THE CONFESSION – THEIR BIGGEST SECRETS!

Everybody has got something to hide – even Bill, Tom, Gustav and Georg from Tokio Hotel. Only in BRAVO the guys are confessing everything now…

(original German text: Sascha Wernicke, Meike Werkmeister)

Bill: “I lie very often – nobody notices it because I’m so good at it!”

Two brand new songs for the fans!

Left Bill picture: Bill has never been to church to confess. Even though he’d have a lot to tell…
Bottom row of pictures: When receiving Gold in Berlin:
* 1 – Tokio Hotel above the rooftops of Berlin: It’s here that they’re receiving their first Gold Record.
* 2 – Tom, Bill & Georg (from the left) are extremely happy about the [...] (nb Word is missing, except for first letter “E”. Might be “Empfang”=”reception”, they are happy about the reception)

PAGE 2

Tom: “I dented my step-fathers car when I was 14!”

“I left without paying!”
“We’re constantly fighting!”

Bottom row of pictures: When receiving Gold in Berlin:
* 3 – Bill thanks the whole team: “This wouldn’t have been possible without you!”
* 4 – The four guys give a Gold Record to Alex Gernandt (middle) from BRAVO
* 5 – BRAVO reporter Sascha Wernicke (left) congratulates Tom on their huge success

PAGE 3

Gustav: “I got into a very bad fight with Bill once!”

“We don’t want to hurt any girls!”

Gustav picture: Gustav is the angel of the band: he’s nice to everybody and only gets up to mischief once in a blue moon
Bottom row of pictures: At the 6-Days-Race in Munich:
* 1 – Tokio Hotel backstage during the 6-Days-Race in Munich
* 2 – Tom (left) and Georg on their way to the stage
* 3 – Bill gives everything live. He sings super even though though he’s going through puberty vocal change
* 4 – The mainly female fans of Tokio Hotel are cheering their favourites on with tears in their eyes

PAGE 4

Georg: “I’ve got porn magazines openly lying on my desk!”

“Animal cruelty makes us sad!”
“We think optimists are totally cool!”

Georg picture: Bassist Georg rather flicks through the current Matador than the Bible…
Bottom row of pictures: At the 6-Days-Race in Munich:
* 5 – The guys are performing three songs live. The fans sing along especially loud during the hit ‘Durch den Monsun’

These guys are always good for a surprise! Tokio Hotel have recorded two previously unreleased songs as a very special thank you to their fans to go along with their new single ‘Schrei’ (release on 25th November 2005): ‘Schwarz’ (‘Black’) and ‘Beichte’ (‘Confession’). That’s reason enough for BRAVO editors to inquire further during an interview with Bill (16), Tom (16), Gustav (17) and Georg (18) about what they have always been hiding until now…

One of your new songs is called ‘Beichte’. Honestly, honestly, what is Tokio Hotel’s attitude towards it…?
Bill: So far I only know confessions from movies and would like to do it once.
Tom: I also haven’t done it yet but I would make up something really extreme to shock the priest.

You don’t need a confessional or is there just no reason for going?
Bill: Oh well, it’s not like we’re angels like that. Though, who’s always being good anyway? Everybody screws up every once in a while in their lives, that’s also just all too human. We are what we are and also sin once in a while but we still want to go to heaven.

So are you religious?
Bill: No, not at all.
Tom. Me neither.
Gustav: I’m Protestant but I barely ever go to church or pray. Only with my family on Christmas.

What’s the biggest sin you’ve ever committed?
Tom: Once I stole my step-father’s car keys and then drove around in his Renault Clio with a few mates. I knocked over a tree trunk even though there were barely any on-coming cars in the village. So there was a huge dent in the car. I’ve never fessed up to it. Until today my step-father still thinks somebody hit him there. Until today…

And what about a guilty conscience?
Tom: I’ve always tried to block it out. However, it still catches up with you eventually some day. Maybe confessing isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Georg, what secret did you get away with?
Georg: Once I had a really huge argument with a friend – I was approximately eight [years old] at that time. He was running across the courtyard and I picked up a boulder to throw it after him. The stone landed right on the hood of a white Mercedes Benz because I wasn’t strong enough. I ran upstairs to my room very quickly and hid there. I didn’t dare to go back to the courtyard for three weeks. Until now this hasn’t come to light…

What about you, Bill?
Bill: One evening I went drinking with my mates but none of us had any money. We turned it into a dare. Who stayed seated the longest, won. We drank loads of bubbly and cocktails and had a massive bill. I was the last one at the table and then the waiter came and wanted his money. I told him that I’d just quickly have to go to the loo. Then I took my stuff and left through the back door. I was scared sh*tless!

And you’re an angel, Gustav?
Gustav: Oh well, I’ve got up to mischief once as well. When my friend and I were bored we collected some dog poop and put it into a pile of newspapers. We put the packet in front of a door, set fire to it, rang the door bell and ran away. Then the guy came outside, saw the burning pile and stepped on it. With that the fire was out but he had lots of sh*t on his shoe. That was very funny!

Have you picked a fight once?
Tom: Bill and I are constantly fighting…
Bill: In year four we beat up some guy from year nine once. That was extreme – the guy was missing a tooth afterwards!
Georg: While moshing I accidentally hit a guy in the face with my elbow once so that he was squirming with pain.
Gustav: I don’t punch, I don’t approve of violence.
Bill: Hey, that’s not even true. Gustav and I have already been in a fight.

What happened?
Bill: We just wanted to roughhouse and then it suddenly got serious…
Gustav: Bill was fidgeting behind me, suddenly he banged the back of his head on the floor. He only just looked at me with huge eyes and said: ‘That’s it.’ And when I let go of him he started kicking me really hard.
Bill: Yes, one has to watch out there. I’m always kicking. By the way, I’ve also already been in a fight with Georg once…

Is there alcohol involved sometimes?
Gustav: I don’t drink alcohol.
Bill: I do every now and then, why not? Though I’m totally against drugs. I’ve never tried illegal drugs!

When was the first time you were drunk?
Bill: For me it was on Herrentag (nb=gentlemen’s day; aka Männertag=men’s day. On this day most men like to get very, very drunk. It was also the day a group of males destroyed the bus stop near the twins’ former home, probably safe to assume they were all quite drunk: Wiki). It’s celebrated on Father’s Day in Magdeburg. All the guys meet up and booze from morning till evening. Anyway, I was so wasted I couldn’t walk anymore…
Georg: He slept right in the meadow and everybody was standing around him and laughed at him.
Bill: So what? When you’ve been boozing too much you get all sentimental and come for cuddles.

Have you got men’s magazines hidden underneath your beds?
Georg: Why underneath the bed? Those are lying on my desk!
Bill: We don’t need porn.

So have you been watching porn films already?
Bill: Sure. I’ve got a few films on my laptop. A classic is ‘One Night in Paris’ with Paris Hilton, one just has to have seen it. Or the one with Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Do your parents know about this?
Georg: Certainly.
Tom: Surely they can imagine that every teenager has seen a porn film once.

Have your parents caught you in a risque situation once before?
Tom: The parents of a girlfriend caught us lying on the bed together once. They were more embarrassed about it than we were.

Have you broken many girls’ hearts already?
Bill: Never on purpose! However, we know that some of our fans are sad because they can’t be with us. We’re also very sorry about that but that’s just the way it is. One can’t please everybody. However, and this is meant in all honesty: we don’t want to hurt any girl!

How often do you lie?
Bill: I lie often. I’m really good at lying, [and] you can’t tell.
Tom: I’m also super at lying.

When was the last time you lied?
Georg: I’ve been lying plenty of times because of my [school] grades.
Bill: I’ve never done that. I’ve always shown all my grades to my mum and then got extremely worked up about the teachers. Then she comforted me and said: You’ll sort it out somehow. However, in school I was constantly lying…

When?
Bill: When I forgot to do homework and when I was late. It’s not hard for me to make up an excuse.
Gustav: I’m always on good terms with my teachers.
Bill: I’m not, I’m terrible when it comes to that.

Have you cheated before?
Bill: Tom and I once had to write a paper on the death penalty. We downloaded it from the internet. It was by a girl that had gotten an A+ for it. Our teacher only gave us a B for it though – because she found out that it was only stolen from the net. However, we were lucky in that case. Strictly speaking, you’d get an F because of cheating for it!
Gustav: Oh well, school. Once I had a female trainee teacher in maths that was really pretty…
Georg: I think, on principle female teachers should be 20 years old, blonde and luscious!

Speaking of blonde. The second new song on your single is called ‘Black’. What is it about?
Bill: The song tells our story. This year we’ve been experiencing an awful lot: Number One for our single and album, the Comet [award], all the articles in Bravo. So many wonderful things are lying behind us but what lies ahead of us? Night lies ahead([nb uses same wording as in the lyrics for 'Schwarz', its counterpart in 'Black' being: "the night turns dark ahead") - our future is unknown and we don't know what's going to happen to us. That's what we're singing about.

The song sounds rather gloomy. Is your future black then?
Tom: No, just uncertain. We're incredibly excited about all the things that life still has got in store for us. Hopefully [it's] nothing negative.

Are you lacking an amount of optimism?
Bill: I’m totally pessimistic. I get worked up about everything really quickly.
Georg: A certain [amount of] pessimism is good and important, so one doesn’t approach things with too high expectations and also isn’t that disappointed in the end.
Bill: I’d like to be more optimistic.
Tom: Me too. I think optimists are totally cool. My friends always need to be optimists. They shouldn’t drag my down. I think it’s nice when people around me are cheerful.

What makes you angry?
Georg: I don’t have to think long about that: animal cruelty!
Tom: That also makes me totally sad. I feel so sorry for the animals. I’d like to be vegetarian.
Bill: Me too. After all, animals can’t defend themselves. I wonder what somebody gets out of tormenting an animal. Why don’t those people look for equal matches?
Georg: I could really punch those guys.

What would a person need to do so you would hate them?
Georg: Kill someone of my family.
Bill: If somebody would mistreat or do something terrible to the people that are close to me and mean something to me – then I’d kill them.
Gustav: I’d torment them, honestly.

Thanks to THUKST for the translation!

This is an interview with the Kaulitz twins and the Ochsenknecht brothers, Jimi and Wilson, who are also German musicians/actors It’s from November 9, 2007, and it was originally published in German here! Many thanks go to Ziggy for translating this (and adding in some helpful notes!), originally for the Tokio Hotel America forum, you can find the original thread here ♥

Keep in mind that a lot of these questions aren’t really the best to have asked people their ages, they can’t be expected to know a whole lot about all of this, but there are links throughout where you can learn more if you are interested!

Click ‘read more’ for the interview!

November 9th: We invited Germany’s biggest teenie-stars over for a talk.
The Ochsenknecht and the Kaulitz brothers – born at the age of reunion – on eastern & western Germany, old home and new values.

Berlin-Mitte, a suite in the “Ritz Carlton” – every girl below 16 would have to be instantly re-animated: the four most important boys of Germany are sitting on a leather sofa, are eating gummy bears and are getting into the talk. In the back, on the carpet floor, is sitting the entourage: grown-up people who are wearing crew-tickets around their necks and are giving us a hard time because time is short. Right now, everyone wants the Kaulitz and Ochsenknecht brothers. Two of them are touring through France with Tokio Hotel, the other two have just signed their record deals and done new movies. All four of them are very well behaved: get up, shake hands, say “glad to meet you” – they’re obviously not doing it for the first time. Our plan: talk to them about their home, their country, meaning Germany. Talk with Bill and Tom Kaulitz from Loitsche near Magdeburg and Jimi Blue and Wilson Gonzales Ochsenknecht, the high-society kids from Grünwald near Munich.

SZ-Magazin: Exactly 18 years ago, the wall fell, so you’re all about as old as the reunited Germany. What does that day mean to you?

Bill: People celebrate. And we celebrate with them, even though we were not really affected by it. Still, we’re happy that we profited from the fall of the wall.
Jimi Blue (JB): My dad told me about it but a real meaning – not really, well, maybe a bit.
Tom: Honestly, I don’t really care for that day.
Wilson Gonzales (WZ): It’s certainly touching to see reports on TV about how happy people were back then when they broke through the wall and were able to hug the people on the other side of the wall. When I see that, I realize how bad it must have been to live behind a wall like that.

What do you associate with the DDR (= eastern Germany)?

Bill: It was never a hot topic for us. True, we’re touring other countries a lot and keep getting asked about it but I can only say it again: we only ever knew Germany as one country.
Tom: The other day, someone in Italy asked us whether we’re excited because we’re from eastern Germany and we’re able to see Rome now. And once, people even offered us bananas.
WG: I’ve been to an art school in Los Angeles for a year and people kept asking me about what Hitler is doing right now and whether we actually have fridges in Germany already. Someone needs to whack Americans over the head so that they understand that Germany is a normal country. There’s a lot of people in the USA who still believe what a lot of Germans still think about eastern Europe, namely that it’s totally lagging behind and uninteresting. When I think of the DDR, only the flag comes to mind with the hammer and the sickle. What about you, Jimi?
JB: What?
Bill: *laughs* Didn’t pay attention, aw!
JB: Well, I also only remember the flag.

WG and JB grew up in Grünwald, which is the posh district in Munich and on top of that they were born into a popular family; Bill and Tom, you’re from Loitsche, a village in Magdeburg. Would you say your childhood was more difficult?

Bill: East and west – I don’t make a difference. We also don’t make this “ossie” (people from eastern Germany) and “wessi” (people from western Germany) difference at all, those expressions don’t even exist for us anymore, except maybe for our teachers. I think the much bigger difference is: we grew up in a village and you in the city.
WG: Grünwald is just a village as well but true, it’s close to the city and that’s why we probably hung out there more. Besides that, we accompanied our dad to premieres or filmings every now and then.
Tom: Growing up in a village ain’t all that bad, at least until you’re a certain age. I mean, where in the city can you build tree-houses? On the other hand, Bill and I always drew unwanted attention to us because we were looking different than the others. That’s why we’ve been dreaming of moving to Berlin from a young age on because everyone can run around there however they want to.
Bill: Freedom has always been the most important thing for us. Which is why i had “freiheit” tattooed on my left arm shortly before our 18th birthday.

Can you still remember your first trip to Berlin?

Bill: Sure, when we were 12, we got into a train and went there. Tom and I hardly had any money but we absolutely wanted to go up to the TV-tower. Up there, we had much too expensive coffee – latte macchiato of course – and pretended to be able to afford it.
WG: I was 6 or 7 and can only remember going by subway and being in a sushi-bar. Berlin was like a small district of New York to me back then, I still remember that. Today, I think that the people in Berlin are much more friendly than in Munich. They don’t care what you’re wearing but what brains you got. Berlin isn’t necessarily the cleanest but certainly the most artistic city in Germany.
JB: True, there were a lot of stuck up people in Munich. Everything’s much more mixed up in Berlin, there’s petty people and punks, a couple of freaks… everything’s possible.

You’re on the road a lot more than other teenagers your age to go to concerts and filmings. Where do you really feel at home?

Bill: In Germany all the way even down to the point where I feel much more at home in German hotels than in hotels in say, Moscow or Paris, no matter how luxurious they are. Especially the language gives you a feeling of being at home.
WG: True, that’s what I really figured out during my year in America – home hasn’t got anything to do with a certain town or place. And something else I noticed: a lot of people are dissing Germany. And they’re wrong. Germany is an awesome country, a lot better and more positive than the USA. Americans are very artificial and way too many things are being directed by the state over there. You don’t get alcohol until you’re 21 and you can’t even smoke in your own home anymore when you live in a flat – you gotta imagine that!
JB: Well, I think America is better than Germany. It’s warm, the people are nice, they got nice beaches, Venice Beach and Las Vegas. I’d like to live there one day.
Tom: In other countries, there’s a lot of things you gotta get used to, like for example that things can be really unorganized sometimes. Germans are usually better at planning things, like the “Echo” awards in Berlin where we started practicing two days ago – in Italy, for example, big shows like that are being filmed right away. Or Moscow: they hadn’t even finished building the stage an hour before the show.

is there something you don’t like about Germany?

Bill: Clearly the school system. I’d grade it F.
WG: Especially in Bavaria!
Tom: The German school system differs from land to land – everyone’s on a different level. When you come to another city because you moved for example, you feel like you’ve landed on an entirely different planet.
WG: I changed schools a couple of times and loathed maths in one school and German in the other, that’s weird.
JB: Which is why I quit school altogether. I still got a private teacher because of the education and stuff but school ain’t my kinda thing.

There’s this term of “German pettiness”. Who or what do you think is petty?

WG: The kids in the posh clubs in Munich, the “P1″ for example, who throw their parent’s money around and run around in polo-shirts with the collars put up, those are petty. They think they can impress people with Daddy’s credit card. I’m proud of earning my own money and can invite my friends for a drink every now and then.
Bill: I’m petty when it comes to one thing: being punctual. That’s really important to me. And being reliable.
JB: I’m pretty petty when it comes to food. I always need two forks, one for the main dish and one for the salad. And if i see even one mouldy spot in the shower, I’d rather not shower at all.
Tom: To me, petty people are people who are intolerant who got no way to express themselves and are always living by the rules. And I don’t mean laws by that, but rules they made up themselves or let other people make up for themselves. People who only do what other people tell them to and who never peek over the edge of the plate and who always say, “Don’t do that! You’re not supposed to do that!” We used to live in a detached house settlement once, in an area with playing-roads and stuff and man, there were some really petty people there. But we’re far away from all that already.

The past couple of weeks ago, the media has been talking a lot about the “German autumn”. RAF – does that tell you anything at all?
(note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction)

WG: There was this one terrorist they let lose again. Or didn’t they? Or did they just protest against letting her free again?
JB: I read something about that in the Spiegel. That was interesting because Grünwald is near Straßlach where someone got killed back then, a president or something, at least there’s a memorial plate there.
WG: Punk was founded at the same time, that honestly interests me more than the RAF.

The main focus of the RAF was, among others, to split wealth apart differently and more fairly. What do you think about that?

WG: People who are at the bottom nowadays don’t often even make an effort to climb to the top. They don’t try hard enough and maybe that’s why they become criminals.
JB: I think about that a lot, you know, why that’s the case that the rich people get everything thrown at them as presents and the poorer people gotta buy everything themselves. When I’ve gotten older, I really am gonna change something about that, I don’t know what yet but I’ll at least give it a try.
Tom: Still, there’s some kind of middle-class in Germany. Like our family, for example. We were neither rich nor poor. In the end, everyone’s gotta make their own way and learn how to deal with frustrations of all kinds. We turned it into music, others are demonstrating or kick-boxing.

What kind of frustration?

Bill: We used to rebel for ourselves. We hated school and our teachers were really bad. My big advantage always was that I knew my rights. e.g. i knew when tests that weren’t handed back on time would expire. Our mom had to run to school almost every day to listen about how horrible her sons were.
JB: When I was in fifth class, teachers used to mob me saying stuff like, “You think you’re something better than the rest because your dad is Uwe Ochsenknecht.”
WG: Yeah, teachers used to yell at us a lot, I even got nine reprimands in one week once. Shortly before they threw me out once and for all, I quit school.

Che Guevara used to be a teenage idol back in the days – who’s your hero now?

Tom: When we still used to go clubbing, a lot of people wore Che Guevara shirts. There were a lot of demonstrations going on around us, also started by punks, so rebellion was definitely a major topic back then.
WG: I used to stand together with about 3.000 punks on the Marienplatz to demonstrate against the NPD (note: the neo-nazi party in germany). But overall, there’s not a whole lot of reasons to demonstrate against stuff in Germany. If I was living in the USA, i could think of thousands of reasons but over here?

Are there any politicians you have a liking for?

Bill: I don’t talk about stuff like that. I don’t want to manipulate anyone by my personal decision or my choice of voting. Everyone’s gotta have their own opinion.
Tom: But we definitely do vote, since we’re finally 18 and all. (note: good boys.)
WG: The parties can go to war against each other for all I care. When I turn 18, I’m definitely gonna go to vote and then I’ll also inform myself properly about it. Now I got different idols, like the musician Tom Morello for example (note: guitarist of Rage against the Machine). He is playing for free during demonstrations to support good causes. He doesn’t care for the money but for the cause.

You were born directly into the era Kohl. Do you remember him?
(note: Helmut Kohl: german chansellor (CDU) until 1998 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Kohl)

Tom: *shapes a pear with his hand* The kinda big guy?

And Gerhard Schröder?
(note: G. Schröder: german chansellor (SPD) following Kohl until 2005 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der)

WG: Hm, SPD?
Tom: *laughs* Yeah, I’d have known that too.

Your generation was branded by cold war, Tschernobyl, forest-death and atom-energy. What was the major happenings, the turning points of your youth?

WG: Certainly Sept. 11th, but mostly what happened afterward. I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about the attack on the WTC and I realized: in the end, the Americans beat themselves with their own weapons since they enabled Bin Laden in the first place. That’s when I realized how the world nowadays is working and that America is the world-police who’s butting in into everyone’s business. On the one side, I’m sure they want to help but on the other hand, they want to get the biggest possible profit out of it at the same time. Germany is a lot more laid back about all that, they do whatever they think is right and don’t let themselves get dragged into all kinds of shit.
Bill: Of course a lot of stuff happened during our childhood that we think about, mainly of course Sept. 11th. Still, we try not to let our fears block us.

Can you imagine joining the army and maybe even going to Afghanistan to help re-build the country again?

JB: No way. I’m just so lazy. Always being on edge, giving 100%, that’d be way too stressful for me. I’m going to be doing social service for sure. I’d be nothing but scared in Afghanistan, that’s so not my cup of tea.
WG: The army turned me down already due to my funnel chest. But the army wouldn’t be my thing anyway, I’d rather stay by my friends and help out in social homes or handicapped homes.
Tom: We’ll think about that when we’re invited to the medical examination for the military service.

How do you like to live when you get older?

Tom: Like the Stones. I want to be standing on stage all my life.
Bill: I’d like to have my own label one day and a flat in another country. Still: my roots are in Germany and I always want to come back here.
JB: I’d like to be a fashion designer one day. Maybe I’ll get that out of my two years at the Waldorf-School. (note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_school)
WG: I’d like to have a gigantic company that produces all kinds of stuff: movies, music, furniture, fashion and condoms.

Can you still remember the first time you’ve heard from each other?

JB: I read about Tokio Hotel in the Bravo.
WG: A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a CD from you guys and said: look, that’s a new German band. I liked it, I can still remember that.
Bill: Well, we saw a movie with you guys and we noticed that you’re about the same age as us, of course. You pay more attention then when you notice that and check out the people more.
WG: When I first saw a picture of Tokio Hotel, I thought: wow, those are freaks.

WG, 17, and JB, 15, are the sons of the German actor Uwe Ochsenknecht. They have been playing the lead roles in the movies “Die Wilden Kerle 1-4″. Furthermore, JB is releasing his first album “Mission Blue”, the single “I’m lovin’ (l.r.h.p.)” has been in the Top 10 for weeks.

For this edition of Tokio Nostalgia, I bring you the first performance we ever got to see of Monsoon! It was on a show called Mooi! weer de Leeuw, in the Netherlands. It took place on May 19, 2007, and it’s pretty fun! Enjoy!

Moving on, this week we bring you a VIVA special from 2007, that aired January 3! It’s a bit of a documentary, following the band around Russia during their first ever trip there, in 2006. This was back when their international fame was still fairly new and fresh for them, and I thought it would be a really interesting contrast with what is going on now, now that the band hit Tokyo finally, this week! Isn’t it so wonderful to see how far they’ve come??

Click ‘read more’ to watch the videos and read the translations! There are a couple of extra videos in this one, as well

Presenter: Hamburg, Paris, London… Tokio Hotel have been on the move for more than a year. Today they’re going from London straight to Moscow. It’s their first time in the Russian capital. None of them has ever been to the city of 10 million people. they’ve been very successful there in the past few weeks. Their Russian fanbase is growing bigger every day.

Bill: We learned that there’s a demand here, and that’s really strange for us, suddenly there’s something in a different language and some people say something about it and that feels great. And whenever we learn about stuff like that, we’re like “awesome, let’s go there and play” because that’s the most important thing for us, to go there immediately and show ourselves in public.

Presenter: Bill, Georg, Gustav and Tom will be in Moscow for less than three days, so no time for sightseeing. Instead, they got appointments with the press and their own concert. Already the next morning Tokio Hotel have to face the Russian journalists. The four are pros in this field. Interviews and press appointments have been part of their life for 18 months.

Bill: It’s our business, it’s our story, so we like talking about it. You just have to make sure you keep having fun. Especially when you’re on the move a lot, give lots of interviews and don’t have much free time, you have to make sure it is a lot of FUN, too.

Presenter: But today there’s a problem. Apart from Gustav, none of the guys speak a word of Russian.

Bill: Actually, it’s funny. We laughed a lot.

Tom: Well, you have to see, of course we don’t understand everything, but neither do they…

Bill: Yeah, they don’t understand what we say either and that’s so funny. (they laugh)

Presenter: The fans don’t care. Between the interviews they get to ask Tokio Hotel questions, too. That’s how the guys finally get to know their Russian fans in person.

Bill: It was really cool. The language barrier wasn’t such a big problem. We talked in broken English (they laugh) and that was okay. They gave us a very nice and warm welcome, too. We’re curious about all the others. And they brought us presents, that was really cute.

Presenter: There isn’t much time left for the other fans. After seven hours of giving interviews, they still have to go to the radio station Europe Plus in the evening. A live broadcast is about to be recorded. Georg, Gustav, Tom and Bill have to concentrate. All verbal errors and misunderstandings will be heard later in the broadcast.

Bill: During the broadcast, I think it took about an hour, it was featured with some of our songs etc., we had an interpreter and he did a very good job, he translated it all very quickly and I think he did that very well. He spoke German perfectly.

Presenter: but you can’t always translate cultural differences.

Tom: We didn’t always understand everything at once, but they really have a little bit of a different sense of humor here. They were like… whether we beat up breakers and stuff like that… (they laugh)

Presenter: By being so famous Tokio Hotel learned how to cope with long days and be disciplined at the same time.

Tom: This whole time really does characterize us. We have a lot of responsibility, we take part, we don’t hang around that much anymore, we have stuff to do all day and it definitely is a sharp contrast to schooldays.

Bill: We’re all very young and we’ve learned a lot and met so many idiots and so many unpleasant people who want wrong things from you etc. of course, we experience a lot of that stuff. I think that you learn a lot, especially about people and I think that this has made us a little more grown up and that we have a lot of responsibility concerning some things. But we always try to do the things other guys our age do, too.

Presenter: Today it was confirmed: Tokio Hotel are very successful in Russia, too. The press scrambled to get them and their concert tomorrow is almost sold out.

Bill: We always keep thinking, like, “it can’t get any better than this.” We are such a successful band right now and we’ve achieved so much and everything we’ve always wanted and so far it has always kept getting better.

Gustav: I’m like, “this is it, it can’t get any better.” Now I’m in Moscow and before that I was in London, so it already DID get better again and I wonder, “well, does it go on and on or is it gonna end at some point?” It’s just so unreal what we’re experiencing and that we’re traveling through half of Europe.

Presenter: In part two you’ll see how life in the spotlight has changed their friendship and how Tokio Hotel try to master their first concert in Russia.

…

Presenter: Whether it’s MTV Russia, the Russian Bravo or Elle: yesterday the four were available to Moscow’s press. Tonight, Tokio Hotel have to thrill their Russian fans live.

Tom: A year ago it was already unrealistic to us to release an album in Germany. So seeing it going abroad is even more unrealistic.

Bill (opens door): Hello! Come in!

Presenter: Tokio Hotel haven’t been home in Magdeburg for several weeks. Living in a hotel is part of their everyday life now.

Tom: Sometimes it does get a little bit too much and then we long to go home. And we can schedule that. We can ask for let’s say three days off to go home, that’s no problem.

Bill: But generally, if you wanna do something like this, you have to be the type of person that can deal with a lot of media hype and who likes it, too. I think it’s really cool to sleep in a different hotel every day, to get to know loads of people and to work with a lot of people. I like that, cause I’m not an everyday person at all.

Bill: As you can see I always have a lot of stuff with me, cause sometimes we stay a bit longer and so I bring along loads of things. And I always open and unpack them, so I got my stuff ready. Well, and the first thing I do is turn on the TV. (laughs)

Presenter: They don’t have much time to relax. In a few hours Tom, Georg, Gustav and Bill will be performing in front of a Russian audience for the first time. The concert tonight will judge over the further success or failure of the band.

Georg: I definitely am a little nervous, cause we haven’t had a gig in a while. So I’m definitely tense.

Tom: You really get nervous about one and a half hours before a concert. Well, I’d say about an hour before. That’s when you get really nervous. So now it’s starting slowly, cause we’re about to get ready to go. And that’s when you think about what you need to take with you.

Presenter: The fans have been waiting patiently for Tokio Hotel for hours. The four are recognized almost everywhere in Russia as well. Life in the spotlight has changed them.

Tom: In the beginning it was all very hectic. But you gradually get a little calmer …

Georg: You become much more aware of things.

Tom: Exactly. We enjoy things a lot more now. We’re in Russia right now and we’re gonna enjoy that right now. We don’t think about the next day. We take the day and live it.

Bill: Many of these impressions only get to us a little later. I think it takes a bit longer in our case, because a lot of things happen all at once, and we don’t really get much of it. But afterwards, when we’re in the studio, we think about those things and we realize how unreal it all is, what we’ve done and where we’ve been, etc. It does happen. I think it just takes a bit longer in our case.

Presenter: Even though Tokio Hotel has played more than 50 concerts in one year, a new challenge is waiting for them in Moscow. More than 4000 fans are expected to come to their first Russia concert today.

Tom: It’s a different situation here. We do have our own crew for the concert, but we have to borrow all of the backline and equipment; well, at least most of it. It doesn’t belong to us, so to speak. So it probably feels even stranger yet on stage, not to have your own stuff with you. But I think it’s gonna be alright. But we’re definitely very nervous.

Bill: Well, the three of them generally don’t need to be nervous at all (Georg rolls his eyes and groans), ’cause it’s me who does all the work. It’s true.

Tom: If Bill stops singing, we’re not in trouble. If we stop playing, Bill’s in trouble. so you see who’s really important.

Bill: Bullshit. I can go on singing all by myself.

Presenter: They don’t have much time for rehearsing. They quickly have to clarify a few technical details.

Tom: We have some problems, because the stagetime (the time the concert begins) was brought forward. But when you’re abroad…

Bill (interrupts): Everything’s more complicated. Normally we come in the hall in the morning and spend all day there, so we have a lot of time, we sit down and have a drink. But today…

Tom: In an hour we have to go on stage.

Bill: …we only just did the soundcheck, and we have to go on stage soon. That’s really weird. Every day something goes wrong…

Tom: The soundcheck was okay though and… well…

Bill: There are some more problems. For example, I’ve heard that the microphones for the audience are still missing. But it’s all little things. It’ll be alright.

Tom: The guitar’s broken, the drums aren’t here, but apart from that it’s all good. (they laugh)

Presenter: Tokio Hotel take it easy. After all, they’ve been through so many things together.

Tom: I’ve often imagined, “What if you were alone?” I think that would be really weird, to be traveling all alone and to not know anyone. That would certainly make you feel strange, in a country where people only speak Russian and you can’t talk at all.

Tom: I think we’ve given each other enough space right from the start. Every one of us can do whatever he feels like, so all in all we’re not on each other’s case. Like I said, we have days off now and then, we’re traveling a lot indeed, but we all have our own hotel room. That used to be different in the beginning. So it’s very relaxed, and we still get along as well as we did before.

(Tom, Georg and Gustav try to teach Bill some Russian while they’re eating.)

…

Bill: “menja sawut” (my name is). Guys, I can’t memorize this.

Georg: Well, it’s definitely more intense, ’cause we sometimes really spend 24 hours a day together. But like we said, we give each other the space that we need. We know exactly what makes each other tick when someone’s in a bad mood, so that’s just fine.

Bill: We talk about everything. That’s very important, because so much is happening. We’re very democratic, we vote, etc., because we don’t want to risk getting in a fight over something stupid. I think honesty and stuff like that is the most important thing, also in the whole team.

Gustav: I think there are things that don’t need to be said, because we already know what the other one is thinking.

Bill: Yeah, that’s true. Sometimes we just have to look at each other… “yeah, let’s do that.”

Presenter: only ten minutes left until the big concert.

Bill: I’m so nervous. I think we’re gonna freak out any moment in the dressing room. At this point, we always feel like screaming out loud. I’m really nervous. I wonder if everything’s gonna work out alright.

Bill: It’s a different feeling, obviously because we’re in a different environment. It’s strange. It’s different.

Gustav: I also wonder if they understand the lyrics the way we mean them.

Bill: Well, I think they translate them well enough.

Gustav: Yeah, I think so too.

Bill: Well, they just sang it. I think they can do it.

Presenter: More than 4000 fans have come to finally see Tokio Hotel from Germany live on stage. The band and the audience have high expectations of the concert.

Bill: All the tension and all the thoughts you have, you completely forget about them, ’cause you kinda feel like you’re in a movie. Afterwards I never really remember what happened. You just have this enormous energy.

Presenter: Even the language problems are off the table.

Bill: When they’re all excited and enjoy themselves and sing along very loudly, that’s so cute. You definitely get goose bumps. We feel very honored that they sing along with all of the songs.

Presenter: One and a half years ago, hardly anyone knew them. Now Tokio Hotel fascinate fans all over Europe.

Tom: I think it sounds stupid to say all the time, “It’s so incredible”. That sounds as if you wanna suck up to somebody. But it’s really true. You can’t say anything else about it. Things are going very well and we’re very happy, and sometimes we think it can’t be true.

Gustav: When we met for the first time, we dreamed about giving concerts “Green-Day-style” with 50’000 people, etc., and we had a gig in front of 10 people, and we were like “Ok, we gotta work on this.” And then everything changed so quickly. I would have never imagined this.

Bill: Our dream, or even more than our dream, has come true. To have played in Russia, and the fact that it has worked out so well and even in such a big hall and to have fans who speak a different language, but can still sing along to all of our songs, I think that’s more than anyone’s ever expected.

Presenter: Tokio Hotel are ready to conquer the world. Gustav, Georg, Tom and Bill proved that in Moscow. In the past few months they’ve grown with their tasks. They’ve learned how to deal with stressful situations, new situations and how to thrill thousands of fans outside of Germany.

This is a clip that you saw part of in the first video, but this has much more to it, and it doesn’t have music over it Unfortunately, we don’t have an English translation for this, but Georg and Bill actually do speak a bit of English!

And for those of you who are a little unfamiliar with just how long mass hysteria has been following the band from hotel to hotel, here is a little taste! This is the band leaving their hotel in Moscow during this same trip – I advise you to TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN!

This week we’re going to jump ahead a bit (these posts certainly won’t be in order, but we will always include the dates for everything )! The Guinness World Records show aired September 9, 2006. If you’ve seen it before, you will remember it because it’s the show where they make Bill and Tom fold clothes – but it’s a fun watch regardless!

Unfortunately, embedding has been disabled for this video, but you can watch it right here!

Translation:

R: Hello! Take a seat. Hi Tom, hello! Have you already processed all this madness around your fame? Are you used to it already?
T: Well we’re certainly used to it, but we’re still always happy when we hear this. Now we’re having a bit of quiet time at the moment so we can just take stock of everything, so we can realise that it’s all real, but you certainly get used to it.
R: How important are these quiet periods between all the hectic?
B: I think it’s really important, because we really need the time for going to the studio and, being creative again and working on songs again, but I couldn’t do without a TV show or something in the spare time [Laughs]
R: You also need that, don’t you?
B: Yes, I do actually [Laughs]
R: Also for the fan-contact, maybe. I don’t know if you could judge something like that, or maybe you have a clear meaning about it. About your colleagues, Us5 for example; for one everything became a bit too much. How do you think you “as a young person,” could protect yourselves against being, maybe, not really taken advantage of, but made to do things and that it becomes too much.
B: Very important are certainly the family, the friends; you definitely need support. Without it you won’t make it. And from the beginning we have had a really great team that has always supported us, family, friends and so on!
T: I think that it’s really important to have these days off sometimes; when you’re free and you can take it easy. When you’re on the road with normal people. And we still have the advantage that we know each other for six years now so we can also support each other a bit and I think that that’s an enormous advantage.
R: Your youngest daughter (to the other guy) is a Tokio Hotel fan.
Guy: Yes, she wanted to have an autograph no matter what. I telephoned her before the show and said “I’ve send it to you” and she was like “Thank you daddy, thank you!”
R: It has become a phenomenon: “Tokio Hotel,” hasn’t it?
Artze (Not sure about the name): Yes, I think it’s cool. You have of course a lot of critics and a lot of fans. I’m a drummer myself and have been on stage for a long time with my drums. I think it’s really cool that you play yourselves and that it’s authentic; you are who you are and I think these guys are really terrific.
R: How important are these good friends, and do have good friends that criticize? That say: “How you do that, maybe that isn’t totally okay” or “Keep doing what you’re doing now”?
B: Definitely. The first things we play; like when recording or something, then there are always family and friends present and they tell us honestly when something just sucks or when something doesn’t work out good. But that’s, as I said, the most important thing. You always have to have that, even if it is not much, because the circle of friends is getting extremely smaller, of course.
R: Is that so?
B: Yes, but you notice that those are the real friends, they understand it when I don’t call back for two weeks, because we’ve lots of other things to think about. Sometimes there is so much to think about or to do that you can forget such things. For example, I forgot the birthday of my parents and a friend! But [Audience laughs] But, but that show’s they’re friends; they weren’t insulted or something because they know how I am and that that hasn’t anything to do with them. I even almost forgot my own, but the fans reminded me.
R: Is there a big chance you lose friends because you’re just in another atmosphere and then just forget the most important things?
T: Yes, well, that is really hard, but as Bill said; that’s how you recognise the real, good friends. Then you can just not see each other for half a year or a year and still everything is the same. That’s how it is in our circle of friends now. And of course it happens that when you used to be in contact with someone, but not being “real friends”, more like acquaintances, then you lose that contact, that can happen.
R: Yes. And Ornella Muti is also our guest today. Ornella, you are a very fashionable woman. The two of them are very extravagant in their styles. Is it something you think is interesting or do you think “Oh well, that’s just how they are, those young people!”
O: No, I think it’s really good actually, when they express themselves in their own way. It’s good when you can express yourself like that, isn’t it? People shouldn’t be afraid of that.
R: No, certainly not afraid, it’s better to have your own style then looking boring, isn’t it?
And how is it when you’re outside? Is it impossible for you, because people recognise you because of your looks, to just go to the supermarket?
B: Well, we don’t walk around like this anymore. We always used to, but now we disguise ourselves; with a hood on and, even put on a fake beard.
T: Just tracksuits and so on.
R: Really?
T: Yes. Well I don’t put on a beard, but just a tracksuit or very ordinary clothes; for us that’s dressing up.
A: Hey, that isn’t Artze, that’s Robbie Williams! [Laughs]
R: [Laughs] That would be a surprise! Well now! How about the girls?
T: Yes, they erm…
[Audience screams]
T: There isn’t anything permanent yet.
B: No.
Girl out of the audience: WE LOVE YOU!!!
[Screaming]
R: [Laughs] Should I get you some?
Are you ever afraid of meeting a girl now, of which you think: “Maybe when I met her before Tokio Hotel then I could be sure she likes the person and not, like, the singer.”
B: Yes! Yes, that’s really true.
T: That doesn’t bother me much.
B: Well, of course it’s true. At least, in my case. The way I let people get closer to me is totally different then before, it’s certainly harder to make such a move and to trust people.
T: That doesn’t bother me that much.
R: That doesn’t bother you? [Laughs] Unfortunately!
T: [Laughs] I can say that I just trust people very much. Yes, that’s true!
R: I was reading the newspaper, and now the journalism of Germany is like “When those boys are really successful there should be something about them in it. It could be just your (author’s note: He could say granddad here, but I’m not sure. It would be a bit weird though) that’s maybe having a bad day or something! When you hear that; all the fuss that goes with it gets dragged along with all the bad stuff (?). Do you ever think; “Now I throw this all away, this is getting me too stupid”? How do you handle that?
B: Well I have to say that, in the beginning, all those headlines were totally funny; you get exited of course, that was new for us too. But as time went on they wrote so much more and told so much rubbish, that it’s now very normal. It’s just part of it like everything else. When we read the paper it’s normal that there’s something in it about us we haven’t said.
T: It’s actually every day like that. We buy very many magazines; when we’re in it. And everyday there is something in it that we haven’t told them and isn’t true.
B: We simply can’t give as many interviews as they write.
R: And do you laugh about it and say “Look at this, I would have said this”
T: Yes.
B: Yes, sometimes it’s really funny.
R: So, boys! A little changing of the subject [Get's the T-shirts] Who does your laundry when your mummy doesn’t do it?
B: That would be the hotel.
[Screaming]
R: Don’t you do it yourselves? In the washing machine, 40 degrees, 60 degrees?
B: When it’s in a hurry, yes.
R: Can you also fold T-shirts?
T: I’m very good at that.
R: Try!
T: The problem is; my T-shirts are a bit bigger (true!) Just look at this. Watch me going!
B: No, I do it very different.
R: You can try after him. Let’s see how your brother does it. Super!
[Applause]
B: Well, my T-shirts are smaller, so!
T: Mine are double as big!
B: I do it in a different way, oh, I’m losing my transmitter! There. I always do it like this; I fold it this way. Like this!
T: Ah what’s that?
B: And like this!
T: That sucks.
B: But that’s also fitting, look!
R: Yes, very good!
[Applause]
R: So, ladies and gentlemen, especially the ladies; these boys aren’t just good singers, successful and nice; they are also very useful in the household! At least, for folding t-shirts.
T: I can also cook noodles!
R: Noodles? With or without sauce?
T: Erm, ready-made sauce.
B: Or ketchup.
T: It tastes good, that ready-made sauce!

Translations: 0kim0

Recently it has come to my attention that there are lots and lots of things that many fans have never seen before. Some of this stuff gets buried under all of the new things going on, and I know that newer fans don’t always know where to look for it! So every Wednesday, I will be sharing something from Tokio Hotel’s earlier days, be it a video, article, etc. If you’ve seen it before, hopefully you will enjoy it again!

This week, we are starting with a VIVA special from 2005, where they followed Tokio Hotel on tour, through their original rehearsal “room” to the road, and an encounter with two very lucky fans! It’s really exciting to see how things were for them when they were getting ready for their first tour ever. There are three parts to this video on Youtube total, and translations for the entire thing, so click ‘read more’ to check out the videos!

Girl: I have a crush on Bill, because he’s the most handsome one.
Girl: They’re simply great!
Girl: Great, they look good, they can sing, oh! They’re beautiful.
Girl: I don’t know, they’re just so cool, and the music, just cool.
Girl: They’ve got their own style, they don’t do what other people tell them to do; they do what they want to do.
Girl: We just wanted to say [Sings Schrei]

Reporter: Tokio Hotel on their first Live-tour. Only four months ago they were an unknown school band from Magdeburg, now they fill great halls. In only six days all concerts were sold out.

Georg: When I think about it, well, it can’t get much better, where would it go? I mean, we play a sold out tour, people buy our single, people buy our album, what’d be next?
Bill: The way it all went, I think, has made us all incredibly happy with the situation. Everything that has happened now wasn’t something we’d expected. It all came very quickly, if you look at it one way, but we’ve also worked on it for a very long time.

Reporter: Everything started in Magdeburg. Since their success Tokio Hotel doesn’t come in their old practice room very often anymore.

Bill: That couch there isn’t all, it goes further, but it’s such a mess!
Georg: You can barely get through, because of all the junk lying around.
Bill: Yeah, it’s ridiculous, but once it lies there – aw that smells! – once you left it there you never really clean it up of course!
Tom: Oh, and this here is our platform, it’s really great! Just look at the construction! Beneath it are mouldy planks, by the way.
Bill: Yeah, we’ve always planned to change it, because it’s really unstable.

Tom: What about it?
Woman: Show it!
[Bill laughs]
Tom: No? Why shouldn’t we show it? Why? I think it’s lovely! [Shows a teddy bear]

Tom: We used to come here every day and practiced, just hung around here together!
Bill: And we ate, as you can see.
Tom: Indeed, and now we only practice in the studio, actually. We’re preparing the tour, which we’d never though we’d be playing.

Reporter: For five years already, Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav are in a band together. But in those days Tokio Hotel called themselves Devilish. In the spring of 2003 the get discovered and soon after that the signed their first contract. In one year of time they recorded their album Schrei, and since then, nothing is like it used to be anymore.

Bill: We’ve had performances before that, where there were only five people there. And most of them were just having a beer.
Tom: Yeah, those were painful situations! We’ve had so many shows that weren’t organised right, and not just because there weren’t enough people willing to come.
Bill: Yes, but it was really awkward when there weren’t many people.
Tom: Yes that’s true, but it wasn’t advertised that well either.

Bill: We’re going underground!
Reporter: Undisturbed practising has become impossible in Magdeburg. Tokio hotel are just to well-known in their home-town; the press and a lot of jealousy make a normal life for them impossible. That’s why they’re doing the tour preparations like a secret mission in Osnabräcke.
Bill: Hurry people, I want to go in the car, I’m cold.

Reporter: Although the pressure from the outside has grown, the friendship of the band is solid.
Georg: We already were good friends in the past, and because we’re now really always around each other, the relationship has just got better. You really know each other through and through, you know exactly how you can annoy one another, on when it’s best to leave a person alone. It just gets us closer and closer together.

Georg: Look at this.
Tom: Oh, those things from Trolli, those funny cheeseburgers! The taste so artificial, so incredibly artificial! It’s the best!
Georg: Now I look all greedy just because Bill over there is having angry conversations with his mummy again! (not sure about that one)

Reporter: In a small concert hall Gustav, Georg, Bill and Tom can practice for their tour undisturbed for a couple of days. No one is allowed to know that Tokio Hotel is here. They have to test new equipment and practice their show of course.
Tom: I don’t think any of us had though it’d be so big and complete, but we just want to prepare ourselves for the show. I mean, playing the songs isn’t really a problem, but you also have to plan it and there’s a lot to do.
It’s turned off, stupid thing! [tests it] Work!

Reporter: The guys of Tokio Hotel have let themselves set free from school for a year, practising and travelling is taking all their energy. the teenagers are now living a professional life.
Tom: School takes more energy; you have to concentrate more [others agree]. Everything is taken easy here!
Bill: Fortunately it is exactly what we want to do, so it’s no problem at all.
Georg: You can’t really compare it to school.
Bill: Yes, it’s something completely different.

Tom: [Shouts something to Bill]
Bill: They always have to hold on to one mistake, because I don’t make any other ones, it’s so annoying [Laughs]
Gustav: Bill, you’re constantly making mistakes! You’re a mistake in human form! [Laughs]

Tom: Yes, we’re really arguing a lot in here, especially about the sound. And it always takes a while till everybody is satisfied.
Georg: Two or three days!
Bill: But that’s really personal. Of course Georg needs the bass to be extra loud and I want my voice to be louder, that’s just a personal thing.
Tom: And of course everybody need the guitar a bit louder to orientate! [Laughs]

Reporter: The songs have to be practiced over and over again; the expectations of Tokio Hotel are high.
Tom: We’re not really nervous, you don’t really worry like “Oh damn, if that doesn’t go well!” The show is planned well, we get on stage and then see if it all goes well.
Bill: But there are always doubts though.
Tom: Yes, of course there are always doubts, but there isn’t really any pressure, we’re not like “Oh damn, if we mess this up it’s over.”
Bill: No, there’s no pressure.

Reporter: After more than twelve hours it’s finally time for some rest.
Gustav: [Points at the sweets] Can you eat these or are they just for show?
Woman: You can just take one
Gustav: Oh, thank you very much! Can I just pick one or are they specified?
Tom: they’re specified, Gustav. See? This one if fro people whose name starts with a G!
Guy: Here is yours Tom, and Gustav.
Tom: So we’re all checked in so let’s go, let’s go-lets go-let’s go! [Note: This was a bit of a fandom joke for awhile ]

Reporter: In spite of the long days Tokio Hotel enjoys their present life.
Georg: I think you should enjoy every moment now, you don’t know how it’ll be in one or two years. It can always end as quickly as it has started, we all understand that, so we just enjoy every moment now.

Reporter: In the second part you’ll see how Tokio Hotel make their fans go crazy at their concert in Berlin, and tremble along when two fans meet their favourite band in person.
[Break]

In seven hours Tokio Hotel will play their music here. To get as close as possible to the stage, the fans have been standing in the cold since eight in the morning, and still in a good mood.
[Girls sing Durch den Monsun]

Bill: We’re still really exited when we see how many people are there. We don’t go to the concerts thinking “Okay, there’ll be a couple of thousands there.” Sometimes we don’t even expect people to be standing there when we get out of the bus.
Tom: The fans are really what gives us the most motivation, and prizes are very nice too of course, then you see that the long work is paying of and you get rewarded with golden records, or it’s CD’s now, so prizes are good of course, but what motivates us the most are the fans.

Reporter: For Amelie and Jenny today is a dream come true; they’ll meet their favourite band in person. The sixteen-year-olds have been Tokio Hotel-fans since four months.
Amelie: These guys were a half year ago just normal schoolboys and now suddenly they’re successful, but still really nice. I mean, when you see interviews they seen really nice, ordinary.
Reporter: Jenny and Amelie collect everything from Tokio Hotel they can get their hands on and watch the DVD and listen to the album everyday.
Jenny: Here comes the smile! Look at Bill’s little smile! Ah!
And the music is really great too, when you just listen to it and-
Amelie: Yeah! Take time for it
Jenny: Yeah, when you take the time for the album and listen to the lyrics ! They’re really not as illogical as people say they are. You know! “The lyrics suck!” They really don’t. They got something, every song has a story and I think that’s very cool.
Amelie: When I listen to a song I’d really like to know how these guys are as people and how they think of the song. Rette Mich for example, I think it’s just great, what they’re singing is often exactly what I’m feeling.
Jenny: You hear so often that there’s so much bustle around these guys, and maybe the media shows then very different from how they are as real people, and I’d really like to know how that is. Without a camera, maybe they’re totally different.
Reporter: The girls are already going to the concert hall in the late afternoon. At the same time: the band on the highway on their way to Berlin, in five hours their concert will start. When the fans are waiting in front of the hall, Gustav, Georg, Tom and Bill arrive unnoticed.

Bill: I think that the night definitely is going to get really really good. The cool thing is that we’re playing the Columbia Hall, a lot of bands have performed here that have been playing music for a very long time; I’ve already seen pictures of Gwen Stefani and so on and it’s already a good feeling just to be allowed to play in this hall. And I’m happy that 3500 people are going to be there, that the concert is sold out, and I think it’ll be a night with a lot of energy.
Reporter: For an hour the sound has to be adapted to the hall; at the first live-tour nothing can go wrong.
Tom: Yes, you’re definitely nervous before shows, but I think that’s permanent. We we’re nervous for the five people and today for a couple of thousand and that’ll always be like that, it’s part of it.
Gustav: I’m always happy to play live, because most of the time you’re playing by your self, but sometimes you have to work with the audience, and that’s Bill’s main task.
Bill: Yes, you have to entertain a couple of thousand people totally alone. I mean, you can’t count on other artists that maybe perform with you there, or on one hit like Durch den Monsun, you really have to try to keep the mood up that hour and a half.
Georg: For every show you’re just nervous, I think that when that’s gone something is wrong. And at every gig something new happens, you learn something new; it’s really exciting.

Reporter: While the guys are practicing, Jenny and Amelie go backstage, the long-looked for meeting is getting close.
Jenny: I’m already incredibly nervous; my heart is going so fast and I’ve got butterflies in my stomach! I’m looking forward to it! Yes, really cool.
Amelie: I’ve wrote down what I really want to say, in case I’m so nervous I forget it all! When that’s okay.
Reporter: Just a couple of metres separate Amelie and Jenny from Tokio Hotel.

[They say hi, introduce themselves etc.]

Bill: Have you let those [the piercings] done together?
Amelie: No, I did it a day later.
Jenny: Indeed.
Amelie: I did mine myself and she didn’t.
Bill: What? You’ve done it yourself, I don’t believe that, damn!
Amelie: Well, this one [in her lip] I did myself, this one [in her eyebrow] I’ve let done.
Tom: You did that one yourself? No! That’s crazy!
Amelie: Don’t worry, I survived! [Laughs]
Bill: God, I couldn’t even do an ear myself!

Amelie: It was absolutely great! Those guys are just so nice!
Jenny: All four of them.
Amelie: Without exception, not one of them. I’ll be beaming with happiness all day.
Jenny: Me too.
Amelie: They’re so nice!
Jenny: Yes! [Laughs]

Reporter: They’re finally let in. 3500 people are pouring into the hall. Amelie and Jenny mingle with the crowd of fans again.
[Schrei]

Georg: Of course, you’re standing up there with trembling knees, you don’t realise what’s happening at all. It’s like, when someone asks me afterward what exactly happened, I won’t be able to remember at all.
Bill: I don’t know how to describe that. You get such an enormous kick when you get up there and the audience screams, and after that, when I get of stage, I can’t remember anything that I did. Like, I don’t know how I moved up there, and I don’t have to think about what I’m singing for one second, that just comes to you.
Tom: It’s a kind of like a dream standing there, it’s like you’ve just dreamed about it. You don’t really realise it at that moment, but after it you understand it all and that’s like, well, I really enjoy it.

Bill: Do you want to finish the song with me?
Girl: Yes!
Bill: Do you know the rest of the text?
Girl: Yes!
Bill: It’s the “Nein” part, we’ll do it by turns.
[Bill and the girl sing]
Bill: Thank you very much! Thank you! give her a big applause!

Tom: We’ve done so much, we’ve won so many prizes, we’re able to record everything which is awesome. We get to play two hits in this tour, and it’s all just unbelievable for us. I think that at the moment we don’t have any dreams anymore, in music I mean. This is everything we’ve always dreamed of.

Translations: 0kim0

Wir spielen, was WIR wollen – oder: Warum ein Wunsch in einer Wunschsendung nicht gleich Wunsch ist …

Den deutschen Radiosender NDR2 kann man in ganz Deutschland empfangen. Sogar in ganz Europa unverschlüsselt über den Satelliten ASTRA.
Der NDR2 ist ein öffentlich-rechtlicher Sender und somit keine private Radiostation.
Der NDR2 hat eine Musikwunsch-Sendung namens “NDR2 Hitmix”. Diese Sendung, in der man sich Songs wünschen kann, läuft wochentags, also Montag bis Freitag, immer zwischen 18 und 19 Uhr.

Da ich schon öfter Radiosender angeschrieben habe, um mich zu erkundigen, warum nicht auch mal Songs meiner Lieblingsband “Tokio Hotel” gepielt werden, dachte ich, diese Sendung wäre doch mal ein idealer Ort, einen ihrer Songs in’s Radio zu bringen, damit andere Hörer darauf aufmerksam werden und es vielleicht sogar hilft, das Teenie-Band-Image, welches Tokio Hotel gern loswerden würden, zu bekämpfen.

Nix war’s. Es hat nicht geklappt, ich habe kläglich versagt.

Ich werde im folgenden Teil über den Ablauf meines Versuches berichten, Tokio Hotel’s aktuelle Musik in’s Radioprogramm des NDR2 zu bekommen.

Ich hörte also öfter die Hitmix-Sendung und beschloss, mir Tokio Hotel zu wünschen.
Da ich weiss, wie die allgemeine Einstellung der allgemeinen Menschen in Deutschland gegenüber Tokio Hotel ist, entschied ich mich -eben im Sinne des allgemeinen Hörers- für die englischen Versionen der Songs “Lass uns laufen” und “Sonnensystem”, also “World behind my wall” und “Darkside of the sun”.

Da ich nicht anrufen wollte, füllte ich das Webformular für die Sendung auf der Internetseite des Senders aus. Über etwa 2 Monate hinweg tat ich das fast wochentäglich, insgesamt über 40 Mal.
Ich schrieb auch jedesmal einen Text dazu, warum ich mir das jeweilige Lied wünsche. Den Text änderte ich auch immer wieder mal ab, um ein paar aktuelle Dinge bezüglich Tokio Hotel mit einzubeziehen.

Hier ein Beispiel für meinen Wunschhit-Grußtext:

Welchen Lieblingshit möchten sie bei NDR2 hören?  World behind my wall / Darkside of the sun
Das ist ihr Wunschhit, weil …

… dies ein tolles Lied ist und Tokio Hotel eh viel zu wenig präsent im deutschen Radio sind. Warum immer nur Lena, Black Eyed Peas oder Silbermond, wenn man auch Tokio Hotel spielen kann? Abwechslung tut doch mal gut

Man berichtet höchstens nur über Skandale, wie diese unglaubwürdige Viagra-Unfall-Story vor einer Weile, anstatt mal zu erwähnen, dass Tokio Hotel die Radio-Charts im Ausland anführen (z.B. in Singapur und Malaysia) oder in Taiwan Gold für’s aktuelle Album abgeräumt haben. Außerdem bekamen sie vor wenigen Wochen ihren 12. Cometen.
Ich würde mir wünschen, dass Radiosender mehr Musik der neben Rammstein erfolgreichsten deutschen Export-Band spielen.

Kurioserweise finden viele Hörer die Musik so lange gut, bis sie erfahren, von wem sie eigentlich ist …

Schöne Grüße an alle zuhörenden Tokio Hotel Fans, das ganze NDR2-Team sowie alle weiteren Hörer

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International (internat. Fanclub)

Dies schrieb ich dann gegen Ende meiner vielen Versuche:

Welchen Lieblingshit möchten sie bei NDR2 hören?  Einen aktuellen Tokio Hotel-Song …
Das ist ihr Wunschhit, weil …

Falls Ihr das überhaupt lest und ich noch nicht in einem Filter gelandet bin: Seit über 2 Monaten sende ich fast wochentäglich einen Tokio Hotel Musikwunsch. Heute zum 36. Mal – bisher leider erfolglos. Inzwischen habe ich in dieser Zeit Songs mancher Interpreten schon 3-4 Mal gehört, und nun frage ich mich, ob NDR2 auch einer der Sender ist, die eine der erfolgreichsten deutschen Exportbands (neben Rammstein) boykottieren. Tokio Hotel sind zu wenig präsent im deutschen Radio.

Man berichtet höchstens mal über (Möchtegern-)Skandale wie diese unglaubwürdige Viagra-Unfall-Story, aber dass die Band im Ausland Preise für das aktuelle Album abräumt und in Südamerika und Asien die Radiocharts anführt, verschweigt man.

Vielleicht aus Scham darüber, dass es im Heimatland nicht so ist?
Nein, lieber spielt man Musik z.B. von Lena, die erst seit wenigen Wochen aktuell ist und nicht auf 5 Jahre (Welt-)Erfolg zurückblicken kann. Dabei ist ihre Musik neber der anderer Interpreten (wie z.B. Black Eyed Peas) auch nicht besser, als die von Tokio Hotel. Kurioserweise finden viele Hörer die Musik der 4 Jungs so lange gut, bis sie erfahren, von wem sie eigentlich ist …
Wovor haben Radiosender Angst? Dass Hörer abschalten? Sind wir mal ehrlich, das ist Blödsinn.

Ich würde mir wünschen, dass Radiosender mehr Musik der Jungs spielen und sich endlich mal mit dieser Band und ihrer Musik beschäftigen und nicht auf Anfragen entweder mit Standartantworten reagieren oder -wie recht oft- gar nicht erst darauf eingehen. Versucht’s doch mal, den NDR2 wird es bestimmt auch in ein paar Jahren noch geben

Also hier mein Musikwunsch, einen dieser 2 Songs:

Darkside of the sun
World behind my wall

Schöne Grüße an alle zuhörenden Tokio Hotel Fans, das ganze NDR2-Team sowie alle weiteren Hörer

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International (internat. Fanclub)

Nichts passierte. Ich zeichnete mir die Sendung jeden Tag auf, um meinen erfolgreichen Versuch den TH-Fans zeigen zu können. Doch es wurde in allen Hitmix-Sendungen immer die gleiche Musik gespielt, die eh den ganzen Tag auf NDR2 zu hören ist.
Immer wieder Black Eyed Peas, unsere Oslo-Lena, die gerade “in” war, usw.
In einem Forum, in dem über Radiostationen und deren Programme diskutiert wird, sagten mir andere Hörer, die Sendungen im Radio sind ohnehin alles Fakes. Denn meist geht es nur darum, festzustellen, welcher Moderator gerade verantwortlich ist oder um Pseudo-Abwechslung im Programm zu haben. Die gespielte Musik ist von vorn herein festgelegt. Es gibt ein Song-Archiv mit etwas über 200 Songs, die immer wieder gespielt werden. Je nach Sender sind das mal mehr, mal weniger als diese 200 verschiedenen Songs.

Nun gut. Am 20.07.2010 war ich überrascht, in meinem Postfach eine eMail zu sehen, die vom NDR2 stammte. Ich dachte natürlich gleich, es passiert etwas Gutes! Ich stellte mir vor, man würde vielleicht endlich auf meine Musikwünsche eingehen, vielleicht hatte man sogar bemerkt, dass ich als Team-Mitglied eines Fanclubs unterschrieben hab und vielleicht hab ich ihre Neugier geweckt …

… bis ich die eMail öffnete und folgenden Text (Originalzitat) las:

Anwort: Wunschhit

Hallo!

Leider können wir Ihren Wunschhit nicht bei NDR2 spielen, da Tokio Hotel in unseren Musikresearches überdurchschnittlich schlecht bewertet werden. Ich bitte Sie daher auch, uns aus Ihrem Verteiler zu streichen.

Vielen Dank!

M. N. [Anm. d. Autors: Name entfernt]
NDR2
Programm-Management Musik

Okay, ich war sprachlos. Bitte WAS?? Ich saß da und schüttelte den Kopf, las die eMail bestimmt 10 Mal.
Wie unfreundlich. Mal schnell eine Zeile hingeklatscht, nur um mir zu sagen, dass mein Wunsch nichts wert und die Musik meiner Lieblingsband überdurchschnittlich scheisse ist.
Der Tag war gelaufen und ich fühlte mich, als wäre ich vor eine Wand gelaufen und diese dann noch auf mich gefallen.

Aber ich antwortete auf diese eMail noch am selben Tag. Leicht bissig.

Hallo!

Vielen Dank für Ihre ausführliche und sehr nette, freundliche Antwort!
 
Nun, jetzt fühle ich mich wie eine Person zweiter Klasse, mein Wunsch ist nichts wert.
Warum bezeichnen Sie die Hit-Mix-Sendung überhaupt als Wunschhit-Sendung, wenn dies gar nicht erst zutrifft?
Zu diesem Thema werde ich mich noch etwas umhören.
 
Soweit mir bekannt ist, werden bei diesen Musikresearches Hörer angerufen und bekommen etwa 50 Songs vorgespielt, ohne, dass der Titel oder Name des Interpreten genannt wird. Von Leuten, die regelmäßig an solchen Telefonaten teilnehmen, wurde mir berichtet, dass Tokio Hotel bisher nicht einmal dabei waren.
Aber gut, irgendwie werden Sie die “überdurchschnittlich schlechte Bewertung” der Musik von Tokio Hotel schon zu rechtfertigen wissen. Denn wie ich schon schrieb, haben Tests ergeben, dass Befragte die Musik der Band so lange mögen, bis ihnen gesagt wird, von wem sie ist. Und da Titel und Interpret normalerweise nicht genannt werden … ok. Medienmanipulation pur.
 
Abgesehen davon sind Sie in keinem Verteiler, ich fülle das Formular auf der NDR2-Webseite immer per Hand aus, ich wußte nicht mal, dass es auch per eMail geht.
 
Jedenfalls weiss ich jetzt, dass meine GEZ-Gebühren gut angelegt sind.

Von mir gibt’s jedenfalls schöne Grüße,

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International

Daraufhin bekam ich natürlich -und wie erwartet- keine Antwort.
Ich wollte die Sache aber nicht ruhen lassen, immerhin wollte ich Antworten auf meine Fragen. Tokio Hotel wurden ja noch immer nicht gespielt.

Ein paar Wochen wartete ich noch auf Antwort vom NDR2, da diese, wie gesagt, ausblieb, schrieb ich am 17.08.2010 an das Gremienbüro des NDR, also an den Rundfunkrat selbst, folgende eMail:

Sehr geehrte Dame, sehr geehrter Herr!

Ich hoffe, ich bin mit meinem Anliegen an richtiger Stelle angekommen.
Auslöser für diese Kontaktaufnahme ist eine Antwort, die ich vom Radiosender NDR2 bekam.
Aber zuerst eine kleine Vorgeschichte:
 
Ich bin seit knapp 4 Jahren Fan der Band Tokio Hotel und im Team eines internationalen Fanclubs. Seit ich Fan wurde, versuche ich immer wieder, mich für meine Lieblingsband einzusetzen und sie bekannter zu machen. Zum Beispiel im Radio.
Mir fiel auf, dass Radiosender z.B. in nur sehr seltenen Fällen die Musik der Band spielen, abgesehen mal von ihren Durchbruch-Hit “Durch den Monsun”, der damals für kurze Zeit ein paar Mal gespielt wurde.
 
Ich schreibe also Radiosender an und erkundige mich, warum man denn die Musik einer erfolgreichen deutschen Band nicht spielt, vorallem, da sie ja nun ein recht neues Album mit durchaus radiotauglicher Musik herausgebracht hat und damit ebenso im Ausland sehr erfolgreich ist. Dies erkennt man nicht nur daran, dass die 4 Jungs aus dem Raum Magdeburg dort viele Musik-Preise abgeräumt haben und für ihr aktuelles Album sogar Gold in Taiwan bekamen, sondern auch daran, dass ihre Musik die Radiocharts von Südamerika oder auch z.B. Singapur anführt. Ebenso spielt man in den USA die Musik der Band in Stadien.
 
Mich wundert also, warum man höchstens mal über (zweifelhafte) Möchtegern-Skandälchen berichtet, als über Erfolge, warum man eine Band im eigenen Land so sabotiert.
 
Meist bleibt eine Antwort aus, oder ich bekomme Standard-Antworten wie “Wenn genug unserer Hörer Musik der Band hören wollen, spielen wir sie auch.”
 
Natürlich polarisieren Tokio Hotel, was vorallem auf Äußerlichkeiten beruht. Frontman Bill Kaulitz ist nun mal kein 08/15-Typ, aber ob Langweiler oder Hingucker – die Musik steht doch eigentlich im Vordergrund. Für mich ist das also kein Grund, vorallem, wenn man Musik von Interpreten spielt, die mindestens genauso polarisieren. Man nehme da nur mal Mark Medlock oder einen Casting-Show-Gewinner aus den USA mit dem Namen Adam Lambert. Mal abgesehen von seinem polarisierenden Aussehen ist jener offen homosexuell. Vorallem von den Medien wird selbiges auch bei Bill Kaulitz vermutet, was also das Argument des Polarisierens eigentlich schon unwirksam macht.

Nun gut. Der NDR2 hat eine tägliche Wunschhit-Sendung namens “NDR2 Hitmix”. Diese läuft von Montag bis Freitag immer zwischen 18 und 19 Uhr. Der NDR2 ruft auf, eine eMail mit dem Wunschhit an’s Studio zu senden, beim Sender anzurufen oder das Formular auf der NDR2-Webseite zu benutzen.
Letzteres habe ich getan. Ich habe über knapp 2 Monate fast wochentäglich das Formular ausgefüllt, mir einen aktuellen Tokio Hotel-Song gewünscht (mit Absicht die englischen Versionen), etwas Text dazu geschrieben und dann abgeschickt – das alles knapp 40 Mal!
 
Aber nicht ein einziges Mal wurde mein Wunsch-Song gespielt, dafür hörte ich eigentlich genau nur die Musik, die zum Teil mehrmals am Tag ohnehin auf NDR2 läuft. Manche Songs hörte ich in den 40 Wunschhit-Sendungen bis zu 5 Mal.
Und letztendlich bekam ich eine sehr kurze und meines Erachtens auch unfreundliche Antwort vom NDR2, welche ich hier wortwörtlich zitiere:

Hallo!

Leider können wir Ihren Wunschhit nicht bei NDR2 spielen, da Tokio Hotel in unseren Musikresearches überdurchschnittlich schlecht bewertet werden. Ich bitte Sie daher auch, uns aus Ihrem Verteiler zu streichen.

Vielen Dank!

M. N. [Anm. d. Autors: Name entfernt]
NDR2
Programm-Management Musik

Als ich das las, war ich erst mal bedient, diese Antwort war wie ein Schlag in’s Gesicht.
 
Man hatte mir also nicht nur gesagt, dass die Musik einer der erfolgreichsten Export-Bands Deutschlands überdurchschnittlich schlecht ist, sondern auch, dass mein Wunsch nichts wert ist. Ich bekomme das Gefühl, ich bin ein Radio-Hörer 2. Klasse.

Warum also eine Sendung als Wunschhit-Sendung deklarieren, dazu aufrufen, Wünsche einzureichen, wenn diese dann nichts wert sind bzw. man nur das spielt, was standardmäßig ohnehin im Programm zu hören ist?
 
Eine Bekannte von mir nimmt an Radio-Musik-Researches teil und lässt sich befragen. Mir sagte sie, dies funktioniert folgendermaßen: Man wird vom Sender angerufen und bekommt 50 Songs vorgespielt, welche man bewerten soll. Also ob man die Musik gern im Radio hören möchte, oder nicht. Dabei werden weder Titel noch Interpret genannt, der Befragte weiss also im Idealfall (für den Sender) nicht, wer da gerade zu hören ist, sondern kann nur das bewerten, was vorgespielt wird.

Tests haben gezeigt, dass Leute die aktuelle Musik von Tokio Hotel solange mögen, bis sie erfahren, von wem sie eigentlich ist. Werden die Researches also wie von meiner Bekannten beschrieben durchgeführt, dürfte so gesehen keine überdurchschnittlich schlechte Bewertung das Ergebnis sein.
Meine Bekannte meinte, sie hätte noch nicht ein einziges Mal einen Song von Tokio Hotel in den Umfragen vorgespielt bekommen.
Ich zweifel die Aussage von N.  [Anm. d. Autors: Name entfernt] unteranderem auch genau deswegen an.
 
Ebenso kann ich die Bitte, den NDR2 aus meinem (nicht vorhandenen) Verteiler zu nehmen, nicht verstehen. Ich habe das Wunschhit-Formular jedesmal per Hand ausgefüllt, da gibt es keinen Verteiler und keine Automatik.
 
Ich möchte nicht mit dem Thema GEZ-Gebühren anfangen, auch wenn ich diese zahle und somit jeder öffentlich-rechtliche Sender etwas davon hat. (Ob das Geld nun in der jeweiligen Region landet, in der man die Gebühren bezahlt, ist erst mal irrelevant.)
Was mich aufregt, ist die Art und Weise, wie der NDR2 reagiert hat. Ich habe natürlich auf obige eMail vom Sender geantwortet und habe bis heute (etwa 1 Monat später) natürlich, wie erwartet, keine Antwort erhalten.
 
Meines Erachtens haben Radiosender nicht die Aufgabe, einfach nur Musik zu spielen, sondern auch die Künstler bekannter zu machen. Ich weiss nicht, an was öffentlich-rechtliche Sender gebunden sind (anders als private Stationen), aber ich dachte zumindest, es gehört auch dazu, näher auf das einzugehen, was man sendet.
 
Wenn ich im Radio einen Song höre, der mir gefällt, dann versuche ich, mehr darüber und den Interpreten herauszufinden. Das kann durchaus zum Kauf führen, was nicht nur der Musikindustrie gut tut, sondern auch den Künstlern hilft.
Tokio Hotel versuchen, von ihrem Teenie-Band-Image wegzukommen und nach inzwischen über 5 Jahren (Welt-)Erfolg als richtige Musiker angesehen zu werden. Wie oft wurde ihnen der Untergang prognostiziert und es gibt sie noch immer.
Was aber, wenn man im eigenen Land nicht mal ansatzweise unterstützt wird? Warum werden Contest-Gewinner aus den USA in Dauerschleife gespielt, echte Künstler aus dem eigenen Land aber ignoriert?

Vielleicht haben Sie ein paar Antworten auf meine Fragen für mich, ich würde mich sehr darüber freuen!
Vielleicht hilft Ihnen meine eMail auch anderweitig, etwa um den Service und die Freundlichkeit der Radiosender weiter zu verbessern.

Vielen Dank für Ihre Zeit, mit besten Grüßen und über eine Antwort würde ich mich echt freuen!

Nik Archer
Team Tokio Hotel International

Ich wollte auch nicht einfach nur eine Beschwerde schreiben, nein, mir ging es darum, Antworten auf meine Fragen zu bekommen und versuchte deshalb, auch eventuelle Argumente für das Nicht-Spielen von Tokio Hotel zu finden. Unter anderem auch das immer wiederkehrende Gerücht um Bill’s sexuelle Vorlieben. Eine Sache, die eigenlich von vorn herein keine Rollen spielen dürfte.

Am 31.08.2010 bekam ich eine Eingangsbestätigung im Auftrag der Vorsitzenden des NDR-Rundfunkrates, Frau Gräfin Kerssenbrock, geschrieben von einem Mitarbeiter des Gremienbüros.
Ich werde so bald wie möglich eine Antwort erhalten.

Dies geschah am gleichen Tag 6h später.

Ich muss sagen, der Ablauf ist sehr professionell. Die Antwort-eMail enthielt eine PDF-Datei mit einem Scan des Zwischenberichts zu meiner Beschwerde, unterschrieben von der Vorsitzenden:

Ihre Beschwerde per Mail vom 17.08.2010

Sehr geehrter Herr Archer,

ich bestätige den Eingang ihrer o.g. Beschwerde.

Gemäß §7 der Geschäftsordnung des Rundfunkrates des Norddeutschen Rundfunks habe ich Ihre Beschwerde an den Intendanten des NDR weitergeleitet mit der Bitte, Ihnen innerhalb von vier Wochen eine Antwort zukommen zu lassen.

Sollte die Antwort des Intendanten Sie nicht zufriedenstellen, können Sie sich erneut an den Rundfunkrat wenden, der sich dann mit Ihrer Beschwerde befassen wird.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Gräfin Kerssenbrock

Ok, dann wartete ich mal auf die Antwort vom Intendanten, auf die ich schon gespannt war.

Diese erreichte mich dann am 23.09.2010:

Sehr geehrter Herr Archer,
für Ihre Mail vom 17.08.2010 an das Gremienbüro des NDR danke ich Ihnen. Die Vorsitzende des NDR Rundfunkrates, Gräfin Kerssenbrock, hat mich gebeten, Ihnen zu antworten.

Über Art und Form der Antwort, die Sie von NDR 2 erhalten haben, ärgern Sie sich zu Recht. Die E-Mail war gewiss nicht unfreundlich gemeint, konnte jedoch ohne Frage so aufgefasst werden. Die Redaktion von NDR 2 möchte sich dafür bei Ihnen entschuldigen.

Dass Sie sich in einem Fanclub für die Belange einer deutschen Band einsetzen, begrüße ich sehr. Zugleich bitte ich jedoch um Ihr Verständnis, dass ein derartiges Engagement nicht dazu führen kann, dass Wünsche bei einer Sendung wie dem NDR 2 Hitmix in besonderer Weise berücksichtigt werden.

NDR 2 versucht, in dieser Sendung möglichst vielen Erwartungen gerecht zu werden und erfüllt auch Musikwünsche, die über das musikalische Programm anderer Tageszeiten hinausreichen. Gleichwohl achtet die Musikredaktion auch bei solchen Wunschsendungen darauf, dass das musikalische Spektrum für eine breite Mehrheit der NDR 2 Hörerinnen und Hörer geeignet ist.

Hier ist die Redaktion in der Tat auf regelmäßige empirische Untersuchungen angewiesen. Mit Blick auf „Tokio Hotel“ sind die Ergebnisse jedenfalls – zumindest nach unseren Erfahrungen – eindeutig. Die Musik wird von einer Mehrheit der NDR 2 Hörer eher nicht positiv bewertet. Dass NDR 2 Ihre Wünsche nach Titeln von „Tokio Hotel“ nicht erfüllt hat, hat ausschließlich damit zu tun – keinesfalls mit einer angeblichen oder tatsächlichen sexuellen Orientierung des Sängers Bill Kaulitz. Ebenso wenig handelt es sich um ein Qualitätsurteil über die Musik von „Tokio Hotel“, sondern lediglich um die Erkenntnis, dass die Musik in den allermeisten Fällen nicht den Geschmack der NDR 2 Hörer trifft.

Ich bedauere es sehr, dass Sie den Eindruck hatten, Sie seien ein „Radio-Hörer 2. Klasse“. Wir nehmen alle unsere Hörerinnen und Hörer ernst und versuchen ein möglichst gutes Programm zu bieten. Ich hoffe, ich konnte Sie davon überzeugen, dass NDR 2 Ihre Musikwünsche allein aus sachlichen Erwägungen nicht erfüllt hat und würde mich sehr freuen, wenn Sie dem NDR und seinen Programmen gewogen blieben.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Lutz Marmor
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Intendant

Ich freue mich ja, dass ich eine persönliche Antwort bekommen habe. Allerdings verstehe ich trotzdem noch immer nicht, warum man nicht mal EINEN Tokio Hotel-Song spielen kann. Ich will doch nicht erreichen, dass man sie jeden Tag so spielt, wie man andere Songs rauf und runter spielt, ich möchte ja nicht die Hörer auf die gleiche Art und Weise nerven, sondern lediglich erreichen, dass man ÜBERHAUPT mal einen Song meiner Lieblingsband im Radio bringt.
Oder vielleicht einen Bericht über ihre Erfolge und nicht über Möchtegern-Skandale.
Ich habe auch nichts gegen die Black Eyed Peas, Adam Lambert, Lena, usw. Ich mag nur zum Teil deren Songs nicht bzw. habe mich inzwischen Dank der ewigen Wiederholungen daran sattgehört, zum anderen hab ich sie einfach als Beispiele für Argumente herangezogen.

Der NDR2 ist hier nur einer von vielen Sendern. Im Grunde sind sie alle gleich. (Überdurchschnittlich) Schlecht. Feige. Nichts besonderes. Verschiedene Namen für das gleiche einfältige Musikprogramm.

Man könnte darüber sinnieren, ob die Viagra-Unfall-Story nicht vielleicht sogar von der Band selbst auf Tom’s Kosten inszeniert wurde, damit man überhaupt mal in der Presse erwähnt, zu einer Zeit, in der man in Asien Erfolge einheimst, zuhause sich aber keine Sau darum schert, obwohl es eine Leistung der Band ist.
Das geht leider nicht nur Tokio Hotel so, andere Bands leiden auch darunter.

In Deutschland wird lieber gemeckert und man scheint sich nur für unwichtige Skandale zu interessieren. Wer wurde mit wem gesichtet, wer ist eventuell homosexuell und hat ein Outing nötig, wer prügelt sich mit wem … aber es wird nie darüber berichtet, was eine Band wie Tokio Hotel eigentlich leistet. Es geht nie um Musik. Und wenn, dann wird übertrieben schlecht berichtet.

Ein kleines Beispiel: Tokio Hotel mussten für die vergangene Humanoid-City-Tour größere Hallen mieten, um ihre aufwändige Bühne aufbauen zu können. Das wissen scheinbar nur Fans und die Presse bringt es nicht fertig, dies herauszufinden, denn sie berichten lieber darüber, dass Tokio Hotel die Hallen nicht vollbekommen haben und scheinbar das Karriere-Aus bevorsteht.

Natürlich machen halbvolle große Hallen einen schlechteren Eindruck als randvolle kleinere Hallen, aber wenn man den Grund für die nur halbvollen großen Hallen kennt, sieht es schon mal ganz anders aus. Nur in den Medien wird sowas nie erwähnt, der allgemeine Zuschauer bekommt dadurch nur ein schlechtes Bild von der Band.

Noch ein Beispiel für das Versagen der Presse ist Tom’s angeblichen Faustschlag in’s Gesicht eines weiblichen Fans.
Große, böse Überschriften in der BILD-Zeitung.
Beim allgemeinen BILD-Leser brennt sich das natürlich gleich in’s Hirn und so kommt es vor, dass sich manche -geht es um Tom oder Tokio Hotel- genau an das erinnern. “Ach ja, das is doch der Frauenschläger …”
Dass die Band aber extreme Stalker-Probleme hatte, kam erst nach und nach heraus.
Und ist so eine Meldung erst einmal gedruckt, kann man sie noch so oft widerrufen, es nützt nichts mehr. Solange sich diese Arbeitsweisen der deutschen Presse nicht ändern und endlich mal das zählt, worauf es eigentlich ankommt, sehe ich einfach keine Besserung …

Ebenso sieht man in neuen TV-Berichten (z.B. RTL exclusiv) weitestgehend nur altes Bild- und Videomaterial der Band, obwohl es massenhaft neues Material gibt! Ausnahmen sind Berichte über Events, bei denen neues Material nötig ist.
Sie stecken die Band also weiterhin in die Teenie-Band-Schublade und gewöhnliche Zuschauer denken dann, die Band ist noch immer nicht erwachsen, hat sich noch nicht wirklich verändert.

Die englische Presse kann durchaus böse sein, aber soweit ich weiss, erwähnt und lobt sie sogar kleine unbekannte Bands, die irgendeinen Contest gewonnen haben. Warum passiert sowas hier nicht?

Wann wacht Deutschland endlich auf und unterstützt das, worauf es stolz sein kann und müsste?

Zum Abschluss noch einen Gruß an Tokio Hotel: Jungs, gebt nicht auf und macht immer weiter. Geht Euren Weg – aber geht ihn auch. Solltet Ihr fallen, steht wieder auf und seht weiter nach vorn.
Wie sangen schon die Ärzte? “… solang die Leute reden machen sie nichts Schlimmeres …” 

Nik
Tokio Hotel International 

PS: Falls jemand einen Kommentar hinterlassen möchte, ich würde mich freuen!

We play, what WE want – or IOW: Why a song wish in a show for song wishes is not really a song wish …

The German radio station NDR2 can be heard everywhere in Germany. Even in Europe, it airs freely via the satellite ASTRA.
The NDR2 is a station regulated by public law and is therefore not a private radio station.
The station has a show for song requests (or “wishes”) called NDR2 Hitmix. This show, where you can wish for a song to be played, airs every weekday, Monday to Friday, usually between 6 and 7 pm.

Since it’s not the 1st time I’ve written to radio stations to find out why they won’t play songs of my favorite band Tokio Hotel, I thought this broadcast would be a perfect place to get one of their songs played on the radio, so that other listeners might take notice of this band – and maybe it might even help fight the teenie-band image Tokio Hotel has been trying to get rid of for some time now.

Well, wishful thinking. It didn’t work out, I failed miserably.

In the following part, I’ll tell you more about what I went through, trying to get Tokio Hotel’s current music into the radio program of NDR2.

So, I often heard the Hitmix show on the radio and finally decided to request Tokio Hotel.
Since I know the usual attitude of the common people in Germany towards Tokio Hotel, I -in the sense of what might most appeal to the common listener- decided on the English versions of the songs “Lass uns laufen” and “Sonnensystem”, which are “World behind my wall” and “Darkside of the sun”.

I didn’t want to call in, so I filled out the web form made for this broadcast on the station’s website.
I did that nearly every weekday for over 2 months; all in all, over 40 times.
And with every request, I wrote a little note as to why I wanted to hear whichever song I requested. Now and then, I altered that text to include some current things about Tokio Hotel.

Here’s an example for my song wish text:

Which fav song do you want to hear on NDR2?  World behind my wall / Darkside of the sun
This is your song wish because …

… this is a great song and also because Tokio Hotel are present far too little on the German radio.
Why always play Lena, Black Eyed Peas or Silbermond when you can also play Tokio Hotel? Variation now and then won’t hurt

At most, there is so often news about scandals like the implausible story concerning the Viagra-accident a while ago, instead of mentioning that Tokio Hotel are leading the radio charts in foreign countries (e.g. Singapore and Malaysia) or that their current album got gold status in Taiwan. They also got their 12th Comet award a few weeks ago.
I would really like it if radio stations would play more songs of Germany’s most successful export band, beside Rammstein.

It’s interesting that a lot of listeners actually do like their music … until they find out who is performing it.

Best regards to all listening Tokio Hotel fans, the whole NDR2-team, and also all other listeners

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International (internat. fanclub)

Lena, by the way, is the winner of 2010′s Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, and her song was on the radio every day, constantly.

This is what I wrote for my last tries:

Which fav song do you want to hear on NDR2?  A current Tokio Hotel song
This is your song wish because …

If you’re actually reading this at all and I wasn’t yet put into a filter: Nearly every weekday for more than 2 months I’ve sent you a Tokio Hotel song request. Today it’s the 36th try – till now, sadly, without any success.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard songs of some artists played 3 or 4 times and now I ask myself if NDR2 is yet another of those stations that boycott one of Germany’s most successful export bands (beside Rammstein).
Tokio Hotel are too little present on German radio stations. At most times, there is news about (wannabe-)scandals like the implausible story concerning the Viagra-accident a while ago, but it’s kept a secret that the band receives awards for their current album in foreign countries and that they are leading the radio charts in South America and Asia.
Maybe out of embarrassment because it’s not like this in their home country?

No, rather, Lena’s songs are played, an artist who’s newsworthy since only a few weeks ago, and can’t look back on 5 years of (woldwide) success. Along with other artists (e.g. Black Eyed Peas), her music isn’t better than Tokio Hotel’s music.

It’s odd enough that a lot of listeners like the songs of the 4 boys until they find out who’s performing it …

What do radio stations fear? That listeners will switch of their radios? Let’s be honest, that’s bullshit.

I’d really like it if radio stations would play more songs of these boys and finally start to focus on this band and their music instead of answering queries with standard replies or -as quite often- don’t reply at all.
Why not just try it – I’ll bet NDR2 will still be around in a few years

Well, here’s my song request, one of these 2 songs:

Darkside of the sun
World behind my wall

Best regards to all listening Tokio Hotel fans, the whole NDR2-team and also all other listeners

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International (internat. fanclub)

Nothing happened. I recorded the broadcast every day to be able to present my successful try to other Tokio Hotel fans.
But during all Hitmix shows, they continued airing the same songs the NDR2 plays the whole day, anyway.
Again and again the Black Eyed Peas, “our” Oslo-Lena, etc.

In a forum concerning radio stations and their schedules/programs, I was told by other listeners that the shows on the radio are just fake, anyway. Most of the time it’s all about determining which moderator/host is currently responsible, or to have pseudo-variety in their schedules. The aired music is set from the beginning. There’s a song archive with something like 200 songs which are repeated over and over. Depending on the station it’s more or less than these 200 different songs.

Well, alright.

July 20th, 2010, I was surprised to have an eMail in my inbox which came from the NDR2.
Of course, I immediately thought, something good is happening! I imagined that maybe they were finally going to react to my song requests, maybe they had even noticed that I had signed my requests as a team member of a fanclub and maybe I had provoked their curiosity …

… until I opened the eMail and read the following text (original quote, translated):

Reply: song request

Hello!

Unfortunately, we can not play your song request at NDR2 as Tokio Hotel are valued outstandingly poor in our music researches.

Therefore I also ask you to remove us from your mailing list.

Many thanks!

M. N. [Author's note: Name concealed.]
NDR2
music program management

Okay, I was speechless. Please … WHAT? I sat there and shook my head, read this eMail at least 10 more times.
How impolite. A quickly scribbled line just to tell me that my song request isn’t worth shit and that my favorite band’s music is outstandingly crappy.
The day was done and I felt like I ran into a wall that proceeded to collapse on me.

But I replied to this eMail the same day. A little snappy.

Hello!

Many thanks for your detailed and also very nice and friendly reply!

Well, now I feel like a 2nd class person, my request isn’t worth anything.
Why do you indicate the Hitmix show is a show for song requests if this doesn’t even apply?
I’ll keep my ears open about this.

As far as I know, in these music researches people are called and have to listen to about 50 songs, without them being told anything about the title or the artist. People, who regularly take part in these researches, told me that they didn’t hear a Tokio Hotel song even once.

But okay, somehow you’ll surely know how to justify this “outstandingly poor rating” of Tokio Hotel’s music.
As I already wrote, tests have shown that listeners like the band’s music as long as they aren’t told who’s performing it.
And since title and artist usually aren’t mentioned (in these researches) … ok. Pure media manipulation.

Apart from this, you’re on no mailing list. I always fill out the form on the NDR2 website by hand, I didn’t even know that this is also possible via eMail.

At least now I know that my GEZ fees are well spent. [Author's note: In Germany, everyone with a radio, tv or internet-ready PC has to pay GEZ fees to finance stations regulated by public law.]
I, in any case, will end this eMail with best regards,

Nik
Team Tokio Hotel International

Consequently -as expected- I didn’t get any reply to that.

But I didn’t want to drop this case, I wanted answers to my questions. Tokio Hotel still weren’t played on the radio.
So I waited a few weeks to see if they might still send a belated reply, but since this didn’t happen, I wrote this eMail to the headquarter’s office of the NDR, to the Broadcasting Council itself:

Dear Sir or Madam!

I hope I’ve arrived at the right place with my request.
The reason for this contact is a reply that I got from radio station NDR2.

But at first, a quick backstory:

I’ve been a fan of the band Tokio Hotel for about 4 years now, and I’m also a team member of an international fanclub. Since I’ve become a fan, I frequently try to support my favority band and make them more known. For example, on the radio.

I’ve noticed that radio stations play the band’s music only in very rare cases (beside their break-through hit “Durch den Monsun”, which was aired back then for a short time).

So I write to radio stations and try to find out why they won’t play music of one of the most successful German bands, especially now that they have a kinda new album with music that’s quite fitting for being aired on the radio, and which also is very successful abroad.
This isn’t just proven by a lot of music awards these 4 boys from the Magdeburg region have earned there – they have even achieved gold status in Taiwan for their current album, and it’s also clear by their songs leading the radio chart lists in South America and Singapore. Their music has also played in sport stadiums around the USA.

That makes me wonder why, in Germany, media only (and if at all) reports about minor wannabe-scandals, instead of successes. Why a band like this is boycotted like that in their home country.

Usually, a response on my queries is not forthcoming or I’ll get a standard reply along the lines of “If enough of our listeners want to hear songs of that band, then of course we’ll play it.”

Of course Tokio Hotel are polarizing, which is mostly based on outer appearances. Frontman Bill Kaulitz isn’t a vanilla/bog-standard/dull type at all, but whether slowpoke or eyecatcher – the music, in fact, should have priority.

So for me, that’s not a reason, especially when music of other artists is being played who polarize just as much. Just consider Mark Medlock [Author's note: German casting show winner who's openly homosexual], or a casting show winner from the US, Adam Lambert. Besides his polarizing appearance, he’s openly gay. The media suspects this to be also true about Bill Kaulitz, which virtually neutralizes the argument of polarization already.

Well, alright. The NDR2 runs a daily song request show called “NDR2 Hitmix”. It’s aired from Monday to Friday, always between 6pm and 7pm. The NDR2 invites listeners to send them eMails with song requests to the studio, to call in, or use the form on the NDR2 website.
I’ve done the latter. For a little more than 2 months, I’ve filled out the form nearly weekdaily, requesting a current Tokio Hotel song (purposely the English versions), wrote some text about my song request and then I’ve sent it – all in all about 40 times!

Not one single time was my request aired, but I’ve heard the same music that runs every day on NDR2, in some cases even more than just once a day. Some songs I’ve heard up to 5 times in 40 Hitmix shows.
Finally, I got a very short and, in my opinion, unfriendly reply from NDR2, which I here quote word for word:

Hello!

Unfortunately we can not play your song request at NDR2 as Tokio Hotel are valued outstandingly poor in our music researches.

Therefore I also ask you to remove us from your mailing list.

Many thanks!

M. N. [Author's note: Name concealed.]
NDR2
music program management

After I read that, I was fed up; this reply was like a hit in the face.

I wasn’t just told that the music of one of the most successful German export bands is outstandingly, bad but also that my request is worth nothing. I get the feeling that I’m a 2nd class listener.
Why call it a song request show and ask listeners to send in song requests, if these are worth nothing, or they will just continue to play songs that are played already by default on the regular program schedule?

An acquaintance of mine has taken part in radio music researches and often gets called for them. She told me it works like this:

You receive a call from the radio station and have to listen to around 50 songs which have to be rated. You have to say if you want to hear them on the radio or not. At the same time, neither title nor artist are revealed, so in the normal case (for the station) the interviewee won’t know who’s been played in the survey, and can only evaluate what was heard.
Tests have shown that people like the current music of Tokio Hotel as long as they don’t know who’s performing it. If these researches are carried out like my acquaintance described them, the result shouldn’t be any outstandingly poor evaluation.
My acquaintance also said that not even once did she hear a Tokio Hotel song during these researches.
Therefore, I doubt the statement of N. [Author's note: Name concealed.], among other things, especially because of this.

I also don’t understand the request to remove the NDR2 from my (non-existent) mailing list.
I’ve filled out the song request form by hand every single time, there’s no mailing list and no automation.

I don’t want to get started about the GEZ fees, even though I pay them and every station regulated by public law gets a part of it. (If the money goes to stations in the respective region where the fees are paid, that is irrelevant for now.)

What’s upsetting me is the manner of how the NDR2 has replied. Of course, I replied to above quoted eMail from the station, but until now (about 1 month later) I’ve received no answer, as expected.

In my opinion, radio stations don’t have the task just to play music, but also to promote the artists. I don’t know at what terms stations regulated by public law are bound (as opposed to private stations), but I at least thought one of these tasks is to elaborate more on what is being aired.

If I like a song that I hear on the radio, then I try to find out more about it and its artist. This indeed can lead to a purchase of their music, which isn’t just good for the music industry but also helps the artists.

Tokio Hotel have been trying to get away from their teenie-band image and to be respected as real musicians for their more than 5 years of (worldwide) success. How often has their downfall been predicted, and yet they are still around.
But why don’t they get even the smallest support from their home country? Why are songs of contest show winners from the USA played in a loop but established artists are getting ignored?

Maybe you have some answers to my questions, I would really appreciate them!
Maybe this eMail could also help you otherwise, perhaps to improve the service and kindness of the radio stations more.

Many thanks for your time, with best regards and I’d really appreciate a reply!

Nik Archer
Team Tokio Hotel International

I also didn’t want to just send a complaint; no, I tried to get answers to all my questions. Therefore, I tried to consider potential reasons for not playing Tokio Hotel myself beforehand, including the always recurring rumor about Bill’s sexual preferences. Something that technically shouldn’t be an issue to begin with.

On August 31st, 2010, I got a response (notice of arrival) in the name of the chairwoman of the NDR Broadcasting Council, Mrs. Countess Kerssenbrock, written by an employee of the office.
It said that I would get a reply as soon as possible.

I got it, same day, 6 hours later.
I have to say, the promptness of action was very professional. The eMail reply contained a PDF-file with the scan of the interim report about my complaint, singned by the chairwoman:

Your complaint via Mail from Aug. 17 2010

Dear Mr. Archer,

I confirm the arrival of your above named complaint.

In line with §7 of the NDR Broadcasting Council’s agenda I forwarded your complaint to the director of the NDR along with the request to send you a response within four weeks.

If you aren’t satisfied with this response you can contact the Broadcasting Council again who then will deal with your complaint.

With best regards,

Countess Kerssenbrock

Okay, so I’ll wait for the director’s response. I was really looking forward to this.

It arrived on September the 23rd, 2010:

Dear Mr. Archer,

I thank you for your mail sent to the headquarters’ office on Aug. 08, 2010. The chairwoman of the NDR Broadcasting Council, Countess Kerssenbrock, asked me to answer you.

You’re angry about the reply you got from NDR2, and justifiably so. This eMail certainly wasn’t meant to be impolite, but could be understood this way beyond question. The NDR2′s editorial team wants to apologize about that to you.

I really appreciate that you are trying to support a German band in a fanclub. But at the same time I ask for your understanding that this kind of dedication can’t lead to requests being particularly regarded in shows like NDR2 Hitmix.

The NDR2 tries to fulfill many expectations in this broadcast, and also to fulfill song requests that outreach the music program of other daytimes. At the same time, the NDR2 music editorial team tries to be careful that the musical spectrum in these kinds of request shows is suitable for the majority of the NDR2 listeners.

Here the editorial team indeed has to rely on regular empirical researches. Toward “Tokio Hotel”, the results are -at least due to our experiences- clear.
Their music is valued rather not positively by a majority of NDR2 listeners. This is the reason for not fulfilling your requests by the NDR2 – not because of the alleged or actual sexual preferences of singer Bill Kaulitz.

It also is no quality rating of Tokio Hotel’s music, but it’s solely the recognition that their music doesn’t meet the NDR2 listeners’ taste in most cases.

I am really sorry that you had the impression that you are a “2nd class listener”. We take all our listeners seriously and try to offer the best possible program. I hope I was able to convince you that the NDR2 didn’t fulfill your wishes because of factual considerations, and I would be really happy if you stay with the NDR2 and its programs.

With best regards,

Lutz Marmor
North German Broadcasting (NDR)
Director

I’m really happy that I got an individual answer. But I still don’t understand why they won’t play just ONE SINGLE Tokio Hotel song. I don’t demand that they play Tokio Hotel songs every day like they do with other songs up and down. I don’t want  other listeners to be annoyed in the same manner, I just want to hear ONE SONG by my favorite band on the radio.
Or maybe a report about their successes and not about wannabe-scandals.
Also I don’t have anything against the Black Eyed Peas, Adam Lambert, Lena, etc. I, on one hand, just don’t like some of their songs or rather got tired of hearing them because of all their repetitions. On the other hand, I just used them as examples for arguments.

The NDR2 is only one of many stations. Basically they all are the same. (Outstandingly) Poor. Cowardly. Nothing special.
Different names for the same silly music program.

You could muse about the Viagra accident story. Maybe it even was made up by the band itself on Tom’s costs just to get mentioned in the press/media. During a time where they reaped successes in Asia, while at home, nobody cared despite what an accomplishment it was for the band.
And not only Tokio Hotel have this problem, other bands also suffer due to this.

In Germany, everyone rather likes to complain and everyone only shows interest in unimportant scandals. Who was seen with whom, who might be homosexual and needs a coming out, who beats the crap out of whom … but never they talk about what a band like Tokio Hotel achieves. It’s never about music. And if so, they’ll report exaggerated negativity about it.

A short example: Tokio Hotel had to rent bigger venues/locations during their Humanoid-City tour to be able to install their extravagantly stage. This seems to be only known by fans, and the press/media simply is unable to figure this out. Instead, they would rather report that Tokio Hotel weren’t able to fill these venues, that they played in half-empty locations and this apparently means the end of their career as a band.

Of course, half-crowded big venues do give less impressive impressions opposed to overly crowded smaller venues. But if you know the reason for the half-crowded big venues, then it suddenly is a completely different thing, isn’t it?
But the media never mentions things like that, which is the reason why the common spectator gets a bad impression about the band.

Another example of the failure of the press is Tom’s alleged punch to the face of a female fan. Big, bad headlines in the BILD magazine burnt into the common BILD reader’s brain. So it comes that some people just remember this when they hear the names “Tom” and “Tokio Hotel”; they think “Oh right, that’s the one who hits women …”
That the band had a lot of troubles with stalkers, that information came out days after that.
You can try to take back a newspaper report as much as you want to, but if it’s already printed, it’s useless.

As long as the German press/media won’t change these practices, and as long as the things that really matter coutinue to go unrecognized, I don’t see any betterment …

In most cases, new TV reports (e.g. RTL exclusiv) only show old pictures or video footage of the band, although there are tons of new footage! Exceptions are only reports about events that require new footage. So they still put the band into the teenie-band box, which makes the common spectator think that they still haven’t grown up or haven’t really changed.

The British press can be pretty evil, but as long as I know, they mention and praise even small, unknown bands who’ve won some contest. Why doesn’t any of this happen here?

When will Germany finally wake up and support what it can, and should be, proud of?

Finally, a salute to Tokio Hotel: Guys, don’t give up and just continue with what you’re doing. Walk your way – but do it!
If you fall, stand up and look forward. As “die Ärzte” have already sang: “… as long as the people talk they do nothing worse …”

Nik
Tokio Hotel International

PS: If you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so. I would appreciate it!