TANKARD - B-Day LP HRR 119, limited to 750 copies, 100 x green/ clear split vinyl + 250 x clear/ green splatter vinyl + 400 x black vinyl, 4 page lyric insert Andreas "Gerre" Geremia (Vocals) Frank Thorwarth (Bass) Andy Gutjahr (Guitar) Olaf Zissel (Drums) -Notorious Scum -Rectifier -Need Money For Beer -Ugly, Fat And Still Alive -Underground (Atmosphere: Hostile) -Voodoo Box -Sunscars -Zero Dude -New Liver Please! -Rundown Quarter -Alcoholic Nightmares SOLD OUT!

Following “Disco Destroyer” and “Kings of Beer”, “B-Day” is the third vinyl in High Roller Records’ Tankard re-release campaign. As usual, frontman Gerre is answering my questions. First of all, I wanted to know what the title of the album actually stands for. Is it “Beer Day”? “No”, says Gerre. “Of course it’s a play on words relating to D-Day. ‘B-Day’ actually stands for birthday as it was the band’s 20th anniversary back then. If I remember correctly, the idea came from our mad manager Buffo.” Today Gerre is still absolutely satisfied with how “B-Day” turned out: “I’d say ‘B-Day’ somehow marked the rebirth of Tankard. We had a new record company (AFM), a new producer and our songwriting was getting better because guitarist Andy was having more creative input. It was a very important record in the history of the band. The production by Andy Classen was phenomenal, ‘B-Day’ is an old school Thrash album with a really powerful production.” And how was the atmosphere within the band at the time? Gerre thinks back: “Very good I’d say, as our situation was slowly but surely improving again, especially on the live front. Our original plan was to mix the record somewhere else but as we were having so much fun with Andy and everything was working out fine, we just stayed with him. We are still playing ‘Rectifier’ and ‘Need Money for Beer” from ‘B-Day’ live today. I also still like ‘Sunscars’ and ‘New Liver please’ but the whole record is just fantastic. All killers, no fillers.” Tankard’s German Schlager side project Tankwart was already history by the time “B-Day” had been released. “Yes, it was”, Gerre confirms. “But I am not sure when we stopped playing ‘Sternenhimmel’ live on stage with Tankard. I need to check this.” After “Disco Destroyer”, “Kings of Beer” and “B-Day”, what’s Gerre’s general opinion on the High Roller Tankard vinyl re-release campaign? “Bloody brilliant”, he muses. “First of all, it was very important to us that those records were made available for the first time ever on vinyl! High Roller did a very good job. The packaging is great, the albums have huge booklets and the sleeves have also been slightly modified. And to top it all the records are available in three different colours. That’s just great. Being a collector myself, I do love that.” But these days, the Tankard singer is after CD’s not vinyl: “Yeah, sometime in the ‘90’s I switched from collecting vinyl to CD’s. However, I still possess quite a few rare vinyl gems although my CD collection is much more extensive. As long as there is cash in my pockets, I still go to record fairs and have become a real CD junkie over the years. I am after the limited editions though, normal CD’s in the standard jewel case don’t appeal to me anymore ...” Alright, back to the vinyl. The High Roller vinyl re-releases are even reviewed by fans like Arno Hoffmann (in Heavy!) and the mighty Götz Kühnemund (in Rock Hard). Gerre laughs: “That’s really nice, good to hear that Tankard has not been forgotten, ha, ha ...” So what’s the rarest Tankard vinyl of the early days then? Noise Records (in contrast to English companies like Neat Records or Heavy Metal Records) was not really known for having produced too many rarities on coloured vinyl and such? Gerre reflects: “I do own all our picture albums and quite a few vinyl test pressings as well. There is a flexi promo single with one song each by Tankard, Voivod and Celtic Frost. That’s supposed to be rare. If anybody out there possesses foreign pressings of Tankard albums, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail!” Matthias Mader