DIE SUURBIERS: Wölli Rhode (Die Toten Hosen) - Grandmaster Suurbier (RIP), Beckmann (Rainbirds) - Bumbum Suurbier, Stefan Fiebig (Ramones Musical, Overnight Angels) - Overnight Suurbier, Tex Morton (MadSin) - Tex Suurbier, Ekki Busch (Element of Crime ) - Ekki Suurbier, Heinz Brandenburg (Eisenstein) - Heinz Suurbier, Lu Kleff (Strangemen) - Lu Suurbier

"The mother of all fun punk bands. Depth and fun. After the tragic end of Captain Suurbier, the idea lives on. A part of German Music history. West Berlin is a myth, last but not least shown by the documentary “B-movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989”. Berlin was wild and anarchic in the early 80s and the Suurbiers were a part of that. They are known as the pioneers of Fun-Punk and it's not surprising that bass player Hans Suurbier 1985 together with Bela B and Farin Urlaub founded the legendary band “Die Ärzte”. Like The Ramones, the Suurbiers also claimed to all be related. Captain Suurbier, the singer and guitar player set the pace and stayed the only constant until in 2014 he decided to end his life. But that wasn’t the end. The Story of Suurbiers continues, with a new cast carrying the old spirits of the band. “Fun-Punk is not dead!” radioeins 29.08.2015

RAINBIRDS: Katharina Franck, Michael Beckmann (until 1990), Wolfgang Glum (until 1990)

Founded in 1986 and named after an instrumental title by Tom Waits the Rainbirds won the Berlin Senatrock competition and were then signed by Record Label Mercury. The first of the band's albums was produced and recorded in Berlins Audio-Sound Studio of Udo Arndt and proved itself to be a resounding success. The Single „Blueprint” advanced in early 1988 to become a Europe-wide hit. The original line-up of the band included Katharina Franck, Beckmann and Wolfgang Glum. On the occasion of a tour guitar player Rodrigo Gonzalez, later a member of “Die Ärzte”, joined the group. In the spring of 1989 the second album “Call me easy” was published. Photographer and Video director Anton Corbijn filmed a video clip to “Say I’m Strong”, “Love me my way” and “It ain’t wrong”. Corbijn - previously known for his pictures of Depeche Fashion & U2 - soon became the house photographer of the band. Following this album, due to musical differences since Beckmann, Glum and Gonzalez wanted to follow a more rock sound, the band split up and Franck formed the band into a duo. With this line-up, 2 further albums were published however, they could not compete with the success of the first two. 

DEPP JONES: Bela B., Axel "Atze" Ludwig (until 1990), Rodrigo González, Michael Beckmann (until 1992)

Depp Jones was founded by the Band S.U.M.P., which the four members in cooperation with producer Uwe Hoffmann (Die Ärzte) had founded in ‘89. The band got its name from the Lucky-Luke-Comic Nr. 25, in which Averell Dalton uses the alias of Depp Jones. The founding of the band took place during a concert, where the rainbirds were also playing. Still during the test recordings of their first album “Return to Caramba!” the band split up from Axel Ludwig and from then on Gonzalez was the sole guitarist. Olaf M. Kobold joined the band as a drummer and this line-up produced two albums: “Return to Caramba!” and “Welcome to Hell”. Beckmann left the band in 1992 and was replaced by Peter Sonntag. With this new line up the album “At 2012 A.D.” was created. However, the commercial success of the band failed to materialise and the record deal, which was set to expire in 1992, was not renewed by Sony Music. This led the band to split up. When Bela B. and Farin Urlaub reunited “Die Ärzte” in 1993, they took the former guitarist Rodrigo Gonzalez into the band as bass player. 

Plan B: Johnny Haeusler, Michael Beckman, Sven Schumacher, Andreas Perzborn

The band was founded in 1984 in Berlin and performed as the opening act of “The Clash” during their Germany tour in the same year. At the end of the 80s, the band switched to the major record label BMG, released the album “The Greenhouse Effect” and opened for the Ramones. In 1993 they released the single “Life’s a Beat” which turned into a mini hit in the United States and led to the band performing some concerts in the US and also opening for Duran Duran. When they were dropped by their label in the mid-90s, the band disbanded for the time being in 1996. At this point, they had already finished production of their next album, “Alphabet Soup” which Johnny Haeusler released in 2004 on Spreeblick (his blog) as an MP3. When the band announced its reunion in march 2012, the lineup had differed significantly from their times at BMG. Bassist Fritz Neitzert was replaced with Rainbirds bassist Beckmann, and the role of the second guitarist went from Hans Hackenberger to Sven Schumacher. 



Academic mix: Ali N. Askin, Helmut Zerlett, Michael Beckmann, Gerd Baumann, Christoph Zirngibl, Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock



This is the band of the most successful German film composers. From oscar nominated productions like “Beyond Silence” and “Nowhere in Africa”, over the Blockbuster “Suck me Shakespeer”, the children's movies, “Vampire Sisters” and “Petterson and Findus” up to Comedy hit “Männerhort”. The Members of the band contributed greatly to the portfolio of current german cinema. All Akademix-members also have a solid band background with Beckmann having been a member of the “Rainbirds”, Schmidt-Hambrock having been the bassist of “Klaus Doldinger’s Passport”, Helmut Zerlett having previously participated in the 2000 “Harald Schmidt Show” and had worked as a manager at “Marius Mueller Westernhagen” and Ali Askin had worked in cooperation with “Frank Zappa”. After many years in studios at a meeting of the German Film Academy, the idea to get back up on stage started to blossom. AKADEMIX became the official band of the Academy and played regularly at the Lola award show and national festivals. We play our scores, but also edit the works of our dear colleagues. Sometimes even to a picture since after all, that is our profession. ▶ ▶ ▶

Bands: Beckmann as bassist.



1989 - with Grand Hart (Hüsker Dü) on his first solo Europe tour.

1989 - on Bela B's first solo album "SUMP" - published through the Weserlabel

2018 - on the debut single “Indestructible” by Esche (Serum 114 Sänger” with Slime drummer Alex Schwers. Video

2019 - Session Bass Player for Robert Gläser