About Palais Schaumburg

Palais Schaumburg was a new wave band from Hamburg, Germany. The style was classified as Neue Deutsche Welle, and strongly characterized by their avant-garde music and dadaistic attitude. The band was originally formed in 1980 by Holger Hiller and Thomas Fehlmann (The Orb). Percussionist F. M. Einheit (Abwärts, Einstürzende Neubauten) and the american bassplayer Chris Lunch would join the group. When Einheit and Lunch dropped out of the Band due to other projects, Ralf Hertwig (Front) would replace him on the drums/percussions and Timo Blunck (Zimmermänner) on the bassguitar. After two underground hits they signed to Phonogram and released their first LP which was produced by David Cunningham. At this point Holger Hiller and the other members had different concepts about "pop". Hiller didn't agree that all music had to be "anglo-american", so after successful touring through Germany, England and Netherlands, he went his own way and released solo from then on. The band tried to continue, had new members joining, even released material in english, but wasn't quite a success and decided to split for good in 1983. The group's name stands for the Palais Schaumburg in Bonn, the former residence of German chancellor.