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DAF - Gabi Delgado-López


Gabi Delgado-López, vocalist and co-founder of DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) has died at age 61. His bandmate Robert Görl shared the news on Instagram late last night, writing “Got word today my long time friend and bandmate Gabi Delgado passed away last night.”

Fomed in 1978, DAF were a pivotal act in EBM and electronic music. Their 1980 album Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen was the first LP released on Mute Records and Delgado-López was an active figure in Berlin’s early nightlife scene.

Formed in Düsseldorf featuring Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Görl (drums, percussion, electronic instruments), Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke (electronic instruments), Michael Kemner (bass-guitar) and Wolfgang Spelmans (guitar). Kurt Dahlke was replaced by Chrislo Haas (electronic instruments, bass guitar, saxophone) in 1979. Since 1981, the band has consisted of Delgado-López and Görl.


Görl came to Düsseldorf in August 1978 and met Delgado as both were regulars at punk club Ratinger Hof. Görl noted, "The earliest line up of DAF was Gabi and me in the basement of the Ratinger Hof. We created our basic ideas and we had a very strong will as a duo. Gabi Delgado played the stylophone and I played the drums." Several early Neue Deutsche Welle bands formed from this social group, and Görl and Delgado played with multiple other bands. The first two D.A.F. albums featured the original four-piece line-up and a range of styles. Their first album, Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundschaft, was released in 1979 on Dahlke's Ata Tak label (then called Warning). The album was 22 improvised untitled instrumentals, having Delgado temporarily left the band at the time.

The band then moved to London. As Delgado later noted, "at that time if you wanted to do new music you’d go to London because that was the center, not Düsseldorf." Daniel Miller signed DAF to Mute Records because "they weren’t relying on past rock traditions at all, which is the criterion of what goes on Mute." DAF recorded Die Kleinen und die Bösen (The Small Ones and the Evil Ones) for Mute, one side studio and most of the other side live. Some songs featured thrashed guitars, electronic screeching, and hammered drums while Gabi screamed and ululated.

 In 1986, he moved to Berlin to become a DJ and organise house parties. He organized (with WestBam and Marc Gubler) the first house party in Germany. With Saba Komssa, he founded the techno-house labels Delkom Club Control, BMWW and Sunday Morning Berlin.

In 1995, he founded, with Wotan Wilke Möhring, the band DAF/DOS, who recorded the album Allein, zu zweit, mit Telefon (Alone, As A Couple, With Telephone) on Sony/Columbia. In 2003, Delgado reunited again with Görl for another D.A.F. album, Fünfzehn neue D.A.F-Lieder (Fifteen New D.A.F. Songs).
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