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Monument to Chris von Rohr and his bandmates: Solothurn celebrates 45 years of rock and gives Krokus a stone of honor.
The internationally known rock band Krokus is from Solothurn. Of the current band members, Chris von Rohr and Fernando von Arb live in the city of Solothurn, Mark Kohler in Riedholz and Flavio Mezzodi, who also lived in Solothurn, in Gerlafingen. “That’s why Krokus runs everywhere under the Solothurner Rockband label,” says the city of Solothurn happily and has built a monument to the band.
The monument is a light stone with the inscription “In rock we trust – from Solothurn to the world”. It stands on the Chantierwiese near the city wall. It was inaugurated on Monday evening. The long-haired rebels of yesteryear are honored by the bourgeois city? does that fit? A monument in a park, next to a children’s playground, an aviary and statues?
“It’s a historic place, the rock is right for us. We are not in Interlaken, where there is a Polo Hofer square. Solothurn is a bit more rigid. But this is cool,” says band founder Chris von Rohr.
From Solothurn into the world
The rock band was formed in 1975. The group celebrated its greatest successes in the early 1980s, their album “Metal Rendez-vous” (with the hit Bedside Radio) was their first major milestone.
Gold and platinum awards followed in Switzerland, the USA and Canada. “With 20 albums and 15 million records sold, Krokus are the most successful Swiss rock band of all time,” the city of Solothurn explains the honor stone for the band. With their success, the band contributed to making the name of the city of Solothurn better known around the world.
Legend:
The rockers and the mayor: members of Korkus and Stefanie Ingold at the unveiling of the Ehrenstein in Solothurn.
SRF/Marco Jaggi
Band founder Chris von Rohr is happy: “It’s nice to have something like this in my home town while I’m still alive. We never forget the long way. Our best songs were created in Solothurn, that’s it».
Our best songs were created in Solothurn, that’s it.
The people are benevolent. They used to change the side of the pavement when Krokus members came, but now there are free drinks everywhere, says Chris von Rohr.
“We had to fight, that gave us muscles and ideas for songs. In a city like Zurich, you get hyped too early, we were never part of the left-wing, subsidized culture cake,” explains von Rohr. He is convinced that Krokus would not have been created in Zurich, Neuchâtel, Miami or Los Angeles.
Legend:
In rock we trust – from Solothurn to the world is written on the Ehrenstein on the Chantierwiese in Solothurn. The city honors Krokus for 45 years of rock history.
Marco Jaggi/SRF
Was it really that difficult back then? Drummer Freddy Steady says: “People wanted to get away from here and do rock’n’roll, back then it was a love-hate relationship with Solothurn, now I’m very happy here”.
We were outcasts trying to conquer the world over 40 years ago.
“I feel honored and never thought that we would receive a memorial. We were outcasts in the city when we wanted to conquer the world more than 40 years ago,” he recalls. In the beginning, hardly anyone believed in the band’s success.
Krokus – Solothurn rock all over the world
There had to be resistance
The relationship between the city and the rockers wasn’t always so divided, remembers Jürg Naegeli, bassist and Krokus producer. “We didn’t go to the pool like the others, but to the exercise room,” he says.
After a fire in the band room at the Gas-Apparate-Factory, the city of Solothurn provided the band with a bar in the basement of the music school. “We have to give them credit for that,” says Naegeli.
So are the stories about the town not wanting to cooperate with the band just made up? The rebellion was certainly part of the zeitgeist, explains Naegeli: “After the 68 years, everyone was against the establishment, without resistance it would not have worked for us either”.