Jungle Tigers originally were founded in 1988 in Germany by musicians from Frankfurt/M. and Berlin. Martin Space Pfeffer, lead-guitar and Stefan Jungle Jack Webert, D-bass, knew each other for quite a while. They met each other at international R&R Festivals. Being friends of the rock & roll rhythms, they soon began to jam together. After a while they decided that there had to be more than just jam-sessions: They wanted to form a band!!
Jungle Jack called a drummer named Frank "Billy" Mühlbach. Billy got in touch with Christian "Kaan" Auer, singer and rhythm guitarist, who had played with him before in a band called DOWN TOWN REBELS.
"Kaan" checked out the program and musical concept of the band: Rock & Roll with a Jungle /Mambo beat, a sound that had been fascinating him scince long time ago. For that great idea of a brandnew beat, a cool name had to be born: JUNGLE TIGERS.
The band started to rehearse wild R&R Songs (like Chicken Walk from Hasil Adkins), Classics (like Train Kept a rollin from Johnny Burnette) and Jungle Songs (like Jungle Rock from Hank Mizell, or Tiger Man from Rufus Thomas).
In February 1989 the 4-men-band played their first live-gig, but the sun was not shining very long for this first Line-Up: After only 2 gigs the bands drummer Billy went separate ways regarding personal disagreements. Billy later was a founding member of a Desperate RocknRoll /Surf Band called Aloha from Hell. Nowadays he's playing in a R&R band called the Groovin' Maniacs.
Thanks to "Kaan's" and Jungle Jack's abilities to play more than one instrument, the band quickly found a solution to go on: "Kaan" changed the Rhythmguitar for the Slapbass as while as Jungle Jack changed from Slapbass to the Drums.
The new Line Up, now as a trio, soon hit the target: They soon had a small but hardcore following in the R&R scene, mostly around their hometowns Frankfurt and Berlin. Gigs in Italy, were also on the bill.
In June 1989 the Tigers went into a studio for the first time and recorded a demo, which unfortunately never came out as a release on a label these days: Several R&R and independent labels showed big interest in the recordings, but finally they were'nt offered any deals the band was totally satisfied with (finally,many years ago in 2004, these recordings had been released by On Stage Records/Spain).
On stage and musically the 3 band-members were working together perfectly, but their strong and different characters made it difficult to keep the trio going. The problems became so big, that the group finally disbanded in November 1990.
Space and Jungl Jack soon founded a Fun-Surf Combo called the SPACE HOBOS, which is nowadays a very well known Party-Band.
"Kaan" started founding and tingeling with various R&R bands such as: TOWN REBELS, ROCKIN STOMPERS, SPEED CATS, , ROCKIN BARRACUDAS and JUMPBACK - until he moved to Barcelona, Spain in 1996.
Although he moved to Spain, the contact between him and a friend named Bernd Holzapfel, singer and Rhythmguitarist from Darmstadt who played in several bands such as RAWHIDE, CRUSADERS, DOUBLE SIX and the ROCKRUNNERS never broke up.
Most of the time while visiting Barcelona, Bernd was accompained by his good old friend Stefan Pfeifer, a drummer from Essen/Germany, who played in bands such as BADLAND SLINGERS, TON UP ROCKERS, LOU CIFER & THE HELLIONS and the WILDCATS. While being in Barcelona, they always called "Kaan" for goimg out and having some boozing action around town.
Therefore it didn´t take very long, that after a good booze, the three guys had the idea to reform the JUNGLE TIGERS as a Project-Band.
They asked Carlos A. del Bosque from Valladolid/Spain, a fgoog friend in these days and lead-guitarist who played in bands such as LONELY CATS, ROLLIN MILES and ANABEL & THE ROCK-A-BELLS to join the project. Stefan and Bernd knew Carlos for quite a while.
The songs were checked out, put on a CD (one copy for each musician), and finally given to each bandmember to prepare the songs alone at home.
3 months later the JUNGLE TIGERS were re-born:
In April 2002 the band played it's first two gigs in Barcelona and in the ROCKIN RACE FESTIVAL in Malaga (sharing the stage with bands like CRAZY CAVAN (UK), TIN STARS (NL), LITTLE BOY ARNOLD & HIS WESTERN OAKIES (E) ).
Both shows were recorded by the band itself (some of the tracks you can find on the official Demo CD 2002).
From these recordings one song appeared in early 2003 on the Vinyl-EP of the german R&R DYNAMITE Magazine (included for free in the magazine): A Live version from the of the classic 20 Flight Rock by Eddie Cochran.
In November 2003, another track from this live recording session was been published: Brandnew Cadillac on the Japanese CD Compilation called "Teds & Rockers".
At the 3.ROCK & ROLL HEAVEN FESTIVAL in Calella (Barcelona)/Spain, the band shared the bill with big names like IAIN TERRY BAND (UK; ex-Matchbox, Shotgun Guitarist) and FREDDIE FINGERS LEE (UK)....!!!!!! And the Tigers really were rocking the place ..although being the 1st band of the night, many visitors agreed that the TIGERS had been the band that night.!!
Also a little local success took place in November 2002: The Live-Coverversion (also recorded in Malaga) from the classic BRANDNEW CADILLAC by Vince Taylor was played in RADIO DARMSTADT (RADAR). The reactions were very positive, so that the Radio Station decided to do a longer special interview (including more songs) with the band in September 2003: A long interview was held, various tracks have been played!! Also some recordings of the band are in the pipeline made by the homemade JUNGLE BEAT RECORDING STUDIOS at the moment, which will hopefully be released in the summer of 2005 as a Vinyl-Ep and /or a Mini-CD. Various labels have been showing their interests! And there are more Highlights coming up in 2005 soon
The new JUNGLE TIGERS line-up, mad as a project, has been a project for almost 3 years, playing live-shows without rehearsals but having lots of successful concerts in many different countries. Now it was time for some new ideas.
A new band member Pep Cabrero (Saxophone) gave the JUNGLE TIGERS a new fresh breeze. New plans were created to give the band a new touch with new hot mambo and jungle songs. Another good thing was that all band members now all live in the same country: Spain. Still 400 Km from each other, but much better than before.
Now that the band members all live in the same country, it would be easier to get together and try some new things. Unfortnately our lead-guitarist Carlos A. del Bosque, being member at the same time of other bands could not dedicate as much time as we needed to continue our ideas. We wish Carlos all the best for his Rock & Roll future.
JUNGLE TIGERS is a band founded by experienced musicians who alltogether have more than 40 years of Live-Experience on their backs, so check them out THESE BOYS ROCK & ROLL LIKE HELL..!!!
Please folks: Where ever you are, who ever you are always remember:
GIRLS, PUT ON YOUR VOODOO SKIRTS, GUYS, SLIP IN YOUR ALLIGATOR SHOES, TO ROAR WITH THE TIGERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CONTACT: [email protected]
