Biography
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Years Active
1991 – present (33 years)
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Members
- Yvonne de Ray
Spring 1991, Leipzig, Germany. Three friends come together with the idea of forming a band. For the moment they just meet to make a lot of noise and call it rehearsal.
No beginning is an easy one. So it wasn’t for them either. It was Jens-Uwe Helmstedt, who had already written a few lyrics by then, who started composing the first songs. Although he worked at a synthesizer the sound of the band was guitar oriented from the beginning on. The style was clear. It should be Rock - Gothic Rock with its roots in the 80’ies. Erik Wolf became the guitar player of the band and Thomas Böttcher took over the keyboard parts. Soon after, Christiane completed the line-up at the bass guitar.
The first two songs “It Comes the Night” and “Behind Walls” (recorded at the rehearsal room) gained them immediate success at a band competition. Now they had to play live at a festival and it was time to invent an appropriate band name. That was not so easy and nearly led into the first serious band crisis. At a last instant the band was notified under the name AGE OF HEAVEN. In the meantime more songs were written and thus the challenge started to play the whole live set with own songs. The show was a great success and inspired the band to continue its way.
More local shows followed. October 19, 1991 AOH supported INVINCIBLE SPIRIT at the first Moonchild Festival at Leipzig’s Eiskeller and played in front of a full house. Interesting remark: This was the first main event of the Moonchild Agency, the guys who later on founded the world known Wave-Gotik-Treffen.
After a few concerts with Mirco Schulze on bass guitar Christian Schierwagen joined the band. He was with the band when AOH recorded their first “real” demo-tape.
At the beginning of 1992 the first demo-tape “Heaven’s Tears” was finished. It included 12 tracks and sold very well in the band’s environment.
Whitsun 1992 a phenomenon started, the first Wave-Gotik-Treffen took place at Leipzig. Inspired by the idea to create an occasion where like-minded people can meet, two enthusiasts of Leipzig’s Gothic scene decided to found a new institution. An annual meeting of Gothic people at Cologne in front of the Cathedral did already exist at that time. But it was just a lose get together of those strange looking people with their black dresses and backcombed hair. The first WGT with concerts on two days as well as camping and party lawn alongside gave that idea a new setting. At that time nobody would have imagined that the WGT would survive for so long and grow up to today’s dimensions.
AGE OF HEAVEN were the opener of the first WGT. The show was an impressive success at an overcrowded hall in front of an outstanding audience.
Now various fanzines and music magazines got interested in AOH. The band also came into contact with independent record labels. Further live shows followed.
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