These days it wouldn't be a problem to go out and play with tracks, but at that time it was really complicated. Said Gold, "we didn't feel we were good enough musicians. ĭespite the success of the album and its singles, the band did not tour. The Alphaville version was released a third time in the US in 1988, to promote Alphaville: The Singles Collection, and peaked at No. 65, their highest charting (and also last) single on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Forever Young" was written during the Cold War, where the singer said "hoping for the best, but expecting the worst are you gonna drop the bomb or not?" Īmid reports that pop star Laura Branigan was featuring the song on her next album, Hold Me, Alphaville's "Forever Young" was re-released as a single in the US. The band's next two singles, " Sounds Like a Melody" and " Forever Young", were also both European Top 5 successes, although the former track failed to make an impression on the American charts. It became the group's only Top 20 single in the UK, peaking at No. 8. The single also reached the Top Five in the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Ireland and South Africa. "Big in Japan" topped the charts in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, and the US Billboard Dance Chart (the group's only Top 10 on any Billboard chart). In autumn 1984, they released their debut album, Forever Young, produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde. Main article: Forever Young (Alphaville album) We didn’t have much hope, but we had three offers and from that moment everything happened very fast." Forever Young (1984) We had a little studio in a basement, made a couple of demos and sent them to some record companies to try to get a deal. The equipment we had at that time was basically toys – the cheapest monophonic synthesizers you could imagine. The music was in our heads, but we were dependent on synthesizers and drum machines and things like that. In the early years, Gold said that "none of us could really play an instrument. In 1984, the newly renamed Alphaville released their debut single, "Big in Japan". The first Alphaville concert took place on 31 December, 1982 in Enger, Westphalia. Together the three wrote Forever Young and recorded their first demo of the same name. They first named their band "Forever Young" and subsequently changed it to "Alphaville" after the 1965 science fiction film. Gold had written "Big in Japan" in 1979 after hearing the music of Holly Johnson's band Big in Japan. The pair were heavily influenced by UK indie acts like Tubeway Army, Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). History Formation Īlphaville was formed after lead singer Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd met in Berlin in 1981. They took their name from Jean-Luc Godard's movie of the same name. Gold remains the only continuous member of Alphaville. They achieved chart success with the singles " Forever Young", " Big in Japan", " Sounds Like a Melody", " The Jet Set" and " Dance with Me". The group was founded by singers Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, and Frank Mertens. Alphaville is a German synth-pop band formed in Münster in 1982.
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