Celebrate the Nun (1985–1992) At the end of 1985,
H. P. Baxxter and
Rick J. Jordan met in
Hanover, Germany through a
small ad and founded the
synthpop/
new wave band
Celebrate the Nun. While the lead vocals were performed by Baxxter and female vocals were delivered by Baxxter's sister Britt Maxime, Rick J. Jordan took care of the keyboards and sound engineering. The band released their first album
Meanwhile in 1989.
AllMusic wrote that "During the mid-'80s, numerous synth pop acts dreamed of becoming the next
Depeche Mode. Celebrate the Nun could have been buried in the glut of Depeche Mode doppelgangers; however, top-drawer songwriting and consistently catchy hooks lifted Celebrate the Nun above the mass of wannabes". The single "
Will You Be There" off
Meanwhile peaked at No. 5 on the
Billboard Dance/Club play chart on 23 June 1990, whereas the single "
She's a Secretary/Strange" peaked at No. 12 on Dance/Club play chart on 8 December of the same year. Slin Tompson, who was the fourth person in the band's original line-up, left the band in 1990 to start a project on his own.
The Loop (1993–1998) Soon afterwards, in late 1993, the former Celebrate the Nun members under the management of Jens Thele formed a remix team known as The Loop. The Loop became one of the top remix teams in Germany, releasing remixes for artists like
Adeva,
Holly Johnson, The Tag Team and
RuPaul.
The First Chapter (December 1993–1998) Scooter started as a project in December 1993. Their debut single was a cover of
René et Gaston's "Vallée de larmes" (French for "Valley of Tears") and reached No.8 on the German official dance chart. In April 1994, Scooter played their first live show at the Palladium in Hamburg. , Ferris Bueller,
H. P. Baxxter. At first, "
Hyper Hyper" was expected to be a small hit within the club scene, but it managed to reach the No.2 position on the German single chart,
Media Control, eventually going triple gold for selling 750,000 units. "Hyper Hyper" also entered the top-5 in Switzerland, Austria and in Italy, meanwhile, entering the top-10 in the Netherlands and Norway.
The Second Chapter (1998–2002) ,
Rick J. Jordan, Axel Coon. In 1998, Ferris Bueller (Soren Buehler) left the group to pursue a solo career (he later admitted that he had been suffering from
depression for several years due to his then new time-demanding life as a pop star), and was replaced by DJ Axel Coon, who had been working with the band at the recording studio for some time already. Coon had also played live with Scooter in some occasions, covering for Rick J. Jordan. In June 1998, Scooter released one of their most popular singles to date "
How Much Is the Fish?" which peaked at No.3 in Germany, the single also went gold selling over 250,000 units in Germany alone. Their fifth studio album,
No Time to Chill reached the No.4 position on Germany's Media Control album chart, whereas it topped the album chart in Finland and earned a gold-award for sales of over 36,000 units. In the same vein, the album reached a gold status in Poland for sales of over 50,000 units. In July 1999, Scooter released their first single "
Faster Harder Scooter", from their sixth album,
Back to the Heavyweight Jam. While the single peaked at No.7 at home, it did quite well in Scandinavia peaking at No.3 in Sweden and No.2 in Finland, and the trio eventually picked up a platinum-award in Sweden for selling over 40,000 copies of the single. The second single, "
Fuck the Millennium" was released in November 1999 which reached No.11 on Media Control singles charts and as its predecessor spent 11 weeks on the chart. The album,
Back to the Heavyweight Jam just like the singles turned out to be a hit in Scandinavia, it entered the top-5 both in Finland and Sweden where it eventually reached a gold status for sales of over 40,000 units. Scooter released their seventh studio album,
Sheffield, in May 2000.
Sheffield took another new direction containing 6/8 rhythms on tracks "Don't Gimme the Funk" and "
Sex Dwarf". In late 2000, after their second single "She's the Sun", Scooter were awarded a Comet at the 2000 VIVA Comet Awards in the category of "Most Successful Dance Act". The band's 21st single, "
Posse (I Need You on the Floor)" was released in Germany on 21 May 2001, and it was the first Scooter single since "
Endless Summer" to include a high-pitched voice in the chorus. The single peaked at No.7 at Scooter's home market, spending 13 weeks on the official single chart. The album itself, which was released on 7 January 2002 managed to reach a gold status in the UK, Sweden and Norway.
The Third Chapter (2002–2006) ,
H. P. Baxxter,
Rick J. Jordan. At the beginning of 2002, immediately after the release of trio's compilation album
Push the Beat for this Jam, Axel Coon left the band to pursue a solo career in DJing and remixing, and
Jay Frog became the new third person. Jay Frog was already familiar with the band as he had occasionally covered for Axel Coon. As a quick way of introducing the new member Frog to their fans, the trio released a second compilation album in November 2002,
24 Carat Gold. Scooter's 24th single, "
Nessaja" was a cover version of the title track from
Peter Maffay's musical
Tabaluga, and debuted at No.1 on the German official single charts. Scooter enjoyed a comeback within the UK charts, with six top-20 UK singles "
The Logical Song" (UK No.2), "
Nessaja" (UK No.4), "
Posse (I Need You on the Floor)" (UK No.15), "
Weekend!" (UK No.12), "
The Night" (UK No.16) and "
Maria (I Like It Loud)" (UK No.16) all charting within an 18-month period. The single "The Night" became the last to feature the high pitched voice effect and reached the top-10 in Germany. Scooter performed at the famous Scattered rave party in Sydney as well as in
Adelaide,
Brisbane and
Perth. In March 2008, the group embarked on its first arena tour of the UK as part of
Clubland Live, appearing alongside other
All Around The World acts such as
Cascada and
Ultrabeat. During this tour, Scooter performed a retooled version of "
I'm Lonely" from
Jumping All Over the World; the single was released in Germany on 18 April 2008. "The Question Is What Is The Question" was released in the UK the same week, charting at No.49. It was Scooter's first No.1 in the UK and first album release there in five years. During the summer of 2009, Scooter announced the release of their next studio album,
Under the Radar Over the Top. On 14 August 2009, Scooter released "
J'adore Hardcore", the first single from
Under the Radar Over the Top. "J'adore Hardcore" was based on Planet Funk's "
Chase the Sun" and The Pitcher's "I Just Can't Stop". On 30 July 2009, during the video shoot for "J'adore Hardcore", Baxxter was almost a victim of a
car bomb attack in
Mallorca, Spain. Michael Simon reported that Baxxter was alright and it was a very near miss. For their next single, "
Ti sento", Scooter collaborated with Italian singer
Antonella Ruggiero. "Ti sento" which peaked at No.10 in Germany, was released the day
Under the Radar Over the Top was released. The single was released on 27 November. On 9 February 2010 it was announced that Scooter would perform the official song of the
2010 IIHF World Championship. This song would be "
Stuck on Replay", and it would additionally be released as the fourth single from
Under the Radar Over the Top. The
Under the Radar Over the Top Tour was announced before the album was released. The tour was a week long through several German cities such as
Hamburg, Berlin, and
Leipzig and one Swiss city,
Zürich, throughout March 2010. This was the largest tour to date, and again featured the
Sheffield Jumpers. During this tour, Scooter performed in front of a total of 40,000 people, and the Hamburg concert was the largest on the tour, with a sold-out venue of 14,000. This was followed by Leipzig, with 10,000 people attending the final concert of the tour. Regardless of the tour, "Stuck on Replay" peaked at only position No.34 on the German singles chart, but remained on the charts for 12 weeks. On 29 June 2010, it was announced that Scooter would be headlining the
Clubland Live 4 Tour, appearing alongside acts such as
Ultrabeat,
ItaloBrothers, and
Alex K. This would be Scooter's second tour of the United Kingdom. Interspersed among these dates were small concerts held at festivals such as Tomorrowland in Belgium, and in other places such as Iceland. However, on 6 October 2010,
Clubland Live 4 was cancelled, thus cancelling the band's second UK tour. On 15 April 2011, a re-worked version of Scooter's 1995 single "
Friends" was released, entitled "
Friends Turbo". It was the official theme for the German version of the Dutch film called
New Kids Turbo. Scooter's fifteenth studio album, entitled
The Big Mash Up was released on 14 October 2011 - two years since the release of
Under the Radar Over the Top being the longest gap between two albums in the band's history to date. The first single from the album, "
The Only One", was released on 20 May 2011, which peaked at No.45. the same day as the album. The third single from
The Big Mash Up, entitled "
C'est Bleu", which features
Vicky Leandros, was released on 2 December 2011. Both the second and the third singles charted worse than the first single, No.67 and No.77 respectively. While the trio changed the sound of the song for a single release, it still didn't help it to chart higher than No.79 on the German Media Control singles chart. Scooter released their 16th studio album,
Music for a Big Night Out on 2 November 2012. The same day, the trio released their second single entitled "
Army of Hardcore" from their latest material.
The Fifth Chapter (2014–2018) On 15 October 2013, Scooter officially announced that their founding member Rick J. Jordan would be leaving the band at the end of the trio's
20 Years of Hardcore Tour 2014. According to the frontman of Scooter, H. P. Baxxter, in the years ahead, Phil Speiser (from Dirty Disco Youth or DDY) will replace Rick J. Jordan's, who will provide his skills on the drums, synthesizers, piano as well as sound effects. While
The Fifth Chapter officially began for Scooter on 23 May 2014, when they released their single "
Bigroom Blitz", the Hamburg-based trio's studio album, entitled
The Fifth Chapter was made available on 26 September 2014, emphasizing a completely new era for the band. Scooter's next single "
Today" from
The Fifth Chapter was released on 26 September 2014. On 4 January 2016, Scooter announced their eighteenth studio album
Ace which was released on 5 February 2016. It includes their single "Riot" which has been available since 4 September 2015. On 1 August 2017, Scooter announced their nineteenth studio album
Scooter Forever which was released on 1 September 2017. It includes their single "
Bora! Bora! Bora!" which has been available since 26 May 2017. On 4 August 2017, Ukrainian prosecutors began legal proceedings against Scooter for their illegal performance at the "ZB Fest" festival in
Crimea, as per Ukrainian law. However, according to H. P. Baxxter, they did not perform at the festival "to engage in politics there, but because we have a fan base there. We want to give them something." On 6 December 2017, Scooter released their third single from
Scooter Forever, which became a reconstructed version of "In Rave We Trust". The compilation album
100% Scooter – 25 Years Wild & Wicked was released on 15 December.
The Sixth Chapter (2019–2022) On 11 November 2018, during the 25 Years Wild and Wicked Tour, Speiser announced that he would leave the band at the end of the tour. In April 2019, Scooter officially announced that Sebastian Schilde would be replacing Phil Speiser, after Speiser had been with the group since 2014. Their twentieth album,
God Save the Rave, was to be released in the winter of 2020 and include 15 tracks. The album's tour, the God Save the Rave tour, was originally expected to go ahead in the summer of 2020, but was postponed due to governments evoking pandemic laws. In December 2020, the album release date was postponed to 16 April 2021 due to pandemic laws again. In November 2022, Schilde announced that he was no longer part of the group. A few days later, Simon announced that he had also left, after being a member since 2006.
The Seventh Chapter (2023–present) After Schilde and Simon's departure, former member
Jay Frog returned as a temporary keyboardist, later rejoining the group as the main producer, composer and keyboardist. In January 2023, they released the single "Waste Your Youth", the first Scooter material to feature work by Jay Frog since 2005. Scooter also announced that then 23-year-old producer Marc Blou had joined the band. In March 2023,
Universal Music Germany announced it has acquired the
master rights to the catalogue of Scooter. Universal Music Germany released Scooter's music worldwide under their Zeitgeist label in cooperation with
Kontor Records. ==Band members==