Early Times 1979 - 1984
1979! After the split of the Swiss rock group Kaktus, guitarist Crown Kocher founded the new Swiss rock shock KILLER with Mark Broman and the up-and-coming drummer Ali Allemann. Nomen est omen, who has ever pulled in one of your CD's or one of their legendary live gigs, knows what we mean ... !!
Chris von Rohr was leading in this new formation, as he contributed the two young musicians Many Maurer and Tigre Kofmehl, who were then stuck in his talent shop.
When the band produced their first single "Crazy Daisy" at the NewSound studio in 1980, producer Christoph Berger did not hesitate for long and launched KILLER at the German record company BELLAPHON: 3 longplayers and tours for 3 years! YEAH! Well done, Chris!
The first KILLER-LP "LADYKILLER" with their legendary anthems "MIDNIGHT HIGHWAY RIDER" and "GET OUT OF MY LIFE" catapulted KILLER to the zenith of the Helvetian rock scene and laid the foundations for the presence of a new rock band in the adjoining borderlands Germany and Austria ,
Was it the provocative album cover or their aggressive live acts, whatever: KILLER were suddenly present in all the heavy charts ...!
The gigs got bigger ...! Equipped with a King-Size PA and a powerful lightshow KILLER created the number 2 status after their fellow citizens KROKUS!
Funny, what? Why are all the awesome rock groups from Solothurn coming? Who cares..! With "THRILLER", the second album, the band made the breakthrough and the West Swiss television made a live gig in Servion / GE with downright Eurovision equipment (4 Ue cars with 8 cameras!)
Shortly thereafter KILLER were invited for a live recording to Mike Leckebusch in the legendary BEAT-CLUB in Bremen. The BILD newspaper organized a heavy-night in Stuttgart with KILLER as headliner. It rocks, dude ..!
1979 - 1984
At some point in October 82 KILLER reached the almost unbelievable message: You go on tour with Motörhead ... !! Yeah! 3 weeks Germany as an anchor of one of the craziest rock groups in the world.This became the absolute highlight in the career of this band!
Without the band's knowledge, the album "Ladykiller" even reached the USA !
The third album "STRONGER THAN EVER" was recorded with the new guitarist "Jan van Crow" after Crown Kocher withdrew from the active music scene in 1983 and promptly KILLER was again engaged for the 83er Motörhead tour.
Unfortunately, this tour had to be canceled after the first concert! Lemmy's new guitarist had flabbergasted! After this frustrating experience the musicians parted and founded their own bands NETZ and CHINA
Guitarist Jan recorded the fourth KILLER album "YOUNG BLOOD" with four new musicians in 1984 and tried to maintain the legendary band name with a new formation, but bad sales of the album and few concert goers unfortunately soon meant the end of one of the most controversial rock bands Swiss Rock History ...! That's Rock, n Roll ... !!
But that was not all...!!
Reload 2002
In 1982, 5 young men toured with different rock giants like Motörhead, Girlschool, etv. through the concert halls of Switzerland and Germany. The time they spent is one of the highlights of their musical career.
Twenty years later, in 2002, they thought it would be appropriate to bring these times to life again. At the Solothurn Culture Factory KOFMEHL, they organized a unique jubilee concert with all musicians involved at the time, some of whom had not touched any instrument for years.
The response was overwhelming. Although rock music is not necessarily the absolute hit of the scene, the older men attracted nearly 500 people on this occasion.
Concert Report by Dan Rockslave:
Kulturfabrik Kofmehl in Solothurn, 23.15. Full house! The opening act "501" left after beaten battle the stage and a short time later, the first dull beats from the intro roar across the stage. Guitarist Many relishes the extended version of the first chord, while a hooded person is strapped into the backstage and chained to a wheelchair by two muscle-bound Special Security guards.
Of course, Crown, who used to be known for wearing a prisoner dress, did not give it up tonight, with the difference that the item looked significantly more elegant and looked more like silk than fabric. When finally the second guitar was plugged in, there was no stopping. It was hard to believe that the band had not played together for so long time.
t is said to have gathered only four to five times for this event. But that was enough for a pure and fat sound, The guitars scratched pithily in harmony with fluid solos, the bass pumped powerfully and the drums pounded officially, while over the whole, the ever bettering voice of Mark enthroned. The setlist consisted without exception of classics of the first two discs "Ladykiller" and "Thriller
This evening deservedly belonged to KILLER, who received and could enjoy a great hymn after each song. Softer tones such as "Crystal Butterfly" were deliberately omitted. It came to rocking and not cuddling. The audience was visually but not necessarily trimmed on hard rock and / or metal.
In addition to several friends from the old days, many younger spectators frolicked in front of the stage, who were not even born or at most in the sandbox milled, as these songs were recorded. But how do you say so beautifully: "better late than never"!
However, the joy did not detract from this on both sides. The concert (almost 80 minutes) unfortunately flew by and after the Zep classic "Rock'n'Roll" as an encore layer was in the shaft.
A Hellwalker according to old fathers custom set the final point to a nostalgic inspired event of the special class, which left many wondering how it goes on now. That says it all!
Kofmehl 2006
What had been announced a month earlier in the Ustern Rock City, at the end of April '06 in the Solothurn Kultschmiede KOFMEHL to the certainty: KILLER are back .. !! And how...! The new formation has hit like a torpedo and the last doubts eliminated whether the line-up change was correct at the beginning of the year.
The new sounders around Ober-Fronthupe Crown Kocher, who had peeled back to his original cracker gap on general request rocked, as if there was no tomorrow. Hard to believe that the band has only been playing together for 3 1/2 months. Singer Andy Lickford was able to keep the level of his predecessor loose, and even partially surpass. The vocal and visual presentation was simply mind-blowing and all the other new members have also blended seamlessly into the band.
New songs, new live set
Premiere had one of the new KILLER songs written by Crown on this evening, namely "Pure Dynamite".The fact that this song earned by far the biggest applause this evening, suggests that KILLER are right with the direction and meet with their songs still the nerve of the rock audience.
"Crown, what's up, new gigs are coming up and when will a new KILLER CD finally be released ...?"
Crown: "We've found that it's hard to get to decent gigs without a new CD, but times are still tough for rock bands and the chances of getting a major deal at a record company are close to zero percent but do not refrain from writing new songs and performing them live until we see a way to put them on a CD."