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,...

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,...

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!)

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!

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 flowers and a part of his shirt (unfortunately later stolen by some ignorant bastard!) I still have both today (except for the  shirt...) 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 !