Deep in the Heart of Bavaria
by Robert Edler

We are eight musicians of a group called Souls On Fire, a Southside Johnny tribute band based in Bavaria, Southern Germany.

Klaus asked us to put something together what you call a biography and we hope you don't mind us starting with a flashback to the late 70s and early 80s:

That's when I started rehearsing on my electric guitar, learning some chords and being focused on handmade music. In those days me and my friends would spend the whole night in front of the telly, enjoying the legendary "Rockpalast" shows from the Grugahalle in Essen, downing some beers and holding an old tape machine to the little speaker of the tv set, recording the tunes of our heroes. I'm thinking of groups such as J. Geils Band, Little Feat (Lowell George was just wonderful!), Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Nils Lofgren, The Who, Climax Blues Band and Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.

And finally we saw him, this devil-on-stage Southside Johnny who was fuelled by a brass section that knocked us off our chairs. Never before had we seen someone like LaBamba Rosenberg on trombone, a genius and simply un-be-liev-able! And wasn't it Billy Rush whose guitar solo on "Fever" sent cold shivers down my spine?

I must confess that somehow I forgot about Mr. Johnny Lyon in the following years. But memories come back once in a while and so did Southside Johnny in the early 90s when promoting his album "Better Days" and playing that club in Munich. These days I was busy with my cover band Safer Sax, trying to get in
tune with a three men brass section, mixing Blues Brothers stuff with Leningrad Cowboys and filtering our own brand out of James Brown, Tower Of Power and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Needless to say that all of us turned up to see Southside Johnny that night. The lights went off, a decent drum-roll became bigger and louder and eventually led into the opener "Better Days." Its power and energy left us speechless! We simply had to make it to the first row of that venue, witnessing Southside
Johnny's attempt to kick our vocalist's cup of beer off stage and jealously watching Bobby Bandiera's effect on the beautiful girls around us. What a comeback! Resulting in this Safer Sax completely rearranged their set and started to work on Southside Johnny numbers.

That went on for about ten years until our singer decided to do something different in R'n'R business and started to run his own little brewery. Also the rest of the band felt it was time to put the musical career on hold for the sake of job and family. We wouldn't play a single note in the following months. At the end of the year 2002, we received an invitation by our former trumpet player. "Talk to me until the night is over" was chosen as a motto when we played Southside Johnny records only and all night long. Some hours and two bottles of whisky later we knew what we had to do, put together a Southside Johnny tribute band! Six former members of Safer Sax joined in immediately, two more musicians were found within days. And that's just how Souls On Fire got started.

Thinking of Southside Johnny, I also get to deal with names such as Little Steven, Bobby Bandiera and of course Bruce Springsteen. And seeing the boss or listening to his music reminds me of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Isn't it one big family in the end? This family feeling easily transfers to the gigs of Souls on Fire, uniting long term supporters of the Asbury sound with younger followers. Bringing Asbury Park to Bavaria is our little tribute to Southside Johnny as we feel that his music has to be kept alive and is worth being played.

Sure it's a dream to meet the Jukes personally or support them live, you never know! But what we do know for sure is that we would like to welcome you guys out there at one of our shows or on our web page www.souls-on-fire.de feel free to drop us a few words in our guest book.

And in the name of Souls On Fire, deep from the heart of Bavaria, keep the fire burning!

Robert Edler, Erwin Fraunhofer, Robert Oberacher, Wolle Fent, Christoph Kraushaar, Bernd Obst, Rudi Spann, Paul Golling