new “Death Metal” compilation alongside bands such as Running Wild, Dark Avenger and Hellhammer. The band, still not satisfied with the name “Iron Fist” changes their name to Helloween. Ingo Schwichtenberg comes up with the idea to not only replace the “o” in Helloween with a pumpkin, but to also come up with pumpkin artwork which would later become one of Helloween’s biggest trademarks. The band contributed to the Death Metal compilation with two songs, a slower and sloppier version of “Metal Invaders” ( a song that would later appear on their debut full length Walls of Jericho) and the track Oernst Of Life.

In 1985 Helloween goes into the studio with producer Harris Johns and releases their debut, a self titled 5 track EP also known to many fans as “The Mini LP”. In October of 1985 the band then releases their first full length album, “Walls Of Jericho”, also produced by Harris Johns. The band also recorded the “Judas EP” which contained a new non album track entitled “Judas” and a compilation of live cuts. Helloween captured the media’s attention and received great reviews all over the world. In November of 1986 while the band toured, Kai Hansen found it difficult to sing and play guitar at the same time so when the tour was over the band began searching for a new singer. The band recruits 18 year old ex-Ill Prophecy singer Michael Kiske and begins work on a new album. The band decided that they wanted to release a double album, however Noise records said that they did not want Helloween to release a double album and therefore Helloween began work on the first part of a two part concept album.

Helloween 1987-1989">

Helloween 1987-1989

1987’s Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1, produced by Tommy Hansen and Tommy Newton, puts the band on the map. Helloween received rave reviews everywhere around the world including America where they embark on their first US tour with Grim Reaper and Armored Saint. The following year the band released the second part of their concept album called “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II” which is even more successful than part 1. The band embarks on the Pumpkins Fly Free tour which takes them all over Europe and they even become one of the headliners at the Donnington Monsters of Rock festival in England along with bands such as Kiss, and Iron Maiden. In late 1988 Kai Hansen decides to leave the band because of the long touring schedule. In 1989 Helloween recruits former Rampage guitar player Roland Grapow and the band then embarks on their second Headbanger’s Ball tour in America with Anthrax and Exodus. Helloween also releases two best of albums, “The Best The Rest The Rare” and “Pumpkin Tracks“. They also release a live album from their Pumpkins Fly Free Tour of Europe. In Japan the album is called “Keepers Live”, in the USA it’s called “I Want Out Live” and around the rest of the world the live album is entitled “Live In The UK”. Helloween, unhappy with their current contract with Noise records decides to break their contract and sign to EMI records. Noise filed a lawsuit against the band for breach of contract and the band fights a major legal battle with Noise records which would last a long time. In the end, Helloween loses the legal battle and must not only pay Noise records a huge sum of money, but they cannot release any material outside of Europe or Japan. This left many people around the world wondering….”What happened to Helloween?”

Finally in 1991 the band releases the “Kids of The Century” single which contains a message from the band telling fans where they have been for the last 3 years. They then release their next album “Pink Bubbles Go Ape” which was not received well by the press and fans alike. Although the album does contain some great songs, especially the ones written by Roland Grapow, tensions inside the band begin to build up between members over which direction musically the band should take.

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Helloween 1993

1993 sees the release their next album “Chameleon” which becomes the band’s most unsuccessful album to date. The band begins to endure even more trouble on the Chameleon tour as tensions build up even more while drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg begins to have problems with his psychological condition and cannot finish the tour. Richie Abdel Nabi replaces Ingo on a temporary basis and finishes the tour. After the tour EMI releases the band from it’s contract they fire singer Michael Kiske, citing musical and personal differences.

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Helloween 1994-2001

In late 1993 Andi Deris, former Pink Cream 69 singer, joins the band along with former Holy Moses and Gamma Ray Drummer Uli Kusch, a new lineup for Helloween is born. The band signs to Castle records in 1994. Their next album “Master of the Rings” was released and became what many people called a great comeback album! The band went on a successful tour and new singer Andi Deris surprised many fans with his versatile and powerful voice. The album was released a year later in North America with a second disc containing all 7 b-sides from the album. Tragedy also struck the band as former drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg committed suicide in 1995.

Helloween went back into the studio and released “The Time Of The Oath” in 1996, which was hailed by the press as their best album since the Keeper era. The album contained songs loosely based on the writings of Nostradamus. Helloween was back on top as The Time of The Oath earned them many gold and platinum albums throughout the world. Later that year they released the double live album “High Live” and was elected best band of 1996 by the Japanese magazine Buurn.

While the band began to write for the next album, Andi Deris released his first solo album “Come In From The Rain” and Roland Grapow released his first solo album “The Four Seasons of Life”. 1998 brought along the album Better Than Raw which was yet again released to rave reviews throughout the press. The band combined modern elements with their traditional Helloween sound which made for quite a unique album and went down well with fans. Roland Grapow also releases his second solo album. 1999 saw the band take a break and release a covers album entitled “Metal Jukebox”. This album contained a variety of rock, pop and metal classics which influenced the band. The band then set off to write their next album.

The band signed a two album deal with Nuclear Blast in the year 2000. Their next album entitled “The Dark Ride” , produced by Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind was released shortly after. The album became one of Helloween’s worst selling albums ever as the band took a darker and more modern sounding approach. Reviews of “The Dark Ride” in the press were mixed along with many fan reactions. Some liking the new direction and most wanting the Helloween of old. Tensions between members of the band began which led to the firing of guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch. The band also released "Treasure Chest", a 2 disc best of release that also had some older Helloween songs remixed. The best of also came as a limited edition with a bonus disc called "Buried Treasure" which contained some rare b-sides.

The band then recruits former Metalium drummer Mark Cross on drums and former Freedom Call guitarist Sasha Gerstner. In 2003 the band began to record for their next album, however their new drummer Mark Cross was diagnosed with mononucleosis and could only complete two songs for the recordings and thus was forced to leave the band. Former King Diamond and current Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee is called in to complete the band’s studio recordings on the drums.

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Helloween 2002-2005

Rabbit Don’t Come Easy was released and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann is called in to join the band for the tour. The album sold well and the band completed a very successful tour around the world. Stefan Schwarzmann decided to leave the band after the tour but stayed throughout the preproduction for the next album until the band found a replacement. Dani Löble, ex-drummer of RAWHEAD REXX turned out to be the perfect drummer for Helloween and the band began to record the follow-up to Rabbit Don’t Come Easy.

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Helloween since 2005

On October 31st 2005 the band releases a follow-up to their legendary Keeper albums entitled “Keeper of The Seven Keys - The Legacy”. The album brought more critical acclaim to the band and was received well throughout the world. The success of the album and it’s subsequent tour was so strong the band released a double live DVD and double live CD. In 2007, to commemorate their last two years of success, Helloween released a double Live CD entitled "Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy World Tour 2005/2006 - Live In Sao Paulo" and a double live DVD entitled "Keeper Of The Seven Keys – The Legacy World Tour 2005/2006 - Live On 3 Continents".

The band has just released their newest album "Gambling With the Devil" to great reviews. It's an album that takes them down a much heavier path and is described by singer Andi Deris as a mixture of Walls Of Jericho and Master of The Rings". The band will be embarking on a world tour that kicks off in Europe with Gamma Ray and Axxis.

-Tony Webster 10-23-2007

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Markus Großkopf

Birthday: September 21, 1965

Birthplace: Hamburg

Height: 192cm

Weight: 85kg

Musical Influences: Deep Purple, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, UFO

Markus was born in Hamburg, Germany on the 21st of September 1965. At the age of 15 he spent a couple of weeks in a holyday camp, where he met two blokes that played guitar and drums in a punk rock group. Soon they became close friends and hung together all the time. As they needed a bass player in their band, Markus was offered the gig. So little Markus didn’t hesitate and agreed: “I can play the bass to save my live amigo”. He found himself playing bass in his first band.

They brought their gear (which wasn't much at the time) to the camp and started making noise. They covered songs from the The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Sid Vicious, XTC, The Sranglers and others. Some time later, when their musical skills turned out to be a little better, they were offered their first gig at the holyday camp. But after 2 years of practicing and no further offers and appearances, Markus decided to leave the band to explore new horizons.

By that time his heart began to beat more for rock’n roll bands like AC/DC, Kiss, Ted Nugent, and Iron Maiden. His new aim now was to find a band playing hard rock or metal with an option and ability for more live performances. Markus was talking to a guy who knew Kai Hansen, who was looking for a bass player for his band Second Hell at the time. Soon he was invited to audition and guess what ? Yes, he got the job! Also members of Second Hell were Piet Sielk and Ingo Schwichtenberg.

With this line up they did a few club gigs on the Hamburg circuit. Piet left the band and after several name changes, they mutually split up. Once again it was time for Markus to pack his bags and watch out for another gig to climb higher in his career.

When he finished school he started an apprenticeship at a butcher. That was definitely a very good reason to find a band with future plans immediately. Joining the band Blast Furnace, Markus met the brilliant guitar player Michael Weikath, who formed along with Kai Hansen a new line up with former members of Michael’s old act Powerfool. But shortly after that, they replaced their rhythm section, by calling in Ingo and Markus.

This completed the first Helloween line up!

It seemed like a very strong team, ‘cause it lasted longer than a couple of weeks! They had two very creative guitar players and songwriters and a wild, hungry and steaming rhythm section in the band.

From now on the dice started to roll for Helloween. Their first studio recording was published by Noise records on the legendary death metal sampler in 1983, followed by the even more legendary 5 track EP called “Helloween” and of course the LP ”Walls of Jericho”.

The following two master pieces “Keeper of the seven keys Part 1 and 2” with high pitch singer Michael Kiske, they lighted a new fire and gave Heavy Metal a new identity! They climbed the charts and reached gold in Germany and Asia.

Since then Markus recorded the bass on all the albums and toured around the globe with Helloween. For almost 20 years now, you can call him one of the grand members of Helloween.

Markus recorded his first solo album named Shockmachine create link on site in 1998. He also played bass on Ken Hensleys and John Lawtons (Uriah Heep) new arranged orchestral version of “Salisbury”, which was performed live at the “Hamburg Markthalle” and was released on video in 2001.

You also can hear his bass playing on Edguy singer Tobias Sammets album “Avantasia” Part 1 & 2. His latest activity besides Helloween is the band Kickhunter, on which he played the bass and produced their first album “Hearts and Bones” in 2002 and “Little Monsters” which was released in 2007.

The new side project of Markus called “Bassinvaders - Hellbassbeaters” was released Friday, 25th of January 2008. You'll find information on MySpace Markus Grosskopf or on www.frontiers.it.

Is that guy really busy? Yes he is.

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Sascha Gerstner

Sascha Gerstner, born in 1977 started playing keyboards at the age of 6, he then switched to the guitar when he was 13 years old.

Influenced by 80´s hairbands (MSG, Dokken, Pretty Maids,...) and mainstream rock (Toto, Bad English, Journey,...), he quickly taught himself to play the guitar.

At the age of 17, he already started to work as a studio guitarist in his home town and became well known around the area. In 1996 he joined the cover band scene in south germany where he met his former band mates from Freedom Call, where he was in the line up till 2001. He recorded the first two albums with the band and did three big tours in europe. When he left the Freedom Call he started to produce other young artists and worked as a songwriter for several acts. In 2002/2003 Charlie Bauerfeind (Producer) got him connected with Michael Weikath of Helloween. Since then Sascha Gerstner is a permanent member of the Band Helloween. Besides playing in the band, Sascha is running his own recording and mixing studio G-Tracks (www.g-tracks.com).

Check out Sascha on Myspace:
www.myspace.com/saschagerstner

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Michael Weikath

Birthday: August 7, 1962

Birthplace: Hamburg

Height: 190cm

Weight: 75kg

Former Band: Powerfool

Musical Influences: The Beatles, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Scorpions, UFO, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Wishbone Ash

Michael Weikath was born in Hamburg 07.08.62, West Germany. In his early days he spent almost all his free time at the tube stereo set of his parents, listening to all the stations available at the time, often too long and loud that he got dizzy and needed to go to bed.

He kinda regards those days his 'studying years'. “Got one of those first little battery powered transistor radios too, first cassette recorder when I was 9 yrs old…”, he claims, “Making crap 'yeah yeah yeah oooh' Ukulele Xylophone washing powder drum recordings with a few classmates, man, THOSE were bad!”

Michael started attending school in 1969. His first owned album was The Beatles Best collection 62-66 and visited his first rock concert at age 13: Ocean, a Wishbone Ash/Boston type Hamburg band....returned home quite drunk that evening and got in trouble with his mum.

He tried to visit and watch all their shows...

In 1974 he got taught to play the acoustic guitar for one year and got himself an electric guitar and a distortion box 1 1/2 years later. He later had rehearsal-like experiences with friends, even an imaginary Punk band called Indeed.

Second attended major rock concert was Aerosmith in 1977 at the Auditorium Maximum Hamburg, fee 5 DM (2 $) at the time. He graduated school in 1982 and served heavy social duty instead of military service after.

His first original band was created in 1978 called Powerfool, but he played in parallel bands since 81/82 too, like in the school band SAS Band , (he had been mainly recruited for arrangements but ended up playing guitar as well, out of mere boredom, i.e. the original version of “How Many Tears” had been recorded with that band too), or Blast Furnace (along with Markus Grosskopf on bass, later joined by the Powerfool” drummer sometime in 83/84. Kai Hansen was playing a bit of guitar in Powerfool for a few weeks, filling the gap of former keyboard players. A few weeks later, they left and ended Powerfool to reform Kais former band “Iron Fist” and essentially name it Helloween, Markus returning from Blast Furnace; trying to get the Helloween concept running and started presenting rehearsal room tapes to Noise Records Berlin;...that’s when the trouble started...

Michaels first played songs/solos: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Let It Be, I Want You ( Beatles ), Smoke On The Water/Burn! (Deep Purple) , Backwater/Caroline/Bye Bye Johnny ( Status Quo), Whole Lotta Rosie ( AC/DC)...House Of The Rising Sun (yeah wot else), You Really Got Me ( The Kinks/Van Halen ), Hole In The Sky/Paranoid Black Sabbath, Samba Pa Ti ( Santana ), Barracuda (Heart) Hotel California (Eagles), Freak Out (Chic), Summer Night City (ABBA), Tattoed Lady (Rory Gallagher) Gonzo/Stranglehold/Just What The Doctor Ordered (Ted Nugent)...etc etc.

His favorite bands/ influences: The Beatles, Deep Purple, 60/70ies/teenie bands ( Sweet, Bay City Rollers, Mud, Slade, Rubettes, Hello, Suzi Quatro, T.Rex, Kincade, etc etc ) Gigliola Cinquetti, Mothers Finest, Rory Gallagher, Wishbone Ash, Black Sabbath, Alan Parson's Project, ELO, Wizard, Pink Floyd, Van Halen ( I believe I must have been the first one in Germany who owned their first record...), KISS, Dio, Def Leppard, Journey, Brian Auger, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ted Nugent, KRUIZ, Omega, Sex Pistols and div Punk bands, Motorhead, Gary Moore, April Wine, Y&T, Sammy Hagar, Montrose, Johnnie Winter, Doobie Brothers, Allman Bros, Balance, Shadows, UFO, Michael Schenker Group, Boston, Frank Zappa, Rush, Rolling Stones, Demis Roussos and Aphrodite's Child, YES, Geordie, AC/DC, Uli Jon Roth, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Kinks, CCR, TenCC, Jeff Lynne, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Mamas And Papas, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Al DiMeola, Glenn Miller, Randy Rhoads, Buddy Holly, Walter Trout, Vanilla Fudge, SAGA, BB King, Loudness, Robert Palmer, The Who, Ten Years After, Chuck Berry, Joe Cocker, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Santana, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, ABBA, Status Quo, Uriah Heep, Rainbow, Foreigner, Spooky Tooth, Mott The Hoople, David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, Heart, Eagles, Nektar, Focus, Camel, div international and german hit or evergreen or classical composers; Simon & Garfunkel, Ennio Morricone, Giorgio Moroder, Burt Bacharach, Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, ....AAAAH who else???

German artists: Udo Lindenberg, Udo Juergens, Katja Ebstein, Klaus Doldingers Passport, Volker Kriegel, Lenny Wolf, Atlantis, Frumpy, Kraftwerk, Nina Hagen, Peter Maffay, Spliff, Supermax, Baccara, Birth Control, Kraan, Wallenstein, Scorpions, Accept, Extrabreit, Hubert Kah, Rio Reiser, Destruction, Pink Cream 69, East german artists: Renft, Karussell, Cesar Peter Glaeser, Karat, Reform.

”Just for everyone to know and because it pisses me off each time I get asked, I did NOT mainly get influenced by Iron Maiden and Metallica. So cut it!

If too many queries come up regarding this biography, I'm threatening you, I may get it updated!!!

For the past 23 years Michael Weikath was and still is one of the founding members of “Helloween”. His devotion to the band and members lead them to a major success over the years with high sales and sold out concerts all over the world.

In the meantime, when he’s not surfing on the net, he’s writing new songs for the new “Helloween” which will be the followup to Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy.

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Andi Deris

Birthday: August 18, 1964

Birthplace: Karlsruhe

Height: 178cm

Weight: 68kg

Former band: Pink Cream 69

Musical Influences: Sweet, Kiss, Deep Purple, Aerosmith

Andreas Deris was born on August 18th, 1964 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Andi Deris has always been devoted to music. As an adolescent, at the young age of 15, Andi started out playing guitar, but switched from playing guitar to singing. He then formed his first band, called Paranoid. Two years later, at the age of 17, Andi’s band changed its name to Nameless. The drummer of Nameless was none other than Ralph Maison, who also played with him on his solo albums, Come In From The Rain and Done By Mirrors. Ralph has always been a very close friend of AndI Deris, since they were young and in grade school. Andi and Ralph later formed the band Kymera.

When Ralph quit to go to college Kosta Zafiriou joined the band. A few years later in 1987 AndI and Kosta formed the band Pink Cream 69 with Andi Deris on Vocals, Kosta Zafiriou on drums, Alfred Koffler on Guitars and Dennis Ward on bass. The band earned their stripes and became famous by winning Metal Hammer’s “Best New Band” award at the Rockfabrik in Ludwigsburg Germany. The band then signed their first record deal with CBS/Sony Music.

In 1989 Andi Deris and Pink Cream 69 released their debut self titled album to stellar reviews in the press. They played their first tour opening for White Lion in Europe and they played in America for the first time in 1990.

In 1991 Pink Cream 69 released their next album entitled “One Size Fits All”. The album reached the number one spot in many European countries making the band one of the premier hard rock acts in Europe. The band played many sold out shows, including 5 concerts in Japan that would be used for their first live video “Size it Up! Live in Japan!”.

In 1993 the band then released the album “Games People Play” which would be Andi’s last album with Pink Cream 69.

Andi Deris then joined the band Helloween in late 1993/early 1994 to replace Michael Kiske.

Andi’s presence in Helloween brought the band new life and when Master of the Rings was released it quickly brought Helloween back as one of the premier power metal bands in the world. Andi has since released many albums with the band such as “The Time of The Oath”, “High Live“, “Better Than Raw”, “Metal Jukebox”, “The Dark Ride”, “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy”, “Keeper of The Seven Keys - The Legacy”, and most recently a live CD entitled “Live in Sao Paulo” and a DVD entitled “Live on 3 Continents”.

Andi has also released two solo albums, “Come in From The Rain” in 1997 and “Done By Mirrors” in 2000. Currently he is in his studio writing for the next upcoming Helloween album due out in the fall.

Tony Webster - 3-6-2007

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1968 - 1970

Apple, the Rooftop and Abbey Road. And in the end, these last years were a time of plentiful confusion a time to break down and a time to build up.

The Beatles started their own company, Apple Corps with five creative divisions – records, films etc – and then went public with an offer that anyone with an artistic need could come to them and get help. Is there, even now, a machine to count such numbers?

The promise was that all sincere supplicants would be given encouragement, succour, a contract and maybe an envelope full of money. At the same time, the Beatles flew to foothills of the Himalayas to learn meditation. There, between sessions with the Maharishi, they wrote songs for what would become The ‘White’ Album.

When recording started, the songs had come in such profusion that, famously, The White Album had thirty of them – enough for two high-class musicals. They sped from one track to another, content that the unity of the album would transcend the disparity in the style and content of the tracks. It was always their strength that they wrote bewitching singles.

New songs were written to suit themselves; sometimes written alone. This new work could virtually be recorded solo, spontaneously, simply.

Following the White Album(and the magnificent Hey Jude) they made Let It Be and with the final regal glory of Abbey Road they left their grieving fans a legacy that will never be matched.

In the inevitable breaking down of old liaisons, there was room for growth. John met and married Yoko; Paul met and married Linda. George matured far beyond his years, settled into his spiritual space and expressed himself writing classic songs; Ringo was now writing his own numbers and was widely acknowledged as a supreme drummer and a very good actor. To everything there is a season.

That the rift between The Beatles, evolved with much public angst was a pity but this is not a perfect world is it?

Relationships anyway, were repaired long ago.

And in the end, the equation between the love they took and the love they made was intact into infinity. They still represent the twentieth century’s greatest romance.

D.T.

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’65, ’66, ’67: The Years of Dash and Daring’

These were the years of dash and daring. Sweeping out of the final (and wonderfully old-fashioned) 1964 family Christmas Shows into the wider world of 1965, The Beatles would soon find themselves figureheads of a movement far beyond “pop” where a counter-culture / alternative society was made flesh. National boundaries were presumed to be doomed. Millions of minds were to become expanded and many trousers would soon be spandex.

...though the music would continue to pour out of them breaking in great waves over uncharted, challenging Reason and warming the heart, the Beatles would tire of those great sweating stadiums where they now played to screaming crowds who could no longer hear them.

In the studio years (1966 onwards), supported by the steady hand of the great George Martin, they would produce songs which would be forever fresh and which still set the standards against the newcomers have to test themselves.

Greatly turned on by the Spirit of the Age and by the “tea-parties” of those times, the Beatles provided a sound-track for the plottings of the baby boomers – millions of them – whose enlightenment (however compromised it may have been by the material world in the harsh times since) still provides a hedge against humankind’s grosser instincts.

They... go into the studio which brings an amazed world the mighty whirligig of Sgt Pepper, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields here on the screen in surreal and glorious colour. They sing Baby You’re A Rich Man and they all are, but they don’t buy an island in Greece.

It was the great glory of The Beatles that they could absorb and transmute so much, first in those tiny houses in Liverpool, listening to eclectic 1940s wireless, then to r’n’r and r&b and to Dylan and the poets and soon to music and messages from India.

Unafraid of growth, dogged individuals with a powerful devotion to the group ethic, the Beatles accepted each other’s offerings and really “cooked” to make each record a feast that left us breathless with admiration. They never stood still.

D.T.

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1964 – 1965. USA, Films, Touring, MBEs

’The Beatles sweep through the great US cities, drawing tens of thousands to airports for the merest glimpse.

They play for no more than half an hour per concert. A Hard Days Night has guaranteed them star status in the cinema and they laughed their way through Help! in Technicolour. Paul dreams that he has written Yesterday – and has. They are the first band to play a baseball stadium, Shea in New York, breaking records for crowd fever, numbers and good cheer. Oh, and they go to Buckingham Palace to receive medals from the Queen and, by now, more or less accept it as their due. They are, however, as happy and polite as can be.

’Wherever they went, they brought Beatlemania with them. They couldn’t help it; it was a form of real love. George would say many years later that the world used them as an excuse to go mad and then blamed it on the Beatles, but there is a parallel theory that it was time for the world to go that sort of mad – get down a bit, loosen up, and like Uncle John in Long Tall Sally, have some fun tonight. The crowd scenes are awesome and, in retrospect awful. How did no-one get killed?...

D.T.

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