Farin Urlaub - Musical Career

Musical Career

When the band broke up in 1982, Urlaub, Felsenheimer and Hans Runge (Sahnie) formed Die Ärzte. He told the youth magazine BRAVO that his surname was Vetter-Marciniak to find out who really knew him and who only pretended to. When he received fan mail he would throw away, unread, letters addressed to "Jan Vetter-Marciniak". Even today his legal surname is often erroneously cited as "Vetter-Marciniak". In 1988, at the height of their popularity, Urlaub and Felsenheimer decided to split up and, after one final tour with the new bass-player, Hagen Liebing, Die Ärzte disbanded.

Urlaub then (1989) formed King Køng with, among others, drummer Uwe Hoffmann, who had been Die Ärzte's producer. Urlaub called himself "Jan" during this time, as he wanted to distance himself from his time with Die Ärzte. The group was never successful, and Urlaub declared it defunct much later (in 1999).

In 2001, Urlaub started his solo career with the album "Endlich Urlaub!" (in literal translation "Finally Holiday!", but also a pun on his pseudonym, "Urlaub" thus proclaiming "Finally Holiday!"). "Am Ende der Sonne" ("At the End of the Sun") was released in 2005, followed by Livealbum Of Death in 2006. For the next album and possibly the ones to come, he chose to publish it under the name Farin Urlaub Racing Team which is the band playing alongside him when performing live. The latest album called "Die Wahrheit übers Lügen" ("The Truth About Lying") was released on 31 October 2008.

Despite Urlaub's successful solo career, Die Ärzte continue to exist. In November 2007 their latest album, "Jazz ist anders" (in literal translation "Jazz is different") was released and was ranked #1 in the German Media Control charts for six consecutive weeks.