Scooter (band)

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Scooter

Scooter on their "Jumping all over the World" Tour, at the Zenith in Munich 2008
Background information
Origin Hamburg, Germany
Genres Hard dance
Eurodance
Hard Trance
Happy Hardcore
Jumpstyle (later material)
Hardstyle (later material)
Years active 1993–present
Labels Club Tools (1993–1999)
Sheffield Tunes (1999–present)
Associated acts 3 A.M., 3 Global Player's, Ancient Of Mumu, Clinique Team, Fragrance, Guess Who !, Hyssteria, Kosmos, The Loop!, Love Message, Ratty, Section 11
Website www.scootertechno.com
Members
Hans Peter Geerdes (H. P. Baxxter)
Hendrik Stedler (Rick J. Jordan)
Michael Simon
Jens Peter Thele (Manager)
Former members
Sören Bühler (Ferris Bueller) (1993–1998)
Axel Broszeit (Axel Coon) (1998–2002)
Jürgen Frosch (Jay Frog) (2002–2006)

Scooter are a German hard dance band founded in Hamburg,[1] who have sold over 25 million records and earned 80 gold and platinum awards. Scooter are considered the most successful single-record German act with 23 top ten hits.[2] The band is currently composed of members H.P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan and Michael Simon. Although most of the band's early recordings are in the styles of happy hardcore or hard trance, Scooter have experimented with other dance genres such as hardstyle and jumpstyle, and occasionally hip hop, hard rock and house.

Scooter's trademark sound features spoken or shouted vocals, pitch-shifted chorus vocals and live performance elements such as crowd samples. Among their more well-known hits are "Hyper Hyper", "Move Your Ass!", "Fire", "How Much Is the Fish?", "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)", "Ramp! (The Logical Song)", "Nessaja", "Weekend!", "Maria (I Like It Loud)", "One (Always Hardcore)", and "Jumping All Over the World".

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Celebrate the Nun and The Loop

In 1986 H. P. Baxxter and Rick J. Jordan met in Hanover, Germany through a small ad and founded the new wave band Celebrate The Nun. The band released two albums, Meanwhile (1989) and Continuous (1991), and five singles. Slin Tompson left the band in 1990 to start a project on his own. Lead vocals were done by Baxxter and female vocals were delivered by Baxxter's sister Britt Maxime.[3] Not finding the expected success in the new wave arena Baxxter kept working at the former Hamburg based Indie label (currently Edel Records) in distribution and sales where he met Scooter's future manager Jens Thele.[4] Soon afterwards, in late 1993, the former Celebrate the Nun members joined up with Baxxter's cousin Ferris Bueller under the management of Jens Thele to form a remix team known as The Loop. The Loop became one of the top remix teams in Germany, releasing remixes for artists like Adeva, Holly Johnson, The Tag Team, RuPaul, and Marky Mark feat. Prince Ital Joe.[5]

[edit] Beginning

Scooter started as a project in 1994. Their debut single "Vallée De Larmes" (French for Valley of Tears) reached #8 on the German official dance chart. In April, Scooter played their first live show at "The Palladium" in Hamburg. At that point, Scooter officially switched from being a project into a band, and Baxxter's "rapping" became one of the band's trademarks.

At first, "Hyper Hyper" was expected to be a small hit within the club scene, but it became a platinum record, selling 700,000 units,[4][6] eventually reaching number 2 on Germany's Media Control single chart. Scooter's third single "Move Your Ass" reached number 3 within Media Control's single chart after a few weeks of its release. The follow-up singles, "Friends" and "Endless Summer", occupied similar positions.

The band maintained the initial technique of their sound throughout their second album, Our Happy Hardcore, until the style became noticeably different with their 1996 single "I'm Raving" (from the 3rd album Wicked) as the tempos were down to 138 BPM from their previous tempos which were between the range of 160 and 190 BPM. The single got gold certification, reaching no. 4 in Germany.

Scooter's fourth album, Age of Love, went gold, selling 250,000 units within four weeks of its release.

[edit] 1998–2002

In 1998, Ferris Bueller (Soren Buehler) left the group to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by DJ Axel Coon, who had been working with the band at the recording studio for some time already. Scooter released one of their memorable singles "How Much is the Fish?" which charted at #3, selling over 300,000 units and becoming another gold single. Their fifth album, No Time to Chill, reached the number 4 position on the Media Control album chart.

In July 1999, "Faster Harder Scooter", Scooter's first single from their sixth album, Back to the Heavyweight Jam, reached number 7 at home. "Back to the Heavyweight Jam", "Fuck the Millennium", band members' use of aliases and the spoken intro to "Fuck the Millenium" all heavily reference The KLF, who pioneered the concept of live crowd samples as part of their stadium house concept and White Room album.

Scooter released their seventh album, Sheffield, in May 2000. Sheffield took another new direction including 6/8 rhythms on tracks "Don't Gimme the Funk" and "Sex Dwarf". In late 2000, after their second single "She's the Sun," Scooter were awarded a Comet at the 2000 VIVA Comet Awards in the "Most Successful Dance Act" category.

The band's 21st single, "Posse (I Need You on the Floor)," was the first Scooter single since "Endless Summer" to include a high-pitched-voice in the chorus. Their eighth album, We Bring the Noise, released in June 2001, included another single, "Aiii Shot the DJ." A limited edition version of the album included a cover of the 1978 City song "Am Fenster" as a bonus track.

In December 2001, Scooter released their 23rd single "Ramp! (The Logical Song)" from the compilation album Push The Beat For This Jam. The single shipped over 200,000 units in Germany and went gold in many countries as well as platinum in Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom, where 407,000 copies of the single were sold.

[edit] 2002–2006

At the beginning of 2002, the band released their second Best Of album titled Push the Beat for this Jam (The Singles 98-02). Coon left the band to pursue a solo career in DJing and remixing, and Jay Frog became the new DJ.

As a quick way of introducing the new member Frog to their fans, the trio released a second compilation album in November 2002, 24 Carat Gold. Scooter's 24th single, "Nessaja" was a cover version of the title track from Peter Maffay's musical Tabaluga, and debuted at number one on the German official single charts.

Scooter enjoyed a comeback within the UK charts, with 6 top 20 UK singles "The Logical Song" (UK #2), "Nessaja" (UK #4), "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)" (UK #15), "Weekend!" (UK #12), "The Night" (UK #16) and "Maria (I Like It Loud)" (UK #16) all charting within an 18 month period.[7]

In 2003, the video for "Weekend!" caused a scandal with its scenes of topless dancers. The song reached number 2 on the German Media Control single chart.

In March 2003, Scooter released their next studio album, The Stadium Techno Experience. The album climbed to number 7 on the Media Control album chart. The single "The Night" became the last to feature the high pitched voice effect and reached the Top 10 in Germany. The next single from the album, "Maria (I Like It Loud)", was released in collaboration with hardcore producers Marc Acardipane and Dick Rules, reaching number 4 on the single charts.

Mind The Gap was Scooter's 10th studio album, released in three different versions: basic, regular and deluxe. The 28th single, "Shake That!" flavored with 70s disco sound was released on 4 October in most European countries, entering the German Media Control single chart at number 8 and gaining Gold certification in the Czech Republic.[8]

Their 11th studio album, Who's Got the Last Laugh Now?, featured a cover version of "Everlasting Love." The Who's Got The Last Laugh Now? 2006 tour was followed by the release of both the CD and the 2-disc DVD entitled Excess All Areas, one of the DVDs containing the final Hamburg concert of the tour and the second containing every music video released so far.

[edit] 2006–2008

On August 14, 2006, it was announced that Jay Frog had decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. Frog was replaced by Michael Simon, who had remixed some of Scooter's tracks while in search of success with his "Shahin & Simon" project. On August 19, Scooter played at the Tufertschwil Open Air in Switzerland, where Simon debuted.

The single "Behind the Cow" was premiered at The Dome 40 in Düsseldorf on December 1, 2006, and was released on January 19, 2007. The song and its lyrics are based on "What Time Is Love?" by The KLF. Their 12th album The Ultimate Aural Orgasm, which includes the songs "The United Vibe" (cover version of Den Harrow's "Catch the Fox"), "Scarborough Affair" or "The Shit That Killed Elvis" (collaboration with Jimmy Pop, the frontman of American fun-rock-band The Bloodhound Gang), was released on February 9, 2007. The second single release of The Ultimate Aural Orgasm was "Lass Uns Tanzen" which appeared in stores on March 23.

On August 10, Scooter released a new single called "The Question is What is the Question", the release of which surprised many of their fans as they were expecting a third single from the current album rather than new material. The band released a jumpstyle cover version of classic 70's track "How Do You Do" by Mouth & MacNeal. Scooter released their 13th studio album, Jumping All Over the World, on 30 November 2007, containing all three singles ("The Question is What is the Question", "And No Matches" and "Jumping All Over the World"). A limited edition of the album contains a bonus CD including all Scooter's German top ten hits, from "Hyper, Hyper" to "How Much Is The Fish?" as well as a previously unreleased version of "The Question Is What Is The Question?"[9]

In November 2007, the band made its debut tour of Australia, never having visited the country before despite a #1 single there (The Logical Song) some 6 years earlier. Scooter performed at the famous Scattered rave party in Sydney as well as in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

In March 2008, the group embarked on its first arena tour of the UK as part of Clubland Live, appearing alongside other All Around The World acts such as Cascada and Ultrabeat. During this tour, Scooter performed a retooled version of "I'm Lonely" from Jumping All Over The World; the single was released in Germany on 18 April 2008. "The Question Is What Is The Question" was released in the UK the same week, charting at number 49. The band made international news in May 2008 when Jumping All Over The World unexpectedly entered at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, replacing Madonna's album Hard Candy after just one week[10][11] It is Scooter's first number 1 in the UK and first album release there in five years.

[edit] 2009 Onwards

Rick J. Jordan and Michael Simon together while promoting Under The Radar Over The Top.

February 2009 saw the release of a Scooter tribute album entitled Hands On Scooter, featuring artists such as The Bloodhound Gang, Status Quo, and Sido covering or sampling Scooter songs.[12]

During the summer of 2009, Scooter announced their next studio album, Under The Radar Over The Top. On August 14, 2009, Scooter released "J'adore Hardcore", the first single from Under The Radar Over The Top. "J'adore Hardcore" was based on Planet Funk's "Chase the Sun" and The Pitcher's "I Just Can't Stop.".[13] On July 30, 2009, during the video shoot for "J'adore Hardcore," Baxxter was almost a victim of a car bomb attack in Majorca, Spain.[14] Michael Simon reported that Baxxter was alright and it was a very near miss. For their next single, single, "Ti Sento", Scooter collaborated with Italian singer Antonella Ruggiero. Ti Sento became a hit in Germany, and was released the day Under The Radar Over The Top was released. During the first week of sales, Under The Radar Over The Top appeared 2nd on the German charts. Ti Sento appeared as a number 11 hit on German charts the same week and peaked at 10 the following week. It was confirmed on November 3rd that The Sound Above My Hair would be the third single from the album. The video premiered on YouTube on the 12th of November. The single was released on November 27.

The Under The Radar Over The Tour was announced before the album was released. Originally, the tour was only to be a week long through several German cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Leipzig at the end of March 2010. However, a UK Tour was later announced to take place before the German tour, in January of 2010.

It was confirmed on Clubland.Fm that The Sound Above My Hair would be released as the next UK single, it will be released sometime in January.

[edit] Lineup

[edit] Current

[edit] Former

  • Sören Bühler (Ferris Bueller, born: 29 September 1971) – 1993–1998, keyboards
  • Axel Broszeit (Axel Coon, born: 23 March 1975) – 1998–2002, keyboards
  • Jürgen Frosch (Jay Frog, born: 7 May 1976) – 2002–2006, keyboards

[edit] Collaborations

[edit] Management

  • Jens Thele (Manager)
  • Kai Busse (Bookings)
  • Klaus Perreth (Tour-Management)

[edit] Discography

Main article: Scooter discography

[edit] Live Performances

[edit] Concerts

Scooter are known for giving very extravagant live performances, usually with dancers on stage performing certain styles of dancing, like Jumpstyle or the Melbourne Shuffle.[15][16] These are accompanied by laser shows and pyrotechnics (an example of such would be a light changing positions every beat while small explosions occur on stage at the same rate).[17] In concert, Scooter encourages crowd participation, often having frontman H.P. Baxxter shout out certain phrases and have them mimicked by the crowd between songs, and having the crowd sing along to the chorus of many songs.[18][19]

[edit] List of Tours

Year Tour Title
1997 Age Of Love Tour
1998 No Time To Chill Tour
1999 Back To The Heavyweight Jam Tour
2000 Sheffield Tour
2002 Push The Beat For This Jam Tour
2004 We Like It Loud Tour
2006 Who's Got The Last Laugh Now? Tour
2007 Lass Uns Tanzen Club Tour
2007 The Ultimate Aural Orgasm Australian Club Tour
2008 Clubland Live Tour
2008 Jumping All Over the World Tour
2010 Under The Radar Over The Top Tour 2010

[edit] In popular culture

In 1998, Scooter made a guest appearance on the popular German action/crime TV series Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei. In the episode Tödlicher Ruhm ("Deadly Fame"), Baxxter is held for ransom by a young DJ who accuses him of stealing lyrics for the song "The Age of Love."[20]

The Norwegian comedy duo Bye & Rønning made several parodies of Scooter, including Scooter in studio and Party in Heaven.

Oliver Pocher, a German comedian, performed a comedy spoof of HP Baxxter on VIVA.[21]

In 2003, the English dance music group Emmet formed a Scooter tribute act entitled "Moped." Their songs received airplay on BBC Radio 1.[22]

Scooter tracks often feature in releases of the Les Mills group fitness program Bodycombat.

"Nessaja" was used in the opening of the 2009 film Brüno. "Crank It Up" had previously been used as the theme tune for Brüno's segments on Da Ali G Show.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Biography".billboard.com.
  2. ^ "Biography".scootertechno.com.
  3. ^ "Celebrate the Nun".thesecondfuture.net/de/projekte/ctn/celebratethenun.html.
  4. ^ a b "Celebrate the Nun".musicline.de.
  5. ^ "Biography/1986-1993".scootertechno.com.
  6. ^ "Certification".musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank.html.
  7. ^ EveryHit.com Search "Scooter"
  8. ^ "Biography/October 2004".scootertechno.com
  9. ^ "Biography/Jumping_All_Over_The_World".scootertechno.com.
  10. ^ "BBC_News".bbc.co.uk.
  11. ^ "Billboard_News".billboard.com.
  12. ^ Hands On Scooter: Various Amazon.de
  13. ^ News ScooterTechno.com
  14. ^ Von Mark Pittelkau Und Anna Hesse. "Bild.de". Bild.de. http://www.bild.de/BILD/unterhaltung/leute/2009/08/01/scooter-frontmann-h-p-baxxter/entging-nur-knapp-dem-bombenanschlag-auf-mallorca.html. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  15. ^ 1 september 2009 (2009-09-01). "The dome 51 Scooter". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igBhmyCnq68&feature=related. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  16. ^ 10 maart 2009. "Scooter - Jumping All Over The World (Live in Berlin 2008 - HQ)". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F647cEBFLVU. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  17. ^ 11 oktober 2009 (2008-03-29). "Scooter Leipzig ( 29.03.2008 )". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeVvTkU6PuU. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  18. ^ 10 maart 2009. "Scooter - One / Always Hardcore (Live in Berlin 2008 - HQ)". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kw02Lr3fkg. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  19. ^ 10 maart 2009. "Scooter - Maria / I Like It Loud (Live in Berlin 2008 - HQ)". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59eOGmMVZNg&feature=channel. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  20. ^ Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei: Tödlicher Ruhm at the Internet Movie Database
  21. ^ 3 juli 2006. "Scooter Live at Life". Youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yQwl1ScE0Q. Retrieved 2009-12-19. 
  22. ^ Moped - The UK's Number 1 Scooter Tribute Band

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Scooter
H. P. Baxxter · Rick J. Jordan · Michael Simon
Studio albums
Compilations
Singles
"Hyper Hyper" · "Move Your Ass!" · "Friends" · "Endless Summer" · "Back in the U.K." · "Let Me Be Your Valentine" · "Rebel Yell" · "I'm Raving"  · "Break It Up"  · "Fire"  · "The Age Of Love" · "No Fate"  · "How Much Is The Fish?"  · "We Are The Greatest/I Was Made For Loving You"  · "Call Me Mañana" · "Faster Harder Scooter"  · "I'm Your Pusher  · "She's The Sun" · "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)" · "Aiii Shot the DJ" · "Ramp! (The Logical Song)" · "Nessaja"  · "Weekend!" · "The Night  · "Maria (I Like It Loud) · "Shake That!" · "One (Always Hardcore)" · "Suavemente" · "Hello! (Good To Be Back)" · "Apache Rocks the Bottom!" · "Behind the Cow" · "Lass Uns Tanzen" · "The Question Is What Is the Question?" · "And No Matches" · "Jumping All Over The World" · "I'm Lonely"  · "Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)"  · "J'adore Hardcore"  · "Ti Sento"  · "The Sound Above My Hair"
Other articles

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