Band

Rüdiger Blömer

Born: November 15th, 1960

“The Scholar” – Keyboards and Violin
Writes musical scores as fast as the rest of humanity writes grocery lists. And that’s not surprising, because he’s got a university degree in this stuff – not only in music theory and composing, but also in playing violin and keyboards (at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, department of Aachen). He now also teaches all this and gets awarded composer’s prizes for his orchestral works now and then. He’s also a trained mixing engineer and therefore an excellent sound magician. Due to this entire formal education, he sometimes floats around in spheres into which no one can follow. But he always brings back nice souvenirs from these trips.

Roger Weitz

Born: July 10th, 1951

The Silent One – Bass (until October 2025)
As a typical bass player, he’s the silent rock of the band, who likes to play things down – especially his own achievements. So he doesn’t make a fuss about the fact that he’s also an excellent keyboard and mandolin player, even having won competitions on the latter instrument as a youngster. However, because of his modesty, he sometimes forgets to mention even the most sensational things – for example that one of his ancestors composed “Silent Night, Holy Night”.* Can also paint splendidly. But hardly anyone knows that either. Maybe not even the rest of the band. Pragmatist. When everyone was impressed by the sensational look of his then new five-string, he only said: “Ah well, the low string sounded the loudest on that one.”

*Note from Roger: “Please change the ‘Silent Night’ passage to ‘is supposed to have composed…’. It’s just a story that is told in the family, but which ultimately can no longer be proven. Otherwise this seems too loud-mouthed.”

Dietmar Berteld

Born: September 9th, 1959

The Memory Maestro – Bass (since October 2025)
Blessed not only with bass-playing dexterity comparable to Roger’s, but also with an incredible memory—especially when it comes to song structures and arrangements. When he had to step in for Roger on short notice after only four weeks of preparation and just two rehearsals, singer Michael Dorp happened to glance at Dietmar’s tablet during the intermission, expecting to see lead sheets or sheet music. Instead, he saw only a black screen — because Dietmar played the entire two-hour concert completely from memory.

Ande Roderigo

Born: March 31st, 1963

The Self-Taught Guy – Drums and Vocals
Rüdiger’s opposite. Simply started banging on things as a kid and didn’t stop until he was a really virtuoso drummer. On the way there, he took part in a wide variety of projects: Whether it’s an indie band from Cologne, a music comedy spectacle (called “St. Punk”) or a Beatles tribute band (“Hard Day’s Night”, still active): Ande has done it all – and gladly. Approaches everything with a lot of fun and enthusiasm and also chose the autodidactic approach for singing – also with success: Sang the title song for a national TV sports show in the 90s and is part of the permanent singer ensemble of the German equivalent of the TV show “Dancing with the Stars”.

Michael Rick

Born: November 26th, 1969

The Sound Tinkerer – Guitar
Played until his fingers bled right at our first gig and thus involuntarily styled his guitar with blood spatter into an authentic Heavy Metal instrument. Today he tinkers with his instruments and amplifiers in a more targeted manner and is extremely well versed with effect pedals, pickups, phase shifts, electrical resistance and other topics that only guitarists are interested in. With this knowledge, however, he also produces a wonderful tone on the electric guitar, which he claims comes from his fingers. Might be true. Because he also sounds unmistakably like Michael Rick on the acoustic guitar.

Michael Dorp

Born: November 16th, 1968

“The Poet” – Vocals
Studied “theatre, film and television studies” as well as English and German at the University of Cologne and is something like Rüdiger’s counterpart in the field of song lyrics and concept development (wrote the story for the concept album “Starlight Clearing”, had the idea for “1968” etc.). Otherwise simply a rock shouter in the face of the Lord, often compared to Robert Plant. But if you would like to do him a favour, you better compare his voice to Steve Marriott’s. In contrast to Ande, he is only allowed to sing on “Dancing with the Stars” from time to time because his voice is too rocky for the responsible editors. Or too distinctive. Or both. And that’s about right – both.