Barry Graves

Barry Graves (born  July 26, 1942 in Jeßnitz (Anhalt) as Hans-Jürgen Deutschmann ; †  September 8, 1994 in Berlin ) was a German journalist , author and radio presenter .

Life

At the age of 22 Jürgen Deutschmann came to West Berlin on a scholarship to study sociology , business administration and journalism at the FU . From the mid-1960s he worked as a music journalist for RIAS Berlin under the name Barry Graves - and given his place of birth White Plains (New York) . In 1966/67 he staged the first psychedelic rock shows in German-speaking countries with student groups. From 1968 he was in charge of the Progressive Rock Music program as a freelance writer and producer for the RIAS in Berlin . In 1969 he created the experimental radio series "Zero Cool" and "Brainstorm", in which avant-garde literature, rock, sound effects and electronic manipulation were combined. Graves himself described the concept as " multimedia ".

From around 1971 to around 1984 he worked, among others, for the Berlin lunch newspaper Der Abend as a critical, eloquent and recognized columnist. Since 1973, together with Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, he published the first German rock lexicon, which became a standard work. In 1975 he presented the loose series "Rock over RIAS" and the monthly music talk show "Musik Extra 3" on WDR . Later he produced and moderated the theme nights “Graves at Night” (later “Graves: Space”) for the RIAS. Other programs he moderated were: "See you later, Alligator", "RIAS Country", "California", "Manhattan", "Kudamm", "RIAS Discothek", "RIAS Discodrom" and the legendary " Studio 89 ", the every Saturday at 11:35 p.m. in the RIAS broadcasting area. In the show, the homosexual Graves mainly presented the latest disco & gay-disco releases from the record label Disconet .

Then Graves was with the first Berlin cable broadcaster B1, later with SFB 2 . He also spent a lot of time in New York. But in the early 1990s he found a new station. When the youth program of the SFB , Radio 4U , was founded on April 30, 1990, Graves was one of the regular moderators. He continued the concept of “Studio 89” at the new station under the name “Big Beat” and had series such as “Four after eleven”, “Four after twelve” and “Kaminsky4”.

In early 1990, Graves was the first to present " Tekkno " on his radio show. Without its special features, the “ techno movement ” that started in Berlin might not have existed at all. However, as the scene became increasingly commercialized, his initial enthusiasm turned into outrage and rejection.

From 1992 Graves moderated "Radio Rock'n Roll" and the "Night Club" on Radio B Zwei . In March 1993 he finally switched to Radio Fritz . The popular, but also controversial moderator fell ill with AIDS . On June 8, 1994 he collapsed while moderating a show and died on September 8, 1994. His home has always been Berlin and New York .

Web links

• Literature by and about Barry Graves in the catalog of the German National Library
• Detailed biography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Barry Graves: Rock-Lexikon. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1973, 2nd edition 1975, reprint 1978, ISBN 3-499-16177-X , p. 2 (publisher's text on this book ).