Die Ärzte in Prague club Roxy

Die Ärzte (German for “the doctors”) is a punk rock band from Berlin. Along with the Düsseldorf outfit Die Toten Hosen, Die Ärzte are among the best-known German punk rock bands. They have released 15 albums. The band consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B. and bass player Rodrigo González. All three write and sing. Die Ärzte were formed in 1982 by Jan Vetter

In 1987 the German Federal Centre for Media Harmful to Young Persons put the songs “Geschwisterliebe” (“Sibling love”, a song about incest, from the eponymous album Die Ärzte), “Claudia hat ‘nen Schäferhund” (“Claudia has a German shepherd”, about zoophilia, from Debil) and “Schlaflied” (“Lullaby”, about a monster coming and eating you after falling asleep, also from Debil) on the German List of Media Harmful to Young People (often called “the Index”).

Some tour posters were considered misogynistic and were also put on the list. They contained a drawing of a tied up and gagged woman called Gwendoline that was inspired by bondage artist John Willie and is the mascot of the band. Since then, Die Ärzte have used a skeleton version of Gwendoline in the artwork of most of their albums.

In 1998 their single “Männer sind Schweine” (Men are pigs) became their first number 1 single in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the album 13 also being number 1 in Germany and Switzerland.

In 2000 they came back with the album, Runter mit den Spendierhosen, Unsichtbarer! (“Stop feeling so generous, invisible one!” For the third single from the album they released the 30-second-song “Yoko Ono”, which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the shortest single ever released—another example of their sense of humour.

Ticket start at: 300czk at Ticketpro, 19th August 2008, Club Roxy Prague