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Rock
In Deutschland
Gerhard
Augustin INTERVIEW
Throughout
the history of music, as well as other forms of art, entertainment and
business, there have always been celebrities. Behind the scenes are the
managers who sometimes get attention as well (for better, and for worse).
Occasionally there are those who served as a catalyst for something bigger.
Whether a cultural shift, changes in musical style, or discovery of
groundbreaking artists or bands, it’s not uncommon for them to get little
attention or recognition. Often their visionary ideas and groundwork are
overlooked or written out of the public domain.
One
such music lover is Gerhard Augustin. At a time in German culture when English
was by and large an alien language, and “schlager” (German folk/pop music) was
the norm, Gerhard began to groove to a different beat as a DJ in Bremen. As
co-founder of the famous TV show The Beat Club, and A&R man who
engineered the signing of Amon Duul 2, Popol Vuh and Can to Liberty/United
Artist Records in 1969-‘70, he helped lay the foundation for a cultural
shift and musical revolution in Germany. He possessed the open mind, love of
music and the business skills to act as a bridge between the underground and
establishment. In effect he was the godfather of Krautrock, which still
resonates musically in the world of pop music influencing many bands today.
His
story is fascinating and it’s past time for it to be told. I think you’ll find
the following interview, taken from a long video segment he did for EUROCK,
offers a fascinating glimpse into the past and gives long overdue credit to one
of Europe’s literally unsung musical pioneers.
Q:
Tell me, in the beginning how did you get German TV to allow you to produce
"The Beat Club” music program? What year was the first program was
broadcast?
In
1963 I became the first German DJ in Bremen. There was a restaurant called The
Gypsy Cellar that sometimes had live music in their basement. As I knew
the owners I recommended to them that they turn it into a discothèque for
dancing and they agreed. So we put in 2 turntables and it became one of the
first youth clubs at that time – called The Twen Club.
I
had just come back to Germany after Kennedy was shot as I had been from living
a while in the USA. I had seen Shindig there and Top of the Pops in
England so around 1966 I started trying to promote doing a German version of
those programs that turned into The Beat Club. It was produced by radio
Bremen, directed by Michael Leckebusch and hosted by Uschi Nerke and myself.
The first show was broadcast Sept. 23, 1966 on a Saturday afternoon at 4 PM.
Immediately reactions came in, letters, calls, etc.
People from the older generation (old Nazi’s) hated it, young kids loved it and
said things like “keep it going” and so on. It caused a real reaction between
the generations.
Q:
It became a sensation on the pop scene and helped start some of the most famous
pop groups on their road to fame and fortune. Who was your favorite English pop
group that appeared on the show?
My
favorite band in those days was The Who. We had become friends earlier when I
had worked in England and our friendship continues today. I had met their
manager, Kit Lambert, who gave me an acetate copy of their first single “Can’t
Explain” b/w “Bald Headed Woman”. They were trying to get a label for it in the
early days. I also liked very much The Kinks and the Stones who I met while in
London around 1962. Everyone hung out at a pub near the Marquee Club back
then.
Q:
I’ve seen tapes of many of the English stars that appeared on the program. But
at one point you started to feature also the newly emerging bands from the
German space rock scene. How in the world did you get mainstream German TV
station executives to allow that?
The
whole Beat Club thing was a result of the relationship I had with Mike
Leckebusch over the years. When we created the show together we became great
friends. However, slowly over time, he wanted to take more credit for the show
and later some English managers recommended he should use a British DJ instead
of me so the show might be of more interest to the English market. Larry Page
and Robert Wace were the main ones behind this, they were part of a sort of
1960’s UK music mafia of old business types who wanted to control pop music in
Britain. Eventually they gave Mike some money to buy a big house, a Jaguar and
all those things, so of course I was phased out and he went on to gain fame and
fortune himself. It’s an old story. He became very corrupt and there was lots
of payola going on with the show back then.
The
English pop stars were often on the show because their songs were in the charts
in Germany. Soon the record companies started helping with this as they
realized that even though TV production was very primitive in those days –
black and white, etc., they saw it could influence sales greatly.
As
for getting the more experimental bands on the show, I think Mike always had a
bad conscience about pushing me out of The Beat Club. He knew I was the
originator of the idea for the show and developed it after the other shows I’d
seen on my trips overseas. So as a result of this, every time I came up with a
new German progressive or experimental act I would bring it to him for
exposure. I got groups like Amon Duul 2 and Popol Vuh on the show, but it took
a lot of convincing. In the end because of his guilt he would put them on as
sort of a favor to help me out.
Q:
Around the same time you did The Beat Club I believe you also were head
of A&R at Liberty/UA Records and involved in production of the first
Amon Duul 2 and Popol Vuh records (around 1969-1970). Again I ask, how was it
during that time that you were able to get those records made by a mainstream
label? It must have seemed strange to do all this weird music and have a large
corporation subsidize it?
Well,
not quite so. When I left The Beat Club, I went to America and lived in
San Francisco. There I discovered bands like Santana and CCR for the German
market. I also met Bill Graham and we became good friends. He introduced me to
the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Sly & the Family Stone, Ike and Tina
Turner, Tom Donahue (the original FM DJ playing undergound music) and Ralph
Gleason who was one of the first journalists to write about the new underground
music in the BAY area.. That was around 1968-’69. I was very fortunate to be at
the right place, at the right time for all that was happening in SF then.
While
I lived in SF I worked at KQED TV and was awarded a scholarship and got
his diploma in Mass Communications at Stanford University.. After graduation, I
got a job in Los Angeles with United Artist Records and learned all
about how the company worked. They then sent me to Germany to work for the
company there. When I got over there they wanted to sign some domestic German
bands to their roster. Sigi Loch, head of the famous Star Club record label,
started a German flagship label for UA/Liberty Records, to be
distributed at home and abroad. I got AD 2, Popol Vuh and Can signed to
contracts with them. The record company knew little about that type of music of
course, so it was sometimes a rather strange situation as you might imagine.
Q:
While doing The Beat Club and promoting AD 2 and Popol Vuh did you do
the actual music/video production, or work have help from others like Olaf
Kubler, etc?
I
was only involved in financing and management of the video production. We did
one for “All the Years Round” by AD 2. That was the first music video
production in Germany. We paid a director and video company to do the filming.
It was played, but there were very few media outlets for that type of thing in
those days. We did several other videos as well, but that was the early days of
TV and the experimental bands weren’t really attractive to the mainstream
media.
Q:
As for Amon Duul 2, I believe they actually started as a political collective
and the main members broke off to form a specific music group?
Amon
Duul did begin as a political commune in Berlin. It was formed by the coming
together of politicos from Berlin like Rainer Langhans and Uschi Obermeier (who
became a famous model later), with musicians from Munich – Chris Karrer, Peter
and Ulrich Leopold and Falk Rogner. Renate was not involved as she was living
in England then working as an au pair. After a while there was a split into AD
1 (the political people), who recorded one big party/session before they
descended into chaos. That resulted in several records having nothing to do
with the real AD 2. Amon Duul 2 (the musical side) moved back to Munich where
the group was joined by John Weinzierl and Dave Anderson (who came over from
England). The first album of AD 2 – PHALLUS DEI – was recorded in two
days at Trixie Studios in Munich. It was the first space rock album and caused
a sensation on the young scene.
Lothar
Meid in the beginning was playing with Embryo, before he joined AD 2 later. He
also played with Olaf Kubler (who was a jazz saxophonist). They played jazz and
soul music on Sunday afternoons in a couple clubs around 1968-’69. Olaf also
produced and published the AD 2, and many other albums. He was a real business
Mafiosi type involved in the music business.
Q:
What was the scene like back then? Did those record sell large numbers – for
example do you remember how many copies YETI and TANZ DER LEMMINGE
& AFFENSTUNDE sold?
For the new underground groups without a hit single it
was very hard. Some of the old Nazis were still in control of the media so they
would never give exposure to new experimental rock music. Society in Germany
was just about to start changing, so a few dared to promote this new music and
ideas, but rock and roll was new to Germany. Here that sort of thing basically
started 10 years later than in the USA. Most people still listened to Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathias and Peggy Lee. For the most part,
English was not spoken much at all. Beat Music started to change this around
1965. Later a lot of German bands started to copy the English bands, covering
their songs, and playing on The Beat Club as the most famous English
bands became too big and expensive. Also payola started playing a large part in
the music scene and it all started to change in many ways.
Q:
During the heyday of the space rock scene in Germany was that type of music a
significant market and did the albums produced by all those bands sell a great
deal? Or perhaps has the myth always been bigger than the reality?
Sales
of these albums were actually very low. AD 2 was the first to start selling
with PHALLUS DEI. Then Can had their song “Spoon” on a German TV crime
show called “The Knife”. That caused it to hit the charts and ultimately it
went silver, which in Germany meant selling 250,000 copies. Later their album, EGE
BAMYASI, with that song on it started selling as well. So Can made good
money actually.
Over
time AD 2 sold maybe 60,000 copies of PHALLUS DEI, their other albums
sold between 20, 000 – 50,000 worldwide sales over the years. They still sell
today reissued on CD. AD 2 never had a hit single, though we tried with
“Archangels Thunderbird”, and a couple others, so their sales were smaller.
Q:
In the last few years it seems there has been renewed interest in some of the
original German bands. AD 2 reformed and did concerts in Japan and England. Is
the band still together now? Who are the current members?
There was actually some confusion surrounding the name
and music of Amon Duul 2 as some albums came out in England that were not
really connected to the band. So there was a court case in Germany where the
members of AD 2 were actually certified. They are – Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz,
Chris Karrer, Peter Leopold, Lothar Meid, Falk Rogner and John Weinzierl. A
couple years back some of them reformed and we did some recording and Live
shows in Japan and the UK. But for something more permanent the chemical
formula was not good…
Q:
What about Florian Fricke, do you still have any contact or work with him?
Florian
Fricke was also from Munich. On the first Popol Vuh album, AFFENSTUNDE,
he used the first Moog synthesizer in Germany. Along with Eberhard Schoener
they pioneered the use of synthesizer in Germany. Later Florian sold his Moog
to Klaus Schulze who became one of the leading electronic musicians in Germany
even up to today.
Florian
had perhaps more success than AD 2 because I arranged to have his music used in
5 of Werner Herzog’s films, that helped them get more International exposure
and better sales. In fact, right now one of his songs, originally in AGUIRRE,
is being used in a successful American film that won a prize at the Cannes Film
Festival; it’s called BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. I produced most of the albums
by Popol Vuh and I’m also the godfather of Florian’s son, Johannes, who’s now
living in NYC. Florian himself is a little spaced out right now…
Q:
What is your main area of work these days? You have a company called Gammarock
Productions. Do you still do video production? How about consulting for
record labels?
Gammarock
is my company formed in 1976 in LA with Patrick Gammon (who died in 1996). Now
I handle all the music publishing, as well as the video and music production
for the Gammarock material, which includes AD 2, Popol Vuh and many more
mainstream artists. We place artists with labels and get the music into films,
etc.
I
also now do a public radio show here in Bremen again. I’ve always loved being a
DJ and still do today.
Q:
After all these years what is the most memorable thing that music has brought
into your life? A special concert, album or travel to some far away place?
Could you imagine a life with no music in it?
No,
I don’t want to imagine any life without music. Music has always been the most
important thing for me - more important than sex, love or relationships. Music
is essential to my life whether I sing it, play it, hear it, work with it, or
make money with it. In my opinion as a publisher, producer, musician, artist
and music lover, in the movies, music is more important than the actual
pictures. It makes the film come alive. I’m what you call a music freak. I’ve
survived with music, being a DJ, doing shows, and writing 8 books about
different artists along with anthologies on pop, rock and beat music.
Some
of the most memorable events in my life are associated with music. I traveled
with Jimi Hendrix that last 3 weeks of his life. He was a very beautiful person
and musical genius. Also with the Rolling Stones I had many breakfasts, trips,
concerts, shows… I met John Lennon at the house of Jann Wenner (of Rolling
Stone) in NYC, around the time of the recording and release of IMAGINE…
I toured around the world with Ike and Tina Turner - Australia, Japan, Africa,
at the height of their career and during their times of trouble and breakup.
Truly
I cannot imagine a life without music. I don’t want to even think about a life
without music. I’ve met so many musicians, actors and great people; music has
been a most wonderful life for me.
- Archie Patterson
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