The Bates is a band that was founded in 1987 in the Hessian Eschwege, a small town near Kassel. The band named itself after the mentally disturbed murderer “Norman Bates” from the cult movie “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock.

Their style of music called The Bates itself as Bubblegum Trash. If you want to think in drawers, the guys are in the genre of punk. The lyrics were mostly about love, pain, longing – but also about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. The Bates released at least two cover versions in addition to own compositions on each of their albums.

The band was famous in the 90s, especially by their punk cover version of the Michel Jackson song “Billie Jean”. This song made it to 10 on the charts in 1995 and was the biggest (commercial) success of the Bates. Some of the fans most liked songs are “It’s Getting Dark”, “Say It Is not So”, “A Real Cool Time”, “Bitter End”, “I Do not Want To Love You” or “Keine ist wie Du “. Apart from their music, the boys were also very popular because they always remained down-to-earth and always looked for contact with their fans themselves.

The last concert was played by The Bates in October 2000. In 2001, the band broke up officially.

On 18 June 2006, the singer and frontman of the Bates Markus Zimmer died at the age of 41 years in his apartment in Kassel. The band, as well as the family and friends Zimbls, held in his honor on December 28, 2006, the so-called “Zimbl-Tribute Rocking on heaven’s door”. As an obituary, the 3-CD compilation “A Tribute to Zimbl – Rocking on Heaven’s Door” was released. That evening Klube, Reb, Pogo, Dully and Armin climbed onto the stage together and played Bates songs together for about 30 minutes. It was almost the first appearance after 5 years of live abstinence. The proceeds of the Tribute and the Tribute CD went completely to foundations in the fight against drugs.

After 2006 The Bates played some gigs for a good cause. 2007 as part of the “A Trip To Zimbl Festival” in Frieda (near Eschwege), 2009 as part of the “Bates & Friends Festival” in Kassel, 2011 as part of “Bates & Friends” in Eschwege and 2012 as part of the ” Fan Rooms Festival “from the FC St. Pauli in Hamburg.

For the event “Bates & Friends – Welcome To The Bates Motel” in 2009, the CD “Welcome To The Bates Motel”, which contains rare old Bates versions and a live recording of the concert at the 1990 Kassel spot appeared. In 2014, the label Universal Music released the 3-CD sampler “The Bates Collection”.

In 2018 Klube published together with author Christof Dörr his book “Klube & The Bates”

In 2020 the label Glitterhouse Records reissued the live album “The Bates – Unfucked Live” as a vinyl disc with new artwork.