Downward (band)

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Down
Down-2006.jpg
General information
origin Hamburg (Germany)
Genre (s) Punk , new wave , industrial
founding 1979, 1987, 1995, 2004
Website www.abwaerts.com/
Founding members
Frank Z.
Singing, violin
Margita Haberland (1979-81)
FM unit (1979-82, 1988-90)
Axel Dill (1979-84)
Joachim "Jocko Ono" Osiek (1979)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
Frank Z.
Guitar u. a.
Rodrigo González (since 2004)
bass
Björn Werra (since 2009)
Drums
Martin "Dog" Kessler (since 2004)
former members
bass
Gisbert "Gibo" Kellersmann (1980)
bass
Mark Chung (1980-82)
bass
Raymond Watts (1984)
Guitar, bass
Peter Horn (1987-89)
Horst "Blank Fontana" Siewert (1987–88)
guitar
Michael "Elf" Mayer (1988-95)
Guitar, bass
Uwe Bastiansen (1988-92)
bass
Jochen Hansen † (1989–95)
Drums
Frank Seele (1991-94)
Drums
Marcel Zürcher (1995)
bass
Thomas Zabel (2004-2006)
bass
Stevie Rocket (2007-09)

Down is a punk band from Hamburg .

Band history

prehistory

The typesetter and band founder Frank Ziegert (born August 19, 1957) founded a punk band together with two older art students in Hamburg in 1978/79, which he named Big Muff after his guitar effects device . The band only had two appearances in Hamburg, one of which took place at the In Die Zukunft festival in the Markthalle (June 29, 1979) before Ziegert broke up the group. Band founder Frank-Martin Strauss (born December 18, 1958) originally came from Bochum, where he played percussion ( congas and bell ring ) in Uwe Fellensiek's band Bertha & Friends . Ziegert had seen the band perform with Strauss at the Free and Outdoor Festival in Vlotho (August 25-27, 1978). In 1979 Strauss dropped out of school and moved to Hamburg.

1979 to 1984

Since the summer of 1979, Strauss had been looking for people who wanted to start a band with him and the Bochum bassist Joachim Osiek (previously under the stage name Jocko Malaga also at Bertha & Friends ) through notices in pubs ( “Ass up!” ) . Frank Ziegert got in touch, and Axel Dill (born October 29, 1954) was hired as drummer by the Bremen punk band Blender , who had studied music at the Hamburg Conservatory for eight semesters .

On December 29, 1979 Abwärts had their first appearance at the "Noise for the 80s" festival, where they were well received by the audience and, among other things, offered a punk version of the Capri fishermen . The music press initially compared the band's music unanimously with the British post-punk band Wire due to the narrowly reduced, precise style of playing .

At the beginning of 1980 Osiek left the band because the band seemed too uncommercial to him, and the Blender bassist Gisbert “Gibo” Kellersmann came for him . In addition, Dill brought his partner Margita Haberland into the band, who had also been with Blender for a short time . Haberland played the violin and sang on some pieces.

In February 1980 the group went to Hamburg's Hafenklang recording studio to record a single that was originally supposed to appear on the indie label No Fun Records , but was then released by the newly founded ZickZack Records . The self-financed, -produced and -titled Abwärts EP, whose title track "Computerstaat" is still one of the best-known and most popular songs of the band, was released in early May 1980 and received good press reviews.

After a tour of Germany (May 6-27, 1980), bassist Kellersmann left the band and was replaced by Marc Chung from the Hamburg Buschband . Since the single sold extremely well (22,000 copies by the summer of 1981), the band started producing a full album in August 1980.

In October 1980, the debut album Amok Koma was released , which received enthusiastic reviews in the music press. The LP was promoted with a tour of Germany in the opening act of The Cure (October 8-16, 1980) and became the best-selling title on the ZickZack label (a total of 24,000 copies). In 1988 there was a new CD edition in small numbers, since 2012 the album has been available as a download version.

Another single Robot in the Night / For Mutti was released in mid-March 1981 and received mixed press reactions, as well as a video clip shot by Klaus Maeck and another tour of Germany (March 14 to April 3, 1981). Even the SPIEGEL reported on down, the band started on performances in London, think the United States and even Japan, promotional packages of VHS and sauerkraut canning to US concert promoter not led to the hoped-for US tour, the video clip for robots in the night but was released commercially in the USA in 1982.

A studio session on June 3, 1981 in Hamburg's Hafenklang studio for the compilation album Lieber Zuviel als Zuwenig was both the last collaboration with Margita Haberland, who then left the band, and the last release on ZickZack Records.

In 1981 individual band members began with side projects: FM Einheit worked temporarily with Palais Schaumburg , he and Marc Chung also became permanent members of the Einstürzende Neubauten , which meant a double burden (studio recordings, performance dates). Frank Z. and Axel Dill, on the other hand , recorded an album with Trini Trimpop in June 1981, which however remained unreleased. In the summer of 1982 Dill helped Margita Haberland with the recording of a solo single Ma Gita , which was released in February 1983.

On 11 September 1981, the band appeared on the Rock Against Junk festival in Berlin, September 25, followed by a TV appearance in the music show Pop Stop the Bavarian Radio . In October 1981 Abwärts was “the hottest tip” in new German music for the Munich youth magazine BRAVO .

Unsatisfied with the support provided by ZigZack, they wanted to work more professionally and offer the next album to a major label. Work on it began in the autumn of 1981 in Hamburg's Hafenklang studio, followed by a whole month of self-financed and self-produced studio recordings, followed by a week of mixing in London's Townhouse Studios by producer Nick Launay . At the end of 1981 the album The West is lonely was finished, which was then offered to various record companies for publication. For an advance payment of allegedly DM 50,000, the band signed with the German major label Phonogram .

The album was released in April 1982 and led to controversy between music journalists on the one hand and musician colleagues and fans on the other. The music press partially rejected the album, the FAZ journalist and later head of the Springer concern Mathias Döpfner summarized in 1984: “The second album (became) a sad document of musical lack of ideas. With slow, quick-paced rhythms, a gloomy, chilled chant and monotonous synthesizer riffs, the group neither documented stylistic independence, nor did they convince with passable technical performance. ” In Spex magazine , however, it was voted" Record of the Month ". The SYPH musician Harry Rag defended the album as an artist vehemently in a letter to the editor to the music magazine Sounds : "Ten excellent ideas (are here) brought to a certain point where I can only say that it couldn't be better." Frank Apunkt Schneider summed up in 2007: "The second LP staggers into contemporary blackout aesthetics (Killing Joke, Theater Of Hate), but still has that certain edge that makes it stand out."

The album was released on an extensive tour (May 11 to June 13, 1982) with trips to Switzerland and Amsterdam, including a spectacular appearance at the Munich Rock Days Festival, at which FM Einheit destroyed parts of the stage set-up for the title Beim for the first time it always hurts a video was produced by Muscha and Trini Trimpop and there was even a homestory in the BRAVO, but the album did not achieve the sales figures we had hoped for.

Another publication, the EP Beirut, co-produced by Jon Caffery in the Dierks Studios near Cologne , Holiday Inn , was released on Phonogram in October 1982, received good press reactions and was followed by another poorly attended tour of Germany (November 1 to 8, 1982 ) and two smaller appearances in England (November 16 and 17, 1982). With the end of the NDW boom, Abwärts, like most of the German independent bands, lost their record deal in 1983 when the big record companies turned to other music styles.

On October 5, 1983 Abwärts gave a single farewell concert in Rome at the Progretto Germania Festival, on which occasion Dum Dum Boys by Iggy Pop and Men of Good Fortune by Lou Reed were played. After this last concert the band announced their breakup, FM Einheit and Marc Chung finally went to the Einstürzende Neubauten , while Frank Z. and Axel Dill stated that they wanted to “do something new” .

As a duo, the two continued downwards and recorded a new single Olympia to coincide with the Olympic Games , which was played with the new bassist Raymond Watts (later with KMFDM ) on July 23, 1984 with a playback appearance in Gütersloh in the WDR evening broadcast music Convoy was presented. Much to the annoyance of the band, the Tote Hosen label Totenkopf only released the single after the games. For the last October broadcast (October 29, 1984) of the ARD music program Formula One , the broadcast of a pre-produced video clip was planned, but due to its provocative nature, the clip was classified as not broadcastable. At the end of the year there were four concerts as opening act for Johnny Thunders (December 16-21, 1984). After that, Frank Z. broke up the band because the feedback on the Olympic single was "so shitty that I just lost interest" .

At the end of 1985 Frank Z., Dill and Watts recorded a few demos under the name Rotting Sausage and gave a single concert on December 25, 1985 in the Hamburg market hall .

Rodrigo González as down guitarist in 2009

1987 to 1998

In 1987 the music press reported the "Ein-Mann (Frank Z.) - Reunion von Abwärts" , and in 1988 an album simply titled Abwärts was released, which Frank Z. had recorded as a solo project with the musician Peter Horn and had less punk influence but quieter Has pieces and partly English texts. The album was received with benevolent disinterest by the music press.

The decoupled single alcohol , a new setting of the Charles Aznavour chanson Du lets dich go (1962), received radio airplay. Frank Z. went back to the studio with FM Einheit to produce a more commercial mix of the song; the result was sent to German radio stations on April 8, 1988 as a single-sided promo single. Although Frank Z. did not intend to reorganize Abwärts as a real band at that time, he and FM Einheit put some musicians together at the beginning of 1988 and played four concerts (April 9th ​​to 12th, 1988) in preparation for the single new release. This was published in May 1988 under the title More Alcohol and contained some current live pieces on the B-side. The video was featured on the Formula One music show on May 28, 1988 , and the single sold a total of 5,500 pieces. After that Frank Z. Abwärts shelved for a year and helped the befriended band Xmal Germany as a guest guitarist on their album Devils (1989).

In 1989 Frank Z. and FM Einheit reactivated the band with the two guitarists of the short-lived 1988 live band ( Michael "Elf" Mayer from the Hamburg punk band Destination Zero , who had previously played with Slime , and Uwe Bastiansen from the Gothic band Mask For ) and the new one Bassist Jochen Hansen from the punk band Die Epuche . Frank Z. stated in 1993 that it was a completely new band that only had the name in common with the original Abwärts: “Actually we should have renamed ourselves back then. I just didn't want that because I thought the name was so cool. "

A contract for two studio albums was signed with the Die Toten Hosen label, Totenkopf , and the comeback album Ich seh die Schiff den Fluss rundown , which was distributed by the major label Virgin Records, was recorded in Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf . Musically, the album offered a guitar-heavy punk style, which was mixed with metal elements in places. Sales stayed within the expected range with a total of 30,000 units, and in April 1990 the single special train to the terminus followed , which addressed the fall of the Wall with sarcastic ridicule. Before the band began an extended tour (April 27 to May 12, 1990), FM Einheit dropped out due to lack of time and overload and was replaced by the new drummer Frank Seele from Destination Zero . During this tour, the Playboy magazine in Munich also became aware of Abwärts and threatened an injunction in the amount of 100,000 DM if the band did not renounce the skull bunny logo, which has been in use since 1984. In the summer and autumn of 1990, further appearances followed.

Lack of financial support from Virgin Records then led to a move to Sony Music , where the album Comic War was released in the spring of 1991 . The sales figures were also satisfactory in view of the excessive live tours (May to July and September 1991), but the band still received little or no radio airplay. Negotiations with Sony about the contractual option for another album dragged on so that Abwärts took a break in 1992. Guitarist Elf Mayer was busy reuniting his old band Slime , while Bastiansen left the group.

Down signed a contract for 2 studio albums with EMI Records , which were released on the briefly revived sub-label Harvest Records . The album Herzlich Willkommen im Irrenhaus was recorded by Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen for a large EMI budget in Copenhagen and presented to 25 invited music journalists on a promotional flight in a DC-3 from Berlin-Tempelhof Airport . With 20,000 pre-orders alone, the album sold well and there were several lucrative concerts in the opening act of Bad Religion in the summer of 1993 . A second album for Harvest, Hurray , followed in August 1994, this time with Die Reise contained a single which also got radio airplay and for which a video was produced. Immediately after the album was released, EMI dissolved the Harvest label, leaving the band without a record deal.

On June 16, 1995, the last album, V8 , followed , which was released by guitarist Elf Mayer on his own slime independent label and met with little response. Since Frank Z. was not ready to continue Abwärts as a small independent band after all these years, he then dissolved the band. In 1998 he released a little-noticed solo album on the Warners sub-label EastWest Records .

Frank Apunkt Schneider summed up this second phase of the band: "Frank Z continued downhill for a long time, among other things in the direction of pathos rock, without getting totally embarrassed, which he tried hard to do."

Since 2004

In 2004, Die Ärzte bassist Rodrigo González persuaded Frank Z. to make another comeback. This finally resulted in the album Nuprop . Small electro-sprinkles suggest new ways, but the album suffered a bit from a bad production. After the “Karstadt Tour” in October 2004, three additional concerts followed, among others as guests of the Beatsteaks in the Palladium in Cologne. In March 2006 a best-of CD with 40 tracks was released. In the summer of 2006 Abwärts played together with Fehlfarben at various festivals.

Frank Z., 2009

The “Breaking News” tour started at the beginning of November, some of which were very well attended, but had to be canceled prematurely by Frank Z. for reasons of illness. On June 8, 2007, the label “Cargo Records” released the album ROM , which González and Frank Z. produced in González's Berlin studio. Before that, however, there were two new songs as a free download, which were also used on the 2006 tour. Rome was recorded in the line-up of Z., González and Kessler. The album also contains an approx. 50-minute multimedia part for the PC from a live concert on September 15, 2006, which was recorded in Hamburg.

Martin Kessler, 2009

In addition, Abwärts published a video trilogy on their homepage with the songs Lucky Fucky , Don't you feel the instinct and Rome . In August 2007 Abwärts went on tour again with another line-up. On this tour, the electric bass was played by Stefan Bühler aka Rocket, full-time electric guitarist at The BossHoss , who had already jumped in for a few concerts on the previous tour.

On October 4th, 2008 the DVD Glam Slam! on Rodrec / Cargo Records. This consists of a recording of the 2007 live concert at SO 36 in Berlin , old video clips and a documentary with interviews. Then Down went on tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland .

In October 2009 the group released the maxi single Be there too! This only appeared as a vinyl version and the group made fun of the scrapping bonus. At the end of the year there was also a live recording which was only available as a download.

In October 2011 the album Europa Safe was released . The title track was a new version of the title Europa from the Hurray album.

In October 2014 the new album Krautrock was released, which among other things contains a new version of the classic Computerstaat as Computerstaat 3.0 .

Discography

Albums

  • 1980: Downward Live - the Rip Off Tape (Live & Gold) , MC Fantape with live recordings
  • 1981: Amok coma
  • 1982: the west is lonely
  • 1988: down
  • 1990: I see the ships going down the river
  • 1991: Comic War
  • 1993: Welcome to the madhouse
  • 1994: Hurray
  • 1995: V8
  • 2004: NuProp
  • 2006: Breaking News - 40 hits from the beginning until today , double album
  • 2007: Rome , including concert video from Hamburg 2006 for the PC
  • 2009: Be there too - live 2009 , free download live album
  • 2011: Europa Safe
  • 2014: Krautrock
  • 2018: Smart Bomb

Singles

  • 1980: Computer State , EP
  • 1981: Robots in the night / For mom
  • 1982: Beirut Holiday Inn, 7 ″ Single / 12 ″ Maxi
  • 1984: Olympia, 12 ″ Maxi
  • 1987: Alcohol, 7 ″ single
  • 1988: More alcohol , 12 ″ EP '88 / Mini-CD '94
  • 1989: Die Zeit, 7 ″ single / 12 ″ maxi / maxi CD
  • 1990: Special train to the terminus, 7 ″ single / 12 ″ maxi / maxi CD
  • 1991: Caution !, promo CD
  • 1994: The Journey
  • 1995: Abwärts / Rausch / Bronx Boys, Promo Split EP
  • 2004: Terror-Beat, 7 ″ EP / Promo Maxi-CD in DVD case
  • 2006: Million Killer / Trieb, mp3 download
  • 2009: Be there too, 12 ″ EP / mp3 download
  • 2011: dream wedding, mp3 download
  • 2016: Affentanz / To go into the sea , mp3 download

Videos / DVDs

  • 2004: Terror-Beat (Promo-VHS)
  • 2008: Glam Slam! (DVD)

Solo album by Frank Z.

  • 1998: Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (LP / CD)

literature

  • Kid P, K. Maeck: Staccato. Music and life . Ed .: Diedrich Diederichsen . 1st edition. Kübler Verlag Michael Akselrad, Heidelberg 1982, ISBN 3-921265-29-0 , The new German wave, We bring you bad luck, p. 9–56, 103–121 (in the first article only on p. 23).
  • B. Hahn, H. Schindler: Punk - The tenderest temptation since there was chocolate (1983)
  • Albrecht Koch: Attack on the land of milk and honey (1987)
  • Jürgen Teipel : Waste Your Youth - A documentary novel about German punk and new wave . 11th edition. Suhrkamp, ​​2007, ISBN 978-3-518-39771-8 .
  • "Breaking News" booklet (Contains a 32-page, detailed history of the band as portrayed by Frank Z.) (2006)

Web links

Commons : Downward  collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Peter Raschner: This group is going up: down. In: BRAVO 41/82, October 7, 1982, pp. 78-79.
  2. a b c d e f g h i Frank Z .: Downward Breaking News. Liner notes for the compilation album Breaking News: 40 hits from the beginning until today , February 24, 2006.
  3. a b Jürgen Teipel : Waste your youth. Suhrkamp-Verlag 2001, first edition, pp. 168–170.
  4. Two songs on the compilation album In die Zukunft , January 1980
  5. Rainer Bruno Jogschies: Today Vlotho and tomorrow the whole world. In: Sounds November 1978, pp. 24-25.
  6. a b [[Diedrich Diederichsen (cultural scientist) |]]: Downward - amok on the adventure playground. In: Sounds February 1981, pp. 28-30.
  7. FM unit: biography and discography. In: FMEinheit.org -Official website.
  8. a b Ralf Behrendt / Michael Weilandt: The 'A5' (Bremen). In: SPEX October 1981, p. 25.
  9. a b Jürgen Teipel : Waste your youth. Suhrkamp-Verlag 2001, first edition, pp. 59–64.
  10. Diedrich Diederichsen: Noises for the 80s. In: Sounds February 1980, p. 6.
  11. a b German New Wave: Noises for the 80s. In: Musikexpress February 1980, p. 4.
  12. Two songs on the compilation album Geräusche für die 80er , April 1980
  13. ^ A song on the debut album AmokKoma , October 1980
  14. ^ A b Alfred Hilsberg: Singles. In: Sounds May 1980, pp. 89-90.
  15. a b Michael Ruff: Up and Down. In: Sounds May 1980, p. 14.
  16. ^ Alfred Hilsberg : Newest Germany. In: Sounds March 1980, p. 9.
  17. Hollow Skai : Everything just dreamed - the curse and blessing of the Neue Deutsche Welle. Hannibal-Verlag, first edition 2009, p. 99.
  18. ^ Gabriele Meierding: New Singles. In: Musikexpress September 1980, p. 6.
  19. ^ A b Dragan Ljubojević: More foam than dream. In: SPEX October 1981, p. 9.
  20. LP review by Hollow Skai. In: Sounds October 1980, p. 66.
  21. LP review by Xao Seffcheque . In: SPEX November 15, 1980, p. 21.
  22. Birthday II. In: SPEX December 1984, p. 7.
  23. New. In: SPEX February 1981, p. 3.
  24. ^ Werner Jacobs: Singles. In: Sounds March 1981, p. 15.
  25. Single review by Peter Bömmels . In: SPEX May 1981, p. 27.
  26. ^ Gabriele Meierding / Bernd Matheja: New Singles. In: Musikexpress June 1981, p. 7.
  27. Rock music: the new German wave. In: DER SPIEGEL 13/1981, March 23, 1981, pp. 204-208.
  28. ^ A b c Alfred Hilsberg: ZickZack - newspaper for new music. Poster supplement to the compilation album Lieber Zuviel als Zuwenig , June 21, 1981.
  29. ^ Alfred Hilsberg: New Germany. In: Sounds June 1981, p. 20.
  30. ^ Cary Darling: Music Monitor. In: Billboard October 9, 1982, p. 39.
  31. Wolfgang Hanka: List 2/83. In: SPEX March 1983, p. 47.
  32. Jörg Flemming: Rock with Cross and Stahlofon - The craziest bands on the German scene. In: BRAVO 45/81, October 29, 1981, pp. 16-17.
  33. a b LP review by Gerhard Backhaus. In: Musikexpress May 1982, p. 44.
  34. Klaus Maeck : Hamburg is becoming modern again! In: SPEX January 1982, p. 2.
  35. a b c Klaus Maeck: Downwards. In: Musician Music News No. 9, May 13, 1982, p. 4.
  36. Kid P .: The truth about Hamburg! In: Sounds May 1982, pp. 26-30.
  37. ^ LP review by Jörg Gülden . In: Sounds April 1982, p. 63.
  38. LP review by Harald Inhülsen . In: Musikexpress May 1982, p. 80.
  39. ^ MOC Döpfner / Thomas Garms: New German Wave: Art or Fashion? Ullstein May 1984, pp. 178-179.
  40. http://www.indiepedia.de/index.php?title=Spex-Backissues_(1980%E2%80%931984)
  41. ↑ Letters to the Editor. In: Sounds May 1982, p. 4.
  42. a b Frank Apunkt Schneider: When the world was still down - From Punk to NDW , p. 242, 2007, ISBN 3-931555-88-7
  43. Dirk Scheuring: Going downhill to retire. In. SPEX July 1982, pp. 20-23.
  44. a b Chris Bohn: Abwarts - Upstarts, Warts And All. In: New Musical Express November 13, 1982, pp. 6-7.
  45. ^ Andreas Hub: Producers in Germany - Jon Caffery. In: Fachblatt Musikmagazin October 1990, pp. 68–75.
  46. ^ Diedrich Diederichsen: Singles. In: Sounds December 1982, p. 18.
  47. Peter Bömmels: Singles. In: SPEX December 1982, p. 14.
  48. ^ Kai Falke: New Singles. In: Musikexpress January 1983, p. 53.
  49. Alf Burchardt: Battle for Rome. In: SPEX November 1983, p. 9.
  50. Fast + Ephemeral. In: SPEX December 1983, p. 6.
  51. Xao Seffcheque: Singles Special. In: SPEX August 1984, pp. 44-45.
  52. down. In: SPEX October 1984, p. 6.
  53. Michael Kuhlen: PIG - An Alien in Japan. The Gothic World Online Magazine, November 2002.
  54. a b Diedrich Diederichsen: Rebellion, a symbolic process. In: SPEX February 1988, pp. 30-31.
  55. Aaron Abt / Sean Lambert: The Pig Pen Interview with Raymond Watts , The Pig Pen -Webseite 1998.
  56. Dates. In: SPEX December 1985, p. 35.
  57. Fast + Ephemeral. In: SPEX October 1987, pp. 4-5.
  58. LP review by Michael Ruff. In: Musikexpress January 1988, p. 88.
  59. LP review by Frank Lähnemann. In: SPEX January 1988, pp. 53-54.
  60. Klaus Maeck: Hamburg, April 8, 1988. Subject: Alcohol (new mixture) from Abwärts. Supplement to the promo single alcohol (new mixture) , April 8, 1988.
  61. Thomthom Geigenschrey: Downward Biography (Part 2). In: Zillo July / August 1991, pp. 56-57.
  62. a b c d Markus Hartmann: Downwards. In: Zillo May 1993, pp. 10-11.
  63. Thomthom Geigenschrey: Downwards. In: Zillo June 1990, pp. 14-17.
  64. Hauke ​​Hagen: Downwards. In: EB / Metronom No. 31, June / July 1991.
  65. Markus Hartmann: FM unit theater with a difference. In: Zillo February 1991, pp. 36-37.
  66. ^ Biography of Uwe Bastiansen. Stadtfischfilm website.
  67. a b c Thomas Weiland: Downward Punk Rock '93. In: Fachblatt Musikmagazin May 1993, pp. 14–15.
  68. Thomthom Geigenschrey: Downwards. In: Zillo September 1994, pp. 18-19.