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.

Live Music On German TV

In the mid 90's Jarvis Cocker appeared with his band Pulp on the scene. Headdress, greasy hair, no modeling fretting, unbelievable dance style and yet - Jarvis Cocker was and is a sex symbol. Women, whom he did not even dare to look at in his entire youth, worship the man idolatly since he is in the spotlight with Pulp. With Different Class they released their masterpiece and Common People went to the top of the charts. Still a song that explores more than a bit of hip culture like Dead Kennedys did in Holidays In Cambodia.  But in the best days Cocker wrote songs that was nearly close to songs Ray Davis wrote decades ago. Songs that described live and situation in England at these days. I remember when I saw this footage for the first time and I really liked what I saw and heard. A few week later I saw them live and Pulp were at the top of their days and after 26 years you can listen to them with big joy.

 

Live Music On German TV

There were artists to any time that tried to do things no one did before. I could name many in music and it would be an almost endless list. Most of them have their reputation in music history but I will feature today one of the forgotten ones. The Monks were a band formed in Gelnhausen, close to Frankfurt, by five GI's in 1964 as the 5 Torquays as a beat-band playing in their barracks for fun. As they went for professionals they changed their style immense. Instead of beat they worked on a new sound and included sound experiments and psychedelic to their music. The songs often had not a real melody, the beat was heavy and often repetitive. A band that was truthfully ahead of their times. Today they are valid among musicians as a pioneer of the punk and influenced artists like The Beastie Boys, Dead Kennedys, The White Stripes or The Fall. This footage is from 1966 when they promoted their first album in the monthly music show Beat Club.