Transsylvania Phoenix
| Transsylvania Phoenix | |
|---|---|
left to right: Marc Alexandru Tinț, Dzidek Marcinkiewicz, Moni Bordeianu, Costin Adam, Volker Vaessen, Nicu Covaci
bottom: Flavius Hosu, Andrei Mihnea Cerbu |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Saints |
| Origin | Timișoara, Romania |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Labels |
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| Website | formatia-phoenix |
| Members |
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| Past members | See: List of Transsylvania Phoenix band members |
Transsylvania Phoenix (also known as Phoenix in Romania) is a Romanian rock band formed in 1962 in Timișoara by guitarists Nicu Covaci and Kamocsa Béla. Guitarist Claudiu Rotaru, vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu and drummer Ioan "Pilu" Ştefanovici completed the early lineup. The group became famous in Romania in the 1970s when it started fusing their 1960s rock and roll sound with traditional folk music, thus pioneering the "ethno rock" subgenre.
After gaining popularity in Romania during the so-called British invasion in the mid-60s, Phoenix were banned from performing and recording in 1970 when, on his last concert as a group member before emigrating to the United States, vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu made derogatory remarks about Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime and its approach to western music. The group would reach legend-status amongst Romanians in 1977 when they illegally fled to West Germany, exposing themselves to risks such as being arrested by Ceauşescu's Securitate. They have been estimated to have sold over 2 million albums in Romania.
Phoenix was launched in the cosmopolitan city of Timișoara in 1962 by a pair of schoolboys: Nicu Covaci and Béla Kamocsa, under the name of Sfinţii (The Saints). In their first years, together with Florin "Moni" Bordeianu (born 1948), they performed in school contests and at local clubs, covering Western music hits from The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, etc., and they quickly became very popular amongst the youth. In 1965 the Communist authorities demanded that the band stop performing under the name The Saints, because of the religious innuendo that the name carried. Forced to comply, the band took the name Phoenix. Nicu Covaci also changed the composition of the band, around 1963, by adding Claudiu Rotaru, Ioan "Pilu" Ştefanovici (born 1946) and Günther "Spitzly" Reininger (born 1950) to the lineup.
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