METAL HAMMER: No.6 Vol.2 June 1987

There had been rumours for quite some time, most of them were totally unfounded. It was said that Udo Dirkschneider and Accept had split up, had to split up, but thgere wasn’t much truth in any of that. While people were talking and guessing, Udo and Accept recorded various great albums, celebrated succesful live concerts and presented themselves as a unity that didn’t seem likely to split up.

So we were rather sceptical when we heard once again that Udo has been fired by Accept. The author of this article made another routine inquiry and rang up Accept’s manageress Gaby Hauke who told him that the rumour wasn’t true. So we forgot about the whole thing again.

Then one night the private telephone of the author rang and Gaby Hauke, seemingly excited, announced the news: Accept and Udo had split up.

Accept without Udo? Hard to imagine, but obviously a fact now. What happened? The author investigated the reasons. Here’s his story plus an exclusive interview with Udo.

I had always thought that Accept were more than just a band. There seemed to be very strong personal bonds betweenthe musicians of the band, so that they often gave the impression of beeing more a family than a formation that created hard rock. And now all that should be over?

The official announcement of the management Gaby Hauke's fax from New York, shed some light on the matter.

" Udo and the band had intended to start a solo project for for years. But they never got around to doing it until last autumn. Half of the songs for Udo's album had been written already, and he was intensively working with the band. Around that time, everybody suddenly realised that it would be a pity if the other songs that Accept had written wouldn't be released as well. And so Udo's project suddenly became an Udo/Accept project. The whole thing could only work because of the special relationship between the musicians. But a lot of open questions still reamin unanswered."

They obviously different musical ideas, that's all. Since "Balls To The Wall" it had been evident that Udo and Accept had made a different musical development. While the songwriters of the band were increasingly interested in mainstream music and wanted to document their musical and technical development with their respective compositions, Udo Dirkschneider realised that his voice was not just suitable for the demands of mainstream music. So the band and their singer had to live with a musical conflict over the last few years: a conflict between different preferences for styles and compositions on the one hand and the necessity to create a homogenous product on the other. This conflict actually resulted in impressive albums like "BTTW" and "Russian Roulette". Anyway, eventually the musical differences must have been stronger than the connecting elements and Udo Dirkschneider draw the consequences. I wanted to find out from him directly how he came to make the decision about starting a solo project. I picked up the phone and eventually got Udo himself on the line. We then arranged a meeting for an interview.