Bläck Fööss

The Bläck Fööss are a music group from Cologne, Germany, started in 1970. The bands' name in Kölsch, a local dialect of Ripuarian, in which the group sings, means barefoot. In their early days the group would perform barefoot around the bars of Cologne. The band's style of music is a cross between Schlager and pop, but they also perform songs with jazz, blues, rock and reggae styles. The group is famous for its lead singer's acappella singing. Many of the band's songs are popular carnival songs, while others are covers of bands such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Beatles, Hollies or Willi Ostermann. In August 1985 the band got their biggest chart success, with the song "Frankreich, Frankreich" (France, France) landing in at number 9 in the German charts. In their 3+ decades together, the Bläck Fööss have only had a few change in personnel. They have had Willy Schnitzler on keyboard and Rolf Lammers. In 1994 the band had its biggest split, with frontman Tommy Engel leaving the band for a solo career after so-called creative differences. * Karl Friedrich "Kafi" Biermann: singer, guitar, percussion (since 1995) * Ralph Gusovius (born March 16, 1950): drums, accordion, singer (since 1995) * Günther "Bömmel" Lückerath (born June 20, 1948): guitar, banjo, mondolin, fiddle, vocals (founding member) * Hartmut Priess (born 19 August 1942 in Cologne): bass, guitar, mandolin (founding member) * Peter Schütten (born 4 August 1943 in Cologne): guitar, singing, percussion (founding member) * Erry Stoklosa (born 25 October 1947 in Cologne): guitar, percussion, vocals (founding member) * Andreas Wegener: piano, synthetiser, accordion, vocals (since 2005) Tommy Engel (born 28 November 1949 in Cologne), (founding member) left in 1994. Willy Schnitzler left the band in 2005 after going down with arthritis of the hand, rendering him unable to play, who was succeeded by Andreas Wegener.