Silly

1
SILLY!!
2
Starting Off

• The band Silly was formed in East Berlin in 1978
  as Familie Silly (The Silly Family) by guitarist
  Thomas Fritzsching and bassist Mathias Schramm.
• The East German government wouldnt let Silly use
  the name silly by itself because it sounded like
  an American name.
• Silly was named after their mascot, a cat.
• The early band also consisted of keyboardist
  Ulrich Mann and Manfred Kusno and drummer Mike
  Schafmeier. They recruited their singer Tamara
  Danz through an audition.

3
Early Years

• Silly first performed out of East Germany in
  Romania thanks to Danz being able to speak
  Romanian fluently.
• In 1981 Silly won the Lyra in Bratislava. The
  Lyra is the communist blocs most well known
  music award.
• Their self-titled album, also their first, was
  released in West Germany in 1981. Its sales were
  moderately good.
• The band dropped the Familie in its name.
• Silly started getting into censorship problems
  early on in their career.

4
Gaining Popularity

• In 1982 Danzs boyfriend Rudiger Barton replaced
  Sillys keyboardist. This led to Sillys album
  Mont Klamott.
• Mont Klamott was voted East Germanys Album of
  the Year in 1982. This moment really cemented the
  bands popularity.
• During this time the band toured constantly.
• Silly's censorship problem became worse in 1985
  when their planned album Zwischen unbefahr'nen
  Gleisen (Between Untraveled Tracks), which had
  been pressed, printed, and was ready for release,
  was ordered crushed by East German officials who
  said that they disapproved of the "subversive"
  message of several tracks.

5
Moving On....

• Silly eventually released Zwischen unbefahr'nen
  Gleisen as Liebeswalzer (Waltz of Love). It
  contained rewritten lyrics that the East German
  government would allow.
• Despite the controversy, Liebeswalzer again was
  voted Album of the Year, and Silly won one
  argument with the censors over the word Titten
  (tits) in the song "So 'ne kleine Frau" (Such a
  Little Woman).

6
Changes

• Schafmeier left the band after Liebeswalzer and
  was replaced by Herbert Junck. Bassist Jäcki
  Reznicek, formerly of Pankow, played fretless
  bass as a melody instrument on the title track to
  the next album, Battailon D'amour (Battalion of
  Love), written in 1986, which proved to be one of
  the best-known songs ever to come out of East
  Germany. After the album was released, Schramm
  also left the band.

7
Decline

• Danz had petitioned the East German government
  for change during 1989 and illegally read out
  petitions during the band's concerts.
• Interest in East German bands plummeted after
  November 9, 1989, when East Germans were able to
  cross into West Germany and easily get their
  hands on western rock music.
• At the same time the band's West German label
  believed Silly could be turned into a star band.
  The band were invited to Bavaria to work on a new
  album. Danz convinced everyone to decline the
  invitation, however.

8
Back in East Germany

• Largely ignored in western Germany, Hurensöhne
  reestablished Silly as an important band in the
  east. The group's concerts once again sold out.
  After the album, Danz, Hassbecker, and Barton
  began building their own recording studio in
  Berlin, named Danzmusik. Fritching, the remaining
  founding member who had become overshadowed by
  Hassbecker, was asked to leave the band.

9
Growing Old

• Danz was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995.
• Although she was operated on immediately, the
  disease had spread. She died the following July.
  Shortly before her death, she married Hassbecker.
  
• The band stayed together after Danzs death.
  Although they never regained any of their
  previous fame, they still perform at gigs around
  Germany.
• They complied a greatest hits album with sold
  over 100,000 copies.

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SUMMARY!!

• Silly was an East German band that revolutionized
  the rock scene in Germany.
• The band consisted of Thomas Fritzsching, Ulrich
  Mann, Tamara Danz, Mathias Schramm, Manfred
  Kusno, and Mike Schafmeier.
• They had one of the top album sales in German
  music history.
• They had problems with East German government
  because of lyrics.
• They are still around today, minus Danz due to
  death, and perform small gigs in Germany.

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Bibliography

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_(band)
• http//zerogsound.blogspot.com/2007/03/silly-gunde
  rmann-unplugged.html
• http//www.trish.de/silly/silly.html

Prepared by Otto, funfte Stunde Deutsch I