Dinosaurdays

German outfit Eloy have been a fairly regular choice on The Dinosaur Days over the years and have been well documented on these pages already. Frank Bornmann was the leader, founder,v ocalist and guitarist of this symphonic progressive outfit whose roots go way back to Essen in Germany in the early seventies. Taking their name from H.G.Wells' "The Time Machine", the band was initially made up of Bornmann, Manfred Wieczorke on guitar, bass and vocals, Wolfgang Stocker on bass, Erich Schriever on vocals and keyboards, and Hemut Drath on drums and they released their debut, self-titled album in 1971. The line-up changed with almost every subsequent release throughout the seventies, although Bronmann retained his spot as leader and most consistent member of this fantastic outfit, who were sometimes compared to the likes of Pink Floyd and the Alan Parsons Project. By the time this album was released, the line-up had more or less stabilized with Bornmann, Klaus-Peter Matziol on bass and vocals, Hannes Folberth on keyboards, Jim McGillivray on drums and Hannes Arkona on guitars and keyboards. This was arguably the band's best line-up and the members remained together for a while. Eloy were "put on ice" in the mid eighties after their "Metromania" album, although they did contribute the music for the soundtrack to the movie "Codename Wildgeese" in 1984. A once-off reformation in 1988 saw Bornmann once again the only remaining original member, and the album "Ra" was released that year. Bornmann kept the banda live during the nineties and released a number of fairly good albums. As far as we're aware, the latest album from this great band was 1998's "Ocean 2 - The Answer", featuring Michael Gerlach on keyboards, Matziol on bass, Bodo Schopf on drums, and, of course, Bornmann on vocals and guitars. A couple of excellently remastered compilations have also been released, and are ideal purchases for anyone wanting an introduction to the music of this internationally successful and respected German band. Eloy

ELOY
Eloy - Illuminations ' 93, taken off " Chronicles 1 ", released in 1993, but the original track was released back in 1980, off their excellent " Colours" album.This is a reworked track off one of two albums, " Chronicles 1" and " 2 " which the original members got together to record in 1993. Both albums are exceptionally well produced and played by one of Germany's premier prog bands. Eloy's history goes back to Essen, Germany, in early 1971. Taking their name from H.G.Wells' " Time Machine ", they were formed by guitarist Frank Bornmann, and their early influences were bands like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple. Their first album is actually very good, although, in retrospect, the band didn't like it, and from their second album onwards, they changed their style to that of a more symphonic prog based music, similar to Alan Parsons Project and Pink Floyd ( although Bornmann had the uncanny ability to sound like a German Ian Anderson at times!) They subsequently became one of Germany's best and most popular prog bands, selling in excess of two million albums. They split in 1984 and reformed in 1993, with Bornmann much in control of proceedings. They recently released a new album and are sounding better than ever. Eloy's albums are essential listening for anyone into solid, well played and produced progressive rock.

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Biography by Geoff Orens
One of the most popular German bands of the '70s, Eloy went through several stages in their long career, with the only constant member being guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann. Transforming from a political-themed hard rock band to a spacey progressive rock band who sounded something like a mix of Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, the group in later formations would move toward a more accesible hard rock sound with strong progressive elements.

Eloy was formed in 1969 by Frank Bornemann (guitar, harmonica, percussion), Erich Schriever (lead vocals, keyboards), Manfred Wieczorke (guitar, bass, vocals), Helmuth Draht (drums), and Wolfgang Stöcker (bass). Taking their name from that of a human race in the book Time Machine by H.G. Wells, the band released their first single, "Daybreak," in 1970 and put out their eponymous debut album the following year. Filled with conventional hard rock with political statements, the album is an anomaly in the band's catalogue. Schriever, who was responsible for the band's political lyrics, left the group after Eloy's debut, as did Draht, who was replaced by Fritz Randow.

Inside, released in 1973, consolidated the group as a full-on progressive rock-styled outfit. After the album, which fared decently, Stöcker left the band, to be replaced by Luitjen Janssen. Floating (1974) and Power and the Passion increased Eloy's reputation and success, and the latter record was recorded with second guitarist Detley Schwaar. It was also the group's first concept album. The band then broke up in 1975, with some members of the group wanting to continue to write spacey progressive rock concept albums, while others wanted a more restrained approach.

Eloy resurfaced in 1976 with Bornemann as the producer and mastermind behind the band, who featured new members Klaus-Peter Matziol (bass, vocals), Detlev Schmidtchhen (keyboards, vocals), and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums, vocals). With this lineup, Eloy became the best-selling German act of their time, with increasingly ornate concept albums such as Dawn (1976) and the spacey Ocean. 1978 saw the release of Eloy Live and 1979's Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes was the band's highest-selling record.

Schmidtchhen and Rosenthal then left the group to go solo and were replaced by Hannes Folberth and Jim McGillveray, respectively. Eloy also added guitarist Hannes Arkona. The new lineup released Colours in 1980, which saw the band start to abandon their spacey elements to pursue a more hard rock sound. 1981's Planets and 1982's Time to Turn were two parts of a science-fiction concept album that found the group's sound increasingly dominated by keyboards. The band released Performance and Metromania in 1984 and then split due to musical differences after a series of farewell concerts in England.

Eloy returned in 1988, this time as a duo featuring Bornemann and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gerlach. The first Eloy record with this lineup was Ra, which saw a return to the sound of Colours. It was followed by Destination (1992). Both records did quite well on the German charts. Several members of Eloy re-formed in 1993 to re-record older tracks for Chronicles I, followed by Chronicles II the next year. In 1994, the band recorded The Tides Return Forever, which featured the return of Klaus-Peter Matziol. 1998 saw the trio release Ocean 2: The Answer with new drummer Bodo Schopf .

Hannes Arkona
Frank Bornemann
Helmut Draht
Hannes Folberth
Klaus Peter Matziol
Fritz Randow
Jurgen Rosenthal
Detlev Schmidtchen
Erich Schriever
Manfred Wieczorke
Michael Gerlach
Jim McGillivray

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