Urgh!

 

Yesterday's post has tempted me to once again Urgh! A Music War, a film from the eighties. Director Derek Burbridge's concept is simple in principle: go to concerts in London, New York and elsewhere and film the current punk, wave and reggae scene.

The result is a fantastic overview of this music from both sides of the Atlantic. I can still remember having to drive to the next bigger city with some friends to see this film. Some of the artists were known to us by name, but very few of them performed in southern Germany at the time. 

After this film, each of the three of us had a band that we particularly liked and bought a record from them as quickly as possible. For me, it was Echo and the Bunnymen and Gang of Four, who I have followed faithfully ever since.

What also makes the compilation of concert recordings special is that it features musicians who were far removed from the normal clichés of punk, such as John Cooper Clarke and Klaus Nomi.

While the British bands are still holding back, The Cramps and Dead Kennedys show us the true and raw energy that characterized punk.

And finally, some film documents of bands that have unfortunately been forgotten, such as Au Pairs and Alley Cats and bands like Magazine and XTC, who played a major role in shaping new wave and punk.

A Guy From Outer Space

Back then in the early 80's me and a couple of lads were DJ-ing at the weekend in our local pub. We all had different musical preferences but we all were maniacs in music and football. Most of us still meet every couple of month for a beer to celebrate our glory days. Wolfgang was the one who preferd the jazzy side, me and Chris were on the punk and New Wave trip and Peter, who was a huge Zappa fan surprised us with strange African sounds and music from the New York No Wave scene (he sadly died on an motorcycle accident almost ten years ago). He was the one who brought us Klaus Nomi. Listening the first time to his songs we all were uncomprehending to this sound because we were never trained in listening to operas. Nomi combined his classical opera based tenor voice with new electronic sounds. Listening more and more of his music we got more addicted to him and most of us had one song on our set-list. Sadly he was one of the first that brought AIDS and what could happen to our minds. I found a very good reminiscence to his life and work here. Knowing that it's not everybody's cup of tea I would like to introduce him to you (if you don't know him) because his combination of Sparks and opera had a great influence to band from the next generation in America.

This one is a cover by a song from Marlene Dietrich:

Here's a rare document when Nomi were a background singer on a live appearance by David Bowie at Saturday Night Live from 1979.