Not Rock On

Glaxo Babies were the fore-runners of a wave of Bristol music that spawned The Pop Group, Rip Rig & Panic, Maximum Joy & Pigbag, who all became household names as the jagged edged angst movement quickly gathered respect throughout the world. The foursome was initially vocalist Rob Chapman, guitarist/vocalist Dan Catsis (ex-Pop Group), drummer Geoff Aslopp, and bassist Tom Nichols. They released the This Is Your Life EP in 1979; by the time of the Christine Keeler single months later, a few changes to the lineup were made. Most significantly, Charles Llewelyn took over for Aslopp on drums and Tony Wrafter (another ex-Pop Group member) added saxophone. Chapmen then left, and the remaining members recorded the entirety of 1980's Nine Months to the Disco, their debut LP for Heartbeat, within the span of a single day. For the following Limited Entertainment EP (also released in 1980), the Glaxo Babies temporarily hooked up with the Y label. And finally, Put Me on the Guest List, yet another 1980 release, collected demos of the band's Chapman era. They apparently broke up at some point after its release; Catsis and Wrafter became part of Maximum Joy. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide.
I found this record in 1983 in a record store in Hamburg waiting for the ABC concert and bought it on the cover and the liner notes alone, as it was in the bargain bin for 10 DM. A few really strong songs in the vein of the above mentioned bands and some rather experimental tracks, but very great sounds!

Glaxo Babies - Nine months to the Disco

For months you left it uncommented, that there was only a tiny portion of the B-side. Neverteless I now offer you the complete LP as mp3 in one zip file!

Labels: New Wave + Indie

Posted by Jörg at 5/29/2006 06:53:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This record was released in 1984, but I don't think anybody noticed this. Die Zimmermänner were a band including amongst others Timo Blunck (of Palais Schaumburg fame) and Detlef Diederichsen (brother and co-worker of famous DD Diedrich Diederichsen, first in german SOUNDS (deceased 01/83) and later SPEX, now a crazy professor.
Their first release was a single (posted above on this blog) on Zick Zack in Aug. 1980 as ZZ 7 "Eva, Jürgen + Max b/w Klein + doof, So froh". Jolly Ska sounds, very easy to the ear, great music!
The next release was the 7" "Ein halbes Jahr b/w Kultur" ZZ 36 early in 81 that looked like an old Hippie band but sounded great (posted above on this blog).
In 1982 they released their first LP "1001 Wege Sex zu machen ohne daran Spaß zu haben" ZZ 1001, unfortunately I don't have it but Dorfdisco Braunsfeld has it. The fantastic single "Erwin, das tanzende Messer" ZZ 40 was a small hit in the upcoming hype for NDW, only have it on tape, but it was a great song!
One of their finest was "Anja", a perfect POP single they released in 1983 as ZZ 44, and then came "Goethe"!
The No. 1 german poet as a namesake for a pop LP!
But they did it, wonderful conversations on love, leaving and being lost.
I found this LP in 87 in a bargain bin, having almost forgotten about them. But once I put this one on the player, it became one of my favorite LPs of all times! This is very delicate POP music, not much to do with the other stuff that was released on the demise of NDW.

01 Liebe ist wie eine heisse Kartoffel
02 Schlecht, aber keiner von uns: Jesaja
03 Zwei mutige Wunder
04 Mein Ein, mein Alles
05 Die allerhellste Nacht
06 Zieh' zu ihr!
07 Nöte des kleinen Mannes
08 Ein Liebeslied
09 Glück und Schmerz hoch drei
10 Der Winterschlaf ist vorbei
11 Sie ist nicht die richtige für dich
12 Deine Monate

Die Zimmermänner - Goethe 1984

Hallo, allerseits!
da habe ich die Lieder gerade ins Netz gestellt, da brummt es hier...
Liegt das an mir, an der Musik oder daran, dass gerade Fussball-WM in Deutschland ist?
PS Anyway viel spass mit der Musik!

Labels: German stuff, New Wave + Indie

Posted by Jörg at 5/25/2006 12:23:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

If anybody would like any of the photos posted here, you can get them in good scan quality or as original photos. Just contact me. payment via PayPal.
There is more to come and they look much better in their original form.
And soon I hope I will be able to accompany them with the sounds!
(I hope I will find someone to fix my Tapedeck (It is a BRAUN C 4 (atelier series), it doesn't play the tape, it blocks after a few seconds, plays, but does not give any sound, any help appreciated!)

Labels: Live recordings, misc

Posted by Jörg at 5/14/2006 02:58:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This is one of the MOST rare songs of the New German underground.This song was only issued as a flexidisc with the "Guter Abzug" multimedia package, combining 100 photos by ArGeeGleim (gleim@mail.isis.de ) (you can get a digital version there), Song lyrics edited by Peter Glaser, copies of fanzines, posters and a copy of ths flexidisc by austrian "artist" and just-be-er Xao Seffcheque. In 1981 he made a record called "Sehr gut kommt sehr gut" on Atatak Records. On this he recorded songs that sounded like then famous Underground bands of the time (Kraftwerk also among them!), but he recorded them all on his own, and they sounded like the originals! I almost believed him too, unfortunately (now) I did not buy the record back then, now I am dependant on anyone offering mp3s...

Xao Seffcheque - Sterne auf 45

You can find similar mp3s here WFMU Beware of the BLOG and look there often!

Labels: German stuff, New Wave + Indie

Posted by Jörg at 5/14/2006 02:25:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This was a fantastic Concert! As far as I know it was the only time The Smiths played in Germany, and it was the last night with my girlfriend... We can both be seen on the Rockpalast video of this gig. I caught some of Morrissey's flower and a part of his shirt! I still have both today but not that girlfriend. I have a pretty good tape of this (broadcast on radio) but unfortunately my tape machine doesn't work at the moment. I will post the mp3 later.
Watch the archive for pix of Siouxsie & The Banshees, Marc Almond and myself;-)
Here is the song of that night :

The Smiths - Still ill (in memory of May 84)

Here you can find the playlist and more on this great evening, fantastic site for fans of The Smiths and Morrissey!

Labels: Live recordings, New Wave + Indie

Posted by Jörg at 5/04/2006 06:07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post