UsBest

ca. 1992-1995, 2008/09

My favorite pastime in the 90ies, when we released a CD called 10 on one. Heart and soul of the Band was my brother Atti, who's not only a badass of a drummer, but also will stay in my heart as a friend 4ever. He's btw one of the most talented people I know, and he cut this video from a reunion concert we did in June 2009 (below), too (Check out the vid below and on myspace as well). With us was Ansas Strehlow (Kickhunter, 5th Avenue) on the keys and Kai Noll on vocals. On bass we had Victor Gomez from Argentina, who was later substituted by Artjom Feldtser (Maks & the Minors, Go-rillaz, Vania Sky, "My favorite Russky"), during the reunion.

Though we didn't achieve world domination with this mixture of hard rock and groovy stuff, we created some good music 2gether, played some awesome gigs (Remember Greifswald? I don't, haha!), and we had fun galore.

And beer... :o)

https://myspace.com/usbestmusic

Coming up - Richie live

(Confirmed at this point of time):

26.04.24 Chattahoochee (Johnny B Bad

19.05.24 Parkfestival, Bad Lippspringe (Paniker)

01.06.24 Chattahoochee HH (Johnny B Bad)

08.06.24 Dillingen (Paniker)

15.06.24 Bischofswerda, Stadtfest (Paniker)

21.06.24 Wernigerode, Rathausfest (Paniker)

20.07.24 Wiesmoor, Freilichtbühne (Paniker)

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 make 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, but 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