Fools Garden

Fools Garden
At Blacksheep Festival 2016
At Blacksheep Festival 2016
Background information
Also known asFool's Garden (1991–2003)
OriginPforzheim, Germany
Genres
Years active1991–present
Labels
MembersPeter Freudenthaler
Volker Hinkel
Dirk Blümlein
Gabriel Holz
Thorsten Kiefer
Jan Hees
Past membersThomas Mangold
Roland Röhl
Ralf Wochele
Claus Müller
Websitefoolsgarden.de

Fools Garden (until 2003 known as Fool's Garden) is a German band formed in 1991 in the city of Pforzheim.[1] The founders of the group and the only permanent members are vocalist Peter Freudenthaler and guitarist Volker Hinkel.[2] In 1993, bassist Thomas Mangold, keyboardist Roland Röhl and drummer Ralf Wochele were invited to join Fool's Garden for recording of the first studio album Once in a Blue Moon.

The band became famous worldwide in 1995 owing to the release of their third studio album Dish of the Day and, in particular, the song "Lemon Tree", which entered numerous music charts around the world and topped five of them. However, Fool's Garden was never able to repeat the success of their only hit.[3] A series of failures to replicate the commercial success of Dish of the Day in 1997, 2000 and 2003 resulted in tension and disagreement amongst the band's members, and dramatically discredited its reputation in the eyes of record label executives.[4][5] Consequently, Mangold, Röhl, and Wochele left Fool's Garden in 2003, but a year later new musicians joined the band. To signify the change, it was decided to remove the apostrophe from the band's name on their next album, Ready for the Real Life. Due to the problems caused by the lack of a label ready to work with Fools Garden, the members of the band founded their own company Lemonade Music in 2004.[5]

Fools Garden's musical style has been characterized as pop rock, soft rock, Britpop and some other genres. Critics have noted the influence of such artists as The Beatles, Sting, and The Who.[6] The group may be classified as a one-hit wonder.

Since its formation in 1991, the band has released 9 studio albums, received 12 music awards, and played over a thousand live performances. The bands's total sales have exceeded 6 million copies.[7] Up to the present, Fools Garden continues concert activity and gives performances all over the world.[8][9][10] The band performs both in complete line-up and as a duo (Hinkel/Freudenthaler) or a trio (Hinkel/Freudenthaler/Holz).[10][11]

  1. ^ "Fools Garden landeten 1995 den Zitronenbaum-Hit" (in German). Badische Neueste Nachrichten. Archived from the original on 11 November 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  2. ^ Susanne Glas (7 May 2019). ""Fools Garden" gibt Open-Air-Konzert im Pfarrgarten in Neuhausen" (in German). Pforzheimer Zeitung. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  3. ^ Дед Звукарь (21 September 2011). "Под сенью лимонного дерева" (in Russian). Zvuki.Ru. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. ^ "Fool's Garden" (in French). Cherie FM. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Fool's Garden" (in German). laut.de. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference intercord was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Fool's Garden — Who Is Jo King?" (in German). foolsgarden.de. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  8. ^ ""Lemon Tree" wächst jetzt im "Z1"" (in German). Wochenblatt Reporter. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Maulbronner Klosterfestival mit Fools Garden und Rapalje" (in German). Maulbronn.de. 21 June 2019. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  10. ^ a b ""Lemon tree" von Fools Garden" (in German). Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  11. ^ "Lemon Tree und viel viel mehr!" (in German). Kulturvereinigung OWL. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.