NENA

Nena and the 99 Red Balloons

The band was formed by Nena (Gabrielle Kerner) and the drummer Rolf Brendel who were also a loving
couple for about 8 years.
The rest of the band featured Carlo Karges on guitar, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen on keyboards and Jürgen
Dehmel on bass.
Their first hit "Nur Geträumt" was a hit in Germany. And then came their second single ("99 Luftballons"),
which was a hit all over the world. They also recorded some of their songs in english (translated by
canadian artist Lisa Dalbello). "99 Luftballons" was named "99 Red Balloons".

They made 6 albums as a band and were quite famous in Europe.

When Nena and Rolf broke up the band also split up in 1987.

Nena (Gabrielle Susanne Kerner, Born March 24, 1960)

Nena continued her carreer as a solo artist and recorded some albums. Jürgen was working with Nena
most of the time until 1997.
Nena also appeared in the movies "Gib gas ich will spass" (Step on the gas) from 1983 and "Der
Unsichtbare" (The invisible) from 1987. While shooting the 2nd movie movie she met Benedict ("Benny")
Freytag. They had 3 children, Christopher (88-89) who died a year later, (he had heart problems), Larissa
and Sakias (twins) were born in 1990.

After the split with Benny she met drummer/producer Philip Palm with whom she had 2 sons, Samuel born
in 1995 and Simeon in 1997. When Nena is on tour Philip is the one staying home taking care of the kids.

Carlo Karges (July 31st, 1951 - January 30, 2002)

Carlo went on his own touring with some different German bands.
Back in 1975 he was playing in a band called Novalis and in 1980 with Extrabreit before joining Nena.
Later he opened a bar called Cafe Carlo in Berlin and also played in a punk band in Germany.

Carlo Karges, sadly died January 30, 2002, only 50 years old due to a liver illness that had become acute
in December 2001.

Rolf Brendel (Born June 13th, 1957)

After breaking up with Nena Rolf started dating Maria who worked with the management of the band.
Later Rolf took a year and moved to LA to go to a drumming school and then went back to Berlin to start
playing with different bands on tour.

Check Rolf's Website for more info: http://rolfbrendel.tripod.com

Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (Born March 10th, 1960)

Uwe went to NY and Japan and was also a member of a NY band called Voodoo X (with Jean Beauvoir).
The rumour says he also dated Apollonia (starring in Prince movie "Purple Rain") for a while.
When Voodoo X split he went back to Berlin.

Jürgen Dehmel (Born August 12th, 1958)

Jürgen toured with Nina Hagen for sometime and kept touring with Nena until 1997.
He was married to Nena sister, Christiane, between 85 and 87.
Nena and Jürgen produced a band the "Time Boys" back in 1986 under the name of JD and Susie K.
He also helped Nena with her solo-albums and also wrote some songs and produced soundtrack
movies in Germany.
He usually works in his own Home Studio and is officially out of the music business taking care of his
family. He has a new wife, Ilonka and a 7 year old son, Robin.

Check Jürgen's website for more info: http://jurgendehmel.tripod.com

A lot of info you will find on the following sites.
http://www.angelfire.com/band/nenaband/TheBandMenu.html
http://www.nena.de

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