Translation of article about Ingo Schwichtenberg's death

[jessybxx]

rdyfrde asked me to translate this. Here it is ^^
(Important: If some of the stuff in there sounds somewhat strange to you, believe me, it did so in the German version as well.This is weird '90s music magazine language. There were a few words even I had never heard of yet. Versuchsballon? Are you KIDDING me? Still, I hope you get the main ideas of the thing XD)
(BTW, I dunno whether you get that gilding thing, so here's an easy explanation: In German, there's this proverb that says that if someone gets rich, he earned him or herself a gilded nose. They kinda use it in a very weird way. Suppose they were trying to be funny. Falied :P)

Ingo Schwichtenberg is dead. The former Helloween drummer has been run ober by a train near Hamburg in the middle of March.
Ingo was part of the original line-up that's been in existence since 1983 and that off the cuff became the by far most successful speed act. Already in the previous year they had had their debut on the "Death Metal" sampler that was introduced by Noise Records as a tryout for new bands (for example, the neighbours of Running Wild were featured on this thing as well). In the beginning, the boss of Noise, Karl Walterbach, didn't want to sign the Weenies. Only the incredibly positive fan reactions finally made him grab the pencil - which he could have been getting gilded afterwards, as well as his nose. The '85 mini-Ep "Helloween" forshadowed a great album, featuring amazing songs such as "Victim of fate", and in the end of the year, said album, called "Walls of Jericho" was eventually released. More than 100.000 sold units in Germany alone turned the former basement-combo Iron Fist into media celebrities. The two "Keeper of the Seven Leys" albums got them gold awards: Helloween were at the top - and fell deep. In the fall of '89 Kai Hansen - main song writer along with Michael Weikath - left the band an in thge beginning of '90 a desastrous legal argument was initiated: Helloween cancelled their contract with Noise and subsequently were put on hold for years. Parallel to that, Ingo got more and more health problems that finally forced him to submit himself to long-term treatment. When he came back afterwards, he was thrown out of the door without getting another chance to prove himself and thereby, a major purpose of life was taken from him. To be fair it has to be said that the band didn't hold back on financial support for Ingo during this time. Anything going beyond these facts would be speculation and therefore unrespectable and unfitting. But we can still assume that some of his companions will have to live with a bad consciousness...

Comments

[silicondreams.livejournal.com]

That's...wow. Painful to read (not the translation, of course). What...what a tacky, supponent, unrespectful bunch of *********************. And how sad and pathetic this is basically what people still think of them. I miss Ingo and what happened was very sad. I can't even begin to think how it must have been for them - for them ALL. I'm sure the snide remarks and the "subtle" accuses weren't much of help.

[/rant on very touchy topic]

[jessybxx.livejournal.com]

True.

And glad that tone of the article came across somehow.

[rdyfrde.livejournal.com]

But we can still assume that some of his companoins will have to live with a bad consciousness...
Ouch. That's just plain mean on their part. Putting the blame on the other members of Helloween is the easy answer. There was obviously a lot more to it than that. Plus the fact that both Michi & Kai were still talking to him before his death shows that they weren't totally ignoring him.

[jessybxx.livejournal.com]

Press = evil.

[silicondreams.livejournal.com]

both Michi & Kai were still talking to him before his death

And Hen and Markus and, yes, even Mike I believe, the horrible monster that everybody likes to blame, and basically everybody that at the time wasn't being shut off by him. It wasn't easy because HE didn't want to be helped. As Markus said "He kept closing doors, and we tried - we should have tried harder, but he didn't WANT us to." Accusing people like that is...horrid. When it's the fans doing it, it's horrid as well, but the press...now that's just plain unprofessional and disgusting.

An I should really really stop getting upset about this....

[metalmusicfan.livejournal.com]

No one can stop getting upset because the press is really unfair and disgusting.

It might have been Ingo who didn't what to deal with Helloween and Kai (though I really don't want to blame him now that he's not here - he did what he thought was the right thing to do). It's quite enough that the guys who knew Ingo miss him (I'm sure they do! All those songs they dedicated to him) and blame themselves. And as for Mike, neither the press nor the fans know exactly how HE felt about Ingo's death and have no right to blame him...

[metalmusicfan.livejournal.com]

I sometimes hate the Press. Somehow they usually don't know what they're talking about.
bad consciousness... It's none of their business how the guys lived through it!

[jessybxx.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[megamike.livejournal.com]

How sad.

And yes, the press is evil. Well, 90% of them at least...

[jessybxx.livejournal.com]

*nod nod*