Scooter History.
...and the beat goes on! These words are not only the title of the legendary debut album put out by these ultimate raver idols, for SCOOTER themselves they have become words to live by. And along with the beat, the megasellers go on and on as well. It all sounds like a dream, or a fairy tale for the nineties, but this is reality.
Hit after hit has been pumped out by H.P. Baxxter, Rick Jordan and Ferris Bueller, alias SCOOTER. Those who turned up their critical noses at "Hyper Hyper" back in the autumn of '94 had their eyes opened mighty quickly. "Hyper Hyper" sold over 700,000 copies in Germany alone, worked its way into German slang and catapulted SCOOTER overnight to the status of international stars. The ever-growing ranks of the rave generation use the expression "Hyper Hyper" to describe something incredibly awesome. It's the superlative superlative. And, as their career shows, these boys from the far north really live up to the title they gave their first track.
You've seen it happen many a time: an act crashes onto the scene, scores a megahit, and, before you know it, they're history. But not SCOOTER. They have become one of the world's most successful dance-techno bands. "Hyper Hyper", "Move Your Ass", "Friends", "Endless Summer" and "Back In The UK" all reached Top 5 in the German singles sales charts with sales of over 3.5 million worldwide so far. The singles all reached at least gold status in Germany (250.000 units).
The second album "Our Happy Hardcore" sold 120.000 units in Germany alone so far. It was the first CD-Extra (CD-Plus) of a German artist. The CD-ROM part of the CD offers the fan a variety of personal photos, excerpts of the videos as well as information about the group. Moreover, you can compete with H.P., Ferris and Rick in a go-cart race.
In May 1996, following "Back In The UK" (first Top 20 hit for SCOOTER in the UK) and "Let Me Be Your Valentine", the third single hit from "Our Happy Hardcore" was released: "Rebel Yell", a cover version of the Billy Idol classic with which SCOOTER proved that H.P. apart from his MC shouts can actually sing. "Rebel Yell" continued the string of Top 10 hits for SCOOTER in Germany as well as various other territories.
Although widely known from the print and TV media, the history of the band SCOOTER deserves a few words here. Back in the wavy 80s, H.P. and Rick got together under the name "Celebrate The Nun". Their music back then can best be described as "avant-garde future pop". This creative duo with the spacy sound achieved early success. The high point came when Celebrate The Nun broke into the Top 5 of the American Billboard Dance Charts. The two were spending more and more time in the music studios of Hamburg together with H.P.'s musically obsessed cousin Ferris and with Jens Thele, who had over many years become a permanent fixture on the city's club scene (Traxx, Trinity, Giganten-Partys) and with whom H.P. was now working at the Hamburg-based record company edel.
In the summer of 1993, the four formed the remix team "The Loop". It will come as no surprise that within no time at all they had gained the reputation as the remixers of choice. Guided by their policy of "if you like it, do it", they joined up with the likes of Adeva, Holly Johnson, RuPaul, Tony Di Bart, Tag Team, Prince Ital Joe feat. Marky Mark, to name just a few, and moved on to become one of the hottest remix teams around.
In late 1993 they were asked to produce a new version of the dutch house-track "Vallee des Larmes". At the same time, the idea of starting their own project began to take root. As the "Vallee des Larmes" track had a carnival-like feel, the group decided to name themselves after the bumper car, what the Germans call, you guessed it, SCOOTER! With Jens Thele doing his part in the background, H.P. Baxxter, Ferris Bueller and Rick Jordan are happiest when they're in the spotlight. It's significant that SCOOTER is on a level far above that of other techno-dance formations. These guys are a real band who give their all on stage and cut all their tracks in the studio together.
Speaking of studio work, Scooter have just set up a shiny new studio in Hamburg so that they can concentrate even more intensely on their joint projects. When they are not on tour, the band occupies the studio for nights on end, working on their own tracks or, as before, producing remixes for other artists. As for the studio outfitting, Scooter relies on a wide variety of equipment, and not all of it state-of-the-art. Rick swears by their 15-year-old PA system which he says "sounds simply divine".
SCOOTER's version of the Marc Cohn classic "Walking In Memphis": "I'm Raving", released in September 1996, was also produced in the said studio. And as a new single has to be followed by a new album, H.P., Rick and Ferris released their third album "Wicked!" in October 1996. "Wicked!" became the most successful Scooter album to date including their first radio hit single, the first 'techno-ballad' ever: "Break It Up". Who thought "I'm Raving" with its 139 BPM had been slow might have been surprised by this wonderful love song which was created with songwriter Noise Katzman (Culture Beat, DJ Bobo a.o.) and which also established Scooter in the Pop genre.
Following H.P.'s rediscovery of his old love for guitars with "Break It Up", Scooter obviously came to like sounds that one would not expect from an act which emerged from the rave and techno scene. Thus the latest single "Fire!" - a really explosive Dance track - is based on a metal guitar riff and stresses the band's seemingly ceaseless creativeness. After their first Asian tour H.P., Rick and Ferris continued to work on their new album.
So was the single Fire - an explosive dance-title with a metal-guitar riff, released.The single directly entered the top ten charts as #6 (08.04.97) and had four weeks later sold gold.
And
just recently they finished their fourth album Age of Love which
is going to be released August 25, but first they
will release a single called Age of Love on the 11th of August.
Scooter
will release a new single called "No Fate" December
1st.
A new double-cd album called "Rough and tough and dangerous
- the singles 1994-1998" will be released December 30.
A new video is also on it's way and it will be called "The
videos 94/98 & The age of love tour Live".
In January or in February Scooter will release a rave version of
Steve Millers "Abracadabra".