The Bates:

The Bates - originating from "Sticky Fingers" and later "Nuclear Graffity" (or "Nuclear Graffiti") - was founded in 1987 in a youth house in Eschwege. At the time the band consisted of Zimbl (vocals, bass), Klube (drums), Pogo (rhythm guitar) and Armin (lead guitar). The band took their name from the crazy mother/son, Norman Bates, from the movie "Psycho", after watching the film one summer night during a party. Their first concert took place that same year in this formation.

In 1988, their first recordings in a studio took place. One could find these later on the bonus tracks version of "No Name for the Baby" and years later 2 of them could be found as the last tracks on the rerelease of "Shake!" on Virgin Records.

After their first demo recordings and contributions to samplers the band signed on with Black Fantasy Records in 1989 and the album, "No Name for the Baby" was recorded and released.

In the meantime a fanclub was established in 1990 and the band recorded their second album, "Shake!". After the completion of the recordings, but before the album's release, lead guitarist, Armin Beck, left the band. For a short time they tried another guitarist but he neither played on any of the recordings or ever played live with the band. They tested other guitarists and took Reb in for a short period of time. He was to play lead guitar on the fall and winter tour and then would be replaced. In the meantime they also managed to secure a spot as support act on the Christmas tour for Peter and the Test Tube Babies.

In 1991, the band was again a trio. After a few concerts in this line-up the inevitable search for a new guitarist continued. For months no concerts took place. During this time Zimbl and Klube founded the band, The Suzies, and wrote songs. In the summer of this year Reb rejoined the band and they were again four. On October 31st, after many months of no concerts, the band performed again in Eschwege.

In 1992, the Bates changed labels and signed on with Snoop Records. Their third LP, "Psycho Junior", was recorded for the first time in Berlin's Vielklang-Studios and it was released in October. From the summer until the end of the year 30 concerts took place.

In 1993, because of contractual obligations, their first live album, "Unfucked", was released on Snoop Records. They then received a major record deal with Virgin Records. Again in Berlin the band recorded their first album under the Virgin label - "The Bates". In the winter of this same year their first video clip was made in Sweden by Frederik Boklund, who did a great job with the song, "Hello".

In 1994, the "Hello" single came out followed by the release of "The Bates". For the first time the band gained fame throughout the country and their first note-worthy TV appearance occurred on "RTL Samstag Nacht". This was followed by their first ever album promotion tour. In April, the "Bubblegumtrash" tour began followed by the release of the single, "I'm alright". Countless Open Air appearances followed and in the fall of 1994 the recording of "Pleasure + Pain" began. At the end of the year their second professional video clip, "Say it isn't so" was filmed in Stockholm.

In 1995, the single for "Say it isn't so" appeared and a few weeks later "Pleasure + Pain" was released. The album held a spot on the charts for months and even re-entered them 3 times. In May of this year, with the help of the Austrian director-duo Dirk Meints and Toni Weiss (Doro), a very professional video clip was recorded. It was a short remake of the film, "Psycho" accompanied by a very successful cover version of the Michael Jackson song, "Billie Jean". The "Billie Jean" single was released and the video was well received on music stations. The band played a very successful spring tour and appeared at several Open Airs. Their fame grew considerably and even Pop Rocky and Bravo took notice of them. In autumn, their much attended fall tour began followed by a Christmas tour. At the end of the year they did a third video in Sweden for "A Real Cool Time". This single, however, failed to topple the success of "Billie Jean". In December they recorded one of their concerts from the Christmas tour.

By 1996, the band had played hundreds of concerts and were well represented on the TV following the successes of "Billie Jean" and "Pleasure + Pain". In the spring of this year, in "Basement Room No. 1", their new home in Kassel, they began the recordings for "Kicks 'n' Chicks". The second and third Austrian videos were filmed for "It's getting dark" (a vampire video) and "Poor Boy" (making fun of the Beat-Club), both of which were released as videos as well as singles. In August, "Kicks 'n' Chicks" was released followed by countless concerts and Open Air appearances.

By 1997 the band was completely exhausted and, after the release of their second live album, "What a Beautiful Noise", and their tour in March, they had to take a break. Klube suffered from "burnout syndrome" and Zimbl had started drinking - alot. Zimbl, however, tried to cut back on his alcohol consumption after entering therapy. In the fall of 1997, surprisingly 6 months before the release of a new album and after months of an abstinance from live shows, the single, "Independent Love Song", a cover of a song by Scarlet, appeared. Again in Vienna, a video for this song was made - this time a re-make of the film, "Silence of the Lambs", and recordings began for the new album, "Intra Venus".

After a good year of no live shows, concerts began again in the spring of 1998 following the release of "Intra Venus". On August 7, 1998, for the (sort of) 10th year anniversary of the band's existance, they held a fan club meet in Kassel. There one could buy, for the first time, the VHS cassette release of "The Bates - Videoclips" which included all their videos up to "Independent Love Song". A person had also been commissioned to write a band biography which had the working title of "Die ganze halbe Wahrheit" but this biography was never released. Instead the Bates recorded a limited edition fanclub EP called "Punk?" in the fall of this year which cooincided with a band comic entitled "The Devil's Ponk Band!" drawn by Klaus Cornfield. For Pogo, their December 28, 1998 concert was his goodbye to the band. He no longer found the band so important to him and the rest had no choice but to watch him go. The Bates - Klube, Zimbl and Reb were again just three...

In 1999, the search for a second guitarist dragged on. The Bates recorded their album, "Right Here, Right Now", as a trio and for the first time there was a limited edition version with a bonus CD. Finally, with Dully, an old friend of the band, they found their second guitarist. Back in Vienna, they filmed the clip for "Bitter End" that summer with Dully & his first tour with them began on September 10, 1999 for the "Right Here, Right Now" fall tour. This tour ended on November 6, 1999 in Köln in the Viva TV-Studios. There they recorded a concert that was partially broadcast days later. In the beginning of December they started their winter tour which ended in Fulda on January 6, 2000.

In the spring of 2000, a cover only album, "2nd Skin", was recorded with Dully in the studio. At the end of April the band flew to Japan for a few concerts as the support act for Lolita No. 18. On the streets and subways of Tokio the band filmed their last videoclip. Lolita No. 18 responded in kind by accompanying the band to Germany & playing as support for them. In May 2000 the "2nd Skin" tour began but ended on August 26 with a fiasco because of a cancelled concert. After about a two week break they played a fall tour for "2nd Skin". It began on September 12th in Nattheim and ended with their last show on October 7th, in Neunburg, Bavaria. After that concert, the Bates were no more. A planned Christmas tour was cancelled and in May 2001 the band officially broke up.

* Markus "Zimbl" Zimmer, the singer and bass player, as well as co-founder of The Bates, died on June 18, 2006. I only found out about this recently & was very saddened by it... This was how I found the tribute page below & I want to thank Linus for letting me use his banner & biography for this page... Zimbl & The Bates were a very important part of the German music scene so I really appreciate what Linus has done with his page & I know that if there is an afterlife Zimbl is doing there what he did here... Rocking!!! :) Mikki 9/06

More at:

Linus's MySpace page

Oct, 2006, Radio Goethe interview with Reb (right click & save target).