Spring 1991, Leipzig. Three friends come together with the idea of forming a band. For the moment they just meet to make a lot of noise and call it rehearsal.No beginning is an easy one. So it wasn’t for them either. It was J U Age, who had already written a few lyrics by then, who started composing the first songs. Although he worked at a synthesizer the sound of the band was guitar oriented from the beginning on. The style was clear. It should be Rock - Gothic Rock with its roots in the 80’ies. Erik Wolf became the guitar player of the band and Thomas Böttcher took over the keyboard parts. Soon after, Christiane completed the line-up at the bass guitar.
The first two songs "It Comes the Night" and "Behind Walls" (recorded at the rehearsal room) gained them immediate success at a band competition. Now they had to play live at a festival and it was time to invent an appropriate band name. That was not so easy and nearly led into the first serious band crisis. At a last instant the band was notified under the name AGE OF HEAVEN. In the meantime more songs were written and thus the challenge started to play the whole live set with own songs. The show was a great success and inspired the band to continue its way.
More local shows followed. October 19, 1991 AOH supported The Invincible Spirit at the first Moonchild Festival at Leipzig’s Eiskeller and played in front of a full house. Interesting remark: This was the first main event of the Moonchild Agency, the guys who later on founded the world known Wave-Gotik-Treffen.After a few concerts with Mirco Schulze on bass guitar Christian Schierwagen joined the band. He was with the band when AOH recorded their first "real" demo-tape.
At the beginning of 1992 the first demo-tape "Heaven's Tears" was finished. It included 12 tracks and sold very well in the band’s environment.
Whitsun 1992 a phenomenon started, the first Wave-Gotik-Treffen took place at Leipzig. Inspired by the idea to create an occasion where like-minded people can meet, two enthusiasts of Leipzig’s Gothic scene decided to found a new institution. An annual meeting of Gothic people at Cologne in front of the Cathedral did already exist at that time. But it was just a lose get together of those strange looking people with their black dresses and backcombed hair. The first WGT with concerts on two days as well as camping and party lawn alongside gave that idea a new setting. At that time nobody would have imagined that the WGT would survive for so long and grow up to today’s dimensions.
AGE OF HEAVEN were the opener of the first WGT. The show was an impressive success at an overcrowded hall in front of an outstanding audience.Now various fanzines and music magazines got interested in AOH. The band also came into contact with independent record labels. Further live shows followed.New songs were written and another demo-tape was in preparation. But the actual goal by then was to publish their first album. The recording started in winter 1992/93.
1993/94 The bass guitar remained AOH’s stepchild undergoing many personnel changes. It seemed to be difficult to find the appropriate person. But in January 1993 Torsten Sander finally joined the band. He had to learn the bass lines in the shortest time to play them in the recording studio.About March 1993 the second tape "True Faces" was released and AOH did seriously look for a record label then. They got into contact with fanzines, magazines and other music related businesses. The song "Red Roses" was to be heard on various CD compilations and by that became kind of a hymn for the band.
In addition to further live shows AOH did a live performance with the song "Armageddon" on MDR TV. Yvonne de Ray replaced Thomas Böttcher at the keyboards for that performance.In autumn 1993 AOH went back to studio to finish the recording of their debut album "Armageddon". The album was released by Dion Fortune, an independent record label known by bands like The Merry Thoughts and The Garden Of Delight. So it was an appropriate record label in that music genre and provided good distributing opportunities.
In January 1994 AOH celebrated their first record release party at Leipzig’s Moritzbastei. But the album itself was finally released in March and in April followed a festival together with Love Like Blood, Still Patient? and Dreadful Shadows (by the way DS played as support for AOH by that time). At this night AOH sold out all their available CD copies.In October 1994 AOH came together to start new recordings. A new EP album was planned including two tracks of the "Armageddon" album in new versions and new recordings of so far unreleased older songs. During the recording sessions the band members ended up in serious musical disagreements.
These problems already started while testing new song material. An already scheduled Dion Fortune festival tour was cancelled due to these difficulties. Finally the situation escalated in studio.At the end of 1994 Tom and Erik left the band. Recordings were stopped. Furthermore, Dion Fortune and AOH decided to separate for the future. This was a low point in the bands history.1995-97 In spring 1995 AOH was playing live shows again. Jens Pittler took over the guitar part as a guest musician for that tour.
The German music magazine ZILLO released another edition of their well known compilation albums and choose AOH’s song "The Providence" as its opener. This pushed the distribution numbers of the "Armageddon" album again.Step by step Torsten Sander changed from bass to guitar. In spring 1996 he played the guitar parts in the studio. By that time the label Age One Music was found with distributors in Germany and Europe. About Whitsun 1996 AOH finally released their second album "The Garden Of Love".
Yvonne de Ray became a permanent band member at the keyboards and in autumn Axel Marburg completed the line-up as bass player.From winter 1996 to spring 1997 AOH played more shows in Germany and finally ended this tour with a great performance at the annual WGT in Leipzig. After that Axel left the band.From now on it got quiet in public surrounding AOH. No further releases or concerts were planned so far. Nonetheless, new song material was growing. The song "Machinery" got published on various CD compilations as a demo version.
2001-2005 In March 2001 ageofheaven.com went online and gained international attention.In 2004 the band did start fancying the resurrection of AOH. In January 2005 first steps were taken to make that idea come true. Then in April André Thiel was found as the long searched bass player.June 3, 2005 AOH is back! The resurrection show takes place at the 10th anniversary of SAN DIEGO MUSIC at Leipzig’s Moritzbastei. Age Of Heaven since 2006 played several live-shows, including Wave-Gotik-Treffen. The band performed new songs.In 2014, Tommy Steuer (known from Arts Of Erebus) joined the band on bass guitar.
Regards
Carlmcoy
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Fixed awating moderation
Very? Very Best!