Fasten Seat Belt - Escalate (1982)

b/w French Connection

Great New Wave / Powerpop from Cologne / Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Sèan O'Sharp AKA Hanjo Scharfenberg (Voc) 
Bruno Z (Guitar) 
Paolo Campi (Guitar)
M.H. (Bass) 
Bonnie Bonn (Drums)
Fish (Keys)

Recorded in Autumn 1981. the A-side can be found on their lone LP "So Real"

Useless info - Sèan O'Sharp aka Hanjo Scharfenberg was raised in Germany and Ireland. 
He was educated at The King's Hospital Dublin and then at Trinity College Dublin where he graduated.
Amongst other things Scharfenberg went on to co-found the 'Chins' Bar and be a gallery owner in Cologne  

His last known whereabouts was as a member of The Capitalist. If you want to hear what he's doing now go here 

Sounds & Scans

The Escalatorz - Escalatorz 10" EP (1981)

A1 - Depression
A2 - Goin' Bananas
B1 - On The Scene
B2 - Split

Cool New Wave/Garage Rock debut from This West Berlin 4 Peice.
The Band Ran in name from 1981 -91 although the nucleus of the band Daniels had been a duo With Bauer for a few years prior to this.

The 1st line up was
H.P. Daniels (voc guitar)
Mario 'Bibi' Schulz (guitar voc)
Dietrer Bauer (bass voc)
Hans Wallbaum (drums voc)

Due to internal strife & other commitments (Schulz & Wallbaum being in another band at the same time) the above line up pretty much dissolved after this recording.
later members being:
H.P. Daniels (voc, guitar)
Udo Modin?(guitar, voc) Replaced by Andreas Roemer ('82) ex - Odessa RIP
Rene Engelman (bass' voc) ex Naasti replaced by Hans Moser ('89)
Hans Jurgen 'Otto' Schneider (drums, voc) ex - Odessa replaced by Harry Malloy ('84)
Wolfgang Mueller (guitar voc - Making them a 5 piece in '83) ex - Rozz
with the aid of
Thomas Pflanz replaced by Chris Ashburn (sax)
Bruno Zimmer (trumpet)
Skip Reinhardt (trumpet)
Soren Fisher (trombone)
Danny 'Deutschmark' Dzuik (keyboards)

Discography

5 track demo cassette -
Sordid Collection - Smanx (1983)
(studio side) - No panic, You Can Stop Me, Depression
(live side) -White Shirt & Black Tie, So Fragile .

7" Releases
Rough Stuff/Back On my Feet Again - Berlin Rock News 66.11 477-01 [1000 copies] (1982)
So Fragile/No Panic - SmAnx 12345678 (1982)*
Too Bad/Season Ticket - SmAnx 191157 (1982)*
From The Garage Straight To Your Heart/Commuter Love - SmAnx 87654321 (1983)*
Movin On/ Small Talk - smAnx 3802-391 (1984)*
Contaminated Memories/No Crime - SmAnx 25-485 (1985)*
*private press 300 copies each

LP -
Straight To Your Heart - SmAnx Vielklang Efa 04241-08 (1987) (with re-recorded versions of...)
From The Garage Straight To Your Heart/ Rough Stuff/ So Fragile/ White Shirt & Black Tie/ No Panic/ Movin’ On/ I Need You/ Commuter Love/ Small Talk/ Too Bad

Video -
Recorded 20.10.84 Live at the Latin Quarter

BTW...as well as Roemer & Schneider,the band Odesaa also included Helmut Hirt (voc), Bernd Däumichen (guitar sax), Jürgen Dehmel (bass) Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkog-Petersen (keyboards) - They Recorded 1 LP (Odessa [Good Noise - 1980])

Sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?kwz3obd4hp2b5hz

The Stripes - Tell Me Your Name (1980)

b/w -Weekend Love

Great Powerpop from this Hagen, Germany combo who began life in the summer of 1979

Gabriele Susanne "Nena" Kerner (voc)
Rainer Kitzman (guitar)
Frank Rohler (bass)
Rolf Brendel (drums)
with help from
Frank Becking (guitar) see the YouTube clip below

As most will know Ms Kerner & her drummer boyfriend Rolf moved to West Berlin in 1981 & met some others to become Nena (although she'd been known by her nickname Nena since the age of 3 [Nina is Spanish for little girl]

The band Released 1 Lp & 4 45's (this being the 3rd, both tracks were lifted from the LP)
Tell Me Your Name is one of only a few tracks that is not written/co written by Rainer. Instead it's by Michael Munder (who had a track "Bänke Für Den Park" on the 1981 -VA LP Alles Aus Hagen)

Sounds & Scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?la9yx4wmkjya0hi

The Ramblers - The Kids Are back To Rock N Roll (1979)

b/w - Nothing Remains The Same

On my search for info on this German band I've realized that they seem to have been studiously ignored. WHY?

They were formed early 1977 in Hagen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany & have given us some great punk / powerpop.

The Band were
Christian Schneider AKA Hartwig Masuch (voc) whilst studying Economics at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (in 1980 he became Exrabreit's manager)
Frank Becking (guitar) also played briefly with the Stripes (more on them soon) & later with Nena again
Carlo Karges RIP (guitar) later in Exrabreit & Nena
Clemens Domning (bass voc) later in Exrabreit then moved to Berlin & joined Z replaced by Jürgen Meier
Jürgen Hielscher (drums), later replaced by Rüdiger Braune
with help from
Rüdiger Elze (guitars) later in avant-garde bands Hoelderlin & Kowalski

LP's
The Kids Are Back To Rock'n'Roll 1978 - Crystal or BB
Street Heat 1979 - Antagon Musikgesellschaft or Quality or Laser (RCA Oz)
Strange Life 1980 - CBS
45's
Soul Rocking Cock Sucker/You Never Do It Like Everybody 1977 - Hot Stuff*
We Want The World/New York City 1978 - Crystal
The Kids Are back To Rock N Roll/Nothing Remains The Same 1979 - Crystal
Out Of Time/All Those Days 1980 - CBS
Keep On Laughing/Running 1980 - CBS

If there any omissions/corrections please leave a comment

* thanks to Bernd for the info on this7"

Sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?j0prrja9a3ms9d1

The Gents - Upside Down (1980)

b/w - And Everyday

Here is the 1st 45 from this German mod Quartet (see my earlier post for their second & final platten)

The song writers of this 60's sounding 45 were

Stefan Bohrer & Robert Schlunze

I'm still no further on than before in finding anything out about the other 2 of them!

Sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?qt0wvdt66lbcw5b

Benny - Bin wieder frei (1978)

b/w - Ich sitz, auf einer kokosnuß

Anyone know the German for "Nice Jumper!!!!"

As you can see from the sleeve Benny is doing a great rendition of Plastic Bertrand's "Ca pane pour moi"

You can amuse yourselves by watching the German teenybopper/heartthrob performing/miming the track here

He has made a few interesting records (& quite a lot of no interest at all)
I do recommend "Du hast angst vor der wahrheit" - which is a version of Jimmy Pursey's "kids are united"-

Sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?7u2k15c59o2t3z1

Stairs - Hey you (1980)

b/w - Time enough

Cool Mod revival tunes from this German (Düsseldorf area) Trio

Comped on "powerpearls vol 6" available here

the band were

Ralf Schienke (Voc, Guitar)
Hans Wilke (bass)
Roland Werners (drums)

They later changed their name to "Die profis" & changed their bass player (Rainer Krebs)

For a full history & discography they have a myspace

sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?jq4dwsdnwdpxdtm

the Gents - Modern time (1980)

b/w Angry boys

This is the 2nd of 2 45 releases for this German quartet both in 1980 on sunrise records (released through RCA) the other is "upside down/and everyday"

This has been comped on powerpearls vol 1 which is available here . I'm not sure if the 1st 45 is available anywhere else (it's more 60's sounding than this fine slab of mod revival/punk)

I can tell you the 2 songwriters are

Stefan Bohrer &
Robert Schlunze

the other 2 will have to google themselves, find this & leave a comment!!

sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?oigyu4w3ghto1vy

the Shares - Alice (1980)

b/w - Rollerskater disco

Nice bit of Mod/powerpop from Berlin (I think their only release)

(most copies came with an info sheet - unfortunately mine is without - so I know sweet f/a about them)

The label "Berlin rock news" was funded/sponsored by the local council in cahoots with a different record company every year to aid the launch of local acts. The records having a press run of 1000 & being distributed by the band themselves at gigs etc.

and that is all I have

sounds & scans below

http://www.mediafire.com/?ab2toj2myyy

Elfi Graf - Sunday Girl (deutche originalaufnahme) (1979)

b/w noch funf minuten

Well you've all heard Debbie Harry singing this is English & French (some may have heard it in Spanish) Here's a 27 year old Elfi (trying to look younger on the sleeve) singing it in German.
I've included the B-side, as I'm sure people would ask me about it, if I didn't. Personally I'm not going to listen to it again for one second (let alone five minutes)
There are sites to go to if you wish. I'm not going to link to any as I don't think you'll want to hear any thing else by her!

Having said all of that; I like this version & I'm sure you will you!! ---- gotta love the handclaps

sounds & sleeves below


http://www.mediafire.com/?zyzzwtvtm4m