Today's show was opened by
the Monks with the original
"Boys are boys and girls are
choice". A few days ago they
released their first record with an
unusual, new and surprising sound.
Germany, July 1966
In retrospect I don't see
a difference between
James Last and the Beatles.
Not to mention the
unutterable Rolling Stones.
It was a shock to see them play
among the other harmless bands.
The vitality and the minimalism,
back then I didn't know
you could call it minimalism.
That fascinated me, and the
hardness. Their style was hard.
There wasn't anything like it.
"The beat is dead,
long live the hop"!
"Monks" want to
outstrip the Beatles
Learnt beat music
in the army
Trench
Kennedy publishes pictures
of soviet missile installations
on Cuba and reveals soviet intent
to turn Castro's sugar island
into a military base.
The fear of a war terrified
the world for an entire week.
After their turbulent American tour
the Beatles come back to England.
The following should be considered
as an observation,
a study on a manifestation, which
hardly can be described as
excitement, ecstasy, or hysteria.
It is phenomenon, something
for psychologists,
sociologists, and cultural critics.
Youth organizing "leisure time".
Not in Liverpool but in Hamburg.
A genre picture, which
was recorded during
the nomination of Germany's
best "beatle band".
Folkwang School of Design
Basic Course
"Gestalt" is a fantastic term that
suggest no gradation between
cause and effect.
"The art of advertising"
Ulm School of Design
"Also tomorrow no experiments"
It sounded different. I thought
you have to do this band.
I liked that Remy and Niemann
were so much behind it.
The music fascinated me
because it was archaic,
some sort of industrial music.
The lyrics indicated something that
wasn't the typical love song.
Then we started working.
And both told me they would
work even more on the lyrics.
"The inappropriate war"
Trespassing for underaged
not allowed
The "Top Ten", formerly the
Hypodrome, rebuilt,
Hamburg's 1st beat joint, in 60/61
monthly gigs of the Beatles,
now renovated, compared to
the "Star-Club" more refined.
3 important events connect the
Beatles to the "Top Ten":
1. Here they had their first
loyal fan base
2. Here they were discovered
for their first recordings.
3. Here their trademark was
created; the haircut.
Noise, noise and no melody
The Monks: Fight against soft
style of the Beatles
"The beat is dead,
long live the hop"!
It was so loud that I left the club.
I couldn't bear it. My ears
were blown off.
I said to myself "get out and
listen to it from the outside".
There it filtered differently
and I thought, "that's it".
"This sound is unmistakable".
"If we can preserve it
on tape this way
then we are talking about a
turning point in rock history".
You see, back then the term
didn't exist. I realized later,
that this was an early
form of heavy metal.
Whereas with other bands there is
a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer
and each of them had its qualities
and somehow they got a sound.
With the Monks you had a
concentrated elemental force,
the single instrument wasn't
important anymore.
It was the total sound as a group.
For me it was a huge challenge to
capture that wall of sound on tape.
We didn't want to lose any of it.
The main microphone was
the ambient one,
which reflected the entire band.
For support of each individual
instrument we used single mikes
to get the distorted guitar,
the electrified banjo
or the shrieking organ. That's
what we wanted to transmit.
In 2 days we recorded
an entire LP.
There was no time for fooling
around. It had to be ready.
Beat-Club, July 1966
From the first beat on
I was electrified.
The vitality they transmitted.
Other bands just stood at the
microphone, often times blas
imitating the English, like the
Lord of Kensington for example.
You could feel
a certain arrogance.
If you watch Beat-Club you see how
stiff and neat people went there,
somehow still very bourgeois.
Beat music's origin stems from an
old fashioned aesthetic order,
indulging in Bach, the tonic,
subdominant and dominant
as the superstructure.
The Monks negated all that.
Okay, it was fun too,
what the Monks did.
But it was a bit more
than just fun.
In my eyes the Monks were
calling upon people for Liberation.
We could have had the
'68 revolution 2 years earlier
if people just had understood.
"Chancellor Erhard"
It wasn't good business
for the boys.
It was too difficult to
make the big buck.
Brutal "Monks"
There were two different tracks.
The big concerts in large halls
and then there were the clubs.
For example in Hamburg the
"Star-Club" or the "Top Ten".
But that wasn't everything.
Especially in the small towns there
were guesthouses with ballrooms
and on Sundays and Saturdays
they organized a teenage dance.
For very little money young
people could go and dance.
Most of the times when the
Monks started playing
for the first two songs nobody
would join the dance floor.
That enervated the Monks
and the club owner.
He would ask me, "hey, what is
that? People don't like that music".
The US-Beatles with the sun roofs
Their trademark: Neat bald heads
Complication
Complication
Complication
Complication
People cry
People die for you.
People kill
People will for you.
People run
Ain't it fun for you?
People go
To their deaths for you.
After the explosion 4 years ago
this sports car was named
"White Orchid".
A work by the pop artist Arman.
In Dsseldorf at Corneliusstrasse
15 the sculpture is an ornamental
piece among other pop attractions
for a "creative workshop".
The owner of the workshop paid
$3.000 for the "White Orchid".
Charles Wilp, pop fanatic and star
of the German ad photographers.
Since my early days I am into
space travel, so I knew about
physical weightlessness.
It started in '63 with the
launching of the first Apollo.
And I connected that with
my idea of the Monks.
If I may complete, which art
status the Monks had,
then for me it was the first
moment of a weightless group,
not only mentally weightless
but also physically
by smashing to pieces everything.
Corneliusstrasse was thrown
into turmoil and the young kids
surrounded them because they
had the feeling for this music.
They came into the
right atmosphere.
I didn't have to change
their "world".
The fact that they wore tonsures
meant to be blasphemous
like me with my nuns.
It happened through Remy and
Niemann. Both saw in me
the right person to promote the
Monks, which I couldn't.
But I could help by getting them to
perform my advertising music
and trying to cause an
overnight success.
That's how I met with the
artificial creation "Monks".
Musically they stood on
a very high platform.
You couldn't categorize them.
It was hard rock -
if you could call
it rock at all.
They made vibrations, high
frequency rhythms,
then low frequency rhythms.
Then no rhythms at all.
They made the cuts you
need in today's techno
to be able to create those
fast TV commercials.
So, they also were the
precursors of techno.
The empty F sharp or
the empty C sharp,
which they suddenly played.
Then they stopped and Roger hit
with his instrument into the gaps.
That was the new phenomenon
where I could use my texts.
At each gap I said SEXY
and if I wasn't saying it
then it was Marsha Hunt
or Donna Summer.
Well of the GODS
with the Afri tube.
We didn't record the music.
I wanted to use some percussions.
The musicologists and the CEO
couldn't agree with me
and the whole thing failed.
Please hand out the notes.
I performed my Afri Cola music
with 48 strings, 2 oboes, 2 harps,
4 timpani - classical instruments.
And created this "unreal" sound,
which I always wanted to do
and which I could have achieved
faster with the Monks.
Then I didn't have to deal with
the burden of the conventions.
It would have been easy to work
exclusively with ad clients.
You see, 30 years later
Germany is still on the Afri high.
If they had have the
courage, like I did,
the Monks would still be
in the top ten.
Woman turns woman
and is liberated.
Girlpower and
freedom of men.
Marriage or no marriage -
is no question anymore.
What's the benefit of a few
gigs in small or big towns
if the spirit is not produced
and transferred by the media.
I am not talking about regular
media, such as newspapers.
I am talking about real advertising.
Advertising, and that's what
Niemann & Remy knew, advertising
with the major corporations.
That was a principle back then.
If the first record didn't succeed
you got rid of it.
At least I had the chance to
produce two follow up singles.
But they failed too.
We were always hoping for
a bigger breakthrough.
The first one financially would have
been shortly before the break-up -
the tour to the Far East, Asia,
Saigon, Tokyo... well, Asia.
For 6 months with good pay.
Everything was organized,
all visa issued, the band waiting
at Frankfurt airport
and one guy didn't show.
Published 12/01/2015