I was a young Anglo-rock radical back in the halcyon days of the late 1960’s and took a road trip up to San Francisco to see The Move in concert at the Fillmore West. The bill also featured Joe Cocker & the Grease Band + Little Richard. That weekend the free spirit of rock and roll rattled the walls of the Fillmore with creative innovation and electric energy.

Now through what seems like some sort of divine intervention, in early February, a brand new Move DBL CD, Live At The Fillmore West 1969, due to be released in the UK on the Right Recordings label.

Recorded direct from the monitor desk, Carl Wayne kept the original tapes in his personal archives in hopes they would someday see a release. Now, more than 40 years later, cleaned up using the latest technology, you can relive The Move in concert circa 1969, Raw & Alive!

I was very familiar with The Move’s music at that time as I had import releases of all of their records. What I didn’t expect, was that in addition to their great singles, the band could rattle the walls live on stage. They were an incredibly loose band, with high-voltage guitar arrangements, and very LOUD!

The 100 minutes of previously unreleased music you will hear on these two CD’s demonstrates just how powerful a band The Move was Live. For their US tour, they had consciously designed their set to be different from what they normally played in the UK. They diversified, playing heavier, more extended versions with complicated arrangements of tracks from what was to be their next album release Shazam. In essence, they wanted to let their hair down and go all out.

Their set at the Fillmore included songs by Todd Rundgren, “Open My Eyes” & “Under the Ice”, along with Gerry Goffin & Carole King’s “Goin’ Back”, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby Blue”, Tom Paxton’s “Last Thing on My Mind” and “Field’s of People”, originally done by the US band Ars Nova. The Move versions are heavily rhythmic and filled with harmonies. They reinterpreted vintage songs and to make them their own.

The Woody originals reincarnated into full-blown rave-ups here are – “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited”, “Hello Susie” & “I Can See the Grass Grow”, all of which are expanded on and turned into high voltage audio mind candy.

The magnum opus of The Move Live At The Fillmore West 1969 is “Field’s of People”. The Move’s Fillmore LIVE version of a track by US band Ars Nova featuring Roy’s instrumental arrangement and playing on that track clearly illustrates his genius. The incredible solo on the “Banjar’ when witnessed live, stage dark, spotlight shining on Roy’s hands picking his instrument, golden light reflecting around the ballroom walls was jaw dropping.

As a special bonus, included is a Bev Bevan’s audio track featuring his colorful recollections of The Move’s 3-week tour and road trip on Route 66 across the US in ’69. His stories and details are funny and fascinating.

Topping the set off is a 10-page booklet filled with vintage Move photos from the tour, recollections about the band and love of the music, all of which kept this project alive over decades until it could finally see the light of day in 2011.

Upstairs, I know Carl is smiling now, and most certainly listening to this music via Translove Airwaves wireless network.

-Archie Patterson

Hear the January 6th US Radio Special Program featuring a 60-minute Preview of the new Move album:
2012 USA Move Radio Special

“1970 rollin’ in sight…”

On May 15, 1970, I drove up to SF with a friend to see Iggy and The Stooges for the first time. Bill Graham began his rock empire producing shows at the original Fillmore Auditorium 1805 Geary Street before moving into bigger digs downtown at Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue and re-christening his new venue the Fillmore West. The Flamin’ Groovies in 1970 re-opened the old venue on the corner of Fillmore and Geary as the New Old Fillmore, and kicked off the festivities with one helluva weekend marathon concert. The bill consisted of: The Groovies, Purple Earthquake, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Iggy and the Stooges, plus Alice Cooper. All for the incredible price of $2.50!

A relatively small intimate place, the auditorium rocked that night. The Groovies were then approaching their peak, playing wicked tricked out rock ‘n’ roll. Purple Earthquake (later just Earth Quake) came from Beserkley across the Bay. They were one of my fave power pop bands, headed up by singer John Doukas, and featuring ace guitarist Robbie Dunbar. Commander Cody and his Airmen, also hailed from the East Bay, their live sound in those early days fusing country/ folk into an offbeat form of psychobilly. Alice Cooper was the LA headliner. A unique spectacle in sequined pants, with naked boobs stenciled on his sleeveless t-shirt and thick and dark mascara shrouded eyes. While Alice was the focus, the highlight however was his amazing band dressed in glitzy satin and sequins. They played tracks from the first three albums, filling the hall with powerful guitar crescendos, creating a wall of freak rock sound.

Then there were the Motor City madmen Iggy and his Stooges. Fresh off releasing FUN HOUSE, the band was like molten hot sludge, hard and tight, sonically overwhelming. Iggy himself a roiling mass of human flesh on the prowl, spastic dancing, crawling around the floor, licking people and howling like a dog in heat. All the while, the stoic Rock Action and Dave Alexander rhythm section lay down a bone-crunching backdrop as Ron Ashton shredded notes demonically, his acid fuzzed guitar leads laced with banshee wails of wah wah overload. The concert finale was the sonic horror show, LA Blues, highlighted by Stephen Mackay’s screeching, splattering sax with Iggy wailing and flailing. They played all of FUN HOUSE and THE STOOGES. It’s was primal performance art, jacked up to the max and full of latent menace and a touch of insanity. I had never seen or heard anything remotely like it before or since.

The next times I saw Iggy were early in 1973 at The Whisky A Go Go in LA just before RAW POWER came out, then again in September after the album was released. The first time the band was ragged and raunchy.

The second show in September ’73 was yet another revelation. Iggy’s performance was a full on fire and brimstone spectacle. Dressed in knee-high black patent leather boots, skintight black satin bikini underwear and hair bleached platinum blonde, his voice seethed with emotions reflecting the very embodiment of each song title. Ron had switched to bass while new Stooge James Williamson took over lead guitar, injecting his laser-like guitar lines and high-pitched fuzz solos into a searing performance of the albums new songs. The band was as tight as the Ig’s well endowed bikinis, and the sonic ambiance extraordinary. It was like a high fashion freak show happening”, with The Whisky teetering on the brink of chaos. Iggy, the band, and audience, all caught up in the heat of the moment.

After the show, I met up with “Metal Mike” Saunders who asked if I wanted to visit the bands dressing room upstairs. Ushered into the inner sanctum we spent 15 minutes sitting on a bare floor talking with Ron while Iggy prowled the room in his leather cheetah jacket with two of LA’s finest young rock she creatures from the Hollywood Hills, one on each arm. It was an interesting postscript to a gonzo LA glam rock experience.

In early 1974, I saw the band again at Bimbo’s 365 Club, up in SF. Gone was the platinum hair and make-up. The band was also trying out new material, Head On, Cock in My Pocket, I Gotta A Right, as well as some others later to emerge, officially on KILL CITY, or later boots. Along with those, they also did a few golden oldie Stooge nuggets. The small club was filled with various denizens of the SF scene dressed in space suits with tin foil helmets, several people rowdy and drunk, throwing things at the stage, then someone yelled out, “Iggy honey you want some doo doo” and all bets were off. The band tore through a violent and abusive set then was gone. I remember wondering after just how long this bad trip could go on…

Iggy and The Stooges RAW POWER LIVE – In the Hands of the Fans
[2011, MVD Visual MVD 5234D]

Iggy and The Stooges were resurrected after The Millennium, have recorded again and been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll hall of Fame. Iggy performed on American Idol. He and the band have also become idols that influenced many a young wanna be punk. One of rocks elder statesmen now, he still throws himself completely with total abandon into each live performance. Life is a long, strange trip indeed.

Their new DVD release, filmed in Live at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, September 3, 2010, establishes Iggy and The Stooges as true survivors of rock ‘n’ roll. Ron Ashton and Dave Alexander are gone, but the core trio of Iggy, Scott, James + Mike Watt on base reincarnates the original spirit of that music with their performance for all to see. Now in the comfort of their living room theater and wide screen plasma TV – did I say strange?

This 17-track set includes the complete RAW POWER album along with highlights from their early albums. The DVD documents that performance beautifully from multi-camera angles proving without doubt that musically they’ve not lost an ounce of their intensity. In addition, as part of the concept, the fans also get their say, asking questions in a Special Interview segment the band offers insightful, candid answers. The give and take as well as mutual appreciation between the band and their fans is truly warming. Topping things off, the old music still sounds unique, like nothing else being made all these years later.

Iggy and The Stooges now are obviously happy as hell to be playing. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Iggy came through it all healthy, deeply analytical, animated and hilarious. The quote at the top of this story comes from the interview when asked how he would describe the Stooges, answering with eyes wide, waving his arms; he excitedly proclaims it on the video. The only thing I might add is perhaps the original Stooges of the 1970’s were not so much puppies, but more like pit bulls. That is clearly water under the bridge now however. It is great to see the band still alive and makin’ noise today!

The Stooges: HEAD ON – A Journey Through the Michigan Underground
[Published 2011, Wayne State University Press]

Adding to their legend as well is the new book by Brett Callwood. There have been many books written about Iggy, but none that truly delved deep into the history of the band and all its members. I have read parts of the others, but I saw the band many times up close and to me on some level rock ‘n’ roll really is a living, breathing organism that perhaps best tells its own story. All you have to do is listen.

The Stooges – HEAD ON… however adds human clarity to much of the journalistic muck out there. It any band is legendary in US rock history it’s Iggy and the Stooges. No one went where that band did, on a “death trip”, and for the most part lived to tell it. Their history should be documented. They embodied the essence of rock ‘n’ roll meets urban angst, for a large segment of modern young white males Sociology set to a metallic KO soundtrack.

Callwood’s book does that well, detailing their destructive behavior, yet not falling prey to tabloid journalism. He instead did in depth research, digging out facts, doing interviews with the living original principals and many other notables of the early Michigan rock scene. By reading you learn just who they are/ were, where the members came from, how they all came together to form The Stooges, why and what happened to the band that went on to become the ultimate prototypes of sex, drugs and the punk rock lifestyle.

It is no small miracle they made it. They were self-destructive, loved by no one but the hardcore fans in their day, yet in the end they survived and even prospered. Not everyone got out of the past 60+ years alive. Those of us who did have collectively grown old together and now share stories reflecting how the music we listened to influenced and got us to where we are now. That is the ultimate testimonial to the power music can have, conveying deep emotional connections and visceral messages across generations, to shape and change people lives.

Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Emerson Lake & Palmer
40th Anniversary Reunion Concert,
High Voltage Festival – July 25, 2010

It has been a long and interesting journey for ELP. Formed in 1970, the UK music press dubbed them the first supergroup. They were a band composed of integral parts from three big UK bands of the time: The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster. Imagine just how super they might have been if Hendrix had not died as he was also rumored to be interested in joining the trio as well. ELP were the first band to combine rock, classical and jazz into a new and unique musical fusion that sounded like no one else, Today they are still today worshiped by fans around the world, and derided by hip critics as utterly pretentious. At the end of the video-doc on the new DVD when asked to characterize what ELP meant, Keith answers tongue in cheek, “Extra Large Parts, (Lol), or Everyone Loves Potatoes, that’s really what ELP stands for. (Lol)”

I will digress here before getting into the concert and outline my own introduction to the band. It was a natural evolution, which, began early, progressed from musical fandom into involvement in the periphery of “the business”, then ultimately a lifelong love of music of all sorts.

I was raised on records… In 1958 at the ripe old age of 10 years old, I grabbed my allowance, ran to Sherman Clay music store, and bought my first rock record – “It’s Only Make Believe” by Conway Twitty. I promptly fell in love – hard – with rock and roll. Watching Dick Clark’s Bandstand and Saturday Night Show became my religion. I was fortunate to be able to see them as my parents had just bought our first black and white TV set. Race music had entered the white mainstream a few years before, so my, and most, white kids lives would never be the same afterwards.

Next came the teenage years. We took yearly family trips back to Colorado visiting my grandparents. It was so cool, I got to sleep in the basement and listen late at night to the 100,000-watt radio station KOMA out of Oklahoma City. Bang! Lying in bed nights, I heard over two consecutive summers – The Who “I Can’t Explain”, “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” and “My Generation” (1964-1965). That turned my head inside out.

A finer man there never was than grandpa as he gifted me one Christmas with a subscription to Melody Maker magazine from the UK. There a small-classified advert led me to Records LTD on Dugdale Street, in Nuneaton, UK and one Peter Auerbach who proceeded to supply me with all the UK 7” vinyl goodies I could afford. That was how I discovered The Move via their 1st 1966 single, “Night of Fear” on the Deram label, followed by many others including The Nice single “America” (1967). I became an Anglophiliac.

I graduated from high school in 1966, got my first car, and bought one of those nifty RCA Automatic 45 RPM car record players MODEL AP-1. It was installed under the dashboard and hooked up directly into the radio. Now I could cruise and pick my own playlist, which consisted of lots of UK pop/ psych and US garage bands.

Meanwhile my UK connection was now turning me on to LPs as well, including the first three albums by The Nice. I also then was hanging out with a cat name “Big Mike” Goodman who got regular handbills from the Fillmore West in SF, so we began making pilgrimages up to “the City” for concerts.

In December 1969, we headed up to see The Chambers Brothers, The Nice & King Crimson. The bad news was that, so the story goes, on the road up from LA, Crimson had broken up and the opening act was instead AUM (a local jamming blues-rock power trio led by Wayne Ceballos). The good news was that The Nice and Keith Emerson’s keyboard playing knocked me down flat on the floor. For the most part, they played their third album THE NICE, and Keith went off completely. As a band the Nice did a good job of showcasing his prodigious talents, amazing keyboard technique and showmanship. To this day that remains in my mind one of the most amazing concerts I ever witnessed. After the show, we went to “Tommy’s”, a famous SF Burger joint known as rock star hangout, for a hit the road meal and lo and behold, there was Keith all alone downing a burger and fries after Midnight. We said hello, had a very short chat and got on our way back to the San Joaquin Valley digging on Wolfman Jack’s midnight howling from his 100,000-watt station in Chula Vista. Ah, those were the days…

The Nice was fated to break up however. The seeds had been planted for a supergroup that would follow and in many ways change the face of rock music, as we knew it back then. Emerson Lake and Palmer was born a short time later in 1970.

It was almost two years after The Nice at the Fillmore that ELP first toured the US in 1971 and I saw them in the East Bay at The Berkeley Community Theater, a short while before TARKUS was done. They played the first album, which in my mind still stands up as the purest distillation of their musical essence. The band’s arrangements and playing were impeccable. Keith’s performance was relatively tame in comparison to The Nice, but visions of the bands greatness to come were definitely on display that evening.

I saw them several more times during their long career, reaching the heights of composition and showmanship perhaps with BRAIN SALAD SURGERY, and the depths with LOVE BEACH. I also got to see them during their BLACK MOON US Tour in 1998. Many fans didn’t like the album, as it was a bit more song oriented. I did and they performed it great + added a few “oldies” as well. I got backstage passes from Rhino Records for producing the labels “Prog Box” and took my then 17-year-old #1 son to the show. It was nice chatting afterwards and the band seemed genuinely happy to be doing their thing again.

In 2010, to commemorate their 40-year anniversary, they were invited to reform and headline “London’s 1st Annual High Voltage Rock Festival” on July 25th. After 12 years of various solo projects, they decided to get back together and began extensive rehearsals. When I heard about it, I wondered how it would turn out. I myself am no longer a “Prog head”, never really was in reality as my musical attention span always was prone to genre bending listening flights of fancy, and now today I’ve listened to more music than I can remember, some say too much.

In addition, back then, the music they created at 20+ years old was completely original, incredibly complex and conceptual, in many ways a revolution in the context of rock. Their shows were new, creative and majestic in terms of both music and presentation. So the question is, at 60+ years of age, after not playing together for so long could they pull the whole thing off and not be a parody of their former selves. At midpoint through the concert, the answer to that had become obvious. They put on a great 90-minute show in spite of having to trim their set on the fly by 20 minutes due to the previous band running over its time allotment.

Musically, their performance was unbelievably good considering their time off and complexity of the music they make. In the old days, much of the time they played as young men possessed. Today 40 years later the music at times had a touch of swing to it, at times, a bluesy inflection was added in places and overall it contained a sense of emotional depth that only comes with the years passing. The band clearly now feels how much that music has meant to their lives as musicians, as well as the lives of their fans, old and new.

Personal highlights were “Karn Evil 9: Ist Impression – Part 2”, “Knife Edge”, “Tarkus” “Farewell to Arms” (Greg’s Lake’s lyrics and vocals gave me chills), “Pictures At An Exhibition”, and their show ending medley – the hit single “Fanfare for the Common Man”/ “Drum Solo”/ “Rondo”. Aaron Copeland, Carl’s amazing drum spotlight, Dave Brubeck, all musically interpreted by Keith Emerson underlined by Greg’s rock solid bottom end. That’s classic rock and roll – ELP style!

After 40 years, it’s a joy watching this DVD and see ELP prove they could still put on a great show, performing their original neo-classic rock-jazz interpretations and powerful “Prog Pop” songs. It still is remarkable to me that just three men with their instruments can make such full dynamic music that sounds as unique today as it did yesterday. Perhaps the best way to summarize the bands place in music history is Carl Palmer’s quote from the Special Bonus feature on the DVD, a 20-minute concert documentary with interviews featuring the band members, close friends and journalist Chris Welch. He proudly proclaims, “We were definitely the first of the great rock and roll shows.” Indeed!

Post Fukushima – News of Japan has Subsided…

In the past two weeks however I learned while talking to old friend Hiro Kawahara that the air, water, rice and meat are all now above safe radiation levels in Tokyo.

Over Labor Day weekend, my engineer “Doktor” Bob and I created a Special Eurock Podcast, dedicated to Japan, 40 minutes of music featuring Heretic’s album REQUIEM.

While the media moves from one sensational headline to the next, it is important to always know and understand the real human story and consequences of what happens. In many ways music can tell a story, in this case it will give you chills and fill your heart with the deepest of emotions for all the people going through the aftermath of this disaster.

You can Download the Podcast now via iTunes, or directly from Eurock.com, then watch and listen in QuickTime.

Download at: www.eurock.com/Podcasts/EurockLive20.m4a

Read the recent Eurock interview with Hiro Kawahara

Beware of the Blog Interview

WFMU Radio Program

KBOO “La Ruleta” Interview


“In the past year Eurock has begun a new era reincarnated as a Webzine and media portal. Recently long time supporter Tony Coulter moved from NYC to PDX. After decades we finally met face to face and had a great time reminiscing. Tony has had a program on WFMU NYC radio for 25 years and did many interviews with Euro and other musical luminaries. He also now also has a blog for the station and in DEC 2009 interviewed me. What resulted was a quite nice history of Eurock. In AUG 2011, he also had me guest host his radio show and I featured 3 hours of music, by 6 artists, from 6 different countries, featuring some of the best progressive, experimental and electronic music from around the globe today. In addition, another local artist and radio programmer Alejandro Ceballos invited me on his ‘La Ruleta’ program on KBOO FM Portland. We had a wide ranging talk about the history of Mexican progressive music and Eurock. At the links above you can experience all three of these Eurock adventures. Enjoy!”


http://tinyurl.com/6l9kgru

The Plastic People of the Universe were a band who made music as an act of creation for a less material “second culture”, not centered on marketing and selling. In the process, they were banned by the Czech government and various members were thrown in jail.

The government informed them they had to obtain a license to perform or quit playing. They then went underground and played secretly. Their earliest music recorded underground were tapes for their first two albums, Egon Bondy’s Happy Hearts Club Banned and the Hundred Points. Smuggled out of the country both were released by indie labels in France and the USA respectively.

For 20 years the band continued being jailed and performing until the mid 1980s when pressure for around the world, especially the international human rights organization Charter 77 led by Vaclav Havel, got them freed. Ultimately, in 1989, the “Velvet Revolution” occurred in Czechoslovakia and the communist government was overthrown.

The Plastic People broke up in 1988, but reformed in 1997 when then President of the Czech Republic Havel invited them to perform for the 20th anniversary of Charter 77. The surviving members of the band are still performing today.

What follows here is a historical recounting of that period featuring original documents. In this laissez fair day and age, it may seem fantastical that they were persecuted simply for playing rock music. It is true nonetheless and perhaps that is why music today has become more of a commodity than the soul and spirit of youth back as it was back then.

The Plastic People were born in the wake of the “Prague Spring”, 1968, a month after the subsequent Russian Invasion, tanks rolled down the streets of Prague toppling the liberal communist government of Alexander Dubček.

Led by bassist Milan “Mejla” Hlavsa, who had been in various bands previously, the Blue Monsters, Vagabonds, Primitives, a/o., the PPU took their name from The Mothers of Invention song of the same title on Absolutely Free. Their other musical influences were loosely the Fugs, Captain Beefheart and the Velvet Underground. Later in 1973, Hlavsa also was involved in another infamous Czech underground band DG 307.

In 1969, Czech art historian and cultural critic Ivan “Magor” Jirous became their manager and artistic director. The following year, Canadian Paul Wilson, who had been teaching English in Prague, became the bands English tutor so they could sing in English the lyrics of the American songs they covered. He also translated their original Czech lyrics into English. Along with keyboardist Josef Janíček, viola player Jiří Kabeš and with Paul Wilson as lead singer, the band performed professionally.

In 1970, their performance license was revoked when they refused to audition before the Ministry of Culture. In effect, they were banned, and their equipment confiscated. Subsequently, they went underground playing at weddings, parties and spontaneous happenings in country barns and basements in town. From that time on, they operated always in fear of arrest by the authorities and were in and out of jail on several occasions.

As Ivan Jirous explains it in his Report on the Third Czech Music Revival:

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“I always felt angry towards other relatively decent rock groups when, in the early seventies, they began to try to make an official name for themselves, when they surrendered to the establishment demands for the right to play any kind of music whatsoever. Why did these musicians do it? I think it was because they lacked, and still lack, an understanding of what art is, what its function in the world is, and what the responsibilities of those who have been given the gift of creativity. The Plastic People maintained their integrity not because they were good musicians: in other rock groups of the time, there were better musicians. But in the most difficult period, when the plastic lacked equipment, when they had nothing to fall back on and no ;public prospects, one thing was clear to them: it is better not to play at all than to play music that does not come from one’s convictions. It is better not to play at all than to play what the establishment demands. Even that is putting it too mildly. It is not better, it is essential.

The establishment has no power to prevent playing those who reject all the advantages that flow from being professional musicians. The establishment can only put pressure on those who what to be better off than the rest. For those who want to lead a better life – not in terms of material security, but in the sense of following the truth – the long arm of the establishment is too short. Only artists who understand that they have been given the gift of art so that through it they may celebrate those close to them will be worthy of being called artists. ‘The great artist of tomorrow will go underground,’ wrote Marcel Duchamp at the end of his life. He did not use the word underground to indicate a new trend. He meant the underground as a new mental attitude of the honest artist reacting against the dehumanization and prostitution of values in a consumer society.

In the West, many people who because of their mentality could be counted among our friends live in confusion. Here the lines of demarcation have been drawn clearly once and for all. Nothing that we can do will possibly please the representatives of official culture because it cannot be used to create the impression that everything is in order. Things are not in order.

There has never been a period in human history that could be considered an exclusively happy one, and genuine artists have always been those who have drawn attention to the fact that things are not in order. This is why one of the highest aims of art has always been the creation of unrest. The aim of the underground here in Bohemia is the creation of a second culture, one that will not be dependent on the official channels of communication, social recognition, and the hierarchy of values laid down by the establishment. A culture that helps those who embrace it rid themselves of the skepticism, which says nothing can be done when those who make the culture desire little for themselves and much for others.”

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The band continued undaunted nonetheless recording during that time their first album underground entitled, Egon Bondy’s Happy Hearts Club Banned. The lyrics for that album were writings by the famous surrealist dissident Czech poet Egon Bondy. He was one of the most prolific Czech writers and philosophers publishing over 50 books of poetry, history and philosophy during his life most of which were only published and distributed in the literary underground. The primitive music of the PPU coupled with his minimalist lyrics make for some of the most raw and compelling music, you will hear.

The tapes for the album were smuggled out of Czechoslovakia to France where Jacques Pasqier created a new label, SCOPA Invisible, and released it in 1974. He made contact with me early in 1975 asking me to handle promotion and distribution via Eurock in the USA. The release of that album and the subsequent press generated a minor sensation worldwide. As it later turned out, the release of that album played a part in the movement that led to the formation of the Charter 77 rights organization. During this time, the band was constantly harassed and Jirous was jailed. In spite of that, they continued sporadic performances.

In 1980, I was sent a communication and several articles relating to the Czech underground from Toronto updating me on the Plastic’s situation in Czechoslovakia. At the bottom of the letter included was the notation, “Remember to use pseudonym.”

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“I do not like talking about the PPU in relation to politics because their music has more to do with human relations. But I can’t avoid it because the first thing I am always asked is “are they out jail yet?”, as if jail were some kind of bottom line from which to judge the tolerability or intolerability of their situation. The short answer to the question is no, but a lot of other people in Czechoslovakia are, including some of the bands more active fans who were imprisoned for spreading tapes of underground music around and letting banned singers perform in their flats, along with other heinous crimes against the state. Ivan Jirous, the artistic director of the Plastics, was released from his third prison term last April, and as far as I know, has not yet been rearrested. Apart for that, there are still dozens, if not hundreds of people in prison there for their contribution to the cause of human rights, and the situation shows every sign of getting worse. Therefore, the fact that the PPU are not now in prison is good news only in relation to the vast sea of bad news that surrounds it.

The second question I am frequently asked is “are they still playing?’ The answer here is yes, but again, it should not be interpreted to mean they are gigging around the country, skipping from secret venue to secret venue like scarlet pimpernels, on-step ahead of the secret police. The fact is that since 1972 they have never played a normal, fully public, aboveground concert. Since the bands arrest in 1976, they have been constantly harassed by the police and as a result have only managed to perform before a live audience two or three times. Each time, however, they have performed a major new work, an amazing feat considering they have practically no place to practice. I have tapes of these pieces, and I believe that their new music will assure them of a place in some eventual revisionist history of rock (if it ever gets written, quite apart from the unusual circumstances that shaped that band and made them, for a time at least, a “success de scandal” in Europe or North America.

The first piece is called the “Hundred Points” It was recorded live at the “Third Music Festival of the Second Culture” on October 1, 1977, and the piece has an interesting history behind it. When the band was first arrested in March 1976, an article appeared in an English left-wing paper quoting some of the Plastic’s lyrics, including a long, heavily political song called the “Hundred Points” that the Plastic’s had never done, let along seen. I was in Prague at the time when I saw the article and when I saw the article. I was livid because the communist press had been printing vulgar lyrics the Plastics had never sung to discredit them (see Eurock Vol.2, No. 2 for example). Now the left wing press had descended to the same kind of falsehood, though with the best intentions, (the ends justify the means) in order to make the Plastics palatable and sympathetic to people who could only hear what the music was saying if the ideology was right.

When I showed the article to the band, their reaction astonished me. They said, “There’s only one thing we can do now, do it!

It was a brilliant solution. Rather than going through the rather complicated hassle of denying the “Hundred Points”, they simply had it translated into Czech and set it to music. Thus, they made the article in the English paper retroactively true.

The “Hundred Points” represents a breakthrough for the PPU. First, it was their longest and most complex piece of music to date, and to deal with it they expanded the band to include strings and other sound effects that gave their music a new dimension in sound as well as scope. Secondly, it represented their first excursion into handling lyrics that were overtly political. How brilliantly they dealt with the whole situation. The music is completely free of any anger, sarcasm or exaggerated sentimentality that usually goes along with politically “engaged” art. Through the music and delivery they transform what could have been simply a cheap, declamatory text into a liberating affirmation of their own strength, the strength of people who have utterly rejected what the establishment has to offer and gone on to create something far better in its place.”

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A Hundred Points

They are afraid of the old for their memory.
They are afraid of the young for their innocence.
They are afraid even of schoolchildren.
They are afraid of the dead and their funerals.
They are afraid of graves and the flowers people put on them.
They are afraid of churches, priests and nuns.
They are afraid of workers.
They are afraid of party members.
They are afraid of those who are not in the party.
They are afraid of science.
They are afraid of art.
They are afraid of books and poems.
They are afraid of theatres and films.
They are afraid of records and tapes.
They are afraid of writers and poets.
They are afraid of journalists.
They are afraid of actors.
They are afraid of painters and sculptors.
They are afraid of musicians and singers.
They are afraid of radio stations.
They are afraid of TV satellites.
They are afraid of free flow of information.
They are afraid of foreign literature and papers.
They are afraid of technological progress.
They are afraid of printing presses, duplicators and Xeroxes.
They are afraid of typewriters.
They are afraid of photo telegraphs and telexes.
They are afraid of automatic telecommunications with abroad.
They are afraid of letters.
They are afraid of telephones.
They are afraid to let people out.
They are afraid to let people in.
They are afraid of the left.
They are afraid of the right.
They are afraid of departure of the Soviet troops.
They are afraid of changes of the ruling clique in Moscow.
They are afraid of détente.
They are afraid of disarmament.
They are afraid of treaties have signed.
They are afraid for the treaties have signed.
They are afraid of their own police.
They are afraid of the spies.
They are afraid for their spies.
They are afraid of chess-players.
They are afraid of tennis-players.
They are afraid of hockey-players
They are afraid of gymnast girls.
They are afraid of St. Venceslas.
They are afraid of Master Jan Hus.
They are afraid of all the saints.
They are afraid of gifts to the kids on St Nicholas.
They are afraid of Santa Claus.
They are afraid of knapsacks being put on the statues of Lenin.
They are afraid of archives.
They are afraid of historians.
They are afraid of economists.
They are afraid of sociologists.
They are afraid of philosophers.
They are afraid of physicists.
They are afraid of physicians.
They are afraid of political prisoners.
They are afraid of the families of prisoners.
They are afraid of today’s evening.
They are afraid of tomorrow’s morning.
They are afraid of each and every day.
They are afraid of the future.
They are afraid of old age.
They are afraid of heart attacks and cirrhosis.
They are afraid even of that tiny trace of conscience that may still be left in them.
They are afraid out in the streets.
They are afraid inside their castle ghettoes.
They are afraid of their families.
They are afraid of their relatives.
They are afraid of their former friends and comrades.
They are afraid of their present friends and comrades.
They are afraid of each other.
They are afraid of what they have said.
They are afraid for their position.
They are afraid of their position.
They are afraid of water and fire.
They are afraid of wet and dry.
They are afraid of snow.
They are afraid of wind.
They are afraid of frost and heat.
They are afraid of noise and peace.
They are afraid of light and darkness.
They are afraid of joy and sadness.
They are afraid of jokes.
They are afraid of the upright.
They are afraid of the honest.
They are afraid of the educated.
They are afraid of the talented.
They are afraid of Marx.
They are afraid of Lenin.
They are afraid of all our dead presidents.
They are afraid of truth.
They are afraid of freedom.
They are afraid of democracy
They are afraid of Human Rights’ Charter.
They are afraid of socialism.

So why the hell are WE afraid of THEM?

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Along with the documents came a master tape with artwork and 30 minutes of music the PPU had recorded, it was the “Hundred Points”. Eurock released it in 1980 as a cassette only production. That release generated a further heightened awareness and good deal of media about the Plastics music and human rights cause. The communication continued elaborating further:

————————————————————————-

“In retrospect, the bands next step seems entirely logical: from political music that rise above conventional politics they moved on to music that transcend religion. In April 1978, they Plastics performed and taped what I think is their greatest work so far – their ceremonial Easter rock “Passion Play”. If the Who legitimized the rock opera, the PPU should be given credit for doing the same thing for the Passion play, an art form that has deeper roots in European musical history and theatrical tradition than opera does.
People who take anti-religious sentiments for granted may find their “Passion Play” somewhat difficult to penetrate until they realize that what the Plastics have done is to make an important human statement which is also, incidentally, a statement of their own faith. They have reinjected into a central myth of our civilization – the suffering and death of Christ – a sense of drama, immediacy, relevance and intensity that you will hardly find anywhere in Western music of this genre this side of Handel. The focus however is not so much on the divinity of Christ or the revelation of divine order in the universe. It is on the fate of a man who comes forward with a message of truth, which is in fact a radical vision that raises the humble, the poor, the sick and the outcast to the status of inheritors of the earth.

Of course, he is betrayed, tried and put to death by his own people because law and order in this outpost of the Roman Empire is more than justice or truth. As the PPU present it, belief in the story of Christ is not a matter of suspending your rationality, but simply of having your eyes open. The passion of Christ becomes a direct representation of life in a dictatorship, where friends can become police informers and people are jailed or hounded to death or driven into exile for simply trying to live by the truth as they see it.
Even if you knew nothing about that however, were agnostic or atheistic, and did not understand Czech, the music itself is magnificent and compelling. It is by far the best synthesis of theme and sound that the bad has ever achieved, proving again, as all great works in the rock tradition have done, that rock is still a medium of infinite flexibility and infinite capacity to absorb other forms and influences while remaining inspired and inspiring at the gut level.

The Plastics, according to a rumor that just reached me have apparently completed another major piece of music, which they recorded this past summer. Entitled, “Jak ude po Smrti” (How to be Dead), as far as I know no copies have reached the West. They have been working on it for well over a year: putting the works of Czech philosopher Ladislav Klima (1878-1928) to music. Klima is one of the most uncompromising philosopher who ever lived, constructing his philosophical system on the premise that reality is entirely intellectual, that is, a product of mind. He wrote strange, metaphysical horror stories and gory, gothic pornography. The regime banned his work, but he is popular among young people in Czechoslovakia for his total rejection of materialism, which, you will recall, is the official basis of the ruling ideology. All I know about the music is that Milan Hlavsa, who wrote it, says it is “horrible”, which does not surprise me because in the radical esthetic of the Czech, underground beauty is anything but reassuring, and Klima himself believed that in their most intense states, beauty and horror were the same.

Like all good music, that of the PPU and others in the Czech underground is meant to disturb, upset and question at the same time as it affirms. Once you have chosen to live in terms of your own truth, there is nothing left to do but march to your own drummer and dance to your own piper.”

————————————————————————-

The International attention and heightened repression of the PPU by the government at that time became a major catalyst for independence from the communist party, which was spearheaded by the Charter 77 human rights organization.

The march of history however is sometimes a long one. It’s was not until two years after the recording that pressure began to build significantly internationally when a Press Release and Petition began to be circulated.

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Press Release
September 20, 1982

On Monday, September 27, the appeal trial will be held of Ivan Jirous, art historian, rock critic and manager of Czechoslovakia’s foremost underground rock group, The Plastic People of the Universe.

Jirous is appealing a 3 ½-year sentence in a maximum-security prison on charges of disturbing the peace and drug possession. Appealing with him are three other activists in the cultural underground, Frantisek Starek, Michal Hybek and Milan Eric.

A report by VONS (the Czechoslovak Committee to Defend the Unjustly Prosecuted) makes it clear that the charges against the four men are groundless. They are also in contravention to the Helsinki Agreements and the UN Covenants on Human Rights, the four are really being prosecuted for their activities in the unofficial rock culture of Czechoslovakia, of which Jirous is the spiritual father.

Amnesty International has officially adopted Ivan Jirous and three others as prisoners of conscience and is campaigning on their behalf.

Friends of Ivan Jirous, led by Vratislav Brabenec, the former sax player of the Plastics now is now living in exile in Vienna, are planning a series of actions in his defense, in cooperation with Amnesty International.

On the 22, 23 and 24th of September, a series of demonstrations will be held in front of the Czechoslovak embassies in at least 10 different cities in the West.

In Canada, the events are being coordinated by Paul Wilson, who spent ten years in Czechoslovakia and played with the Plastic people. A series of benefit concerts are also being planned.

A petition demanding the release of Ivan Jirous and his friends is being circulated around the world. Musicians, artists, writers and other concerned individuals are being asked to sign.

————————————————————————-

Ivan Jirous ultimately was released. The PPU broke up in 1988 with several members, Hlavsa, violist Jiří Kabeš, and keyboardist Josef Janíček forming a new band called Půlnoc (“Midnight”), featuring female lead-singer, Michaela Němcová regarded as the “Czech Nico”. They recorded and released an album in the USA on Arista. Hlavsa later worked as well with a new band Fiction. He passed away in January 2001.

In 2006, Ivan Jirous was awarded the Jaroslav Seifert Prize in Czechoslovakia for literary achievement based on his poetry and the more recently published 500-page collection of his letters from prison.

One of the most prominent Czech dissidents of those times, and a major supporter of the Plastics as well as Charter 77 was Vaclav Havel. His involvement with that human rights manifesto brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. Havel was a major supporter of the Plastics and virtually by himself secured their legacy as the symbol of Czech artistic dissidents who led the fight for cultural freedom in their country.

Ultimately, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution occurred in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel became the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92), and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). History was made in no small part due to the PPU and their principled refusal to submit to the authorities and standing up for their right to be free, to create art instead of commerce.

That brings us back to Plato and his declaration about music. On the face of it, what may not be apparent is that he issued it not as an invocation for freedom and change, but instead a warning about the power of music to subvert the establishment. He was attuned to a universal truth that has held true for generations.

Since the dawn of the 20th Century, a new era of technology, and Leo Fenders guitar, bass, and amplifier designs in the 1940s, the face of modern music has undergone a revolutionary process of change that continues now on into forever. Add to all that the reel-to-reel tape machine and a new musical mode was created from a fusion of black blues, country, folk, and jazz, a mutant cultural offspring. That deviant son – rock and roll – ignited a cultural revolution worldwide, which received more than its own fair share of cultural backlash from the mainstream culture.

In the beginning, it was labeled race music. A popular euphuism arose from that which made it very clear just what the new rock beat had liberated, “don’t come a-knockin’ if the cars a-rockin’.” Ultimately, rocks primal urge led young people the world over to turn on, tune in their radio and record machines, crank up the volume, and experience the power of electric music for the mind and body, which literally rocked their world. The Plastic People of the Universe back in the late 1960′s picked-up on this vibe loud and clear, staging their own cultural freak-out, which literally rocked and rolled the foundation of Czechoslovakia.

I saw GS-H live, many years back at the Pine Street Theater venue that no longer exists now, in the very white town of Portland, Oregon. Oregon is a state where until a decade or two ago there was still an actual law on the books from the “good old days” stating that black people could not stay in the state for more than six months. At the end of that time they got ushered to the state lines, told goodbye and have a good life (somewhere else)…

Today, PDX is a bastion of white liberalism run amuck. If you happen to be black, mentally “distressed” and out about the town (with a hoodie on – it’s part of the local uniform as it truly is cool, grey and damp here 9 months a year), be it driving down the street, or hangin’ out in the quickly disappearing hood, you might well get shot (by the police or another distressed black man). The black section of town has slowly been gentrified and their neighborhood “disappeared”. There have been several shootings and deaths involving people of various colors over the past years. Some folks always get upset of course, but in the end the dead man and his family always swept under the rug…

I digress, when I saw Gil in concert he was obviously deeply connected to another plane of thought and feeling. He was also clearly “inhabited” by a special spiritual affinity for the blues. He referred to his music as “Bluesology”. The performance was warm, emotional and left a lasting impression far beyond the typical artist doing his gig on tour bit. The only other artist or show I ever saw that “felt” like this was when Townes Van Zandt came to town in mid-career and played a gig in a small bar here in PDX. I’m sure he also was inhabited by the same thing as Gil from another cultural perspective.

To the initial point – of all you may read about Gil and his life, the article liked below from last Summer more than any other will cleary show you the weight he carried and way in which that haunted him. It is deeply touching, and leaves you a bit speechless at the end. He wrote the truth as he saw it, and in the end that weight became very heavy…

You can hear it all in his voice on his albums. The man was no “ghost”. He was truly a spokesman for, and loved his people…

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_wilkinson

[If the link does not work directly, copy and paste into your browser. This piece is a must read!]

“In 1970, there was no German record companies interested in German music. We showed the German people that they can trust their own music.” R-U Kaiser [Mojo, April 2003]

There is perhaps no one from the era of “Krautrock” who over the years who has generated more mystery than Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. He, along with his partner, former fashion designer Gille (Gerlinde) Lettmann (aka, Sternenmadchen “Star Maiden”), were known as “The Cosmic Couriers”.

At some point, the two simply vanished from the scene. For almost 35 years, there have been countless stories and persistent rumors that Rolf had dosed himself out of reality and ended up in a psychiatric hospital somewhere in Germany. In addition, that he had lost his mind due to excessive use of LSD and ultimately died, buried in a pauper’s grave. In addition, Gille had stayed in that same hospital for a time and had since gone completely around the bend due to drugs as well.

Some time ago, I got an email from a German television producer who said he was working on a program about the history of “Deutsch Rock”. He wanted to know if I could help him contact Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. In fact, the past few years on WDR TV there were two programs that dealt with the history of “Krautrock”. Late UK pop journalist Ian MacDonald circa 1970/71 had first used the term in a couple articles he wrote to describe the new German rock music scene. Most German musicians considered that a derogatory slang term.

Not coincidentally, it was reading those very articles that served as impetus for the creation of EUROCK, which began firstly as a radio show in 1971, then morphed into a magazine in 1973. Both initially featured the newly emerging experimental European rock scene, Germany being the primary focus early on.

One of the TV programs entitled KRAUT & RUBEN was a 6-week series of one-hour documentaries on German rock of the “Golden Era”. It contained abundant historical video and current interviews with some of the pioneers. The video was fascinating, the interviews in German. Whether they shed any light on the “Cosmic Ones”, I do not know. My guess is not however as Kaiser was nowhere to be found among the footage. In the revisionist historical tradition of modern artists, almost universally those who gave them their first opportunity to pursue the stairway to music stardom are persona non grata. For the most part that certainly was the case with Kaiser in Germany.

The other program entitled, DIE DEUTSCHROCK–NACHT 1 & 2, produced by Rockpalast, aired on two consecutive Sundays, 6 hours of music each night. It again featured video of German rock legends then and now. A kaleidoscope of sights and sounds, the early footage was at times amazing, others laughable. The more modern footage and interviews on both shows served as a vivid reminder that for the most part the “gods of German rock” have gotten old and become legends in their own minds. Again, there was no trace or mention of Kaiser.

For the record, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser’s beginnings were as a Dutch pop journalist who made a name for himself by interviewing and writing books in the late 60’s, early 70’s that were published in Germany. One of the first was on Frank Zappa during the Mothers of Invention’s heyday, OVER HET BEGIN EN HET EINDE VAN DE PROGRESSIEVE POP MUZIEK. Among others, was a social look at (“The New Pop Music”) DIE NIEW POP MUZIEK, as well as UNDERGROUND? POP? NO! COUNTER-CULTURE! Kaiser also was co-organizer of the ESSEN INTERNATIONAL SONG DAY 1968, the first gathering of the youth-culture music tribes in Germany.

In 1969 he founded OHR Music Production Ltd. Germany’s first independent rock label OHR (“Ear”) with the help of Berlin music publisher Peter Meisel. OHR dared to release German music that operated outside of that countries conservative “schlager” tradition. The bands recorded were not simply Anglo-cover bands; some sang in German, others were experimental sonic explorers, agit-rock politicos, and folk-culture freaks.

The music OHR released was considered by those in the business to have no commercial potential. The label was the first to specialize in indigenous rock music productions in Germany, in effect creating a kind of underground scene. Kaiser also served as manager of some of the bands, which at the time was illegal in Germany. That got him called before government officials and fined 30,000 DM.

He also was involved in an infamous 1971 TV discussion about the German capitalist music business. There ensued an argument and the manager of Berlin radical agit-rock band Ton Steine Scherben, Nikel Pallat, wielded an axe and chopped a table, while Kaiser and several others dodged debris. Chaos ensued and the program abruptly went off the air. You might say that the confluence of all of Kaiser’s energies had kicked off the start of a homegrown rock revolution in Germany.

In the beginning, Rolf and Gille were reportedly somewhat naïve until they took LSD. That experience caused some sort of consciousness shift that ultimately led them down the “cosmic” path. It also created an apparent paradox between their business ideals, and their business practices that were more conservative. The result later was a clash between them and their artists who were into the hippie “do-your-own-thing trip”, struggling to break free from their conservative roots and Nazi influenced socio-economic order of their parent’s generation. The artists also did not like their music promoted as “cosmic”. In retrospect, you can see that the seeds were being sown for most all of what happened later on, in the case of the “Cosmic Couriers” in Germany, as well as the so called “youth cultural revolution” around the world. Foresight is incredibly rare, in hindsight; things often are more clearly understandable.

My fascination was the radical new music they produced, some of which was in fact incredibly adventurous, amazingly unique, and certainly fuelled by artists who were familiar with illicit substances. Eurock’s direct involvement with Rolf and Gille centered around the 1975 “Kosmische Musik” special issue which would feature in depth coverage of their label and artists. I had a friend who was spending the summer in Germany doing studies at the Goethe Institute. I arranged for him to go visit the couple at their home in Cologne. He did an interview, spent the afternoon with them and told me when he returned they were quite nice, rather reserved, and appeared not at all to be the spaced out cosmic type conveyed by their public image. In fact, he said they very straight and businesslike and their reality did not seem to match at all the mythos their promotion suggested.

Due to the exposure that EUROCK issue gave “Cosmic Music”, I was able to arrange for distribution of their releases in the USA via JEM Imports. At the time, JEM was the largest US import distributor, which also had its own record label (Passport) as well. Whatever anyone might say about his style, in his heyday Kaiser did achieve no small measure of success in making a name for the best of his artists in Europe, the UK and the USA. Substantial interest was generated among commercial labels inside and outside of Germany for some of its main artists.

While the OHR releases were light years from being “hits” or selling big numbers, they were indeed a cultural phenomenon of sorts coming out of Germany with its stark conservative history. Kaiser continued the OHR Music Production Company, also ran the PILZ Record label, and ultimately created the KOSMISCHE MUSIK label. All of these in turn paved the way for other major label companies to establish their own label imprints for native German rock music, i/e Brain, Bacillus Records, a/o.

In Germany, the boom was on. All sorts of new bands, good and bad, signed deals with major labels, and many new DIY indie labels popped up as well. All of that happened in no small part due to Kaiser taking a risk to go where no one else would, offering his bands an opportunity during their “free spirited youth” to exercise their creativity, and promoting it. His knack for promotion was innovative and effective, especially for those early days when rock was not yet a major commercial commodity anywhere around the world.

In fact, the Jefferson Airplane, in November 1965 was paid $25,000 becoming the first US psychedelic band to sign a major label contract in the USA with RCA Records. I can’t say whom or when was the first in the UK? However, put into that perspective, less than five years later Kaiser’s efforts in conservative Germany seem even more impressive.

Art and commerce are two very different animals. Artists often may make great art, but rarely know little about effective promotion or marketing still today. In reality, most of the time it takes money to make money. For artists, the bottom line is most always “show me the money”. That is not so much a value judgment as a simple fact.

The catalyst for Kaiser’s fall was the release of a series of albums by the “Cosmic Couriers”, a jam band who were given free rein to explore in the studio and as a result created some truly unique, spatial music. A couple of the albums were highly innovative extended soundscapes of very high quality. Others were at times, laced with overdubbed voices, effects, and a heavy dose of the spirit of those times in order to achieve a more promotional effect for the labels overall concept.

The main points of contention with Kaiser centered on drugs and the claim by some artists that they were not paid, did not know about, or authorize their release. Manuel Göttsching, one of the main artists involved, discounts those stories:

“The drugs had actually little to do with the music (nor the label), but they were present at this time in general. I speak of marihuana/ hashish, which were very popular in those days. Everyone under 30 smoked this and that, the elders did so years ago, and still the rivers flow… Drugs have been and will be a part of life, not necessarily, because one is a musician, a painter, an architect, or a psylocybinien? They were around and took a great part of my time; there was another drug I fell in love with – MUSIC”.

Of course, I knew about the releases, of course, I had contracts before, and I received royalties, even in advance. This was all very little money, but that should be no argument to spread rumors around like this. You can say many things about the producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, but I have no reason to say him to have acted incorrectly so far.”

Whatever was the truth, multiple lawsuits resulted and Kaiser’s cosmic vision increasingly grew faint. The courts ruled against him. Everyone knows that justice is very often foreign to the gilded chambers of the law and the client with the best lawyer most often wins. Regardless, the result was a big legalistic bummer, Kaiser was personally broken and his OHR label bankrupt. I leave you to draw your own conclusions…

The labels more famous artists were freed and moved on to lucrative careers. Klaus Schulze signed to Brain Records (a subsidiary of the giant Metronome), Tangerine Dream and Ashra signed to the UK Virgin Records label. All have had their classic older works reissued multiple times. Kaiser today is a ghost in the ether.

The original albums are now collector’s items, notable for not only their music in some cases, but also their creativity in art design and packaging, in many cases done by Peter Geitner (who is also rumored to be in an asylum). Today Dieter Dierks holds the rights to the OHR music not claimed by the original artists. Various titles in the catalog have been exploited and haphazardly reissued over the years.

In many ways, Kaiser’s work foreshadowed the much less imaginative and mindlessly crass form of hyperbole that permeates all media today. Every sort of product by now has been proclaimed, “Revolutionary”, or “pick your own pseudo-cultural adjective”. Offhand I cannot think of one that has been labeled “cosmic”. Not only is that term laced with an implicit sense of humor, it also definitely has a unique connotation that is hard to tack onto selling some form of crap to a mass-market audience in a mall or supermarket. In real marketing terms, originating that genre was a small act of genius by Kaiser.

As it turns out Eurock’s role in this “cosmic melodrama” was modest, coming a bit before their final fall from grace. It was also observed from afar as a spectator, not up close and personal. That adds a different perspective, one with less real knowledge, but perhaps a more objective viewpoint.

The basic facts are that the releases on Kaiser’s labels sold modestly, but did serve as springboards for several of his best artists to embark on their way to having long and successful careers. Some with lesser talent, marketability or business skills continued as well, others went into other areas of life. History and hindsight often absolves most of their misdeeds, except mass murders, and forgiveness is granted. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case with Kaiser.

In some ways, this situation served as a preview of life as we have made it. It is no longer them, but us, our generation, who are in the driver’s seat of our own destiny. In this regard, it does seem that whatever idealism we might have had beating in our hearts when we were young is now but a faint pulse at best. In today’s material culture, the prevailing attitude is that the party should and go on forever. Wither the deeply held humanistic social ethos, replaced by a narcissistic view of life that is propelled into excess through the consumer marketplace. Front and center is the cult of celebrity.

I cannot pin down what exact malaise the story of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser represents on a human scale. Alternatively, exactly what it says about life now, and the nature of relationships between those who make contact with each other as we travel through it. It is a tragic fact however, that on any street, in any city, in the global community today lost and nameless people wander. Some basic instinct tells me that no one should come to their end a refugee in their own land. We all deserve a better fate than that!

Just recently, I received new information about Rolf and Gille:

“Gille Lettmann and Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser live. They did not stay at a “funny farm” and never did. In the seventies, they were evicted first in Berlin because they did not pay the rent, then in Cologne for the same reason. After that, they both stayed at the home of Gille’s mother near Cologne for several years.

After Gille’s mother passed away, they were on social security and moved to a small house in the Sauerland area. They are not “crazy”, but – let us say, they live in their own world and do not accept any contacts.

The last time Rolf got in touch with the world outside was in the late eighties, when ZYX Records re-released the old OHR records. He wanted his share of the royalties, so ZYX had to make clear to him that he had lost the rights in these recordings long ago. Since then he has remained silent.

In 2003, it started again: They did not pay their rent, and finally the landlady from their apartment contacted Walter Westrupp (of Witthüser & Westrupp) for help. Apparently, he then in 2007 found a place for them in a sort of open facility run by the Catholic Church somewhere in the Sauerland area. That is where they are now and social services have become involved.”

The myth that the 1960s and its revolution was liberating and uplifting is certainly dead. That Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser became a victim of those times seems clear. That certainly was an era when there was magic in the music and that new mode of music being made rocked the foundation of civilization as we knew it then. The collateral damage was that it led to a future filled with broken promises, drugs, economic corporatism and the ascendency of self-serving relationships and coupled with mass consumption.

Kaiser is only one of the many to be counted among the missing in our generation. His story however I think serves as a cautionary tale about our future. Dreams and dreamers sometimes die hard, literally and spiritually. Neither is a humane or desirable ending. We should all take pause and think twice about our actions before judging too harshly, lest we receive false judgment ourselves.

In my estimation, the heritage of (experimental) music is richer for the music coming out of Germany at that time. The Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser ushered into being much of what happened during the early years of that scene. Some of Germany’s artists without doubt influenced the course of modern rock music. Many contemporaries have picked-up on the influences, production techniques and synthetic impulses that originated during that time. That music today serves as a rich cultural artifact documenting the sounds and creative spirit of a groundbreaking musical period, the original German rock golden era.

It is sometimes hard to remember, but there was a time when the future appeared to be bright, and hopes seemed high for the betterment of all humankind. I for one am hopeful that Rolf und Gille did find some form of retreat and shelter from the world as it is today, and happiness…

This 2011 blog entry done in collaboration with Jan Reetze, is an updated revision of an earlier written piece.

http://www.worldsofmedia.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa0rpCgVLs4/
http://www.intuitivemusic.com/cosmic-jokers-biography/

Throughout the history of music, as well as other forms of art and entertainment there have always been celebrities. Behind the scenes are the dealmakers who sometimes get attention as well (for better, and for worse). Occasionally there are those who serve as a catalyst for something bigger. Be it a cultural shift, change in musical style, or discovery of groundbreaking artists or bands, it is uncommon for them to get much attention or recognition. Often it is those with visionary ideas that make things happen, and later get overlooked when the story of how it all began is told.

Gerhard Augustin was one such dedicated promoter of music. At a time in Germany when English was largely an alien language, and “schlager” (German folk/pop music) was the norm, Gerhard grooved to a different beat as a DJ in Bremen. As co-founder of the famous TV show “The Beat Club”, and A&R man who engineered the signing of Amon Duul 2, Popol Vuh and Can to Liberty/United Artist Records in 1969-‘70, he helped lay the establish for a cultural shift and musical revolution in Germany. Gerhard possessed an open mind and the business skills to act as a bridge between the underground and establishment. In effect, he was the godfather of Krautrock, which still resonates musically in the world of pop music influencing countless contemporary
bands.

His story is fascinating and it is past time that it was told. I think you will find the following interview offers a fascinating glimpse into the past, giving long overdue credit to one of Europe’s unsung musical pioneers. In many ways, Gerhard is “the Godfather of Deutsch Rock”. As an A&R man for Liberty/ United Artists Records he got signed and produced the first albums of perhaps the three ultimate German bands of that era – Can, Amon Duul 2 & Popol Vuh.

Q: Tell me, in the beginning how did you get German TV to allow you to produce “The Beat Club” music program? What year was the first program broadcast?

In 1963, I became the first German DJ in Bremen. There was a restaurant called The Gypsy Cellar that sometimes had live music in their basement. I knew the owners, I recommended to them that they turn it into a discothèque for dancing and they agreed. So we put in two turntables and named it the Twen Club. It became one of the first youth clubs at that time.

I had just come back to Germany after Kennedy was shot as I had been from living a while in the USA. I had seen Shindig there and Top of the Pops in England so around 1966 I started trying to promote doing a German version of those programs that turned into The Beat Club. Radio Bremen produced the program, which was directed by Michael Leckebusch and hosted by Uschi Nerke and myself. The first show aired Sept. 23, 1966 on a Saturday afternoon at 4 PM.

Immediately reactions came in, letters, calls, etc. People from the older generation (old Nazi’s) hated it, young kids loved it and said things like “keep it going” and so on. It caused a real reaction between the generations.

Q: It became a sensation on the pop scene and helped start some of the most famous pop groups on their road to fame and fortune. Who was your favorite English pop group that appeared on the show?

My favorite band in those days was The Who. We had become friends earlier when I had worked in England and our friendship continues today. I had met their manager, Kit Lambert, who gave me an acetate copy of their first single “Can’t Explain” b/w “Bald Headed Woman”. They were trying to get a label for it in the early days. I also liked very much The Kinks and the Stones who I met while in London around 1962. Everyone hung out at a pub near the Marquee Club back then.

Q: I have seen tapes of many of the English stars that appeared on the program. However, at one point you started to feature also the newly emerging bands from the German space rock scene. How in the world did you get mainstream German TV station executives to allow that?

The whole Beat Club thing was a result of the relationship I had with Mike Leckebusch over the years. When we created the show together, we became great friends. However, slowly over time, he wanted to take more credit for the show and later some English managers recommended he should use a British DJ instead of me so the show might be of more interest to the English market.

Larry Page and Robert Wace were the main ones behind this, they were part of a sort of 1960’s UK music mafia of old business types who wanted to control pop music in Britain. Eventually they gave Mike some money to buy a big house, a Jaguar and all those things, so I got phased out and he went on to gain fame and fortune himself. It’s an old story. He became very corrupt and there was lots of payola going on with the show back then.

The English pop stars were often on the show because their songs were in the charts in Germany. Soon the record companies started helping with this as they realized that even though TV production was very primitive in those days – black and white, etc., they saw it could influence sales greatly.

As for getting the more experimental bands on the show, I think Mike always had a bad conscience about pushing me out of The Beat Club. He knew I was the originator of the idea for the show and developed it after the other shows I’d seen on my trips overseas. Therefore, as a result of this, every time I came up with a new German progressive or experimental act I would bring it to him for exposure. I got groups like Amon Duul 2 and Popol Vuh on the show, but it took a lot of convincing. In the end because of his guilt, he would put them on as sort of a favor to help me out.

Q: Was it just after doing The Beat Club that you became the head of A&R at Liberty/UA Records and were involved in production of the first Amon Duul 2 and Popol Vuh records (around 1969-1970)?

Well, not quite…it didn’t happen that soon… When I left The Beat Club, in 1968-1969 I went to America and lived in San Francisco. There I discovered bands like Santana and CCR for the German market. I also met Bill Graham and we became good friends. He introduced me to the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Sly & the Family Stone, Ike and Tina Turner, Tom Donahue (the original FM DJ playing underground music) and Ralph Gleason who was one of the first journalists to write about the new underground music in the Bay area. I was very fortunate to be in the right place, at the right time for all that was happening in SF then.

While I lived in SF, I worked at KQED TV and was awarded a scholarship and got a diploma in Mass Communications at Stanford University. After graduation, I got a job in Los Angeles with United Artist Records and learned all about how the company worked.

They then sent me to Germany to work for the company there. When I got over there they wanted to sign some domestic German bands to their roster. Sigi Loch, head of the famous Star Club record label, started a German flagship label for UA/Liberty Records, to aim both at the home market and abroad. I got them to sign AD 2, Popol Vuh and Can. The record company knew little about that type of music of course, so it was sometimes a rather strange situation as you might imagine.

Q: While doing The Beat Club and promoting AD 2 and Popol Vuh did you, do the actual music/video production or work have help from others like Olaf Kubler, etc?

I was only involved in financing and management of the video production. We did one for “All the Years Round” by AD 2. That was the first music video production in Germany. We paid a director and video company to do the filming. It was played, but there were very few media outlets for that type of thing in those days. We did several other videos as well, but that was the early days of TV and the experimental bands were not really attractive to the mainstream media.

Q: Amon Duul 2, I believe actually started as a political collective then the main members broke off to form a specific music group.

Amon Duul did begin as a political commune in Berlin. It was formed by the coming together of politicos from Berlin like Rainer Langhans and Uschi Obermeier (who became a famous model later), with musicians from Munich – Chris Karrer, Peter and Ulrich Leopold and Falk Rogner. Renate was not involved as she was living in England then working as an au pair. After a while there was a split into AD 1 (the political people), who recorded one big party/session before they descended into chaos. That resulted in several records having nothing to do with the real AD 2.

Amon Duul 2 (the musical side) moved back to Munich where the group was joined by John Weinzierl and Dave Anderson (who came over from England). The first album of AD 2 – PHALLUS DEI – was recorded in two days at Trixie Studios in Munich. It was the first space rock album and caused a sensation on the young scene.

Lothar Meid in the beginning was playing with Embryo, before he joined AD 2 later. He also played with Olaf Kubler (who was a jazz saxophonist). They played jazz and soul music on Sunday afternoons in a couple clubs around 1968-’69. Olaf also produced and published the AD 2, and many other albums. He was a real Mafiosi type involved in the music business.

Q: What was the scene like back then? Did those records sell large numbers – for example, do you remember how many copies YETI and TANZ DER LEMMINGE & AFFENSTUNDE sold?

For the new underground groups without a hit single it was very hard. Some of the old Nazis were still in control of the media, so they would never give exposure to the new more experimental rock music. Society in Germany was just about to start changing, so a few dared to promote this new music and ideas, but rock and roll was new to Germany.

Here that sort of thing basically started 10 years later than in the USA. Most people still listened to Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathias and Peggy Lee. For the most part, English was not spoken much at all. Beat Music started to change this around 1965. Later many German bands started to copy the English bands, covering their songs, and playing on The Beat Club as the most famous English bands became too big and expensive. In addition, payola started playing a large part in the music scene and it all started to change in many ways.

Q: During the heyday of the “space rock” scene in Germany was that type of music a significant market and did the albums produced by those bands sell a great deal? Alternatively, perhaps has the myth always been bigger than the reality?

Sales of these albums were actually very low. AD 2 was the first to start selling with PHALLUS DEI. Then Can had their song “Spoon” on a German TV crime show called “The Knife”. That caused it to hit the charts and ultimately it went silver, which in Germany meant selling 250,000 copies. Later their album, EGE BAMYASI, with that song on it started selling as well. Can made good money actually.

Over time AD 2 sold maybe 60,000 copies of PHALLUS DEI, their other albums sold between 20, 000 – 50,000 worldwide sales over the years. They still sell today reissued on CD. AD 2 never had a hit single, although we tried with “Archangels Thunderbird”, and a couple others, so their sales were smaller.

Q: Over the last few years, it seems there has been renewed interest in some of the original German bands. AD 2 reformed and did concerts in Japan and England. Is the band still together now? Who are the current members?

There was actually some confusion surrounding the name and music of Amon Duul 2 as some albums came out in England that were not really connected to the band. Therefore, there was a court case in Germany where the members of AD 2 were actually certified. They are – Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz, Chris Karrer, Peter Leopold, Lothar Meid, Falk Rogner and John Weinzierl. A couple years back some of them reformed and we did some recording and live shows in Japan and the UK. However, for something more permanent the chemical formula was not good…

Q: What about Florian Fricke, do you still have any contact or work with him?

Florian Fricke was also from Munich. On the first Popol Vuh album, AFFENSTUNDE, he used the first Moog synthesizer in Germany. Along with Eberhard Schoener, they pioneered the use of synthesizer in Germany. Later Florian sold his Moog to Klaus Schulze who became one of the leading electronic musicians in Germany even up to today.

Florian had perhaps more success than AD 2 because I arranged to have his music used in five of Werner Herzog’s films that helped him gain more exposure internationally and better sales. In fact, one of his songs, originally in AGUIRRE, was also used in a successful American film that won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival; it was called BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. I was producer of most of the Popol Vuh albums, and am also the godfather of his son Johannes. Sadly, Florian passed away a few years ago…

Q: What is your main area of work these days? You have a company called Gammarock Productions. Do you still do video production and perhaps consult for record labels?

Gammarock is a company I formed in 1976, in LA, with Patrick Gammon (who died in 1996). Now I handle all the music publishing, as well as the video and music production for the Gammarock material, which includes Popol Vuh and many more mainstream artists. We place artists with labels and get the music into films, etc.
I also now do a public radio show again here in Bremen again. I have always loved being a DJ and still do today.

Q: After all these years what is the most memorable thing that music has brought into your life? A special concert, album, or travel to some faraway place?

Music has always been the most important thing for me – more important than sex, love or relationships. Music is essential to my life whether I sing it, play it, hear it, work with it, or make money with it. In my opinion, as a publisher, producer, musician, artist and music lover, in the movies, music is more important than the actual pictures. It makes the film come alive. I am what you call a music freak. I have made my living all these long years with music, being a DJ, doing shows, and writing eight books about different artists along with anthologies on pop, rock and beat music.

Some of the most memorable events in my life are associated with music. I traveled with Jimi Hendrix that last 3 weeks of his life. He was a very beautiful person and musical genius. Also with the Rolling Stones, I had many breakfasts, trips, concerts, shows… I met John Lennon at the house of Jann Wenner (of Rolling Stone) in NYC, around the time of the recording and release of IMAGINE… I toured around the world with Ike and Tina Turner – Australia, Japan, Africa, at the height of their career and during their times of trouble and breakup.
Q: Could you imagine a life with no music in it?

Truly, I do not even want to think about a life without music. I have met so many musicians, actors and great people; music has been a most wonderful life for me.