Der Udonaut & Die Paniker

THE Udo-Lindenberg-Tribute thing. Musical excellence and professionalism meets the music of my youth. Beyond, I look at this band as kinda Udo Lindenberg's substitutes' bench, since our drummer Julien, as well as yours truly have been rehearsing with the original lineup to possibly step in, just in case (Check out the "What's up, Ridge?" column at the left). Our former female singer, Ina, is already touring with UL.

Stay tuned for dates on this very page, and here as well:

https://www.die-paniker.de

TOUR DATES:

22.03. 2025 - Schwetzingen

17.04. 2025 - Salzburg (Paniker akustisch)

30.07. 2025 - Dahme

01.08. 2025 - Bendorf

23.08. 2025 - Braunschweig

05.09. 2025 - Rheine

20.09. 2025 - Zwickau

The first gig - Rockin' the Downtown Blues Club/Hamburg, November 13th, 2019

The Artist formerly known as "Panikexperten"

Ship-christening MS4 in Kiel, June 5th 2015

Rockin' the Rieckhof/Hamburg, May 9th 2015

Coming up - Richie live

22.03. 2025 - Schwetzingen (Paniker)

26.03. 2025 - Kiel (WKDK, Kiel)

17.04. 2025 - Salzburg (Paniker akustisch)

Paniker: Der Udonaut und die Paniker
JBB: Johnny B. Bad
WKDK: Wer kommt der kommt

Sammy: Sammys Saloon

What's up, Ridge?

Meeting (and rehearsing with) Udo Lindenberg

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Dreams come true. Sometimes. Happened to me in May '22. No kidding', seriously!

In April '22 I got a call from Andy, a guy who turned out to be a member of the „inner circle“ of Udo Lindenberg’s tour production team. In essence: „The artist wants to meet you, Richie! And bring your guitar...“.

Wait... WHAT?!?

Fou...

So, this happened on May 1st 2022:

I drove to Timmendorfer Strand, where UL and the Panikorchester were rehearsing for the tour ’22, and met all these icons I knew from concerts and articles and the telly. I met the man himself and we rehearsed his music all day long. Mark well: Not a tribute band, I was part of the real deal!

I met a totally friendly, overwhelmingly nice guy, professionally well informed about this Richie Jones he was making music with. A man who’s absolutely reflected and aware about his attribute being a national treasure, totally committed to making everybody in the room feel comfortable and easy, including himself.

Maybe the purpose of having me at a rehearsal was to check out some plan B on guitar players against the background of the pandemic.

Since the tour took place without any virus incident (hence me not playing on this tour), you might ask: „Okay, now what’s next?!?“ Frankly, I dunno, though I keep dreaming of being part of Germany’s greatest Rock’n Roll circus. But whatever may come, hey, I’m already on the bright side of life. I played with Udo Lindenberg, he liked what he saw/heard, and nobody will ever take that away from me.

Surely, a dream came true…

Hamburg, May 2022