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Ossian - Biography


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1986-

Biography

The band "Ossian" was formed after Endre Paksi left Pokolgép around 1985. He quickly found guitarist Zoltán Maróthy, T. Péter Kovács on bass, and Zsolt Galántai on drums. The band was fully formed by 1986, and they played their concert on July 13th. They were famous just as much for their insane multi-coloured outfits as for their music, eschewing the traditional chains and leather for harlequin suits.

In October, 1986, they recorded their first demo, following it up with a second in May, 1987. They opened for international touring acts Pretty Maids, Helloween, and U.D.O. in 1987. In 1988, Kovács was conscripted into the army, and Laci Palvölgyi took over on bass. In 1988, the first album was released, and they opened for none other than Iron Maiden. The "Heart of Steel" music video featured a lot of footage of the band hanging out with Iron Maiden, and in fact, in the "Maiden England" video, Adrian Smith can be seen wearing an Ossian t-shirt.

After the second album, Pálvölgyi and Galántai left, being replaced by Gábor Vörös on bass and Zoltán Nagyfi on drums. His brother happened to be László Nagyfi of Pokolgép, and in fact Nagyfi left to join his brother in Omen in 1991, and in came Csaba Tobola.
This lineup recorded five albums, before internal tensions, especially between Paksi and Maróthy, caused the band to break up. They performed a farewell concert on May 14th, 1994.

Marothy went on to form Fahrenheit, and Paksi formed Wellington, and also wrote some crime novels in English under the pseudonym Paul Trent!
In 1998, Paksi recruited a new lineup to perform one concert, which was recorded for a live album, and then Ossian decided to call the reformation permanent, and they have released four more full albums and an EP since then.

The band had a very famous (even people who don't like Ossian has this show around) live performance in Debrecen around 2001 when Endre Paksi went on to stage so drunk, that he only mumbled a few different stuff as lyrics like 'szemszélű lány' (eye-sided girl), 'várhogy egy meghód egy nincs márhívó' (castle-as a added-to-beaver a no yet-invitation), and 'repatarurgyán semmit hány' (repatarurgyan vomits nothing). His performance resulted in an all time favorite proverb in Hungary, that's used for bad vocalists (singing like Paksi). At the end of the show, only one member stayed on stage with Endre Paksi.
As this leaded to some notable changes in Ossian line-up and also it gained them an great 'fame' (lot's of reviews were about the band in different hungarian magazines).

(from: http://www.metal-archives.com/)