By the way : Alex and his ( former ) girlfriend ( now wife ! ) Monika married 2 weeks ago.
Here are some pictures from the wedding.

Everybody who knows me - did you really think, I would not play at such an event ? Of course I did ! First with Pierre Mensching, the owner of the musicschool Mensching at Stadthagen where Alex, Mike and me teach and André does the website ( the whole Rough Silk-gang is involved somehow ! )) and later with the legendary german countrysinger Gunter Gabriel - for those who do not know : Alex plays in his band for years now !
All in all it was a great event and I ( we ) wish both of them all the best ……….
Stay tuned !!!!!!!!

What else is new ?
Rough Silk are going to play at the "Laut gegen Abzocke" Open-Air at Kahle Wart/Hüllhorst on the 27th of June with Bands like Endstille, Dark Age, Human Paranoid, Ordan Organ,…. (see Flyer).
For more details click here: www.myspace.com/devils_warehouse

Yours, Ferdy

Hello friends,
sorry - yes, I know - we didn´t keep you updated too much .
I was very busy and touring a lot.
If you´d like to read more details please check out the news-section of my personal website :

www.ferdydoernberg.de

As I reported before I had a very bad computer-crash in my studio and lost many files of the new Rough Silk-album. So unfortunately a lot had to be re-played again.
Alex did a great job replaying the parts even though for example the rhythm-guitars or the bass-tracks were already recorded. So now we´re nearly done ( again !!!! ) and I hope to finish the recordings in the next weeks.
And then we have to look for a new deal because our old label went out of business.
I hope this will not take too long.
Sorry for the delay !
And ………by the way : Happy new year !!!!!!!!!!
I hope you had a good start.
Yours, Ferdy

Photos of Udo Talmon
Photos of Markus Nowack

We are very happy about the mainly nice resonance of our gig at the "Metal Forever Festival" in Böblingen. THANK YOU !!!. Quite particular thanks goes out to Marcello Catozzi and his two friends from Italy who came the long way to Böblingen to see us . Here you can find a italian review about the "Metal Forever Festival" written by Marcello. Also we would like to thank the other bands of the festival like Majesty, Demon,Vengeance, Evidence One, Jaded Heart, Stereopilot, Gun Barrel, etc.

Now to another topic:
We will remove all entries from our guestbook, in which other bands offend or are put into a bad light. This definitely doesn't belong into our guestbook. Furthermore, abusive entries in our direction with questionable synonyms will deleted also. Negative criticism against us is ok. Everyone has an opinion. But then, you shouldn't hide behind any strange names, however.

Ok, that's all for now.

See you,
Rough Silk

Hi friends,
Detlef "Dizzy" Kroll had to leave Rough Silk because he had to go to Norway jobwise.But thank God we found a new drummer right away. His name is Alex Wenn and we are friends since we played together in Craig Robinson´s band last year. I also produced the last CD of his band "Nocaress", who split up directly after the release. Alex also is a drum teacher. He´s a great drummer and I´m happy that he joined Rough Silk. The chemistry between the four of us is very good and we´ll play our first show on December, the 30st at the "Metal Forever"-festival at Böblingen nearby Stuttgart ( Germany ). Directly after that Alex will start recording the drums for our new album. We thank Dizzy for all his enthusiasm and wish him all the best for the future.

Yours, Ferdy

Hello everybody !!!
We will play at the Metal Forever Festival at the Sporthalle Böblingen. The following bands are confirmed:

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Balance Of Power
Majesty
Sinner
Vengeance
Circle Of Grin
Chinchilla
Jaded Heart
Evidence One
My Darkest Hate

More infos about the Metal Forever Charity Festival you can find here:

Greetings,
André

Hello friends,

now I´m back from the US-tour with Uli Jon Roth. The tour was very successful and a lot of fun !
The coolest shows - in my eyes - were the "House of Blues" in Chicago (one of the greatest clubs, I´ve ever played ! ) and the show at "B.B.King´s" in New York City directly in the heart of Manhattan on 42nd Street, where I had the honor t perform Billy Joel´s "New York state of mind" together with Bobby Rondinelli ( ex-Rainbow & Black Sabbath ), the drummer of our supportband "The Lizzards". The Lizzards are a real cool Seventies-rockband, with Mike deMeo from Riot on vocals. They are really nice people. I knew Mike before from some festivals where we had been on the same bill. He´s one of my most favorite singers in the world and also a great guy.
In New York I met Harry Connick jr, one of my favorite piano-players who was performing in the theatre next door. On the next day I did a studiojob in Queens playing on Chris Caffrey ( Savatage ) ´s new album. What I heard so far sounds killer !!!!

In Chicago Dean Zelinsky, the founder and head of Dean-Guitars visited me. He´s a very nice huy. I endorse Dean-guitars since 2002 but I never met Dean in person. It was a nice surprise for me to meet him. He built the famous ZZ-Top-FX-guitars and also the original Dimebag Darrell ( R.I.P. )-guitar ( ML ). Because Dimebag and Billy Gibbons are both to of my favorite guitarplayers, I´m very proud to play his guitars, too.
In California I met many old friends again. Charlie Waymire, the drummer of the Jeff Kollman-Band was supporting us playing with Danny Jones from San Francisco.
Mark McGee and Tommy Sisco ( ex-Vicious Rumors ) supported us in Concord with their new band "Luvplanet"..
Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson from Testament came to the Concord-show and Jeff Hannemann ( Slayer ) and Craig Robinson ( John Lee Hooker jr ) were at our Sacramento-show.

Really something spezial were the "Sky Academy"-Shows in LA, where we played more than 4 hours every night. First a part of our regular set and than we performed with many special guests like Warren de Martini ( Ratt ), Robbie Krieger ( The Doors ), David Paich ( Toto ), Graham Bonnett ( Rainbow ) Tony Franklin ( Whitesnake, Blue Murder ), Chris Poland ( ex-Megadeth ), Jeff Scott Soto, Don Dokken, Chris Impelitteri, Joe Stump, Doug Doppler, Adrian Galysh and last but definitely not least Jeff Kollman !

Especially playing with Warren, Chris, David and Graham meant a lot to me because I used to practice to Ratt-, Megadeth-, Toto- and Rainbow-albums when I was younger.
I was never that much into the Doors I have to admit, but since I got to play and rehearse "riders on the storm", "L.A. woman" and "roadhouse blues" with Robbie, who´s such a nice guy and also a great player, something had clicked in my head and now back in Hanover I just bought all the old Doors-CD´s in a second hand shop..

Unfortunately the sunny days in L.A. where overshaddowed by some very sad news :

Hilmer Staacke, the original guitarplayer of Rough Silk died on the 25th of May after a heavy episode of Asthma.
Hilmer and I went to school and had founded Rough Silk together, and after he had left the band we still were getting along very well, even though we didn´t have so much contact anymore, which is something I regret a lot now.
Because Hilmer was only 5 days older than me we always put our birthday-parties together.
At one of these events I got drunk for the first time ( ad the second last time as well ! ) in my life. At another party I kissed a girl for the first time, and so on............
Until 1995 we saw each other nearly every day because of the band but also as kids we were making movies on "Super 8" ( westerns, etc. ) together, which we forced the whole school to watch. Later we even were kind of "family", because we dated two sisters at the same time.
Misically Hilmer was an underrated guitarplayer , who had a great tone and was more into melodies than the "shredding"-thing. Besides Jeff Beck one of his favorite guitarplayers was Warren de Martini from Ratt.
As I was now playing with Warren in L.A. I thought of Hilmer and told Warren, that I had a friend who was a big fan of his playing. The next day Warren brought a poster to the show that he had signed for Hilmer. I wanted to give it to him on his birthday on the 5th of June. But 10 minutes later my cellphone rang and Ralf ( the original bassplayer of Rough Silk ) told me that Hilmer had died.
Of course I was totally shocked. Instead of playing my keyboardsolo I played Bob Dylan´s "knockin´on heaven´s door", that I dedicaded to Hilmer and the audience sang with me. 2 days after I got back I went to Hilmer´s funeral and that was really tough. People I knew had died before ( like a few month ago Peter Wells ) but nobody so close.
Hilmer and me grew up together and shared so many things.
For Rough Silk he was very importand and he definitely left his mark on the songs of the first albums. In the first years we rehearsed 6 times a week for 8 hours and all songs got worked out together in the rehearsal room. The basic ideas were always by Hilmer, Jan and myself. Hilmer´s songs ( like for example. "Don´t leave me now" und "Ups and downs" ) had a very strong seventies-touch ( way before the Seventies-revival ) and were very different from the typical riff-orientated songwriting-style of the end of the eighties.
His always present disease was one reason for him to leave the band in 1995 but also he was very shy person wo didn´t like to be in the spotlight and also hated the business-part of being a professional musician a lot.
On the very long European tour with Helloween ( 3 months ) he already had problems with asthma and allergies.
Hilmer was a very sensitive and intelligent person and after he had left the band the "innocence" was gone. Even though all the people that played in Rough Silk later were great or at least good musicians this special "us against the world"-feeling of the original lineup was gone.
Hilmer later recorded an instrumental-Solo-CD called "wild desert" ( I played keyboards on that one, too ) and he also played a solo on my "Storyteller´s Rain"-CD.
After leaving the band he worked as a sessionplayer ( for a local radiostation, for example ) and gave guitar lessons.
He married and got a now 5 years old daughter who became the main focus of the last years of his life.
Hilmer only got 38 years old but his music will survive him.
I will never forget him and from now on when ever I´ll play songs like "walls of never" on a stage somewhere out there in this strange world I will think of him.
Rest in Peace, "Halma" !
- Ferdy

P.S. : If you´d like to write something for his family, please send it to my adress ( droehnwerk@aol.com ) and I´ll give it to them.
Thank you !

Hello Friends

Unfortunately I have some very sad news :
Hilmer Staacke, the original guitarplayer of Rough Silk died yesterday.
He had asthma from birth and unfortunately didn' t survive the last episode.
I don' t know any details yet. Ralf ( ex- Rough Silk )just called me and informed me about Hilmer' s death. I'm in L.A. at the moment and ironicly play 4 shows with Hilmer's favorite guitarplayer Warren de Martini from Ratt. I'm shocked at the moment and really don't know what to write.
Hilmer, Ralph and I went to school together and founded Rough Silk. Hilmer leaves his wife and his 4 year old daughter behind.
I'll be back in Germany on Monday and write some more news then.

Take care - yours - Ferdy

The time has come …..

………to let you know that my 3rd soloalbum "…till I run out of road" will finally be released
on I.L.K./Midas Twins-Records. ( European Distribution : Just For Kicks Music )
Releasedate : May 26th , 2006
The CD contains 16 original songs. 3 of them were co-written by John Wesley Harding :

01. SQUARENECKBIRDCOASTGUARD ( instrumental )
02. LIFE´S TOO SHORT FOR LONG GOODBYES
03. SARASOTA SUNSET
04. …`TILL I RUN OUT OF ROAD
05. DEINCARNATION ( DON´T MAKE ME GO BACK )
- duet with John Wesley Harding
06. A WELLPAYED GIG
07. GRACE OF FIRE
08. DRIFTWOOD
09. IF TODAY WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF MY LIFE
10. THE ARTH
11. ME - MISSING YOU
12. THEME FROM "STORYTELLER´S RAIN"
- feat. Jeff Kollman ( instrumental )
13. LATE AT NIGHT
14. MARILYN HAYWORTH & RITA MONROE
15. WHEN WE RULED THE WORLD
16. ONE SPANISH SENORITA

Other musicians playing with me ( vocals, guitars, keyboards, slide, trumpet and other strange instruments ….. ) on the album are : André Hort ( bass ), Curt Doernberg ( drums on 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 & 14 ), Mike Terrana ( drums on 3, 5, 6, 12 & 15 / djembe on 8 ) and Gabi Palm ( didgeridoo, rubboard & rainmaker on 6, 12 & 16 ).
Also there are two guest-performances by John Wesley Harding ( duet-vocals on 5 ) and Jeff Kollman (electric rhythm & lead guitar on 12 ) on the album.
The CD is a singer/songwriter-album with no metal elements - even though there are many guitars ( mostly slide ) on the album.
But don´t worry, all you headbangers out there - the new Rough Silk-album will be heaver than ever !
Because of the new mastering the "…`till I run out of road"-album sounds way more powerful and also louder than before. So it was worth the wait !( Thanx again to Charlie Bauerfeind for all his help !!! )

Hello everybody,
it´s time for some news from the Rough Silk - headquarter :

The new Rough Silk-CD is getting in shape !
Drums, bass and rhythmguitars are recorded and we also have a title : "A NEW BIGINNING"-simple but true!

Hello y' all
I'm very proud, to be a part of a unique project :
I'll appear on the new CD by the german Thrash-Legend Destruction playing a slide-guitar-solo on an all-star-song ( "the alliance of the hellhoundz" ) featuring besides, Schmier, Mike and Marc from Destruction among others Biff Byford ( Saxon ), Paul Di' Anno ( ex-Iron Maiden ), Doro Pesch, Messiah Marcolin ( Candlemass ), Marc Osegueda ( Death Angel ), Shagrath ( Dimmu Borgir ) and.....me....!
The song is a call for tolerance and more unity in the metal-scene and in general and it's a big honor for me to be part of this in the same tune with some real icons of the heavy metal-world. Thanks for that, Schmier !!!!
By the way : The whole album will be a real masterpiece !!!!!

The festivals I played with the Axel-Rudi-Pell-Band were really great so far.
I just would like to let you now something :
"the alliance of the hellhoundz" will rise !!!!!!!!!
The shows were all cool and I met a lot of friends again. For example Geoff and Larry from Vicious Rumors, Bobby Jarzombek ( who played with Sebastian Bach this time ), Gamma Ray, Chris Caffrey and Jeff Plate from Savatage, of course Destruction and especially Ronnie James Dio, who a) still sings godlike ( ! ) every evening and is b) one of the nicest,friendliest and most intelligent people in this whole business. The Rough Silk-tour supporting Dio in 1996 will always remain in my memory as one of the greatest moments of my life as a musician.
Also I met a lot of cool new people : It was really great to hang out the whole day with Curt Beeson and Nasty Ronnie from Nasty Savage ( one of my all-time-fave-metalbands definitely )
And also really cool guys ! Curt and I are talking about working together in the near future at the moment ! ). Also cool people were Gotthard ( very friendly and "easy to work with"-band ! ), Murphy's Law, Dream Theater ( far beyond !!! ), Marc Mendoza from "Twisted Sister" and Doogie White ( the ex-Rainbow-Singer who sings for Yngwie Malmsteen now has a very black scottish sense of humor - as he and Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden started joking around we were all crying !!! ). I had met some of the Iron Maiden-guys before but this time Mike Terrana, his girlfriend Anja and I were allowed to watch their show from the side of the stage and that was unbelieveable ! All the work behind the curtain ( we saw the "making of Eddie" ! ) and the band themselves are always moving and still going for it every second - and they are not youngest guys around anymore !!! Really an intense performance !
Mike comment was : "That' s how the big boys do it !" - yes, indeed !

Well, we survived the icerain/thunderstorm at Balingen without trouble - but we had to play shorter and also we were the only band on the 2nd day with rain during our set.
My keyboards got totally wet and we had to stop - but alittle bit later we could carry on. Thanks to the great audience for still rocking out that much ! You rule !
Alright - that's it - Läätz Rockit ( who have reformed, by the way ! )
Greetings - Ferdy

METAL FOREVER FESTIVAL-picture collages auctioned at eBay for charity.

In a few days, music fans will be able to get their hands on some very special band-souvenirs at www.ebay.de - and to do something for charity as well!

From July 18 on, the organisators of the benefit event METAL FOREVER FESTIVAL FOR ASIA will offer an overall of nine collages of photographies showing each of the festival's bands live in action on this years' February 19 at the Sporthalle Böblingen. The pictures are attached to transparent PVC-plates sized 50x50 centimetres. These precious pieces are unique copies and will be signed by all according artists.

The pictures were taken by the photographers Alex Kuehr, Roland Guth and Volker Schmidt who delivered their work for free. Just as those of the festival itself, all proceeds of the auction will be transferred to a donations account set up for the victims of the Asian tsunami-catastrophe.

The first three auctions will start on Monday, July 18., with collages of DOMAIN, REBELLION and CHINCHILLA. Auctions end July 27.

Part two of the charity auction will start on Thursday, July 28, offering collector's items HOLY MOSES, BASTARDS and PRIMAL FEAR. Auctions end August 6.

Last round starts on Sunday, August 7, with picture collections of DESTRUCTION, FERDY DOERNBERG and METAL CHURCH. Auctions end August 16.

All auctions can be found at eBay Germany - Kategorie - Musik -Fanartikel - Kleinartikel - Fotos under the headline "Metal Forever Festival" and the according artist name. for example Metal Forever Festival CHINCHILLA. You can found more news and the pictures on our homepage: www.metalforeverfestival.de

Hello friends,
alright - we have played the first six Rough Silk-shows and I must say : It's really great !!!
Cool band : Great musicians and very nice guys !
And I must say : to be the only lead singer feels much better than I thought it would.
Four of the shows were great - two not so great due a strange circumstances but we made i through.
Definitely Rough Silk is on the right way - back to being a metal band !
Of course with melodic parts - but definitely metal !!!

- Ferdy

Hello guy's !!!
There are new pictures from our last gigs at the "Headbanger's Ballroom" ( Hamburg ) and the "Beatbox" ( Hanover ) in our gallery. Pictures from the gigs at the "2nd rats party in town" ( Fuhrberg ) and at the "Rocker" ( Hannover ) coming up next.

- André

Hello friends,
the bad news first:

The show on Thursday is - for us - cancelled !
Olli from the "Headbanger's Ballroom" has informed us a few hours ago, after everything was confirmed last week already, that we don't support Freedom Call on Thursday. Why ? Who knows !
Of course this sucks, especially because we left all our equipment in Mike Terrana's rehearsal room under the "Headbanger's" on Monday. Now we have to drive to Hamburg just to pick up our gear. Thanks for that !!!!!
Olli appollogized for the whole thing and has promised us that we can do the support for another "attractive" gig in near future. It's definitely not his fault.

Now the good news:
The first two shows in the new line-up were both great !
We were very happy with the audience-reactions as well as wit our own playing / feeling. Also Agent Steel and After All turned out to be very nice and cool people and also great musicians who indeed kicked major ass on stage !!!
Maybe we can do more shows together in the future. We would do that anytime, of course !!!
Alright, that's it for now.
I hope that everybody who wanted to drive to Hamburg because of us on Thursday reads this in time. If not : Sorry - it's not our fault !!!
Greetings - Ferdy

Hello friends,
it´s time for some news :
"Dizzy" is fitting very well in the band and we already have 4 shows booked.
On Friday, the 25th of March we´ll play a little "warm-up" show at the Beatbox at Herrenhausen for free. If you´re interested in witnessing the "premiere" please contact André ( webmaster@rough-silk.com ).
On Monday, the 28th of March we´ll play in Hamburg at the Headbanger´s Ballroom supporting the US-metal legend Agent Steel ( I´m looking forward to this because I was a big fan of their music in the 80ies).
On Thuesday the 31th of March we'll play again at the Headbanger's Ballroom in Hamburg supporting Freedom Call.
On Saturday the 14th of May well play a biker-meeting together with Painfreak from Hanover.

Alright, that´s it for now - happy easter & all the best
- yours, Ferdy

First of all: A happy new year !!!
I would like to thank you all for your e-mails, etc.
It's good to know that we will not have to start at zero because we have great fans like you !

We are rehearsing a lot and also have started to record the new album.

If you click here you'll find more informations about the new Rough Silk - members.

Thanks to you all !!!
Best wishes - Ferdy

"Rough Silk is dead - long live Rough Silk!"

Hello friends - well, I'm thinkin' 'bout how to begin this?
I guess, the best way is to just go for it !!!
Alright: As I'm writing this now I am the only "surviving" member of the old Rough Silk-line-up because Ralf, Nils and Herbert decided to quit the band.
The whole thing still seems a bit unclear to me but I guess the breaking point was our last show at the "metal night" at Peine even though my memories this was a cool gig actually.
All the other bands played death-metal or hardcore so I was a bit nervous before but the fans accepted us very well, sang with us and also wanted an encore.
So far…so good….
After the gig all other bandmembers left directly, which was a bit weird.
After that I didn't hear from them for a while until I suddently had Nils on my answerphone who told me with some kind of a "graveyard-voice" that we would have a bandmeeting in 2 weeks because there'd be something we'd need to talk about.
I couldn't get anyone on the phone until someday Ralf called back and told me, that he would not feel like playing "heavy metal" and wouldn't identify with the metal-fans anymore and also he was so busy at work and with his family that he had decided to leave the band. The second part I could totally understand but the"metal"-phobia was quite a surprise for me.
Even more surprising was, that Ralf told me next that Nils would also leave.
Herbert and Nils never called back and I was talking on their answering machines without anyone calling back.
The day of the "gathering" came and was over sooner than it had begun!
Herbert said that he also would quit because - unlike me - he would be an adult person now and also would be to old for the "heavy metal"- scene now.
Nils had already cut his hair and had already prepared some kind of "splitting-up-Rough Silk-contract" and just said: "please sign this!" - of course I refused to do so until we changed it into a declaration of only them quitting. Everybody signed it and afterwards they all left quickly….
The strange thing is that there were no differences or arguings before all this happened.
I can totally understand that everybody has to set his own priorities.
Also I of course knew that the "heaviest" CD - Nils for example had bought last year was the new "The Corrs" CD. Also the input that came from them (about touring, rehearsing or starting with the songwriting for the new CD) was less than zero in the last year.
And of course I wasn't happy with that. As I started pushing them (to play shows, etc.) maybe I put nail after nail into the old Rough Silk-line-up's coffin.
For me personally Rough Silk is still a very important thing and I still love - even though I'm
musically very openminded - heavy metal and I'm pround to be a part of the metal scene.
And I still like to talk to young (or old) metal fans.
So I wasn't happy with the situation of "my baby" Rough Silk becoming sort of a hobby band at all. During the production of the last CD - for example - they all only showed up when they had to play or sing themselves. They didn't show up once during the mixing, mastering or to listen to what another guy recorded.
So maybe it's good the way it is !
I just would have wished that it would have ended in a nicer way because I founded the band
together with Ralf and Herbert and we went to thick and thin together for years.
Alright, that's it now about the past - now let's look at the future:
I asked myself now if it was time to just end the chapter "Rough Silk" forever or if I should
carry on.
For me Rough Silk was always more than just the involved musicians and I couldn't imagine
to never again play songs like "Never say never", "Walls of never", "Nosferatu", Never lose again" or "Insania" live. So I decided to carry on.
The search for new members was easier than you may think because I had founded a sideband
half a year ago together with André Hort (our webmaster!) who's the bassplayer in our "Symphony"- tour-support "A.O.D." and also played on my new soloalbum, my brother Curt (ex-Rough Silk) on drums and the guitarplayer Mike Mandel (also A.O.D.) with the intention, after Rough Silk had turned more and more into a "prog-rock-band", to play real metal again.
After the first songs were written we thought: "this sounds like the heavier Rough Silk-songs!
Well, but why not?"
So I asked André and Mike (Curt had left in the meantime) if they would like to become the new "Rough Silk" and they agreed.
Now we had to look for a drummer and found Thomas Becker, a student of my good friend Mike Terrana.
Now that all the new members are under 30 I'm kind of the "band-grandpa" but, hey - you're always as young as you feel - ain't that true?
We rehearse our asses off at the moment to play as soon as often as possible and also write songs for the new CD. We now have 12 Songs and they definitely sound heavy again.
Alright, that's it for now - talk to ya soon
- best regards - Ferdy