Alphaville Albums for song lyrics and biography.

Alphaville is a German synthpop music group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd, and the band was originally named Forever Young. Frank Mertens joined the band in 1982. The band is best known for its two biggest hits, "Big in Japan" and "Forever Young", which was the theme for many high school proms in the 1980s. In 1984 Alphaville released "Big In Japan", followed by "Sounds Like A Melody" and "Forever Young", quickly followed by the album Forever Young. Despite its success Frank Mertens left the band and was replaced by Ricky Echolette in January 1985. The second album Afternoons In Utopia was followed by The Breathtaking Blue. As an alternative to individual music videos, the band enlisted nine producers, among them Godfrey Reggio, to create a film entitled Songlines based on the album's tracks. Prostitute was not released until 1994. Ricky Echolette left the band. Stark Naked and Absolutely Live was released in 2000, followed by the remix album Forever Pop. A DVD documenting two concerts performed in Salt Lake City, Utah preceded two box-sets, rather than being collections of previously released album tracks they are actually 12 unique albums, several live, several rarities and outtakes, and several newly recorded. Dreamscapes was released in 1999 and CrazyShow or Dreamscapes 9-12 in 2003. All the material in CrazyShow is newly recorded. Bernhard Lloyd did not contribute to the CrazyShow album, and shortly after its release, on March 18, 2003 he officially left the group. The current core members of Alphaville are Marian Gold, keyboard player Rainer Bloss and Briton Martin Lister. Bernhard Lloyd (as Atlantic Popes) and Marian Gold have both released solo albums. Frank Mertens is currently working with a musical project called Maelstrom.