Rudy Nielson

Rudy Nielson is a German studio musician and singer. Born in Hamburg, he started out in 1978 as a singer and guitarist in one of Germany's first punk band "Big Balls And The Great White Idiot". In 1983 he moved to Berlin, became a singer for the band Bel Ami. He worked for Cosa Rosa, Nena, Spliff and Die Ärzte, writing lyrics and composing for Alphaville and Ulla Meinecke. With Alphaville he stood on stage during their revival tour 2004. And in Nena's band Nielson is counted as a regular cast. Rudy Nielson met Marian Gold from Alphaville in 1985 and was introduced to him by Jim Rakete, who was the manager of Nena (99 red balloons). Marian started to help Rudy out with ideas, studio time etc. He introduced Rudy to Bernhard Lloyd and they all became friends. By the time of Alphaville's Prostitute in 1994 he asked Rudy to play solo guitar on Impossible Dream and with this little solo Rudy's work for the band began. Before that, Marian saw Rudy more as a singer, then he noticed Rudy's talent as guitar and keyboard player too. Since everything worked out so natural Alphaville asked Rudy to play more guitars for the album, and Rudy wrote the lyrics for Iron John together with Marian. For the Alphaville live gigs, Rudy has been a stand-in when Martin Lister or Christian Marsac were not able to play, mainly on concerts between 1993 and 2004.