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"Bombed out"
I have combined four works from the 1980s under "Bombed out".
From 1979 – 1983, I shared an apartment with young, brilliant artists in the living community "B56", which focused on development and targets.
What I had to say was overshadowed by things like Clockwork Orange, Faust Part I, Thelonius Monk, Franz Kafka, Stravinsky, Tintin, oh yes, also by the Sex Pistols or the Ramones, especially hatred for new/old Nazis.
In the wild "B56" nights I learned - Yeah! - Dancing, live and as aproduct. After fast-forwarding through rock, reggae, punk, new wave, I launched the weird / revolutionary weekly magazine Geil + Fröhlich in 1981.
War poems, new signs, strange images, the confessional text: "Man without Love" and Jörg's awesome layout characterised the format.
A step had been taken.
At that time our "B56" star Kai Havaii climbed the summit of German rock music with "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".
Gabi Lambrecht and her band then upped the ante on the independent front with "Kein Mensch" and immediately became John Peel's favourite on BFBS (BBC).
Now I was challenged again, and in 1981/82, I brought out the fantastic Maxi-LP "Jupheidi im Morgengrauen" with Rolf Möller.
Then the punks forced me on stage at the First Post-War DADA Congress. I toured with my one man show in "Das knallt demnächst" through the cities and at the Documenta '82 in Kassel with "ins pure Glück" and left the stage elated.
The "komplette Operette ANITA" landed conspicuously at my feet. What should I do, she captivated me for years, just like about fifteen more of her disciples.
Meanwhile Kai stormed the German rock heavens, made millions and travelled the world with Jörg. This blessed goal of B56 had been fulfilled.
A remainder of like-minded people (10 girls and boys), who as "Pupils of lure" teamed up with me in 1986 as "KLACK KLACK" and together we zealously produced the LP "Schule des Vergessens".
Jörg Hoppe made alternative cinema, screened Frank Zappa's "200 motels", brought "Killing Joke" over from England, or "the Wirtschaftswunder” from Germany to "Mausis" spontaneously created Disco "Neue Heimat”. We tried to convince the city’s political stuffed shirts (Maoists, Greens, KPDML members (Communist Party of Germany/Marxists-Leninists)) of the fact that their young clientele very much wanted to read programme previews of bands and alternative cinema in the strict Volksblatt.
The results of our efforts were products that could not have been more diverse. But one thing was ever present: a mockery of the restorative FRG and new signals, new music from America, England, yes, amazingly, Germany - we felt intimately connected, like chirping sparrows, constantly creating, mercilessly creative.
I was 40 and seemed twice as old to my mates. Try to unravel that.
I wanted to taste the new age, I had been a tough war baby, born in 1937 in Kassel, bombed out and raised in dumb post-war Germany.
WG "B56":
photo Bernhard Schaub, SPEX