Joerg Deisinger (born Jörg Deisinger) is a German photographer, musician and the former bassist and a founding member of the German 1980s heavy metal band

Bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used for waste disposal or as part of a religious feast, such as Saint John's Eve. Etymology The earliest attestations date to the late 15th century, with the Catholicon Anglicum spelling i ...

Early life and Bonfire

Deisinger was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, Germany, on 23 April 1966. His pre-teen obsession with learning how to play guitar eventually became a full-fledged pursuit of becoming a rock star. When it became clear he had a genuine chance of realizing his dream, Deisinger quit his apprenticeship as an electrician to devote himself to music full-time.Deisinger, J. & Begai, C. (2008),
Fire And Fame
'', BOD Publishing GmbH, Deisinger joined German hard rock band as a bassist Cacumen in 1985, which would change its name to Bonfire in May 1986 in the interest of having a catchier moniker to push their new album,

Don't Touch the Light ''Don't Touch the Light'' is the first album by German hard rock band Bonfire, following its name change from Cacumen. It was released in 1986 on RCA Records. AllMusic wrote that the album is considered a "classic" of the "melodic hard rock ...

. The name was suggested by Deisinger and after some consideration replaced Cacumen. He recorded four albums with the band –

(1986),

Fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

(1987),

Point Blank Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm or gun can hit a target without the need to elevate the barrel to compensate for bullet drop, i.e. the gun can be pointed horizontally at the target. For targets beyond-blank range ...

(1989), and

Knock Out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several Contact sports, full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of World Taekwondo Federation#Sparri ...

(1991). During his time with the band touring Europe extensively with acts such as

Victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...

, Krokus,

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...

and

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

. They sold almost 750,000 albums over a four-year period even though the North American market failed to embrace Bonfire as Europe had. Deisinger played his last show with Bonfire on 29 July 1994. On 3 July 1996, a one-time one-payment offer was made by Claus Lessmann and original Bonfire guitarist

Hans Ziller Hans Ziller (born 18 May 1959) is a German musician, known as the founder, lead guitarist, backing vocalist and primary composer of the 1980s melodic hard rock band Bonfire. He founded the band Cacumen (a predecessor of Bonfire) as a teenager ...

to buy the band name back from Deisinger, guitarist Angel Schleifer and drummer Edgar Patrik, as the trio had no desire to resurrect Bonfire.

After Bonfire

Deisinger went on to record two albums with Paul Sabu (self-titled – 1996, Between the Light – 1998). In 1999 he formed Soul Doctor with Fair Warning singer Tommy Heart, and while the band's 2001 self-titled debut held promise, the 2003 follow-up, ''Systems Go Wild'', suffered from creative differences between Deisinger and Heart. Following its release, Deisinger left the band in April 2003. In 2003 Deisinger received a

Gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

for Bonfire's ''Fireworks'' album, which had officially sold 250,000 copies in Germany alone, since its 1987 release. Deisinger relocated to

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

in 2004. In addition to doing occasional live gigs as a session player, he opened an English school in Sichon with his girlfriend. In December of that year, the last minute cancellation of a planned Christmas vacation to Koh Phi Phi Don ultimately saved Deisinger's life; the tsunami that decimated parts of Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia on 26 December 2004 laid waste to the resort where he was supposed to be staying. On 17 March 2005 Deisinger returned to Nuremberg, Germany and started working as a freelance photographer, eventually foundin
Deisinger Photography
which specializes in wedding, travel and event photographs and portfolios.

Fire and Fame

In 2005 Deisinger approached Canadian music journalist and writer

Carl Begai Carl Begai (born December 1, 1968, in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian music journalist, and author. Life Begai was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended York University in Toronto and received a B.A. in history in 1993. Begai curre ...

about co-writing his memoirs, which focused on his Bonfire career. The project, eventually dubbed Fire and Fame by Carl, wrapped up in late 2007 and was released independently in August 2008.

Discography

Bonfire

Albums

* 1986: ''

'' * 1987: ''

'' * 1989: ''

'' * 1991: ''

'' * 1993: ''Live... The Best''

DVD

* 2001: '' Golden Bullets'' (DVD, reissue of ''The Best'')

Other

* 1989: '' Sword and Stone'' ('' Shocker'' soundtrack)

Axel Rudi Pell

* 1989: '' Wild Obsession''

Sabu

* 1996: self-titled * 1998: ''Between the Light'' * 2003: ''Resurfaced''

Soul Doctor

* 2001: self-titled * 2002: ''Systems Go Wild''

References

External links

www.joergdeisinger.com
– Deisinger Photography (German)
fireandfame.com
– official website of the book ''Fire and Fame'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deisinger, Joerg 1966 births Musicians from Nuremberg Photographers from Bavaria Living people German rock bass guitarists German male bass guitarists German memoirists German male non-fiction writers Bonfire (band) members