THE TUNNEL USERS, Sun Arise Dub, 1982
Posted: February 25, 2010 Filed under: 80s, England | Tags: 1980´s, Liverpool, New Wave 1 Comment »
Sun Arise is actually the b-side of this single but for me that´s just what it felt like last night when Holli from Jungle World got my new hard drive going again: the sun was rising.
So, I´m back! It took a while to re-install all the programs, photoshop, wavepad, the scanner and of course the internet but now I´m almost set like before. Holli even managed to save the files from my old broken hard drive although I realised after thinking I had lost them for good for a week that I didn´t need 90% of them anyway.
After being on withdrawal for a week I´m almost over the addiction so for this week I will take it easy with the blogging. Only one record. More to come next week. By the way, our last radio show on Tuesday was a lot of fun. Franky Fuzz played some of his hits live in the studio and I played mostly good music for a change. I hope I´ll be able do it again some time.
On Friday evening I´ll go over to the other studio of Herbstradio 99.1 to play music on the Dschungelfunk show from 6 to 8. It´s a special show about religion and I´ll spin a couple of really rockin´gospel records, some weird German religious music that I´ve posted on this blog before and some outright blasphemous tunes. What the hell, I might even find some Satanist music until Friday.
Also, am Freitag auf Herbstradio 99.1 von 18 bis 20 Uhr Dschungelfunk
I found the Tunnel Users 45 a couple of years ago in a Berlin second-hand record store and took it because of the nice graphics, somewhere between the B 52´s and the Revillos.
Musically they´re much more pop than the sleeve suggests but I like both songs.
Dance? is about a girl who takes the initiative because the boys are too shy to dance.
Sun Arise Dub is a sort of sped-up dub-style cover version of Rolf Harris´British #2 hit song from 1962 Sun Arise but with some added 1982 background noise.
The Tunnel Users were from Liverpool and I found the only information about them on a Welsh music site:
Tunnel Users - band (1981-83) feat; Colin Pennington (gtr,voc) (later of Decemberists, Hell Fire Sermons, James), Phil Butcher (voc), Clint Gannicliffe (keys), Gary Rowlandson (drms) (died 2006), Paul Maloney (bass), Geraldine French (voc), Jeff Hill (keys). Played Larks in The Park Festival 1981 and noted for their live performances rather than recorded work. Rel ‘Ideas’ tape (Mar81) on a label(?) was run by Garry Gannicliffe and based at Gladville Road, Mossley Hill, L’Pool, L17, and 7″ Dance on Ex-Jukey Recs (Jul82).
THE TUNNEL USERS, Sun Arise Dub, 1982
THE TUNNEL USERS, Dance?, 1982
The cartoonist and musician Rolf Harris will be turning 80 on March 30. While looking for a 1962 version of Rolf Harris singing Sun Arise I found these videos instead.
Rolf Harris doing Wild Thing:
And Rolf Harris painting and singing:
DEBBIE NEON, Psycho Killer, 1979
Posted: January 22, 2009 Filed under: 70´s, Punk Records | Tags: Disco, New Wave, Punk, Talking Heads Leave a comment »
I was never a big fan of the Talking Heads. They always seemed to be a little too pretentious and serious. So this silly cover version of their classic new wave song doesn´t sound so bad to my ears. This record is a good example of the sell-out of new wave, but then wasn´t new wave already the sell-out of punk?
Either way I like this German disco version of “Psycho Killer”. It´s still a weird song and Debbie Neon is trying her best to sound reasonably crazy…
DEBBIE NEON, Psycho Killer, 1979
DEBBIE NEON, Neon Lights, 1979
THE PINUPS, Wild Thing, 1980
Posted: January 22, 2009 Filed under: 80s | Tags: Disco, New Wave, New Wave Lover 5 Comments »
The Pinups apparently were from California, but their records (two singles and a LP) were produced in Germany. They had a minor hit with their first single “New Wave Lover”. On the info sheet it states that these songs were featured on the soundtrack to the film “New Wave Lover”to be released in Germany February 15, 1981.
In my search for this film on the Internet, I came across a small review of the German comedy “Pinups und ein heisser Typ”( Pinups and a hot guy) here and two excerpts of the film on youtube. Reading in the comments section I learned that the lead singer June La Vonne had put them there and that today she is living in Hamburg.
This is the Pinups performing “New Wave Lover” in the film “Pinups und ein heisser Typ”:
The Pinups performing in the hilarious German Teen-comedy “Pinups und ein heisser Typ” with great over-dubbed dialogue in German. I`d really like to see this film in full:
The Pinups performing “New Wave Lover” in the German TV-show Musikladen October 9, 1980:
Of course “New Wave Lover” was an attempt by some German Disco producers to cash-in on the “New Wave”, but as plastic and fabricated as it might be, I like it because it is so refreshingly silly.
“Wild Thing” on the other hand, is a pretty indestructible Rock`n`Roll classic that survives even this full-on Disco treatment by the Pinups. It is a pretty silly song to begin with…
THE PINUPS, Do It All Night, 1980
SPORTPALAST, Koockakoolaintschina & Ich will hier raus, 1980
Posted: April 9, 2008 Filed under: 80s, Berlin Records | Tags: Berlin Rock News, Neue Deutsche Welle, New Wave, Poly Styrene 1 Comment »
In 1980 the band Sportpalast came in first in a band contest held by the city of Berlin and won a record contract for this 45.
It was the first in a series that was sponsored by various record labels. Each of the records had a press run of a 1000 and they were distributed by the bands themselves. That said, the female singer still managed to say “Scheisse” (shit), “Ficken” (fucking) and “Disco zerstört dein Gehirn” (Disco destroys your brain) on a record that was financed by the city of Berlin. Nena certainly wouldn`t have done that. I can only assume that it was this boldness that prevented the otherwise catchy song “Ich will hier raus” from being played on the radio and eventually becoming more successful.
“Sportpalast” is a well chosen name for a Berlin rock band. Built in 1910 the Sportpalast was Berlins first multi-purpose arena. Max Schmeling boxed there. Social-Democrats, Communists and Nazis held conventions there. Goebbels held his famous “Total War speech” there. After the war many rock groups played there, among them: Bill Haley, The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. It was torn down in 1973
I´m not sure if I would have liked this record at the time of it`s release. It`s not really sophisticated compared to what was happening in the Underground at the time. It´s not Punk, it`s not Post-Punk and a little too rock-ish for New Wave.
Strangely, today it sounds like a typical “Neue Deutsche Welle” (German New Wave) record. The weaker A-Side “Koockakoolaintschina” (Coca-Cola in China) points out that instead of drinking Coca-Cola the Chinese used to smoke Opium. The B-Side “Ich will hier raus” (I want out of here) though, is a fast saxophone-driven rocker with a touch of Poly Styrene. I really like it.
SPORTPALAST, Koockakoolaintschina, 1980
SPORTPALAST, Ich will hier raus, 1980
EXTRA, Du bist so eitel & Leg an, 1980
Posted: April 9, 2008 Filed under: 80s, Berlin Records | Tags: Berlin Records, Neue Deutsche Welle, New Wave Leave a comment »
Extra were similar to Sportpalast in that they were also from Berlin and also had a female singer.
But while Sportpalast only recorded one 45, Extra recorded a LP and were more successful nationally.
Extra were featured on a 10″ New Wave-compilation called “Prima Tanzmusik” that included many well known German New Wave bands. I bought that record when it came out in `81 and while there were similar Hard Rock bands posing as New Wave on that comp, I remember particularly not liking the band Extra. Too rockish for my snobbish 15-year old taste back then. And I hadn`t even seen the naked bearded dude on the cover of their 45…
The German new music magazine “Sounds” wrote that Extra played “simple Hard-Rock in the most embarassing German tradition”. Actually they were not hard enough for the Hard Rock and not new enough for the New Wave crowd.
25 years later my taste seems to have changed. Now I like the aggressive voice of singer Katia and the powerful approach of Extra. A lot of the old German New Wave stuff sounds awfully tame and complacent today. Extra at least had some balls.
PRÄDIKAT WERTVOLL, Kleiner Pilot, 1980
Posted: February 6, 2008 Filed under: 80s, Berlin Records, Private Pressings | Tags: New Wave, Power Pop, Punk Leave a comment »
I`m just guessing this is from 1980. It could be from 81 or 82, but somewhere in that time-slot. The time-slot is: “When we were trying to play cool, new 80s music but we still had to play with some bearded dude from the 70s”
I´m also just guessing this is from Berlin because it has the Berlin area code listed on the back. “Kleiner Pilot” is not Punk, not Power Pop, not New Wave but it`s trying very hard.
PRÄDIKAT WERTVOLL, Kleiner Pilot, 1980
About me:
My name is Andreas Michalke. I´m a cartoonist from Berlin, Germany and I like collecting records. Most of the records I find in thrift stores or at flea markets here in Berlin. I like a lot of music but I thought I`d focus on odd German records. Preferably with cartoon covers.
All my scans are high-resolution. If you double-click on them they will get much bigger.
Recent Comments