(Photo by Mika Baumeister) Erhan Kurkun, a former member of Praga Khan and guitarist for Lords of Acid, will face trial in a Belgian court in September over a MeToo case. He is accused of sexual assault, rape, and inhumane treatment. Four women have come forward in the case Nancy Swerts of the Leuven prosecutor’s office confirms.

It’s uncertain if Kurkun will play on Lords of Acid’s forthcoming 53 concerts in the USA this autumn.

For years, there have been rumours about Erhan Kurkun’s violent behaviour, often alleged to be due to alcohol and drugs. In late 2020, a former singer from Lords of Acid claimed he had assaulted her. She alleges that Kurkun, with whom she had a brief relationship, had mutilated her. A total of four female victims have come forward. Another woman who joined the lawsuit had previously worked with Kurkun.

Erhan Kurkun was Praga Khan’s primary guitarist. After being released from custody, he played during Praga Khan’s final live show, The End, in Brussels.

A few months back, Deborah Ostrega, former lead singer, spoke on the radio about her time with the band in the late ’90s. She mentioned selecting men from the crowd to join her on stage and possibly be invited to her hotel room afterwards. Ostrega acknowledged the era’s difference, suggesting such actions today might lead to MeToo allegations.

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As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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Lots of Rammstein news these days. According to the Hamburg court, the news magazine Der Spiegel was not allowed to spread the claim that Rammstein singer Till Lindemann systematically drugged women with the intention of having sex with them.

However, the German rock group, which responded with a strong statement on Thursday, did not entirely win on all fronts.

It all started with accusations from a 24-year-old woman from Northern Ireland against 60-year-old Lindemann, whom she held responsible for her confused state after a Rammstein concert in Lithuania. She also claimed that he angrily left after she refused to have sex with him. Following that report, Der Spiegel published similar stories from several young women who claimed to have been personally approached by a band employee.

Lindemann denied the allegations and launched a counterattack through his lawyers. The court ruled that Der Spiegel’s reporting did not provide sufficient evidence. However, there is a significant caveat to that judgment. Essentially, the magazine was not allowed to state that Lindemann or his team drugged women with the intention of having sex with them. But it would have been permitted to suggest that Lindemann engaged in sexual contact with women who were not entirely lucid and that Lindemann was aware of this.

Full-blown attack through statement from their lawyer

It is a fine line, making the court’s ruling no easy matter. Meanwhile, the metal band has chosen to launch a full-blown attack through a statement from their lawyer on Instagram. “The judgment of the Hamburg court is an example of recent, completely out-of-control reporting of suspicions related to the ‘MeToo’ topic,” the statement reads.

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The lawyer accuses Der Spiegel of sensationalism. “Knowing that reporting on this topic leads to high sales and viewership figures, the media increasingly disregards the requirements set by jurisprudence for reporting suspicions. Time and again, serious accusations are reported, even though only one-sided statements are available and no criminal investigations have been initiated or are underway. This leads to massive prejudice and goes against the principle of presumption of innocence as established by the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Rammstein and Lindemann aim to quash the reporting. “If the prohibited suspicions raised by Der Spiegel are also voiced by other media outlets, we will take legal action against them as well.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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The German band Rammstein has responded to new allegations of misconduct against lead singer Till Lindemann and the band on Instagram. The band states that they condemn all forms of violence.

“The publications of recent days have caused irritation and questions among the public and especially among our fans,” writes the band. “The allegations have hit us all very hard and we take them extremely seriously. We say to our fans: it is important to us that you feel comfortable and safe at our shows, both on and off stage.” The band condemns “all forms of violence,” writes Rammstein.

They also ask not to judge the people who have made the allegations. “They have the right to their opinion. But we, the band, also have a right, namely not to be judged.”

After a concert in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, a Northern Irish woman accused Lindemann of having drugged her. The band denies this, and a drug test carried out by Lithuanian authorities was negative. Meanwhile, more women are accusing the singer of abuse of power, violence, and sexual misconduct.

At least two women are reported to have had sex against their will with Lindemann, according to NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung based on conversations with dozens of people involved. “Rammstein regularly recruited young women, so Lindemann could have sex with them,” says NDR. A ‘sophisticated system’ was designed to lure female fans into meeting their great idol. With the aid of alcohol and drugs, Lindemann then imposed himself on the women, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s investigation. Lindemann has not yet responded to all allegations.

Prospective women were scouted by the entourage – prior to the Rammstein shows – and placed in ‘Row zero’ at performances. This is close to the stage, allowing fans to disappear backstage immediately after the show. This includes 23-year-old Cynthia A., who attended a concert in Hanover in 2019. “I resisted the sex,” she claims. In a hotel, another young woman is said to have had sexual intercourse against her will and to the point of bleeding with Lindemann. The female fans were lured with work or money promises. But little came of those promises so NDR says.

German publisher KiWi ends collaboration with Lindemann

It is unclear whether German fans will actually see the band. Rammstein’s management has not yet responded to questions from German media. The German publisher KiWi (Kiepenheuer & Witsch) did not wait and ended the collaboration with Lindemann on Friday afternoon.

Cologne-based publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch (KiWi) claims to have become aware of a music video that Lindemann released in 2020 in the form of a pornographic film. A bit strange they use that as a reason since this video (and another one) was widely commented back when it was released.

The clip, which shows the singer engaged in sexual activities with several young women, was the last straw for the publisher. After publishing two volumes of poetry with Lindemann, the collaboration has now ended.

The publisher also made this decision public on its social media channels. On Instagram, KiWi’s post divides users – while some praise the publisher for this move, others criticise it and accuse the publisher’s management of pre-judging the singer and poet.

Back in 2020, there was criticism of Kiepenheuer & Witsch after they published Lindemann’s poetry collection “100 Poems”. This includes a poem in which the lyrical I tells of the rape of a sleeping person. Many people therefore feel the publisher’s decision is coming too late – especially since the mentioned pornographic film was also circulating on the internet three years ago.

“First turn a blind eye when women are treated as objects and make good money from it. But now express ignorance and outrage,” one user accuses the publisher. “For a long time you have benefited greatly from a man who glorifies rape under the influence of date-rape drugs in his literature. Didn’t that give you pause?” another commentator agrees.

The implications for Lindemann’s solo tour – which was due to visit our country on 10 December are still unclear.

Who is Rammstein’s Till Lindemann ?

Till Lindemann was born in Leipzig (Germany) on January 4th, 1963. He grew up in Wendisch Rambow in the DDR with his parents and his sister, who was six years his junior. At the age of eleven, Lindemann attended sports education at the Rostock Sports Club. He didn’t get along with his father, Werner Lindemann who was a well-known children’s book author in the GDR, and who allegedly abused his on. His mother, Brigitte “Gitta” Lindemann, is a journalist and worked as the Head of Culture for NDR 1 Radio MV at the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Schwerin from 1992 to 2002. Lindemann has a sister who is six years younger.

His parents divorced in 1975, after which his mother Brigitte remarried to an American. From 1977 to 1980, Till Lindemann attended a boarding school. He was the European youth champion in the 1500 meters swimming and was nominated for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. However, he was disqualified from participating because he left the hotel without permission to buy a Playboy magazine during the European Youth Championship in Rome. He also had obtained “class enemy” stickers from colleagues from West Germany in the team bus. In 1979 his swimming career ended due to a muscle injury.

He completed a carpentry apprenticeship with the Rostock housing construction combine, while living in a new building in Rostock-Evershagen. He later worked as a basket weaver, carpenter, and technician.

In 1981 he refused military service and narrowly escaped a stay in prison for this reason.

In 1982, at the age of 19, he moved in with his father, who lived in a farmhouse in the artists’ colony Drispeth in the Mecklenburg municipality of Zickhusen. He stayed there for nine months, but the cohabitation between father and son was not always harmonious. His father documented this time in literature in the book “Mike Oldfield in the Rocking Chair: Notes of a Father”. The book was published in 1988 and, at the initiative of Till Lindemann, was reissued in 2006, but with a different cover image: while the first published work showed a rather general illustration, the current cover is a photo of Till Lindemann sitting on railway tracks with a wooden chair. After moving out of his father’s house, Lindemann stayed around Lake Schwerin. He initially moved in with an acquaintance who worked as a basket weaver in a few villages over.

Lindemann’s father succumbed to alcohol in November 1992. The song “Heirate Mich” is believed to be inspired by this event.

In 1985, when Lindemann was twenty-two years old, his first daughter, Nele, was born. Lindemann married Nele’s mother after the birth, but they eventually divorced and Lindemann raised Nele by himself. Lindemann had a second daughter, Marie-Louise (1993), with his ex-girlfriend Anja Köseling. Köseling claimed that Lindemann molested her during their relationship and that he refused to pay parental contribution for their daughter. Lindemann never publicly responded to these accusations.

His musical career began as a drummer in the band First Arsch before he moved to Berlin in 1994 and, together with five other musicians, founded the band Rammstein.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Lauren Mayberry, frontwoman of the electropop act Chvrches, has called out the music industry for “promoting records by sexual abusers and rapists”.

In an interview with Dazed she says the following: “There hasn’t been a shakedown of the music industry in the same way as there has been in the film industry, maybe because it’s not unionised in the same way. But I keep thinking, ‘one day these dominoes are going to fall, surely’. Dr. Luke’s in the cold, but beyond that, has there really been much change? We’re still promoting and selling records by sexual abusers and rapists. You can’t say no to one thing and yes to another.”

And she continues in the interview by saying: “You can’t kick Harvey Weinstein out of the canon but still have Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, and Bill Cosby in there. Come on, guys! Let’s be consistent with our changes!”

New album to be released in May

Last month, Chvrches confirmed details of their third album “Love Is Dead” (to be released on May 25) with the release of the new single “My Enemy” featuring guest vocals from The National’s Matt Berninger. Chvrches began work on their third album in February 2017 in Los Angeles, California together with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. The production was however completed by Greg Kurstin.

Chvrches are a Scottish synth-pop band from Glasgow and formed in September 2011. The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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The Belgian cult act Lords of Acid returns with an all new album, “Pretty In Kink”. The new album features the new singer Marieke Bresseleers next to Praga Khan and longtime collaborator Erhan Kurkun.

You can pre-order the album now, either on CD (available here) or on vinyl (available here).

The band finished the album in last December says Maurice Engelen aka Praga Khan: “We know the wait can be frustrating but our focus is on delivering a premium quality product that will be worth the wait!” Engelen took in the meantime also some time off to mary his girlfriend Inja Van Gastel who is also a member of the band.

Here’s a glimpse of Marieke Bresseleers.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Last week Morrissey caused quite some rumor with his attacks on Merkel and with his comments about the Kevin Spacey scandal in with Germany’s Der Spiegel. As a result Morrissey has now said that he won’t be doing any more print interviews.

Performing at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre on Saturday (November 25), Morrissey denied that he said the original comments about Spacey.

Morrissey: “I did an interview a couple of weeks ago for a German newspaper and, of course, let me just say this: That was the last print interview I will ever do! Unless you see the words form in my mouth and then you see or hear the words come out of my mouth… please, if you don’t see that, I didn’t say them.”

Here’s the fragment:

#moztour2017 #morrissey

Een bericht gedeeld door Robin (@robindabank) op 25 Nov 2017 om 9:06 PST

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Belgian musician Thomas Andrew Barman,better known as Tom Barman, is caught up in the #MeToo storm as he has been unmasked as a stalker and sexist. When after expressing strong opposition towards male sexual harassment on Belgian national tv, several women came forward accusing him of sexist and stalking behaviour including a scene where Barman insisted to get a blowjob from a young woman in order to have access to a cafe toilet. He also followed a women for hours yelling sexist comments all the time.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg so many believe.

The story doesn’t come as a surprise, Barman was also part of the close friend circle of the notorious Belgian politician Steve Stevaert. The socialist politician committed suicide after – surprise, surprise – it was revealed he was a serial rapist, something the Belgian press had known for years but which had always been covered up.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Smiths frontman Morrissey has gone full force in an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel defending Europe’s cultural roots. In the interview he says: “I want Germany to be German. I want France to be French. If you try to make everything multicultural, you will not have any culture in the end.” And he continues: “All European countries have fought for their identity for many, many years. And now they just throw it away. I think that’s sad.”

When asked if he sees the German Chancellor Merkel as the “mother” of Europe, due to her enduring years as the leader of the country and her power within the EU, Morrissey replies: “She stays silent, which is very interesting. But I’m sad that Berlin has become the rape capital… because of the open borders.”

Morrissey went on to praise the UK Brexit (although he did not say if he endorses it): “The outcome of the Brexit referendum fascinates me because it was a victory for democracy. The people said yes. Whether or not to endorse Brexit is another matter, but I was very proud of the British.”

Let’s see what the Morrissey fans make of this.

In the interview he also defends Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein. “As far as I know, he was in a bedroom with a 14-year-old. Kevin Spacey was 26, boy 14. One wonders where the boy’s parents were.” Morrissey clarified that he condemned sexual violence against anyone, yet he also says that on some occasions “the person referred to as a victim is merely disappointed”.

“People know exactly what’s going on,” he said when asked about Weinstein. “And they play along. Afterwards, they feel embarrassed or disliked. And then they turn it around and say: ‘I was attacked, I was surprised’. But if everything went well, and if it had given them a great career, they would not talk about it.” The former Smiths singer also argued that definitions of harassment and assault have become too broad.

Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe’s largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of 840,000.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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The #MeToo campaign is having an impact on Marilyn Manson’s band as well. Manson has fired his bassist Jeordie White aka Twiggy Ramirez, after White was publicly accused of rape by his former girlfriend, Jessicka Addams of the band Jack Off Jill. Below is the message which Addams posted on her Facebook page.

The change in personal was announced via a simple tweet reading “I have decided to part ways with Jeordie White as a member of Marilyn Manson. He will be replaced for the upcoming tour. I wish him well.” Manson also added: “I knew Jessicka and Jeordie had a romantic relationship many years ago and I considered and still consider Jessicka to be a friend. I knew nothing about these allegations until very recently and am saddened by Jessicka’s obvious distress.”

White has not responded directly to Addams’ accusations, the only statement he released read: “I wish to spend this time with my family and focus on maintaining my several years of sobriety. I will be taking a leave of absence from Marilyn Manson and regrettably will not be performing on the upcoming tour.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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The Danish director Lars Von Trier has denied that he sexually harassed Icelandic musician Björk during the making of “Dancer in the Dark” (2000) for which Björk won a best actress prize. Von Trier told Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in its online edition that it was not the case, “but that we were definitely not friends, that’s a fact.”

“Dancer in the Dark” producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen from his side told Jyllands Posten that he and Von Trier were the victims: “That woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner. As far as I remember we were the victims.”

Björk posted a Facebook update on October 15 in which she claims that she was sexually harassed by ‘a film director’. The 51-year-old former lead singer of the Sugarcubes, did not name Von Trier, but Trier’s award-winning 2000 musical drama remains the only film with Björk.

The post was followed up yesterday including some details of what she claims had happened and adding it was an experience ‘with a danish director’.

Truth or lie, we might never know what really happened as other actors are defending Von Trier. On a side-note, it would be interesting to also unmask some of the musicians who have loose hands and/or don’t hesitate to hit a woman… We know several from the industrial, new wave scene.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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