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| The White Stars have announced that they are returning to the studio |
By Tom Faber
CSMR Editor
CHICAGO, USA -- The White Stars are back in action!
For the decade beginning in 1970, when the Beatles last left their Abbey Road studios after putting their final Let It Be album in the can, it was the fervent hope of rock fans everywhere that they would some day, somehow reunite.
John Lennon's tragic assassination in 1980 rendered that a sad impossibility. But schlager fans, worldwide are more fortunate as the great, ground breaking Austrian White Stars are reuniting after a more than decade-long hiatus.
To compare the Austrian White Stars to the English Fab 4 is by no means an exaggeration.
The Styrian quintet were every bit the innovative force to schlager as the Liverpudlians were to rock 'n roll. Today rock-configured all-male schlager bands, sporting pristine white suits proliferate, but in 1963 the style and sound was invented by the White Stars -- and rather by accident.
In the early 1960s, three young brothers (one was only 15 at the time) from Graz in the far Southeastern part of Austria, Peter, Walter and Günther Reischl, played for the amusement of friends and family members. Together, they developed a compelling schlager sound, employing guitar, zither and the European small button accordion.
Then one auspicious night, they went to a dance hall where the scheduled band, save their drummer, failed to appear. The boys volunteered to fill in and, knees shaking, performed for the first time on-stage.
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| The White Stars were as innovative to schlager as the Beatles were to rock |
They met with instant, wild acclaim and, along with the stray drummer, Joschi Scheucher, were booked for regular performances.
For future gigs, they needed something to wear, and since white doctors' scrubs were cheap (about 5 bucks back then) they donned the loosely fitting all-white attire and it became their trademark.
Fans began calling them the "White Stars" and the name stuck.
In less than a year, the White Stars were booked into the largest dance hall in the region, the Hotel Fischerwirt Gratwein, at which they played (later joined by another brother, Michael) to packed houses for the next 11 years.
Ariola records took notice of the regional White Star popularity and signed them to a recording contract. In the ensuing years they churned out 16 albums and a bevy of singles and CDs. Like the Beatles, and somewhat a rarity in the schlager realm, they self-composed virtually all of their songs.
Overall, the White Stars have sold more than half a million records, 11 went gold, 2 went platinum and one crystal.
Additionally they made more than 200 radio broadcasts, appeared on over 50 television shows and regularly played to packed houses throughout Austria on their periodic tours.
More than 100 White Stars fan clubs sprung up, not only in Europe, but in the US and Canada as well.
By 1994, the group members drifted off to other pursuits, mostly still in the world of schlager.
Walter became the music director of the Styrian office of the #1 Austrian broadcaster, ORF. Brothers Michael and Werner continued composing for other performers, scoring hits for the Nockhalm Quintett (a white suited, all male schlager group for whom they had paved the way), Klostertaler and many others.
The White Stars have just released a new Greatest Hits CD (which includes their 1980 #1 "I am not a Casanova"), and they will be returning to the studio to work on a 2013 CD release containing half classics and half entirely new material.
For fans of the White Stars' smooth, sometimes pulsating classic schlager sound this is a happy and long awaited development.
Here the White Stars reprise their 1980 #1 smash hit, Ich war nie ein Casanova (I'm not a Casanova):
Here the White Stars recapture their classicly lively sound in a live performance of Du Bist Mein Superstar, (You're my Superstar), the title cut of their forthcoming CD:
And here, the White Stars sing a lovely ballad, a paean to their home town, Graz, the capitol of Styria. They tell us that this is one of their favorite songs and the video contains some very picturesque shots of the historic city. Here's Graz, Oh Graz:
More information, downloads and White Stars videos can be had at their website: http://www.whitestars.at
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