KARAT

NOTE: The event planned for 15.11.2024 in Neubrandenburg has been postponed to 29.12.2024, 18:00. Tickets already purchased remain valid for 29.12.2024 or can be returned to the respective advance booking offices where they were purchased.

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When they formed in 1975, KARAT were no longer pimply teenagers taking their first wobbly steps on stage. They had already gained their merits in well-known rock bands, above all "Panta Rhei" and "Horst-Krüger-Band". The band around singer Herbert Dreilich and keyboarder Ed Swillms, who penned the big KARAT hits, came together to become number one and it quickly became clear that they were capable of doing so. And it didn't take long.

The special thing about it: the success did not end at the former zone border. Undoubtedly a balm for East German music fans: they were always painfully aware that most of what they consumed live on the domestic market or from legally purchased tapes was a kind of substitute for the greats of the rock and pop world behind the Wall. For the first time, KARAT gave the feeling of hearing something at home or in your own town hall that was more than a pop-music mocha fix, i.e. a substitute product. It was something that people "over there" also bought with Western money, even though it was on the shelf between "Kansas" and "King Crimson" and not in front of "Karussell" and "Kati Kovaćs".

The second KARAT album (in the East: "Über sieben Brücken") was released in Germany as early as 1979 under the title "Albatros" - the clever marketers had added the "King of the World" to it. It sold just below gold status. KARAT then cracked it in the wake of "Der blaue Planet", one of the most successful albums in the history of East German rock, which was also in the charts in the West for almost a whole year without interruption. KARAT were not only hugely important because of their music alone, but also because this music was an all-German thing that came from the East. And yes, also because they stayed in the East, even though the Wall was much more permeable for them than for their fans.

It seems pointless, because it is sufficiently well known, to go back over 45 years of KARAT to the great classics such as "Schwanenkönig", "Gewitterregen", "Magisches Licht", "Jede Stunde", "Mich zwingt keiner auf die Knie" and "Blumen aus Eis" (and last but not least those already mentioned). To the many KARAT cover versions by Gregor Meyle, Heinz Rudolf Kunze, Peter Maffay, Helene Fischer, Chris de Burgh, Jan Josef Liefers and Max Raabe, to name but a few. To the sold-out Waldbühne without any GDR audience, to the fact that they were the first and only band from the East to appear on "Wetten dass...". And to over twelve million records sold.

As important as these stages in KARAT's career are, they are only part of the story. Bernd Römer (git), Michael Schwandt (dr), Christian Liebig (b), Martin Becker (keyb) and Claudius Dreilich (voc) have never stopped being creative. It was never their thing to rest on their laurels. They are always convincing live - rocking, symphonic, balladesque, in collaborations with orchestras or musician friends as well as unplugged. KARAT also continue to inspire with new studio albums, with which they also make their way into the official charts - most recently "Seelenschiffe" (2015) and "Labyrinth" (2019).

The fact that KARAT continue to play sold-out tours is also and above all due to the personality of the frontman. It has to do with the fact that tragedy and triumph are often not only closely linked, but can sometimes even be mutually dependent: The tragic death from cancer of Herbert Dreilich, who was much more than just the singer of this band, but embodied its face and soul, seemed to mark the end of KARAT in 2004. But in the end he enabled the band - with his son Claudius as the new frontman - to rise from the ashes like the famous phoenix. Claudius Dreilich not only authentically continued the proven lines of continuity, he also pumped fresh energy into the company and opened up new perspectives for the seasoned men.