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SILLY!!

SILLY!!. 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 wouldn’t let Silly use the name silly by itself because it sounded like an American name.

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SILLY!!

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  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 wouldn’t 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 bloc’s 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 Danz’s boyfriend Rudiger Barton replaced Silly’s keyboardist. This led to Silly’s album Mont Klamott. • Mont Klamott was voted East Germany’s Album of the Year in 1982. This moment really cemented the band’s 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 Danz’s 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.

  10. 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.

  11. Bibliography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_(band) • http://zerogsound.blogspot.com/2007/03/silly-gundermann-unplugged.html • http://www.trish.de/silly/silly.html Prepared by: Otto, funfte Stunde Deutsch I

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