Gabi Delgado

German Industrial Music Pioneer

Gabi Delgado (18 April 1958 - 22 March 2020) was a Spanish-born, mainly German based musician, composer, lyricist and music producer, He was the brother of Eduardo Delgado-Lopez. Delgado spent his childhood in Córdoba, Spain. In 1966 his family moved to Germany. There, he was one of the founding forces behind the Rhine and Ruhr area punk scene and was involved in making thee first German punk fanzine "The Ostrich", founded by Franz Bielmeier. He was briefly a member of punk band Mittagspause (mainly as a dancer) and later Deutschland Terzett. Together with Robert Görl, he founded Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) in 1978. The band moved to London in 1980, and broke up just prior to the release of "Für Immer" in 1982. In 1983 Delgado released his first solo album, "Mistress". DAF reunited and released the album "1st Step to Heaven" in 1986. Around the same time, Gabi Delgado moved to Berlin and became involved in the early house and techno music scene. Together with WestBam he organised what's known as the first house music party in Germany. He would later team up with Saba Komossa to form the sexually charged dance duo Delkom and the labels Delkom Club Control, BMWW - The Delkom Corporation and Sunday Morning - Berlin. In 1996, Delgado and Wotan Wilke launched DAF / DOS, a project that built on the legacy of DAF whilst incorporating themes from contemporary dance music. In 2003, Delgado reunited with Robert Görl and released what was to be the final DAF album, "Fünfzehn Neue DAF Lieder". Delgado's released two more solo albums, "1" in 2013 and "2" in 2015.