Not Rock On

This is a song I wouldn't have held possible in 1980, but it was reality in 1981. We thought we had just got rid of all the 60s & 70s Supergroups, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker (check his CV!), etc... Can now is respected as one of the originators of new music, everybody knows this and them. On the other hand Public Image Limited (PIL) was a collective to destroy the music as it was and ... they created beauty!!! Even after he left PIL in 1980 Jah Wobble (we don't care about given names!) went on to design space with his bass. This record opens up space as none I had heard before. Listen to "How much are they" with big bass speakers on the rim of the desert, there is nothing like this! I still enjoy this Bass sound, living in a normal flat. A few years after this Jah Wobble started working with Bill Laswell, GET YOUR HAND ON EVERY AXIOM CD YOU SEE!!! Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit - Weltrekord EP

No posts for a week, but I had to visit my brother in Munich. On the flight I read the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about a public reading of the 1000songs series featuring one of my favorite entertainers Bernd Begemann performing the best songs of the last 50 years! This was close to heaven, music nerds talking, plus my favorite entertainer playing, and all of that for just 4€ ! Go to berndbegemann.de and you can see some nice videos there + more! He was at the Atomic Cafe with Philipp Oemke and Johannes Waechter, the journalists that created this fantastic project, who showed some entertaining qualities too. They were promoting the final of their books on 50 years of Pop music. http://www.1000songs.de The great surprise was, that I won that "Best of" book of the series by spotting "Love will tear us apart" from the first few chords Bernd played on his guitar as the song the internet voters chose as best song of all times! I was asked on stage to get it. Bernd wanted me...

Yesterday was my birthday, so now I can post a song that is really close to my heart. Marc Almond, then Marc & the Mambas, recorded several songs around 1981/82 that are absolute classics in my eyes, in this case I don't care about you! I was given "Untitled", the first Solo outing by Marc Almond of then chart-storming Soft Cell, in August 1983 by my girlfriend, after we both loved "Torch!" by Soft Cell. It did not take me long to adapt to these wonderful versions of the songs of sometimes then unknown authors. I immediately loved "Caroline says"! I did not know anything about this song. I had heard of Lou Reed, wild side, yada yada. But this man really could write songs! Most were original Marc + songs, the collaborators were the Amazing Annie Hogan, Magic Matt Johnson (some also know him as The The), Cute Cindy Ecstacy and anybody not mentioned on the sleeve. My thanks go out to Val Denham and Huw Feather for the fantastic Non-Psygnosis artwork! ...

Yesterday I heard that Rudi Carell died last week, THE showmaster in Germany since the 70s. Today Jürgen Klinsmann, the coach of the german football team, that gave us so much joy and pride in the last weeks, resigned. And now I found out, that Syd Barrett died at 60 recently. Three messages of a different depth of meaning. Rudi had cancer for a while, Jürgen decided to step off at the height of his fame, but Syd? We knew he lived as a recluse somewhere in England, but he should live! This is my tribute to him, go out and buy his rare albums! This one is by the Television Personalities, also known as the TVP's to friends. Their "head" Dan Treacy knew about Syd's qualities as a musician and songwriter, so he wrote this song: Television Personalities - I know where Syd Barrett lives In 1987 I at least knew where Dan Treacy lived when I visited Matthias Hanich in London and he showed me Dan's house. ...and now I found out, that Banana Nutrament had this idea before...

Last night the German team beat Portugal 3 : 1 in the game for the third place in the Football World Championship (no, it is not the FIFA World Championship!). Although many of the crucial players were missing due to injuries (and the No. 1 goalkeeper Jens Lehmann stepped back to let the former No. 1 Oliver Kahn get his last game for the national team, that is fair play!), it was a very good game! Afterwards the players were getting a party, where everybody was asking, what would have happened, had they really won the cup. Nobody asked for the cup now, everybody enjoyed the fantastic mood of the night, as of the whole tournament. On banners in the stadium in Stuttgart you could read "Champion of the Hearts"! Everybody wants to keep our coach Jürgen Klinsmann now, a few months ago (after a devastating friendly ending 1 : 4 in Italy) his career seemed to have ended. Now everything he did was right, the american fitness coaches, taking very young players to the tournament, choo...

Tonight the thing everybody in Germany could not think of in the past weeks has happened, Germany was kicked out in the semifinal by Italy. They have been the better team, so it is ok, but it hurts nonetheless. I am curious, how the mood in the country will develop after this. There still is the game for the third place on Saturday in Stuttgart, I hope we will give the boys a nice show. So today I am in a bit of a melancholic mood, and which music suits it better than the fantastic Thirteen Moons from Sweden! So finally this is my Thirteen Moons post. If you try to find anything about them on the net, you are lost. You find stuff about Gallerys, Indian mythology and more that has nothing to do with these fabulous musicians. The Thirteen Moons were Göran Klintberg and Anders Holm ft. Mats Gunnarsson, Per Akerlund, Hakan Almqvist and many more! I bought their first two LPs almost knowing nothing, just the story about the young guy on the cover being the grandfather of one of the t...

After that post it is hard to say that the German Team did it again, really! 1 : 1 after the game, then the penalties 5 : 3!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a special occasion as it is in Germany. WE LIKE IT! Sorry for Argentina but not, they had lots of chances to kick us out! Herbert Grönemeyer & Amadou & Mariam - Zeit, dass sich was dreht This is another very popular song in Germany at the moment, for our team! Oliver Pocher - Schwarz und Weiss There is also an English version by Frameless & German Football Fans! Frameless & German Football Fans - Black and white