In the 80s and 90s they toured from gig to gig, after which the music together was over for almost 20 years.
Nevertheless, the rockers from "The Searcher" from Forstern - now all in their early 60s - want to know again.
But Corona slowed the comeback.
Forstern - The story of “The Searcher” begins like so many other band stories in the 70s / 80s: A few friends meet in the basement at home to make music.
In 1978, drummer Günter Helfenbein, today the landlord of the Hirschbachwirt in Forstern, and guitarist Robert Erl are the driving force behind the project.
Keyboardist Günter Michalke, guitarist Peter Reiser and bassist Johann Stanner quickly join them.
The first big appearance followed in 1979 at a youth festival in Taufkirchen.
The band plays in front of around 600 people and takes third place.
"From then on it really started," says Günter Michalke.
"The Searcher": A total of more than 1000 appearances on the stages in the region
When the bassist leaves the band, Michalke's brother Erhard takes his place.
The five perform in this line-up for almost two decades, rocking the region's stages in the 80s and 90s with a total of more than 1000 performances - in dance halls and discos, at dance festivals, carnival or country youth balls.
The musicians are primarily out and about in the Erding district, from the Forsterner Wörlsaal to Hofstarring, but they also play in Munich and Lower Bavaria.
"The Searcher" makes 50 to 60 appearances per year.
"We performed every Friday and Saturday for many weeks, and during Carnival it was already six evenings in a row," recalls Michalke.
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Those were the days: the musicians of "The Searcher" with their band bus in the 80s.
© Erl, Robert / The Searcher
At the time, it was not at all easy to attract new locations.
There is no internet or cell phone, "so we just got in the car and drove through the dance halls".
The local newspaper also reports on this - and the more articles appear, the better known the band becomes.
“At some point people approached us and booked us - all the way to the Dachau area,” says Michalke.
The events are becoming more and more demanding, and the young men partly invest the fee in better equipment and expensive music systems.
Back then and even more today, the focus is on enjoying music - "a guada sound and fun", just making music together.
The end of the 90s is over, but the guys never lose sight of each other
The band did that for almost 20 years until they split up at the end of the 90s - “not because we fell out, on the contrary.
We have always been good guys.
But when you're in your mid / late 30s, you set other priorities in life. ”Besides family and work, there is no more time for rehearsals and performances.
But the band never completely loses sight of each other, all members live in Forstern or a few kilometers away.
And so a few years ago the idea was born “out of a beer mood” to get the dusty instruments out of the cellar in order to organize a revival concert for the friends after 20 years: “We just wanted to be on stage again . "
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In 1979 the local newspaper reported on the band because they had participated in a youth festival in Taufkirchen.
There “The Searcher” later took third place.
© Repro: Vroni power
Smaller appearances follow, among others at the Hirschbachwirt.
The hand-made music resonates with the audience.
"We give the generation over 40/50/60 an opportunity to meet like-minded people and relive the good old days at Rock Classics," says Michalke and admits: "We too had a taste of the stage air and the ambition, even when we were over 60 Years to inspire audiences of many age groups and, to our surprise, also the younger generation. "
Formerly modern dance music, today rock and pop classics from legendary bands
In the past, musicians mainly played what was popular back then - modern dance music.
"Today we only play what we like ourselves," says Michalke.
And these are the old rock and pop classics of legendary bands - Supertramp, Deep Purple, Santana Manfred Mann, Bon Jovi, Beatles, Eagles.
All hand-made music in the unmistakable Searcher sound, with the singing always being in the foreground.
The band has around 45 songs in its repertoire, 30 to 35 songs can usually be heard at a small concert.
The friends suffered a bitter loss in 2018 when their long-time friend and band member Peter "Elvis" Reiser - singer, guitarist and percussionist - succumbed to cancer.
"We didn't replace him, we owed him that," says Michalke.
And so “The Searcher” continues with the four of them, playing a few small gigs without a fee and at private parties.
Thanks to a new website, engagements on larger stages will follow again from 2019, for example at the Sinnflut Festival in Erding in summer.
The calendar is gradually filling up for 2020 too, including a commitment to Tollwood in Munich.
It is now planned for 2022
But then Corona comes, and so they only played two concerts in the beer garden last year - "under strict hygiene regulations and without a fee, but the main thing is to play and make people happy," says Michalke.
The organizers are not yet able to plan a binding plan for this year. But the band hopes to get some engagements in the short term due to the current easing in the second half of the year. Otherwise, the musicians are already planning for 2022, primarily for summer parties, street festivals and pub events, possibly also for private parties and smaller beer garden events. The highlight should be the appearance at the Tollwood Summer Festival in Munich.
After months of stagnation, rehearsals are now the order of the day, because between November and mid-May no band rehearsal was possible due to the contact restrictions.
Instead, each musician practiced for himself at home and rehearsed new songs.
A procedure that the band successfully established even before Corona.
Now the four of them are allowed to meet again and then rehearse the songs together - under strict hygiene requirements this is known to be possible again.
Appearance and information
The next appearance of "The Searcher" is planned for Tuesday, July 20, at 6 pm in the beer garden of the Hirschbachwirt in Forstern.
Please reservate.
Alternative date in case of bad weather: Thursday, July 22nd.
All information about the band and the current dates are available at www.the-searcher.de.
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