Silly (band)

Silly
Origin	East Berlin, East Germany
Genres	Rock
Years active	1978–1996 2005–present
Labels	BMG (Amiga)
Website	www.sillyhome.de
Members	Anna Loos Uwe Hassbecker Rüdiger (Ritchie) Barton Hans-Jürgen (Jäcki) Reznicek
Past members	Tamara Danz Herbert Junck Thomas Fritzsching Mathias Schramm Michael (Mike) Schafmeier Ulrich Mann Manfred Kusno

Silly is a German rock band. Founded in East Germany in 1978, Silly was one of the country's most popular music acts, and was well known for its charismatic lead singer Tamara Danz. Her death in 1996 ended the band's recording career after 18 years. In 2005 the surviving members began to perform as Silly again, first with several guest singers, before choosing actress Anna Loos to replace Danz. The first album with the new line-up, Alles Rot, became the band's most successful to date, reaching number 3 on the German charts in 2010.

The band was founded in East Berlin in 1978 as Familie Silly (The Silly Family) by guitarist Thomas Fritzsching and bassist Mathias Schramm, evolving from Fritzsching's previous band Phönix. They added Familie to the band's name after East German authorities refused to allow Silly by itself, as they saw it as an anglicism; the band claimed that Silly was the name of their mascot, a cat, who behaved in a silly manner.

The early band also consisted of keyboardists Ulrich Mann and Manfred Kusno and drummer Mike Schafmeier. They recruited singer Tamara Danz, the daughter of a diplomat who had previously studied linguistics; she had previously worked as a singer in both the Oktoberklub, a politically charged vocal group, and the Horst-Krüger-Band, a popular progressive rock ensemble.

Silly's first notable concert appearances outside East Germany were in Romania, where the band gained a strong following; it helped that Fritzsching and Danz could speak Romanian fluently. They participated in several music festivals, and in 1981 won the Lyra in Bratislava, the communist bloc's best-known music prize (akin to the Sanremo Music Festival). The band was also allowed to perform in Norway.

Unusually, the band's first, self-titled album was released first in West Germany in 1981, where it sold moderately well; this was due in part to the enthusiasm of West German record promoters (including photographer Jim Rakete) for the band, in contrast to the East German state record label Amiga's reluctance to produce an album.

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