"Belfegore"
"Belfegore"
Belfegore was a project and brainchild of the German singer and guitarist Michael (Meikel) David Clauss, formerly of Nichts and Der KFC, with Charly Terstappen (aka Charly T Charles) and Walter Jaeger, formerly with Die Krupps. The band was formed 1982 in Düsseldorf and quickly became part of the Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) movement, playing a distinctly German style of new wave music that owed a lot to both the early UK Goth scene as well as the European punk movement.
Their First album "A Dog Is Born" was a mostly self-financed affair, gaining limited release in Germany through Pure Freude and was imported into the UK by Rough Trade. This release was followed by the self-titled 12" EP "Belfegore" and the 7" live single "Marmor". In 1983, just as the group signed a record deal with Elektra, Jaeger left the band and was replaced by Raoul Walton. The resultant album, "Belfegore", produced by Conny Plank and released with two different covers, saw a shift away from the more experimental new wave sound to something harder-edged and industrial.
The band supported U2 on the European part of the Unforgettable Fire Tour. In 1985 Clauss dissolved the band because he claimed he'd had enough of the rock'n'roll lifestyle and he went on to study medicine in Germany. Raoul Walton later played with the German rock band Anyone's Daughter. In 1988 Charly Terstappen joined The Lords, one of Germany's longest-serving rock bands.
The video for "All That I Wanted", which was directed by Academy Award-winning director Zbigniew Rybczyński in one of his first forays into music video, was also aired on MuchMusic in Canada, to much acclaim.
