Silly

Founded in 1978 in East Berlin, originally under the name Familie Silly before quickly shortening it to Silly, the band is part of the history of East German rock. Their songwriting shifted from a lighter register to a taut, melodic rock often tinged with new wave. Around singer Tamara Danz, Silly developed a distinctive identity from the early 1980s through the lyrics of Werner Karma, whose imagery and innuendoes ran up against GDR censorship, notably around Mont Klamott (1983), Zwischen unbefahrenen Gleisen, ultimately reworked as Liebeswalzer (1985), and then Bataillon d’Amour (1986) and Februar (1989). The lineup then stabilized with Ritchie Barton, Uwe Hassbecker and Jäcki Reznicek as Silly’s enduring core. After Hurensöhne (1993), the band also recorded with Gerhard Gundermann and released Paradies in 1996, shortly before Tamara Danz’s death. Silly subsequently returned to the road in stages, first with guests and later with Anna Loos on vocals for Alles rot (2010), Kopf an Kopf (2013) and Wutfänger (2016). Since the late 2010s Silly has continued performing live with new voices, including Julia Neigel and AnNa R., and released Instandbesetzt in 2021, combining new songs with reinterpretations of their repertoire.