Hammer was one of Swedens earliest Heavy Metal fanzines, and it was written in Swedish. Here you can read an interview translated to English. The pictures in the translation is not from the original article (as you can see)
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ACCEPT started as a band of young boys. All members except the backing guitarist have been there from the beginning. The old one, Jörg Fischer, was replaced a few years ago, which was when the band had to start putting everything into music, when success was within reach.
-Jörg couldn't handle it, says drummer Stefan Kaufman, he would feel tired, say: "Today I don't feel like rehearsing", etc. So he and the rest of the band went their separate ways. (He apparently hasn't done anything since then) ACCEPT got their first record deal, and thus the road to success, when they won an amateur band rock competition in Düsseldorf.
-The place was teeming with record company people and talent scouts, says Stefan.
BREAKER
The first LP was a great success in Germany and a lot was sold "on import", but on the whole the group was quite unknown internationally. The second LP also had to be exported from Germany, no companies in the rest of the world dared to invest in releasing it. But it sold well despite everything, about 30,000 copies. in the USA for example. Then came Breaker and it meant the big breakthrough internationally for ACCEPT. It was also then that Jörg could no longer keep up. Finding a new guitarist, however, became a bit tricky. Stefan says:
-The most important thing in a band is not really that you are five good musicians, the most important thing is that you are five good comrades. It took a long time to find a new one.
So you didn't think about bringing in an American musician then? There are plenty of others like that.
-No, you have to be able to speak the same language all the time and come from the same environment, have the same background, otherwise there will be problems.
Old German hero Dirk Steffens has produced the group's second and third LPs. They got to know him during the recordings of the first. However, they produced the last vinyl, Restless and Wild, without him. The collaboration with Dirk didn't really work out at the end of Breaker, namely.
-He's a nice guy to work with, but he's not the right fit as a Heavy Metal producer, explains lead guitarist Wolf Hoffman. He's a perfectionist, wanted everything to be so precise and then the live feeling was lost. So we decided to produce ourselves from then on.
FEELING
The feeling and feel of an album or a song means a lot to ACCEPT. Hoffman says that -It doesn't matter if there's a little mistake on a song, if you've got the right feeling and the right sound. The first big tour they did was in connection with Breaker, when they were the opening act for Judas Priest on their European tour. They've since done that again. Right now the group is on a tour that they're "headlining" themselves. But they don't dare go as far as the USA on their own. It costs so much to go there and to make it work you have to travel around for several months and visit LOTS of places, and ACCEPT doesn't have the money for that yet.
ACCEPT is a German group but you sing in English, why?
-Hard rock should have and needs English vocals, says Stefan. Vocals are like a fifth instrument and for it to sound good you have to sing in English. Singing in another language is like playing Heavy Metal on an untuned guitar, by the way it's not possible to sing in German, there are those who have tried...
So the name, how did you choose ACCEPT?
-It sounds good and is internationally applicable. (Ex. Acceptera-Swedish, Akzeptieren-German, Accept-English etc.) It's a direct appeal to people, it becomes like a communication between band and audience.
Hoffman and the four other Germans do not believe that HM is a fad music that will disappear, but they believe that hard rock will change. They think a lot about the changes we have had since the beginning of the 70s.
Hoffman finds it particularly positive that technology has developed so much.
We can also announce that ACCEPT is planning a Live LP, but not until after their sixth studio album.
Speaking of live, how is the group on stage? First of all, it should be said that I have never seen such a wild and violent band on stage in 10 years.
And since they are also very popular in Sweden, you can wonder why they, in Stockholm, chose to play at the Draken cinema? It is small and cramped and you can't squeeze more than 1200 people in there. Of course, the tickets were sold out in no time. They should have been able to sell 4-5 times as many tickets if they had, for example, taken Johanneshov instead.
But their manager, a 35-year-old lady in the world's shortest leather skirt and sexy, black, high-heeled boots, apparently didn't dare. The band considered this tour a promotional tour. Why they would have to come to Sweden on one of these is incomprehensible to us, they are very popular here, Restless and Wild has according to some information sold a full 20,000 copies!
VIOLENT
Well, at Draken the atmosphere was high long before the group came on stage. After a couple of minutes' delay, the five Germans threw themselves in.
Singer Udo Dietrich is about 1.65 tall, he has a face that reminds a bit of a smile of a sad chimpanzee and is wearing a camouflage uniform, kidney-kicking boots, spectacular fighting gloves and is clutching a small riding crop. He also has a short haircut and a pair of very thick glasses complete the picture, all in all he looks like a caricature of a concentration camp cadet from Dachau. The others are dressed in more traditional Heavy Metal clothing. The opening number is Fast as a Shark, and even live that song goes so fast that it almost goes black before your eyes. The rest of the repertoire is a mixture of old and new with the main emphasis on the last two albums. We initially said that it would be violent and it really was, during the second song Udo and Hoffman had gotten into a wild fight over Hoffman's guitar. A little later, bassist Peter Baltes had to accept playing half a song with Udo's leg firmly tied around his neck. Udo climbed onto the drum podium and threw himself at Peter from behind. One of the new guitarist Solon's fights turned into a full-on brawl and ended with him and Udo lying in a sprawling heap on the floor. And it continues in that style, the five Germans jumping, crashing and tumbling around on stage, all in time to their wild Heavy Metal. It looks as if they have become one with the music, their smallest (and even biggest) movement is merely a visual expression of the music, the pounding rock music. In addition, they look like they are having real fun and enjoying themselves in the midst of the chaos, they smile and laugh often. But it's like Stefan said, -Hard rock is entertainment.
It was hot in the venue even before they started and it got hotter all the time. But it was sweaty on stage, where they are many thousands of watts of spotlights. After three songs, all the ACCEPT boys looked like they had taken a long shower with their clothes on. The fact that they even stood up and managed to complete the entire gig at the enormous tempo testifies to an indomitable willpower. Impressive. The last extra number was Burning. At the end of it, Stefan set fire to his logs and played the last part of the concert with them in bright flames. As a final touch, Hoffman's (well-soaked in gasoline) guitar was also set on fire. After fiddling with it for a while, the owner threw the guitar away and the whole gang except Stefan walked out. Suddenly, ten greedy hands had snatched the guitar. A "rower" had to rush in and tear it back, which must have been hot for his fingers. The audience The hands of the sea held the part that wasn't burning. When he had placed it at a suitable distance from the front row, Hoffman reappeared with a large axe, with which he gave the guitar the final blow. And so it was over for this time.
Musically then? Yes, the guys are certainly talented musicians and there were certainly some good solos and the interaction worked excellently considering all the "showing". But ACCEPT puts good entertainment before perfectionism, according to them a concert should not be something you listen to. So you sacrifice finesse.
By the way. you don't remember if the solos were of high quality or if there were many misses, the visual impressions take over. The music was there the whole time, but that was only half the experience
They will possibly come back this fall for a bigger concert, those of you who want to see a real LIVE GROUP, don't miss that opportunity. / JH