Thiede Human Punk For Real

An Autobiography [English Edition]
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-86287-171-1
Verlag: Fuego
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 150 Seiten

If you used to be a punk, you never where! I wasn't even twelve years old in 1976 when I heard about this 'New Thing' from England called: PUNK ROCK! Something completely new, snotty and revolutionary. A musical and verbal revolution against the Establishment! A punch right in the face of the whining love song era! I was immediately affected...or better said: infected! It started with The Sex Pistols and The Damned - but when I heard Jean Jacques Burnel's bass guitar in 'Goodbye Toulouse' by The Stranglers I was totally stoked! Then as now, the music has never lost its power and energy, and I love all these songs like the first day I heard them! In this book I'm attempting to describe the beginning of the Punk movement in Bremen - a very unpopular and rough German city - especially in the 80s. About the ongoing battles with right-wing Skinheads, and how we had to scrape together every penny just so we could go to as many cool shows as possible. First in Bremen, then other German cities, then in England (the Promised Land of Punk Rock!), and later in California. To me, it's an ongoing, never-ending adventure. Finally, In 2012, I 'landed' in the Bay Area. In December 2014 I became 50 years old and Punk Rock is still, to this day, the only kind of music that always gives me goose bumps! And this will never change - as with many of the other 'infected' - to my last breath!

Marco Thiede, geboren 1964, schreibt über seine Entdeckung des Punkrock, und wie diese Musik sein Leben veränderte. Er beschreibt seine Erlebnisse seit dem Ende der 70er Jahre bis heute, in denen er von Bremen aus viele Reisen zu Konzerten und Treffen unternahm und dadurch in Kalifornien gelandet ist ...

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thiede, Marco

Weitere Mitwirkende

Collins, Bill

Leseproben

1976-1989

Bremen-Nord was a town in itself. In the 70s, most in my class were or fans.

was really my band. From time to time they played on Ilja Richter Disco, Saturday nights on German television’s Channel Two. It happened that the singer Brian Connolly (RIP), broke the microphone and threw it into the corner. Or that Mick Tucker, drummer, smashed up his drums after a song. In the playground the next day that was the number one topic of discussion. Hits like Blockbuster or Hellraiser today are still some of my favorite tunes. At that time, the world’s ugliest band, the attacked the charts. As a result, my favorite band felt they had to compete with them. Suddenly played only fuckin ' love songs.

The climax of that cruelty was “Fever of Love”. WTF!

It made you want to scream. Out of the blue, we suddenly became aware of a new sensation out of England. All of a sudden there were articles in the (Teenie music magazine) on the New Threatening Thing from England: Punk Rock!

It hit like a bomb. Millions of people were disgusted by what had exploded onto the British music scene. Fortunately, this was just what countless crazy and bored people had been waiting for, for years.

Right away, my classmate Voller and I were infected. Many people thought we were crazy, but it wasn’t long till we saw one or two others who were also infected by Punk Rock.

Slowly our situation developed and we set off down the long road to the Viertel - Bremen City’s Punk neighborhood. That took time, thanks to the poor bus service, up to two hours. At flea markets here, you could already discover one or another Punk record. Before long, there was a record store called Govi, which was very focused on Punk Rock. Incredible, that it was possible, even at that time, to buy Punk records from cute, pretty Punk girls working behind the counter.

What birds of paradise!

Julia and Sabine posing in the Govi shop window. [Photo: W. Wiggers]

I'll never forget the first time I heard “Goodbye Toulouse” by at home with my brother. What a bass! I’d never experienced the true sound of a bass guitar in this way before. Killer! My brother liked that too, although he hated Punk then for some reason.

Kutter ca. 1979

Eventually I met a guy, who I called Fan, because he had logo on his jacket. When I called out to him: Hey, Fan, he replied to me: I am not a fan of anymore! I’m a Fan and listen to Punk Rock now! That was Wanne of HB-Nord (Bremen Nord). A lifelong Punk Rocker. Just like me.

In the Viertel then there were already Punk or New Wave stores like the . We were always happy when we ran into another new Punk. What an adventure!

It was not really easy for us Bremen - Norder. I was born in 1964 and was not even twelve when everything took off. We hardly had any money, and the way to Bremen was very long. Sometimes even longer if we’d been drinking beer and had to take a piss. On the other hand, we still had long hair, and had the feeling that the City Punks despised us because they had short hair or spikes. Then there was the problem that we young sprouts had to be back home on time, which worked less and less.

Near the infamous Sielwall corner was the first official Punk pub called . Weekends over there were always crazy, and that’s where we first made contact with the Punks from Oslebshausen - which was between Bremen Nord and the City. But the Oslebs Punks didn’t trust us at first, because of our long hair and our oversized, homemade, plate-sized Punk badges.

Only one was very cool to us from the beginning. Hank from Ritterhude. I remember that I met him once at a concert where he had his hair spiked with green fluorescent car paint! Unfortunately, that didn’t work out to well for him, so he had to cut it all off down to the scalp. Through Hank I heard about an upcoming Punk concert in Ohlenhof in Groepelingen.

On September 22nd I finally got to attend my very first Punk concert: Two bands from Braunschweig: (later ) and (who were later renamed What a show! And so many Punks from everywhere! I was in seventh heaven.

Bombed Bodies

During the show my Dad came to pick me up. I was so excited that I poured my beer in my hair beforehand, and dragged him into the concert hall!

“You have to see this,” I stuttered. But unfortunately, he was extremely shocked and could not share my enthusiasm.

Nothing could stop me now. Not even the Punk movement.

More and more shops sold Punk records. Ear Records, JPC.... Fanzines were made, and there were more and more Punk shows going on.

was the first fanzine. It was followed by the , the etc. It didn’t take long before I made my own fanzine: – Printing: ten copies. Then , with a similar amount of copies.

One time my parents went on vacation. When they came back, my hair was gone. My mother was shocked. My dad kind of liked it. I remember like it was yesterday that my classmates looked at me like I was an alien. Actually, I used to be just the opposite, and there was always a big drama when my mother wanted to cut my hair.

Punk Rock now found a place in the media more and more. The dedicated a monthly page to the “New Wave”. Thomas Gottschalk, the German grannies’ favorite son, hosted the television music show: where you could watch the and other bands. Unfortunately, never the , but they did show

The cool thing about Iggy's appearance was that he stretched himself and flailed his body around, but kept his mouth shut. He was probably thinking “why not?”

Since most bands lip-synced to their recordings. I think this was a very embarrassing situation for German TV!

In Bremen, some bands were formed: (even till now, Bremen’s only female band!)

Substral [Photo: W. Wiggers]

, and, and, and...

In the and in the and of course at the you could watch the first out-of-town Bands: from Hamburg, (later the famous – who were always fun to watch - with the English band that lived in Bielefeld, Wutstock (later ), (later and (both from Hannover), etc…

There was also a mysterious guy I had seen at only two Punk shows at the Marin Werderstrasse (Groepelingen). He was dressed completely like Spiderman and always kept in the background. Now and then he’d pogo like a maniac - for never more than two minutes - till all the furniture near him was reduced to splinters. Real impressive. No one knows who he was, or where he came from.

Maybe he was the real Spiderman ...

The media paid more and more attention. The cops hated us, and there was constantly friction and arrests. In Hamburg, there was a big war between Teds and Punks, and it was always in the newspapers.

We also had a few Teds in Bremen. Some of them we even knew personally. We thought it was stupid to attack Teds just because the press wanted us to. There was only one Ted in Vegesack who, like the Hamburg Teds, wanted war with the Punks. Then, when I wanted to confront him about this one day, he ran and hid in a shoe store. That was our gang war in Bremen. The so-called Popper (Yuppie Disco fans) war would follow, but was actually just as moronic, as well as not particularly noteworthy. Especially in contrast to what was waiting for us with the right-wing Skinheads later!

In October 1979, Sid Vicious made the alleged murder of Nancy Spungen a worldwide sensation. My father confronted me with the -Zeitung with Sid Vicious on the front page. What could I say?

Meanwhile, in England and elsewhere there were countless brilliant bands:

From the States, the brilliant ... The list was and is endless.

We could hardly wait to listen to and tape the newest stuff from England on John Peel's Music program on BFBS.

Of course, the big record companies got wind of a possible quick buck and tried to cash in on what they could get.

one-time political rebel flagship band, were the first to give in and sign with a major label. The began. When played in Hamburg it didn’t take long before the disappointed audience kicked them off the stage. After all, there was a vision in addition to the music.

ZK at the Schlachthof

Then a kind of...