User:Cath dew/Rheingold

Rheingold was a German Neue Deutsche Welle band formed in Düsseldorf in 1980. Its members were Bodo Staiger (vocals, guitar), Lothar Manteuffel (lyrics), and Brigitte Kunze (keyboards).

History
Between 1980 and 1984 Rheingold released three German-language synthpop LPs. Their biggest successes include the singles "Dreiklangs-Dimensionen," which is often considered to be the first Neue Deutsche Welle song to reach the top 20 in the German charts, "Fluss", and "Fan Fan Fanatisch," (the theme for the film Der Fan, in which Staiger played a leading role alongside Désirée Nosbusch). On the German single charts, Rheingold reached no. 17 with "Dreiklangs-Dimensionen," no. 24. with "Fan Fan Fanatisch," and no. 44 with "Das steht dir gut."

In 1992, Lothar Manteuffel founded the duo Elektric Music with former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. In 2009, he toured with Peter Heppner as a keyboardist.

Rolf Meurer played keyboards for the band during one of their last TV appearances on Bayerischer Rundfunk. He now works as a sound and stage designer for Kraftwerk.

Bodo Staiger (1949-2019) founded the Rheinklang-Studio in Düsseldorf in 1988, and worked there as a producer and sound engineer. In 1997, Staiger helped produce a solo album, Yamo, by former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür. Brigitte Kunze, who had by then married Staiger and taken his surname, worked alongside him as the owner of 3Klang Records.

In 2007, the band's original line-up released the album Electric City: Düsseldorfer Schule, with cover versions of Düsseldorf electronic bands of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, including Kraftwerk, Fehlfarben, La Düsseldorf, and Propaganda.

Bodo Staiger died in 2019.

Literature

 * Rüdiger Esch: „Electri_City. Elektronische Musik aus Düsseldorf 1970–1986“, Suhrkamp Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-46464-9.
 * Sven-André Dreyer, Michael Wenzel, Thomas Stelzmann: Keine Atempause – Musik aus Düsseldorf, Droste, Düsseldorf 2018, 192 S., ISBN 978-3-7700-2067-6.

External

 * 3Klangrecords