JUTTA WEINHOLD
Memories of Zed Yago CD

Jolly Roger Records, Jutta Weinhold was born in Mainz (Germany). Her first musical steps are in 1969, when she was engaged in the role of "Sheila" in the musical "Hair", followed by appareances in the musicals "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1972. Jutta was also part of Amon Düül II's 1974 tour in France, when she met her husband Ralf Basten. In 1976 she released "Coming" first solo-album, followed by "Jutta Weinhold" in 1978; in these years she was also guest musician with Udo Lindenberg. Her band Zed Yago, founded in 1985, became pretty popular in Europe and to be considered a pioneer of "dramatic" metal. The band's concept albums "From Over Yonder" (1988) and "Pilgrimage" (1989) deal with the experiences of a fictitious daughter of the Flying Dutchman, written by her fantasy and vivid imagination; to mention for "Pilgrimage" the band supported W.A.S.P. on Uk tour. Unfortunately the deserved success brought internal conflicts inside the band and a heavy legal dispute forced her to not use the Zed Yago monicker anymore, so in 1990 she baptized her new musical project Velvet Viper, to be considered the only possible Zed Yago following; the rest of the band infact could not continue without her and they disbanded soon after. "Velvet Viper" (with former Warlock Peter Szigeti on guitar) was released in 1990 and "Fourth Quest For Fantasy" (with former Z.Y. drummer Bubi) in 1992, are both great epic-classic HM albums but did not meet good sales, so then the band was put on ice. In 1994 she released her third solo album "To Be Or Not" with heavier sound in comparison with her previous solo-ones and with Velvet Viper on hold her unstoppable creativity flowed in Weinhold albums "From Heaven through the World to Hell" (2004) and "Below the Line" (2006). In 2017 Jutta teamed up with guitarist Holger Marx and started working on the Velvet Viper comeback with the album "Respice Finem" (2018); produced by Kai Hansen (he appears also on album as guest), which was very well received in many magazines and in the metal scene, so in 2019 the band played at the Headbanger's Open Air and at Wacken earning very positive reactions. A new band era was started: "The Pale Man Is Holding A Broken Heart" (2019), "Cosmic Healer" (2021), "Nothing Compares to Metal" (2023) show once again Jutta's never-ending creative mind as writer and vocalist. As always in Velvet Viper the lyrics relate to fantasy, myths and literary sources (Shakespeare, Richard Wagner,...), they fit perfectly to their epic heavy metal enriched by Jutta's powerful and dramatic vocals, creating an unique sound and atmosphere. In October 2011, she published a book (written back in 1991) entitled "Die Tochter des Fliegenden Holländers: Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen PhantaSIE" ("The Daughter of the Flying Dutchman: In Search of the Lost Fantasy"), a fantasy story based on concepts and lyrics from Zed Yago albums. The book was released with a 5 tracks Cd with re-recorded Z.Y. songs. Now these are available for the first time as stand-alone Cd and Lp with some bonus tracks. Let's enter once again in her magic world of Fantasy,...