Biography

Early years (1968–1982)
Accept’s beginnings can be traced back to 1968 when Udo Dirkschneider and Michael Wagener formed a local band called Band X, which eventually changed its name to Accept.

For many years, Accept went through numerous line-up changes. This instability essentially kept the band on an amateur level, making sporadic appearances in festival concerts.

Accept’s professional career began in 1976, with Udo Dirkschneider, Wolf Hoffmann, Gerhard Wahl, Dieter Rubach and Frank Friedrich, when they were invited to play at one of the first rock and roll festivals in Germany — Rock am Rhein.

Following the festival the band were offered a recording deal. Their first recording was the self-titled Accept album, which did not achieve much commercial success.

The first stable line-up of Accept was composed of vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, guitarists Wolf Hoffmann and Gerhard Wahl, bassist Peter Baltes and drummer Frank Friedrich. Friedrich and Wahl quit the band after the release of Accept and were replaced by Stefan Kaufmann and Jörg Fischer.

This line-up recorded I’m a Rebel in 1980. The title track originally was written for AC/DC and recorded by the band but never released by them. The album brought some media attention, the band being invited to make a televised appearance.

In 1981, their next album, Breaker, was released, and the band employed manager Gaby Hauke. Accept also joined Judas Priest’s World Wide Blitz Tour and obtained attention outside of Europe for the first time.

Restless and Wild was released in 1982, although Jörg Fischer quit the band a short time before the recording took place. Jan Koemmet was hired as guitarist, but departed from the band before the recording of the album.

Restless and Wild saw an evolution in the band’s sound, which incorporated characteristics defining the genre later dubbed speed metal. Gaby Hauke was credited as “Deaffy” on two of the tracks.

Departures of Herman Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann, and upcoming fifteenth studio (2014–present)
On December 28, 2014, guitarist Herman Frank announced that he has left Accept again.Later that day, Accept announced that drummer Stefan Schwarzmann also left the band.

On April 12, Accept announced new guitarist and drummer, respectively Uwe Lulis and Christopher Williams.

On June 5, 2015, prior to the band’s performance at the South Park festival in Tampere, Finland, bassist Peter Baltes told Kaaos TV that Accept planned to begin work on a new album after the conclusion of the Blind Rage tour.

Asked in a July 2015 interview about the band’s future, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann replied, “We will continue for a few more weeks, this run of touring, and then we’ll take a little break and come back in the fall, but we’re pretty much wrapping up the Blind Rage tour at this point; it’s the very last phase of this whole cycle.

And then the next album will have to be written and to be recorded, and how long that’s gonna take and when that’s all gonna happen, who knows? But it’ll happen; that’s all I know.” Hoffmann has stated that the new album will be released around July or August 2017. Like their previous three albums, the album is being produced by Andy Sneap, making it Accept’s fourth collaboration with him.

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