Pink Cream 69

Emerging from Germany in the late 1980s, Pink Cream 69 surfed the final crest of the party-metal surge before shifting toward the more enduring European hard rock and power metal sound they would refine well into the following decades. The quartet formed in 1987 around vocalist Andi Deris, guitarist Alfred Koffler, drummer Kosta Zafiriou, and bassist Dennis Ward, delivering their self-titled debut album in 1989 through Epic. After Deris departed in 1994 to join Helloween, British vocalist David Readman took his place and first appeared on the band’s fourth studio album, Change. In 2003 the lineup expanded to five members with the addition of second guitarist Uwe Reitenauer, recruited specifically to support Alfred Koffler during his struggle with Focal Dystonia, the neurological condition that hindered his playing; Reitenauer made his recorded debut on 2007’s In10sity. A further change in personnel occurred ahead of 2013’s Ceremonial, when Kosta Zafiriou exited and new drummer Chris Schmidt joined, later performing on the 2017 release Headstrong—the group’s twelfth full-length album and first outing for Frontiers Records.