The big A – Z about The Doctors

Ä

Medical festivals

Your own festival tour? Well, if you like traveling… In 2013, in any case, the doctors took on this logistical effort. Their guests included: Kraftklub, The Damned, Donots and LaBrassBanda.

b

“Hall of Bombs”

With the first piece in German, the thrash metal band Sodom started a long tradition. Since then, German texts have occasionally found their way into Tom Angelripper’s work. In 1989, Bela B contributed background vocals to “Ausgebombt”, the first sequel to “Bombenhagel” – and thus ennobled the Ruhrpott trio, which at that time was often called “Saudumm” even in the metal scene.

C

charts

Before the first Ärzte studio album reaches the top position in the charts, 16 years of band history have to pass. In 1998, record 13 reached number 1. From now on, this will be achieved again with every studio album.

D

Double album

With GERÄUSCH they released their first double album in 2003 – and 15 years earlier the live album AFTER UNS DIE SINTFLUT in the wild triple 12” vinyl format (plus bonus 7”). DUNKEL, which was released less than eleven months after their comeback record HELL in September 2021, does not complete its predecessor as a double album in the classic sense; after all, there are no references to each other in terms of content. But a DARK version with a slipcase, which was also available in stores, also left room for LIGHT. And yes, the two names suggest a certain connection.

E

A song called Schunder

“Always right in the face”: Everyone has this line in their ears, but who or what is Schunder? A tour companion for the doctors, he was part of the entourage in the 90s. His legend, immortalized for all pop eras with this song, says that when confronted with Nazis he didn’t necessarily limit himself to talking.

F

Women

Hannelore, Erna, Gwendoline, Anneliese, Elke, Gabi, Claudia, Jutta, Teresa, Grace Kelly, Madonna’s colon and the girl with the dungarees: women have always played an important role in the work of the Berlin boys’ clique, mostly acting as the recipients of punk -poppy love. But there is another way: The Farin Urlaub Racing Team, the backing band for the guitarist’s solo excursions, consists exclusively of female musicians.

G

Gag machine

“The best part of the whole day is the breaks,” postulated Roy Black – and experienced visitors to medical concerts also know this. The breaks between songs are filled with anecdotes ranging from short to epic, depending on your mood. On the triple LP farewell live album AFTER UNS DIE SINTFLUT (1988), the band gives their sayings a whole side of the record. Partly comedy gold!

H

Audiobooks

Although there are no Pixar films in which The Doctors, like The Fantastic Four, dub animal sidekicks, the Berliners’ voices still unexpectedly appear in low- to no-budget indie productions from time to time. Farin Urlaub, for example, is the speaker in the audio book version of “Where the wild maggots dig”, the indie publishing debut by ex-Muff Potter singer Nagel. Bela B can be heard, among other things, on an even smaller production: Abel Gebhardt’s “A Goldfish in the Pit”. For their decidedly uncommercial attitude, the band still enjoys the respect of a punk scene that otherwise hasn’t been able to do anything with pop music for a long time.

I

“I Hate Hitler”

The doctors are masters of shortening: This song is on their EP “1, 2, 3, 4 – Bullenstaat!” (1995), which, minus the guitar tuning and the announcement, has a net playing time of eight seconds. This means that “I Hate Hitler” almost undercuts the seven seconds of “Claudia Part 95” on THE BEAST IN HUMAN SHAPE (1993).

J

Joe

The doctors think tank has the following idea for the last album ALSO: release the record under a different name! As Lantern Joe. But people shy away from this ultimate confusion, which would probably have cost many units sold. The number is reduced to an EP (“The Doctors vs. Lantern Joe”) and several secret concerts under the name.

K

Concept album

Concept albums are usually reserved for metal and tend to fail due to self-inflicted pathos. LE FRISUR (1996), on the other hand, proves that the principle itself can work. A whole record about hair? The fact that they don’t go along with this nonsense idea is a real demonstration of power by the “best band in the world” in the 90s.

L

Lying press

In 2008, the doctor’s song “Lasse redn” pointedly and dismantled the “Bild” newspaper principle in the following four-note: “Fear, hate, tits, weather report”. But the empire strikes back. It happened when the black and brown pop cartoon character Heino published YOURS FRIENDLY five years later. There Heino covers Schlagerfernes, including “Junge” by the doctors. But it was only the scandal sparked by “Bild” that they were outraged about it and even wanted to take action against it that allowed the record to achieve greater recognition. The fact that the band had nothing of the sort in mind no longer plays a role in the malicious discussion that followed.

M

Metal

The genre is repeatedly made fun of, for example in “Captain Metal”. Nevertheless, the solo projects after the Ärzte split, i.e. SUMP, King Køng and Depp Jones, are very close and unironically to the hard guitar sound. These mostly English-language heavy excursions were not crowned with audience success.

N

Non-smoker

The doctors visit a suburb of Cologne, they give interviews about the album ALSO. The program “Roche & Böhmermann” is also recorded here. Farin Urlaub is invited as a guest, but decides not to take part on site. Reason given by the abstainer: Smoking is allowed on the show.

O

Barren

In the piece “Langweilig” by PLANET PUNK (1995), Farin Urlaub immortalizes his aversion to the TV program. “Don’t want to watch TV, it’s boring.” However, his experience with the topic itself is likely to be manageable, after all, he has never owned a television.

P

Paul

The lush medical universe also always fuels its own insider gags. The doctors’ website can still be reached today at the URL www.bademeister.com, which goes back to the song “Paul (Der Bademeister)” from the album DEBIL (1984).

Q

Quark

On the B-side of “Quark”, Die Ärzte put a lot of effort into producing one and treat their ancient hit “Anneliese Schmidt” to a very literally translated English version. It is titled “Analyzer Smith.”

R

“Richy Guitar”

Word is also getting around at the film company that the 1985 film with the doctors as actors is cult. The result: “Richy Guitar” is still a grab-and-go item to this day. The purchasing portal “Momox” offers the proud owner 15 cents for sending the DVD. There is a different way to increase value…

S

sound foil

The October 1986 issue of “Musikexpress”, then still with the addition “Sounds”, included a sound slide with a ten-second intro, followed by three excerpts from the then new album DIE ÄRZTE, including the scandalous song “Geschwisterliebe”, which was indexed at the end of January 1987 became. Exactly 35 years later, the band continued this lovely tradition and was enough for us For the October 2021 issue, a flexi disc with the song “Abends Billy”, an exclusively newly recorded rockabilly version of their hit “Morgens Pauken”. The magazine “Visions” was published at the same time with the version “Abends Skanken”.

T

Loyal friends

Peter Baumann from the Beatsteaks gets a piece played in the car. Farin Urlaub presents him “Unrockbar” (2003), which pays homage to Baumann’s band by name. His reaction in the car: “Oh shit! Someone pinch me!”

U

Ümlaut

It’s not just the Ä that appeals to the doctors; vowels with two or even three dots repeatedly play a role in their titles. Even solo in 1989, Farin didn’t want to abandon the principle of the alphabet oddity: the Scandinavian Ø adorns the name of his solo band King Køng.

v

Fuck off!

“Visitors who are known as Nazis or who want to make themselves unpopular by wearing Nazi emblems or fascist bands will be immediately expelled from the hall and banned from entering the hall.” Die Ärzte positioned themselves so clearly against the right on their concert tickets back in 1994.

W

“We are waiting for Lindenstrasse”

The rental bassist Hagen Liebing, who died in autumn 2016, pays homage to his favorite show in 1989 with this compilation. His ex-colleagues support him in his own contribution to the album. The “Featuring The Incredible Hagen” from the Ärzte-Platten is reversed here. “Featuring Jan Vetter and Bela B” is the title of the piece “Requiem for Nossek”.

X

Same thing X times

Being a rock band means repeating! The doctors always try to outwit this imperative – and like to vary lines of text live. The peak of the variation mood, however, is the “Economy” version of their album JAZZ IS ANDERS (2007). “Holes in the pants” from the hit “Junge” become “holes in the wall” in an improvised text reading. Vacation can hardly contain itself from laughing. The rule is: If the artist is having fun, the fan is happy.

Y

Yoko Ono

There is little left for the artist. For doctors, it merely acts as a symbolic disruptor of the boy’s bladder. “You’re even more annoying than Yoko Ono,” is what the 2000 piece that bears her name says. Incidentally, in an interview about the expulsion of bassist Sahnie ten years earlier, Bela complained that he had strained the band’s structure by having his own Yoko Ono.

Z

Two dogs fucking

Doctors’ lives are filled with side projects that often have absurd names. Among other things, Rod and Bela teamed up as Two Fucking Dogs. Well then: woof, woof!

This list first appeared in Musikexpress issue 12/2017 and has now been updated.