Live Music On German Television

 

From time to time it is necessary to revive an old series. For several years I have been posting film material from the seventies, mainly from the Beat Club, which was the most important medium for popular music at the time. While the bands still performed with playback at the beginning of the 60s, the bands were later required to present their songs live. It was remarkable that the producers of the format had very good taste in music and were far removed from the mass taste of the time in their choice of artists.

So it is not surprising that they gave the American band Fanny the opportunity to play two gigs in the early seventies. Fanny were one of the first bands to consist exclusively of women - long before the Bangles and GoGo's were formed. Consisting of two sisters, June and Jane Millington, both of Filipino origin, they played a form of melodic rock based on straightforward guitar/bass with great keyboard parts from Nickey Barcley. The vocals are reminiscent of Janis Joplin at his best and they had no problem covering Smokey Robinson's Ain't That Peculiar. All in all, a band that has unfortunately been forgotten, but is rediscovered from time to time. It also does justice to their class that David Bowie was a big fan.

Live Music On German TV - Once Again

 

During the last days I listened often to MC5, probably the most influential heavy band from Detroit. Their rough and earthy sound is still far above everything I listened to in my very younger days and influenced a lot of bands decades later. I can remember when I first saw this in 1972 on a Saturday afternoon and my parents couldn't understand why I loved this kind of music. It was probably one of their last live appearances before the band broke but shows exactly what they are famous for.

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

It was a couple of days ago when I searched on YouTube for something else when I found a live appearance by Julian Cope from October 1987. As mentioned in former post it was a format for young people in public broadcasting where they talked about themes who were the focus for us at the time. Every time after the discussions there were live appearances by mostly unknown bands. In these days it was a compulsory programme for me and my mates to perceive the ability to watch great music on television. Julian Cope played in this few minutes songs from Saint Julian an album that made him popular at my place. Still songs that are great and different to his releases during the last years. 

 

Live Music On German TV

 

Another post in a long living series of live music in German Television. Back then in the early 80's the airplay in radio stations for modern music for young people were a desert. I can remember when we were lucky that local radio station played rock music for just one or two hours each day. Me and my friends switched to AFN, the local radio station for American soldiers close to my town. It got better in the beginnings of the 80's when also local TV stations made formats for young people. Beside Beat-Club which were featured at this place for several times, Bavarian TV produced a format for twens where political and social themes were discussed by young people. I remember the first discussions about HIV and new right wing fascists in Germany that impressed me much and built the tenor of the thoughts and meanings I have right now. It was usual that after the discussions a band played a short live concert that was featured on TV. Searching for clips from Live From Alabama, an old concert hall in Munich, I found a lot of live performances that are worth to be featured now and during the next weeks. One of those was a concert by Everything But The Girl from May 1985 and it shows the abilities of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt playing songs from their first albums. They were great at this time and never lost anything of their attraction during the last decades. A footage that is superb for me.

Live Music On German Television

 

During the weekend I found another footage of a live concert. The Police appeared with a couple of songs from their debut album in 1979 in Bremen for a short show in the popular TV-show Beat Club. In these days the station had a great feeling for new bands and invited them alongside to other new bands like The Ramones. Outlandos d'Amour were one of the last albums I bought before I was drafted into the army in January 1979 because I was fascinated about the mixture of ska and reggae and their punk inspired sound. Their debut was fresh, new and mass compatible (a thing I really didn't expected) and still worth to listen to. Sadly they never reached the level again with their further albums.

Live Music On German Television

 

A few days ago I was in the mood to listen to glam rock again after a longer time. When I take a journey back into this era I always visit one of the best bands of this genre. Wolverhampton's Slade were the prototype of a working class based rock band and became leading bands of glam. Their sound is just a blues-rock influenced rock but Noddy Holder's voice made all their songs different and unique. In the early 70's the appeared several times on German television in shows by Beat Club and Musikladen and I can remember that they impressed me much watching them in my very early days.

Live Music On German TV

 

In the early 70's the music that was surround was stamped by blues-rock patterns. The older guys listened to their late 60's heroes like Canned Heat or Led Zeppelin. I grew up with them sound but didn't got very close to this sound. Once a friend introduced me to an Irish guitar slinger by the name of Rory Gallagher and I have to say he was the white one who could play a blues guitar like no other in these days. His first live album Live In Europe was one of the first records I bought and I play it from time to time with a smile on my face. This footage shows a live appearance in German television from 1972 a few years ago before he played the first Rockpalast show and he showed how great he was playing an acoustic guitar.

Live Music On German TV

 

It was in the early 70's when two brothers from Los Angeles appeared on the scene. Ron and Russel Mael came to play their very own kind of glam rock and I have to admit that I didn't heard something like this before or after. Inspired by British bands like The Kinks, The Move and early Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was their mastermind they made their masterpiece with their art-pop sound album Kimono My House from 1975. With their songs they were pre-punk, new wave and early synth-pop and had a massive influence to many bands and singers of the new wave era. This footage is an almost 15 minutes live appearance in the monthly show Musikladen. Love to see them after a long time and remembering a great and almost forgotten band.

Live Music On German Television

 

From time to time I come back to a series of live performances in German television I started a couple of years ago. The recent days I found a clip from an appearance by The Byrds in 1971. It is an almost 14 minutes long version of Eight Miles High but frankly speaking it has nothing more in common with the original than a few chords but shows a side of the band that is seldom heard. This version is like The Byrds jamming with Little Feat and or Grateful Dead. What makes this song great is to listen to the superb bass played by Skip Battin and the guitar picking by Clarence White. It is a kind of stuff they don't do in this days anymore.

Uschi Nerke, the little lady appearing at the start of the songs tells the story behind the song: five years before, 8 Miles High had been banned from US radio. The song they're performing is a new version from the album Untitled.

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.

Live Music On German Television

Crawling through the internet I stumbled over a song I didn't listen to for ages. Johnny Vortex by Steve Gibbons Band was one of my favourites outside the punk/new wave sound. Steve Gibbons was almost 20 years on stage when he got a little famous in the late 70's for transmitting the sound of pub rock and rock and roll into a new era. Listening to covered songs by Chuck Berry, Bob Kelly and also his own songs were and are still a pleasure. Probably one of the best musicians/artists in his very own space of music in days long gone by.

Live Music On German Television

Last week I posted the appearance of Jimi Hendirx Experience when German Beat Club went to London to play some bands live at the Marquee Club in London back in 1967. This show would not be complete without the live appearance of The Who.

You might like them or not. But for me they were one of those bands that made the difference to many other bands in these days. One of the most divergent singers in the early 60's, the steady bass of John Entwistle, the extraordinary guitar by Pete Townshend were the trademarks of this band. But for me Keith Moon was the leading figure of The Who. I never heard any drummer before or after playing the drums like he did. He counted with his extremely dynamic, quick play and his exatelted appearance to the most remarkable drummers of his time. Listen to his playing on Live At Leeds and you might understand what I mean. Looking at this footage I have to say: Mod rules.

Live Music On German Television

The monthly Beat-Club in normal manner worked this way: they invited some bands and they appeared and presented there songs while the music came from somewhere else. In 1967 they broke with this rules and the team from the broadcasting station moved to London. They rented the Marquee Club and several bands made a short appearance live. Jimi Hendrix Experience was one of the line up for these show (The Who and Geno Washington were the other ones). Stone Free, Purple Haze and Hey Joe show the genius of him. Never before and later I didn't heard anyone playing the guitar like him. Thrilling to watch this again after a few years.