Günther Sigl

Günther Sigl (; born 8 February 1947) is a German composer, lyricist and musician. He is co-founder of the Spider Murphy Gang and he sings and plays bass guitar for the band.

Early life Sigl was born in 1947 in Schongau, Upper Bavaria, at the time of Allied occupation in the wake of World War II (Schongau lay in the American zone). He moved with his parents to Landsberg am Lech, where he began school in 1953, and then in 1958 he moved on to Karlsruhe, where he went to the trade school. At the age of 15, he got his first guitar. Beginning in 1964, he underwent training as a bank teller.

Career

In 1968, soon after finishing his bank training, he moved to Munich. After military service (1968–1969), he took up a job at the Münchner Bank, which he kept until 1973.

When he decided to become a professional musician in 1971, he eventually gave up his fulltime job and toured together with Fritz Haberstumpf, Barny Murphy, Willi Augustin and Franz Trojan as "Stummick" at many clubs at American military bases in southern Germany.

After Haberstumpf left the band, Sigl and the others, along with Michael Busse, formed the Spider Murphy Gang. Sigl has written both the music and the lyrics to most of that band's songs. He is also the band's lead singer. In 1981, Sigl wrote what would turn out to be the band's only chart-topper: Skandal im Sperrbezirk. The song was number one on the charts for eight weeks. which today belongs to Sony Music. Mambo had under contract such acts as Sandra, Hubert Kah, Münchener Freiheit and Geier Sturzflug.

A guest acting role was given Sigl in 1985 in the comedy film Der Formel Eins Film, in which he played an assistant who bore something of a likeness to Prince.

Günther Sigl & Band

Sigl's first solo CD, Habe die Ehre, came out in 2010.

His band is made up of Willie Duncan (lead guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, vocals), Dieter Radig (percussion, vocals), Wolfgang Götz (keyboards, accordion, vocals) and beginning in 2015 Robert Gorzawsky on the drums. The band's sound is quite different from the Spider Murphy Gang's, with baritone guitars and bass guitars being heard only sporadically (even Sigl himself often plays baritone guitar rather than bass). The music has been described as a "colourful mixture of boogie-woogie – Western swing – blues – rock and roll – ska – chanson and old Schlagers.

Günther Sigl & Band have played at, among other venues, the "Lustspielhaus München", the "Dehnberger Hof Theater", the Stadttheater Landsberg and the "NUTS Kulturfabrik Traunstein".

Personal life In his private life, Sigl is interested in Impressionist and Expressionist painting, and is also passionate about playing the ukulele.

Sigl has two children, Philipp (b. 1982) and Anna (b. 1984) as well as a grandson named Paul (b. 2020).

On 1 September 2023, at the age of 76, he married his longtime girlfriend Doris (née Furtmair). 2019: Bavarian Order of Merit