In 1988 Kai Hansen left his band Helloween since he was tired of the bad atmosphere in
and around the band. Together with Dirk Schlächter and Ralf
Scheepers he formed a new band called Gamma Ray. At first he didn´t want to continue
playing in the band but start a solo career with only Ralf Scheepers and himself. However,
the studio recordings went well and he decided that a new band was worth a try. In January 1990 they released their debut album
called "Heading For Tomorrow" which immediately entered the Japanese Top 20 Charts. This
album was produced by Kai himself but he said that in the future he would not do the producing
job anymore. Right after the recordings drummer Mathias Burchardt decided to quit since h
wanted to concentrate completely on his studies. A new drummer was found in Uli Kusch.
In 1990 they also went on a world tour. In February 1991 the band rehearsed in a small remote
house in Denmark and with brand new songs the band entered the studio to record their second
album "Sigh No More" with producer Tommy Newton. In 1993 their third album was released and Uli Kusch and Uwe Wessel left the band
because of some personal disagreements. They were replaced by Thomas Nack and Jan Rubach
from a Hamburg demo band called Anesthesia. The band also started building their own studio.
In 1994 the band supported Manowar on
tour and they were declared to be the best support act ever by Joey DeMaio and Eric Adams.
Right before the preparations for the following album vocalist Ralf Scheepers was fired for
several reasons, one of them being that he lived 500 miles from Hamburg and could only be
with the band on weekends. Ralf had a full time job at a electronic company in Stuttgart and
since he didn´t know if he could get a job at the company´s branch in Hamburg he did not want
to move. Kai Hansen was now taking on the vocal duties once again after a ten year break.
In May 1995 they released their concept album "Land of the Free", featuring both Michael
Kiske (Helloween) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as guest vocalists. In June 1995 they
played some summer festivals and in September they went on a long European tour. Right before
the Spanish tour in September 1996 Jan and Thomas decided that they wanted to leave the band.
Jan left since Dirk desperately wanted to return to his original instrument which was the
bass guitar. Jan had always wanted to play the guitar in a band and he was asked to do so
but he didn´t dare and left the band. Thomas left since he wanted to concentrate on another
musical project of his own. Both of them has later gone back to their old band Anesthesia and
released a CD called "State Of Being Unable To Feel Pain". Thomas decided to play with them
on the Spanish tour but Jan left right away. The new guitarist was Henjo Richter.
In February 1997 they finally found a new drummer namely Daniel Zimmerman and Henjo became
a permanent member of the band. In March 1997 they started recording their new album and
just a few minutes after the recording was done they went on their first South American tour.
The new album "Somewhere Out In Space" entered the charts in Germany, Japan, Italy and Sweden.
In 1998 they released the next album "Powerplant", the album charts: #7 in Greece, #9 in the Japanese International Charts, #23 in Germany, #31 in the Japanese National Charts, #32 in Finland, # 43 in Italy, #45 in Austria, #51 in Sweden, #71 in the Czech Republic.
In 2000 they released their best of album called "Blast From The Past".
GAMMA RAY
