Youth
Up to the age of seven, Vetter lived with his mother in a flat in the Moabit district of Berlin, and in Frohnau up to the age of 18. His parents were low-paid civil servants, and he has a younger half-sister named Julia. His mother often played records by The Beatles, and he was introduced to music at a young age.
At the age of nine he decided to take guitar lessons with an elderly woman who taught him classical standards. He played guitar while visiting holiday camps. Ironically in hindsight, his later music teacher advised him: "Whatever you do when you grow up, don't do anything with music!". At the age of 16, Vetter went on a school trip to London, and returned home as a punk with dyed blonde hair.
In 1980 he met Dirk Felsenheimer (later known as Bela B.) at the club Ballhaus Spandau, one of the few clubs in West-Berlin that occasionally played Punk Rock, and joined his band Soilent Grün, replacing the previous guitar player whose guitar had been stolen. When the time came to make up stage names, Vetter decided to refer to his favourite hobby of travelling, contracting the phrase "Fahr in Urlaub" ("Go on holiday") to Farin Urlaub. After completing his Abitur (school-leaving exams, equivalent of A-levels) in 1981, he enrolled in archaeology at the Free University of Berlin, but soon gave up studying to focus on his musical career.
Read more about this topic: Farin Urlaub
Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“We have all heard of Young America. He is the most current youth of the age.
Some think him conceited, and arrogant; but has he not reason to entertain a rather extensive opinion of himself? Is he not the inventor and owner of the present, and sole hope of the future?”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.”
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)
“If youth but knew; if age but could.
Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)