In September I played a reunion concert with my youth band Fur Balloon in the Granit Arena. Over twenty years ago, my brother and I founded our first rock band and soon had great success. For example, we played as the opening act of Uriah Heep and we also won the Austrian Music Award after only one year of our band foundation. Unfortunately, our band had a tragic setback, as our bassist Werner Grossmann died unexpectedly at the age of just twenty. I can still remember our last meeting very well and what happened that day, I still can not understand. It was just incredible and difficult to understand. It took several months, we did not know ourselves how to live life and whether if we should continue with our band. In a newspaper ad, we saw that a drummer and bassist were looking for a rock band. That’s how we got to know drummer Dominik Hofer and bassist German Schwarz. The two have heard of the tragic story of Werner and we have therefore dedicated our first album to our friend Werner and composed the song Holy Mountain for him. Our former albums and songs can be found at Fur Balloon in all online stores.
On 07.09.2019 Gerald Horvath (former singer of Fur Balloon / Composer of the song: No Exit) invited us to the Granit Arena | St. Martin in Mühlkreis to rock for a good cause. We immediately said yes and just heard that the performance should be for a young girl. Her name is Angelika and has unfortunately experienced a lot with her 19 years. In a relatively harmless accident she fell so sadly on the side window that she fell into a coma. „She understands, but can only nod. Although it shows continuous improvement, but it is a long way back to self-determined life. Therapies and medical aids, such as voice computers, can facilitate this journey. And to finance them, we will torment our instruments, „says concert organizer Harald Weihtrager, who visited Angelika at Reha-Zentrum Bad Häring. Unfortunately, I have not met Angelika personally, but I (we) will try to catch up.
Life is not fair and it often just remains the unanswered question: Why? At this point I would like to wish Angelika the very best. Hopefully there is a chance or a way to become completely healthy again. We (Fur Balloon) want to wish her parents and all her family a lot of strength during this difficult time.
I wanna take this opportunity to thank the organizers of this benefit concert. Gerald and Harald you are unique friends and I find it really impressive that you organize these great events for many years! Respect!
Gerald Horvath and Harald Weihtrager – just great guys!
The performance: It was once rehearsed in Vienna, but this was more like a class reunion, as a music rehearsal. It was both the rehearsal and the concert a personal highlight for me, because it was nice to play the old songs with my friends live again. It was an honor for me to perform with all these brilliant musicians.
Fur Balloon live in concert – 21years band anniversary
Christian Cermak, for example, is a studied church musician and plays every Sunday at the church organ in Vienna / Meidling. German Schwarz as a bassist not only known that he is the only one who can play all the instruments. But he is also an excellent sound engineer and music producer. Dominik Hofer is a drummer and basically comes from the Metal-scene. He has significantly influenced our Fur Balloon music style. He brought the beat and the heaviness into the songs. As well as Manuel, singer of the band. He has given Fur Balloon a touch of cult band through his special scream-vocals. I know that I should not speak of our own band as a cult band, but after twenty years I allow myself that.
The question: Why we called ourselves Fur Balloon at that time. Answer: At that time we had no idea, except that the name should somehow sound like Led Zeppelin. The word Fur and the fur coats were probably an unconscious expression of our animal instincts and we wanted to demonstrate the natural wildness in humans. In any case, we did not want to provoke Animal rights activists or animal rights. In 4 years there will be a Fur Balloon concert for the 25th anniversary. Maybe we will then present a new album with previously unpublished songs, which we already composed in our youth. We’ll meet Again!
It was great! Fur Balloon wishes Angelika all the best for her recovery and for her future!