For the rest of the week our worker's council sent me for a further training in labour law and communication and collaboration to Hamburg. So I had the idea to create some posts about the so called Hamburg school. It is a synonym for musical movement started at the end of the 80's until the mid 90's. Developed by new wave the bands combined elements of indie-rock, punk, grunge and pop and became an important part of German youth culture and made a new self-conception in using German language in popular music.
At the end of the 1980s, a German-language music scene was created in Hamburg, whose bands had no record contracts and did not release it anything. Only with the founding of the label L'age d'or in October 1988 this kind of music got a platform. One of the first acts that were signed was Huah! Formed by Frank Möller they made their very own thing between punk, hip-hop and soul. Sadly they never got the critical acclaim they should have.
Another band from Hamburg that never made great success was Kolossale Jugend. Named after Young Marble Giant's epic album Colossal Youth. This was guitar based indie rock, as it was so intense and reluctant at that time only American or British groups got it.
Another label that released bands from this genre was Alfred Hilsberg's What's So Funny About. Blumfeld's first albums were released on this label. Blumfeld are probably the ones that got success in these days. Their sound, originally strongly influenced by guitar feedback, turned into a more pop-oriented sound after the band was reshaped in the mid-1990s. The most important feature is the interleaved German lyrics, partly performed in voice vocals by the singer Jochen Distelmeyer, which combine their own emotional worlds with social criticism in pictorial language.
It was back in 1980 when a Welsh band released one the best records in the post punk /new wave are. Young Marble Giants made an extraordinary record that stood the test of time. I listened to this records very often during the last decades. Philip and Stuart Moxham made a great sound with a Rickenbacker guitar and the influences of Brian Eno and Kraftwertk. But the best they did was to combine this extraordinary sound with the voice of Alison Statton. Colossal Youth is one of the few and everlasting albums from this era. This is one more a session John Peel arranged in 1980 and still worth to listen after all these years. Different from the versions from the album it has an very unique atmosphere. Still worth to listen to.
It's spring and these are the days of decision in football. Leicester City made the miracle came true and won the Premier League - congrats to that this team. Bayern Munich will be number one in the Bundesliga again, in Spain it is very tight between the common teams of Barcelona and Madrid. Liverpool swept into the final. But for those who doesn't support the major teams there are very hard days to stand. So it happened to my team in Stuttgart. After losing their last games they stand on a relegation place. Finally it is the result of maladministration, permanent changing of the manager, and signing players which are not able to play on a higher level. Anyway, there is a small chance to stay in the Bundesliga if the reduce their playing on the gist. And it means that you have to fight if you are with the inadequate means of playing football. So I will go to my local pub this afternoon and watching out what happens.
The Gist is also a band I didn't listen often the last years. It was a project by Stewart Moxham after Young Marble Giants split. Love at first sight became well known but it wasn't typically for their sound. The record contains a lot of songs with YMG's deep and dominant bass and mostly in a reduced rhythm. A good record and worth to be played again.
After yesterday's post I was in the mood to check out some old German music again that had the spirit of John Lydon and the post punk era. One of those bands that appeared in the late 80s was Kolossale Jugend a band that was close to the so called Hamburg school that brought Germany a very new and rough sound in independent music. Named by a song from Young Marble Giants (Colossal Youth) they made a fantastic combination of post punk mixed with a bit of grunge and experimental pop. Their texts were often cryptic – half crazy, half brilliantly – however, the note which the band sound like was unequivocal. They freely rocked after the motto: According to and indirectly. They had an attitude by controlling their rage, always remained far away of every market compatibility. Their play was full of pressure and rousing. This is a song from their album Heile, Heile Bouches released in 1989 and it was a highlight for me in these times.
Back in real life after my military service and going to work as a regular employee in my job in a bank. I found my peace of mind spending eight hours in the office to hang around with my pals in the evening. It was also the days we formed a football team sponsored by the owner of the pub we hang around. This pub was hardly frequented especially on weekend. In the early 80s there are only two ways to serve music to your guest. Either you play a tape or you switch on the radio. So the idea grew that me and some friends will DJing on the weekends. And from then on I used to walk into the pub on Friday or Saturday with a wooden box full of records playing them to the audience. I remember some unforgettable evenings in these days. Looking back to the music I think a lot of classic songs were released. It's only a short list but man I love this songs.
Finally, I have the complete Internet access in my flat again. It has lasted long and has cost me many nerves and time. As usual, a small cause has generated big effect. It was simply due to the fact that the first engineer has laid the connection with the wrong port. I would not like to complain too much of this what was happened the last week separate look forwards. Now that I am technically able to continue blogging you will get more comments to the posts you do.
In the 'old' days Saturday was reserved for many weeks to a series about old TV-series. I will continue but today I would like to feature a band from the days of post-punk. Birmingham gave us the Au Pairs, a band that often was compared to Gang Of Four and the Young Marble Giants. Of course, they played that kind of funk GOF did and they had female lead vocals like YMG. The Au Pairs had only a small output on records in the time they existed but most of them was superb. I bought their first album Playing with Different Sex in the early 80s and it had a heavy rotation on my turntable. I liked their sound with a leading bass, stoic drums and thrifty guitar licks combined with lyrics that played with a blinky look at gender relations.
My time in the army comes to an end and the daily life will me have back again. I had hard times there but also good days in the army but I am longing for a ordinary life back in business and no one that teaches me what to do or not. Me and my army mates looked forward to end of march to get retired from this job. We had some last good days together and said goodbye to each others knowing that we will see no one again. But life doesn't work this way. We all got back in to our ordinary life again until a letter received from the military authority in August. This letter was sent to all reserve soldiers who got retired the last six month and told us to get our equipment handed out again. The reason therefor was the political development in Poland and the reaction of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. In this time the Polish workers stood up against the communist regime. Main reason was that the government has drastically increased the price of meat products and thus has triggered a wave of strikes, in the Lenin Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Walesa had its origin. What did this mean for me and my comrads? Nothing less than we placed to alert because the Soviet Union and some members of the Warsaw Pact sent their troops to the Polish border to support the Polish as they were also members of the Warsaw Pact.The western nations and the NATO took it as a chance to protect et the flower of democracy with also sending their troops to support the striking shipyard strikers. Now that we were so close to the war I realized that the last 15 month weren't a joke at all and that we had to defend the principles of democracy. I am still glad, that this conflict got to a final conclusion without using any guns and I didn't have to go to war.
So I could spent the rest of the year to plan my future life. The main thing that was in my head was to move out of my parents house as soon as possible. Not that I don't loved my parents but if I want to life a life of my own I should do it with all consequences. But this is a story that should be told next time.
And what do I remember in music this year?
Pink Floyd came back with a song, suitable for masses
The return of Motown into the international charts
Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders: Listened so often to this song all summer long
Peter Gabriel - Biko: The world recognize what happens in South Africa with the apartheid regime
Martha & the Muffins: New darker sound from over the Atlantic ocean. Cool at this time
American punk music from the Dead Kennedys: Not everybody's taste but a hit in the independent scene this year. A song against young people who think it's cool and hip to life in a slum.
Old song in a new stripped style: Still a great version after all this years
Maybe the best song from his last record
What would be a year in this time without any song from The Clash?
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Another great song from Gladys. It wasn't only new sounds we listened to.
Fusion - the sound for the ones that denied all new sounds. But Chuck Mangione and the rest made great music.
LP's released in 1980 that are still worth to be remembered:
Split Enz - True Colours: First record by the New Zealand New Wave band with the main songwriter Neil Finn. 'I got you' is a great song.
Young Marble Giants - Collosal Youth: A monster of a record. Minimalistic sounds with the beautiful voice of Alison Statton. Still incredible.
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Bass Culture: The London dub poet at his best. Song about peoples life in England spoken in clear words with a superb sound.
Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette: The disco queen turns from disco into reggae-New Wave with a lot of excellent songs on it.
The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight: The start of the neo-psychedelia
UB 40 - Signing Off: Smooth reggae for every one.
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades: The breaktrough for Lemmy and hard rock
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy: Every second song is great. The farewell from John Lennon before he was killed in NYC.
The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us: Debut of the garage-punk band with an epochal LP. They inspired the following psychobilly bands.
The movies we have seen in 1980:
Blues Brothers: Great story with great comedians Aykroyd and Belushi with guest appearance of a lot soul giants.
The Shining: One of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces. Jack Nicholson shows us how everyone can get insane - unbelievable.
The Elephant Man: David Lynch and his bleak movie based on a true story. That's not the way to treat handicapped people.
Raging Bull: Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro shows us the rise and fall of Jack LaMotta with impressive pictures.
The Fog: One of the best horror movies in this days (not only because there was less blood).
The Long Ryders: A classical western movie at the hight of time with a lot of stars
What happened in the world in 1980:
Robert Mugabe is elected as Prime Minister in Zimbabwe and the torture of his people begins; The Mi Amigo, the ship that housed pirate radio station Radio Carolina, sinks; U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States will boycott the Olympic Games in Moskow; Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while he celebrated a Mess in San Salvador; Yugoslav President Jozip Broz Tito dies - the country spits and will end in tragedy; Mount St. Helen erupts and in Europe it will rain ashes; former governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President; Victory in the strike of Gdansk Shipyard in Poland; Six Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in Maze prison refuse food and demand status as political prisoners; the hunger strike lasts from October until December the Gang of four trials begin in China; John Lennon was murdered in New York; Football European Championship was won by Germany 2:1 against Belgium.
Bought this record only because the cover and the line up with a horn section not knowing that this will be a love that didn't end until now. When I put the record on player I heard some snippets of Deep Purple, The Sex Pistols and The Specials that turned after the shouting of Kevin Rowland into an up-tempo soul song with a fantastic horn arrangement. I was speechless because I didn't heard a sound like this before. A brassy sound combined with the aggression and intensity of punk rock. They also had big influence of Northern Soul and all sounded like it was played and designed for the very first time. There are few records that means more to me. Not only the songs and the sound are great - also the lyrics were excellent. With the lyrics Kevin Rowland reached the top with his last year record with the Dexys.
Hope everything is done now for christmas and you can enjoy the time with your family and friends. There's nothing more to say right now. I follow the Drew's words:
