The Free   (Germany)

EuroDance group
Added : 24/01/2000
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1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

Latest The Free news

28/07/2003 : MikeBoy's site Finnish Eurodance changed URL, it is now called Serious Eurodance and among other very interesting eurodance infos you can find the interview of Charles Simmons, ex member of the The Free project...

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The Free albums

Crazy World

11th Mar 1996

BUY X

The Free singles

	Born Crazy	10th Oct 1994	BUY X
	Dance the Night Away	7th Feb 1995	BUY X
	Lover On the Line	9th Sep 1995	BUY X
	Loveletter from Space	1996	BUY X
	Shout	26th Feb 1996	BUY X
	Fly Promo only	1999	BUY X

The Free remixes

	Born Crazy	1994	BUY X
	Dance the Night Away	1995	BUY X
	Lover On The Line	1995	BUY X
	Loveletter from Space	1996	BUY X
	Shout	1996	BUY X

The Free biography

Members : Charles Simmons (vocals and rap) Ayla J. (vocals), Iris Trevisan (vocals), Virginia Michailoglou (profi dancer), Nejet Yolcu (profi dancer)

The group was formed in 1994 by Felix J. Gauder and Olaf Roberto Bossi. Together with Charles Simmons, the frontman and singer of The Free, they composed and arranged their music in a high-tech home studio. They spent weeks composing and arranging intro, strophe, bridge and refrain so it should be a perfect rhythm, with groove and melody all in one piece. With meticulous detail work and with great enthusiasm the result was the typical The Free chart- and club compatible Euro-Pop-Housemusic style and also some sentimental Soul-ballads.

Everything has begun with their first release Born Crazy on Sony Music Dance Pool, which was accomplishedby the co-operation with manager Andreas 'Bär' Lasker and his BearMusic Factory. At the first go the debut single Born Crazy managed to hit the top 50 of Media Control.

With the second single Lover On The Line, the producers together with Charles Simmons - who also worked as songwriter -prepared the further success of The Free. Lover On The Line became the club and disco hit as such and the paved the way for countless live gigs across Germany partly in the course of the Coca-Cola Mega Mix Connection. The song raced into the top 40 as well and the third single Dance The Night Away reached #44 of the MCC despite the easing off euro trash movement.

The music video for Dance The Night Away was shot in New York City. Iris was impressed by the number of actors casted for the video in the club parts... till Charles revealed that they were actually people from the street, asked by the manager if they wanted to be on a music video for a European Dance floor act,..

In the middle of 1995 singer Iris Trevisan left The Free for health reasons. The newest member of The Free was singer and front woman Alida Johnson (Ayla J). With her, new tracks were recorded, produced and dressed into a club and chart compatible garment. However, none of them had been released as single.

With their fourth single Shout The Free proved that the switch to pop house did more than succeed. Solely the name Charles Simmons stoodfor one of the best soul/house voices in the dance of the 90s. An additional pleasure are the Shout Remixes by DJ Quicksilver, Nico Herz und Drop Dishes which where specially ordered for the clubs.

The album Crazy Worlds was published in April. It gathered all their hits, plus the partly remixed tracks Lover On The Line and Dance The Night Away as well as the wide musical spectrum from euro house via club soul up to catchy soul ballads. As well as the new single Loveletter From Space, featuring Charles Simmons solo. "I believe the track was inspired by a love letter Olaf wrote to his then girlfriend (now his wife since over five years.)" the singler explained.

Also in 1996 The Free embarked for a new tour : new stageshow, outfits, 2 professional dancers (Nejet Yolcu and Virginia Michailoglou) and a polished choreography.

Afterwards a single was recorded but never released, Fly, still featuring Charles' voice alone. It also included a B-side entitled You're The One For Me. Afterwards, the contract of the group with Dance Pool (Sony Music) expired, and was not renewed.

2001 : a track called Loveletter From Space 2001 was released under the name Relounge feat. Charles Simmons.

2003 : in an interview done by Mikeoy (Serious Eurodance) in July 2003, Charles Simmons gave some news about the different members of the project. Olaf Bossi was attending Audio Engineering school, Felix Gauder was currently producing Jimmy Sommerville, and also working on his project Novaspace. Charles himself was doing lots of live gigs in Germany, a lot of songwriting and some producing, mostly for R&B, Hip-Hop and Pop projects. and Alida (Ayla J) got married and moved in the USA. He concluded : "We've all moved on, but The Free was a nice ride".

© 1996 NMDP
Thanks to J.D. Haltigan for some sleeves
Thanks to MikeBoy of Serious Eurodance

The Free biography was last updated Mon, December 5th 2022

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