BAND & MEMBERS

KARTHAGO IS BACK!

The legendary Berlin-based band Karthago is back! For the first time in two decades, the Rock group put together by the genius guitarist and vocalist Joey Albrecht just started touring again.

Originally founded in 1971, artists like Santana, Van Morrison, Traffic, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and of course the Beatles inspired Karthago. The outcome was a unique mixture of Rock, Funk-Rock, Blues and Latin music. The huge success the band enjoyed back then had to do with the very energetic live performances in combination with the professionalism delivered on stage as well as in the studio by all participants.

Joey Albrecht's masterful guitar playing abilities, and his charismatic, bluesy voice combined with Ingo Bischof's creative and innovative keyboard play, the power Tommy Goldschmidt delivered on his percussion instruments and the great input by all other band members made crowds cheer. The press and fellow musicians were fascinated as well. A quote by "Kraan" member Helmut Hattler: "Every single Karthago member created a brilliance level of his own".

Within a short time period, Karthago developed into one of the most famous Rock acts in Germany, filling concert halls all over the country as well as in neighbouring countries. Even in France, the "Extra" magazine voted the first Karthago record "album of the month". The French label in charge released two singles of hits featured on that album. Karthago also gigged in Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

In 1972, Karthago was part of the Germersheimer Festival, where they shared the stage with bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Family and Santana. AFN aired that festival live. A year later, the group stunned an audience of far more than 100,000 at the "German Rock Super Concert" in Frankfurt.

The readers of music magazines like "Pop", "Musikexpress" and "Sounds" placed Karthago on their favourites lists in polls all the time. This also applied to the band members Joey Albrecht, Ingo Bischof and Tommy Goldschmidt. British magazines such as "Sounds London" and "New Musical Express" accurately called Karthago "the best German Rock band of the 1970s". In 1975, Karthago split up. In 1976, they met one more time for a last tour. 

It would take 27 years until the legend was revived. In 2003, Joey called Ingo and Tommy to get the band back on the road. Two excellent new musicians are now part of Karthago: Drummer Rolo Rodriguez and bass hero Chris Rodriguez.