Rock and roll
first entered
Switzerland
[1]
in the 1950s, as a series of American musicians popularized the style internationally.
[2]
Summary
[
edit
]
The first Swiss rock band of note were
Les Sauterelles
, formed in 1962 and often referred to as "the Swiss Beatles".
[3]
Their
Shadows
influenced all-instrumental 1965 single, "Hongkong", was the first
beat
song to hit number 1 on the
Swiss Hitparade
. Even more successful, their 1968 single, "Heavenly Club", topped the Swiss charts for seven weeks. After the group's demise in 1970, members of Les Sauterelles would go on to other Swiss bands such as Krokodil, Toad and TEA; vocalist Tony Vescoli would launch a solo career as a singer/songwriter.
Formed in 1969, Krokodil was an influential early Swiss
progressive rock
group, using exotic instruments such as the
sitar
. Comprising
Zurich
scene veterans Hardy Hepp, Walty Anselmo and Dude Durst (ex-Les Sauterelles), with Mojo Weideli and English bassist Terry Stevens rounding out the line-up, Krokodil released a total of 5 albums through 1973. The Swiss
progressive rock
and
psychedelia
scene also produced bands such as The Shiver,
Brainticket
, Island, Ertlif and Flame Dream.
Bern
's Sinus Studio was long the most influential studio in Switzerland.
The commercially most successful Swiss rock band of the 1970s were
Rumpelstilz
, fronted by "the
Bob Dylan
of Switzerland",
Polo Hofer
. Rumpelstilz were pioneers of Mundartrock preferring to sing in
Bernese German
rather than English. Their 1976 album
Fuuf Narre im Charre
(five jesters in the wheelbarrow) produced the massive hit singles "Teddybar" and "Kiosk", respectively. After the breakup of Rumpelstilz in 1978 Hofer would go on to a very successful solo career. His 1985 song "Alpenrose", co-written with former Rumpelstilz bandmate Hanery Ammann, was voted "Biggest Swiss Hit" of all time in 2006 by a
Swiss German
television audience. Rumpelstilz and Hofer were highly influential on bands like fellow Bernese rockers
Zuri West
and
Patent Ochsner
, Switzerland most successful Mundartrock bands today.
Notable 1970s Swiss
hard
and
heavy rock
acts include Brainticket off-shoot
Toad
, a
bluesy
power trio perhaps best known for their debut single "Stay!",
Marc Storace
fronted semi-progressive outfit
TEA
, and
Krokus
who quickly rose to become the most popular Swiss hard rock hand when they added the aforementioned Storace as their new lead vocalist in time for 1980's more
heavy metal
influenced
Metal Rendez-Vous
, their international break through. Their
Tom Allom
produced 1983 album,
Headhunter
, peaked at #25 on the U.S.
Billboard 200
charts and was
RIAA
certified gold in the
United States
, making it the best-selling Swiss record in history. Other Swiss hard rock bands to emerge in the wake of Krokus included their
Solothurn
neighbors
Killer
, Black Angels, Crown, Steve Whitney Band, Stormbringer, Witchcraft, Bloody Six,
Paganini
as well as
China
, Satrox and Alison in the latter part of the 1980s and early 90s.
At about the same period, there were a number of
punk
[4]
[5]
and
pub rock
influenced bands, including the Looney Tunes, The Swiss Horns, Red Devil Band, Circus and Irrwisch.
In the early 1980s,
extreme metal
pioneers
Hellhammer
emerged from suburban Zurich before morphing into the more sophisticated
Celtic Frost
, a groundbreaking band whose pivotal early albums,
Morbid Tales
,
To Mega Therion
(with cover artwork by famed Swiss artist
H.R. Giger
) and
Into the Pandemonium
, revolutionized heavy metal musically as well as aesthetically. After the initial breakup of Celtic Frost, band leader Tom Warrior, a.k.a.
Tom Gabriel Fischer
, formed
industrial rock
outfit
Apollyon Sun
before successfully reforming Celtic Frost in 2001. As of 2008, Fischer was leading the CF spin-off
Triptykon
.
Equally as influential and acclaimed as Celtic Frost are
The Young Gods
from Switzerland's French speaking
Romandy
region. Formed in 1985 and debuting with their
self-titled album
in 1987, the experimental
Industrial Rock
trio, led by sole constant member Franz Treichler, a.k.a. Franz Muse, have released 8 studio albums to date and have been acknowledged as an influence by the likes of
David Bowie
,
U2
's
The Edge
and
Faith No More
's
Mike Patton
. Other Romandy acts of international repute are
Valais
extreme metal
band
Samael
and
Geneva
's futuristic cyber metalists,
Sybreed
.
Another Zurich area band, with ties to Celtic Frost, are internationally renowned progressive thrash trio
Coroner
who released a string of highly acclaimed albums such as
No More Color
and
Mental Vortex
in the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. After the demise of Coroner, guitarist Tommy T. Baron, a.k.a. Tommy Vetterli, briefly joined German thrashers
Kreator
while drummer Marquis Marky, a.k.a. Markus Edelmann, became a member of Tom Warrior's short lived
Apollyon Sun
. As of 2010, Coroner were active again doing live shows. Yet another Zurich area metal band that made an impression in the late 1980s were
Uster
based five-piece Drifter with two major label releases,
Reality Turns to Dust
and
Nowhere to Hide
, to their credit. Other notable Swiss extreme metal acts of that era include
Messiah
, Excruciation, Bloodstar and Calhoun Conquer.
In the early 1990s, a very active
neo-prog
scene began to flourish in the Southern
Swiss
Canton of Ticino
, primarily exemplified by two bands, Clepsydra (
InsideOut Music
) and Shakary (SHK Records). Another Ticino band,
Lugano
based
Gotthard
, emerged in 1992 with their
eponymous debut album
(their only album not to reach number 1 on the Swiss album charts) and, guided by former Krokus bassist
Chris von Rohr
, went on to become the most commercially successful Swiss hard rock group since the heyday of Krokus, with numerous gold and platinum certified releases in Switzerland during the course of their 25-year career. The group's best selling album,
Homerun
, has been certified 3 x platinum for sales in excess of 90,000 copies in their home country. In the shadows of Gotthard,
Bern
natives
Shakra
, who first came on the scene with their self-titled 1998 debut album, have established a solid career with several of their releases entering the Swiss and German album charts.
Switzerland's internationally most success new band of the last 10 years have been
Eluveitie
whose eclectic
folk metal
style incorporates characteristics of
melodic death metal
combined with the melodies of traditional
Celtic
music. Their 2014 album,
Origins
, reached number 1 on the Swiss album charts.
Literature
[
edit
]
- Grand, Lurker.
Die Not Hat Ein Ende. The Swiss Art of Rock.
Edition Patrick Frey, 2015.
ISBN
978-3-905929-77-5
- Grand, Lurker.
Heute und danach ? The Swiss Underground Music Scene of the 80s.
Edition Patrick Frey, 2012.
ISBN
978-3-905929-21-8
- Grand, Lurker.
Hot Love ? Swiss Punk & Wave 1976?1980.
Edition Patrick Frey, 2006.
ISBN
978-3-905509-62-5
References
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