Scooter (band)

Scooter is a German techno and happy hardcore band. The band is currently made up of members H.P. Baxxter (born Hans-Peter Geerdes), Rick Jordan (born Hendrik Stadler) and Jay Frog (born Jürgen Frosch). Among their more well-known hits are "RAMP! (The Logical Song)", "Hyper Hyper", "Fire!", "How Much Is The Fish?", "Nessaja", "Weekend!" and "Hello! (Good to be Back)".

History

Originally the group started as a side project in 1994. Their debut single Vallée De Larmes (French for Valley Of Tears) reached #8 on the German dance chart. In April of that year, Scooter played their first live show in Hamburg, Germany, where vocalist H.P. Baxxter began freestyling off the top of his head to an instrumental dance track. At that point, Scooter officially became a group, and Baxxter's rapping would become one of the band's trademarks.

In 2002, Scooter enjoyed somewhat of a comeback, with 6 top twenty UK singles ("RAMP! (The Logical Song)", "Nessaja", "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)", "Weekend!", "The Night", and "Maria (I Like It Loud)") all charting in an 18 month period (prior to this comeback, they only ever had one top twenty single in the UK, "Back In The UK").

They have a sort of "trademark" style of techno, with most of their songs featuring some "rap shouting", sometimes featuring a high pitched vocal, which is evident especially on their biggest hit "RAMP! (The Logical Song)" (which samples "The Logical Song" by Supertramp). Much of their music features elements of a live performance, including the roar of the crowd, and the echoing sound of H.P.'s voice. This style is an exact copy of the earlier, but now mostly forgotten scottish Band Ultrasonic, an early 90s Dance Act who had a minor hit with "Annihilating Rhythm" in 1993. Ultrasonic would, ironically, later remix Scooters "Move Your Ass" while they in return remixed Ultrasonic's "Check Your Head", so even though Scooter stole their style from them, the two bands seem to get along fine. The major difference between Scooter and Ultrasonic is that, being from scotland, Ultrasonic's vocalist is a native speaker and does not sound like the german Nihilist in The Big Lebowski ("Vee belief in nossing, Lebowski!"). Scooter's style would also appear to harp back to that of The KLF, especially so with the track entitled "Posse! (I Need You On The Floor) - with a sample which recurrs throughout the work of The KLF. Both bands have released singles with the title "Fuck the Millennium": KLF in 1997 under the pseudonym 2K, and Scooter in 1999.

On September 9th, 2005, Scooter performed their first concert in North America at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois along with opening acts such as Dj Markski (Chicago), Dj Erikk, Aquagen, and Benassi Bros. It was at the Chicago concert that the single, "Hello! (Good To Be Back)" was played to the public for the first time.

Most recently Scooter went on their latest tour entitled "Who's Got The Last Laugh Now?" Tour 2006, named after the latest studio album. After the tour they released a CD and 2 disc DVD entitled "Excess All Areas", containing the final concert of the 2006 tour on one disc, and every single video for every single release on the other.

Lineup

Current

Hans-Peter Geerdes (H.P. Baxxter 1993-present) - vocals, guitars a.k.a 'Sheffield Dave'
Hendrik Stedler (Rick Jordan 1993-present) - keyboards
Jürgen Frosch (Jay Frog 2002-present) - keyboards

Former

Sören Bühler (Ferris Bueller, 1993-1998) - keyboards
Axel Broszeit (Axel Coon 1998-2002) - keyboards

Both left to pursue solo careers.

Discography

Studio Albums

Year	Album Title	UK Chart Position	Germany Chart Position
1995	..and the Beat Goes On!	#130	#25
1996	Our Happy Hardcore	#24	#17
1996	Wicked!	#76	#22
1997	Age of Love	-	#19
1998	No Time to Chill	-	#4
1999	Back to the Heavyweight Jam	-	#7 (Gold)
2000	Sheffield	-	#11
2001	We Bring the Noise!	-	#15
2003	The Stadium Techno Experience	#18 (Silver)	#7 (Gold)
2004	Mind the Gap	-	#16 (Gold)
2005	Who's Got the Last Laugh Now?	-	#14

Official Compilations

Year	Album Title	UK Chart Position	Germany Chart Position
1998	Rough and Tough and Dangerous - The Singles 94/98	-	#42
2002	Push the Beat for This Jam Second Chapter	-	#5 (Gold)
2002	Push the Beat for This Jam Singles '94-'02 (UK only)	#6 (Gold)	-
2002	Pushing the Beat Best of Scooter (US only)	-	-
2002	24 Carat Gold	-	#49

Live Albums

Year	Album Title	UK Chart Position	Germany Chart Position
2002	Encore.Live and Direct.	-	#13
2006	Excess All Areas	-	-

Singles

Year	Single Title	UK Chart Position	Irish Chart Position
1994	"Vallée De Larmes"	-	-
1994	"Hyper Hyper"	-	#23
1995	"Move Your Ass"	#23	#10
1995	"Friends"	-	#26
1995	"Endless Summer"	-	-
1995	"Back in the UK"	#18	#17
1996	"Back in Ireland"	N/A	#14
1996	"Let Me Be Your Valentine"	-	#19
1996	"Rebel Yell"	#33	#23
1996	"I'm Raving"	#33	#19
1997	"Break it Up"	-	-
1997	"Fire"	-	#28
1997	"Age of Love"	-	-
1997	"No Fate"	-	-
1998	"How Much is the Fish?"	-	-
1998	"I Was Made For Lovin' You/We Are The Greatest"	-	-
1999	"Call Me Mañana"	-	-
1999	"FasterHarderScooter"	-	-
1999	"Fuck the Millennium"	-	-
2000	"I'm Your Pusher"	-	-
2000	"She's the Sun"	-	-
2001	"Posse (I Need You On The Floor)"	#15 (in 2002)	#23 (in 2002)
2001	"Aiii Shot the DJ"	-	-
2001	"Ramp! (The Logical Song)"	#2 (in 2002)	#1 (in 2002)
2002	"Nessaja"	#4	#7
2003	"Weekend!"	#12	#14
2003	"The Night"	#16	#30
2003	"Maria (I Like It Loud)"	#16	#23
2003	"Jigga Jigga!"	#45	-
2004	"Shake That!"	-	-
2004	"One (Always Hardcore)"	-	-
2005	"Suavemente/Trance Atlantic"	-	-
2005	"Hello! (Good to Be Back)"	-	-
2005	"Apache Rocks the Bottom"	-
2006	"Rock Bottom (Only for Holland)"	-

External links

Official

Scooter Official site

Fansites

http://www.scootertour.nl (Dutch fansite)
Dave's fan site
http://www.discogs.com/release/451117 (a tribute to Scooter)
Fansites Discography of Scooter
http://www.scootertrace.ru Large Russian fansite
http://www.scooter-posse.ru United Scooter Force russian fansite
http://www.scooterposse.ru Scooter Zone. Russian fansite
http://www.scootermusic.pl
http://www.scootertechno.pl
http://www.scooterfanpage.ic.cz

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