Biography:
Marian Gold met Frank Mertens and Bernhard Lloyd in a bar in late 1982. The three hit it off immediately, and soon formed a group called Forever Young. They played their first show on New Year's Eve 1982, and then - with assorted friends and girlfriends - formed Nelson Project, working from an apartment house in Münster. Nelson Project was intended to be a basis for their common interests in music and the arts (three of the girls - Ariane, Julia and Martina - formed a group called Girls Next Door).
Marian, Bernhard and Frank worked on several demos, among them "Big in Japan", "Summer in Berlin" and "Fallen Angel", and sent them to various record companies, with the name of the band now established as Alphaville.
During this time, the band members were holding down various different jobs, and waiting for success to strike, which it soon did: WEA signed Alphaville in late 1983, and "Big in Japan" was released in early 1984.
The immediate success of the single allowed the group to work full-time on their first album Forever Young, which was released later that year.
In one early interview, Marian Gold was asked how he felt whenever he heard "Big in Japan" on the radio. Marian replied that he'd been working in a kitchen when the song hit number one on the charts, so "Big in Japan" always reminds him of peeling potatoes.
In December 1984 Frank Mertens left the group (and shortly formed The Lonely Boys) and was replaced by Ricky Echolette, whom Marian had known from when he was a member of the band Chinchilla Green.
Alphaville invested much of the proceeds from the singles and album into their own recording studio - Lunapark -in Berlin, and they began work on Afternoons in Utopia. By the time the album was ready, they realised that they had enough material for a double album, but their record company was reluctant to take the risk: it had been almost two years since Forever Young, and the most recent single ("Jet Set") hadn't done as well as expected. The group decided to release a single album instead, and many of the remaining songs subsequently appeared as b-sides to the album's singles.
Almost immediately after Afternoons in Utopia was released, Alphaville began work on their third album, though this time they wanted to do something different: A movie. This was in direct response to the pressure to tour from the recording company: Alphaville believed that if they could make a movie of the new album, they wouldn't have to tour personally. Also, it would give them a chance to expand on some of the ideas they'd had during the Nelson Project days.
In former East Germany, a compilation album simply titled Alphaville was released under the Amiga label. It contained six tracks from Forever Young and six from Afternoons in Utopia. Alphaville's involvement in the compilation was minimal, but they approved of the release because the other albums weren't easily available in East Germany.
"Forever Young" was re-released in 1988, and began its second climb up the charts in the US. To coincide with the success, The Singles Collection was released in the US. It was an eight-track album containing two mixes each of "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Red Rose" and "Dance with Me".
The Breathtaking Blue was released in May 1989, but this time there was almost no publicity: WEA were unwilling to provide funds, and the group's own finances were severely stretched. However, the planned movie, Songlines, was soon finished and released: it comprises nine different short movies, set to the music from the album.
Alphaville then took a much-needed break: tension was high and each of the members wanted to pursue different paths. Marian began work on his first solo album, So Long Celeste, and Bernhard spent some time remixing many of Alphaville's better-known songs. They were eventually released on the group's first official greatest-hits album, First Harvest 1984-92. From that date Alphaville still made a lot of great songs and few albums.
Currently, Alphaville are releasing one new track a month on their official website. Frank Mertens is working on his own on-line project, entitled Maelstrom, while Bernhard Lloyd has recently been revealed to be the man behind the enigmatic AtlanticPopes project.
Links:
http://www.alphaville.de/
http://www.mpcreations.com/musik/alphaville.html
Lyrics of Alphaville
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