Cochise (German band)

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Cochise
General information
Genre (s) Pop , folk
founding 1979
resolution 1988
Founding members
Klara Brandi
Guitar , banjo , mandolin , vocals
 Pit Budde
Guitar, bass, vocals
 Günther Holtmann
Michael Hager
Last occupation
Bass, flute, saxophone, vocals
 Klara Brandi
Guitar, banjo, mandolin, vocals
 Pit Budde
Violin , keyboard, ECS steel drums, vocals
 Dorle Ferber
Guitar, bass, vocals
 Günther Holtman
Drums, ECS steel drums, vocals
 Gert Rickmann-Wunderlich
Sound engineering
 Walter Speckmann
former members
Keyboard , saxophone, ECS steel drums , vocals
 Martin Buschmann
Drums , vocals
 Peter Freiberg
Drums
 Tom Kühn
Philipp Nadolny
guitar
 Eckard friend
Drums
 Andreas Held

Cochise was a German music band from Dortmund that made a name for itself with political pop and folk songs from the late 1970s to the late 1980s and was particularly popular in the left-wing alternative scene of the New Social Movements . The band is named after Cochise , an Indian chief.

Band history

Overview

Cochise was founded in Dortmund in 1979. Through numerous concerts throughout Germany, she soon achieved a high level of awareness in the alternative movement. The group combined the political content of the 1970s and 80s with folk rock styles that were popular at the time . Cochise saw itself as a band “from the movement for the movement”, with texts from the then subject area of ​​the left-alternative scene, in particular the ecology and peace movement . The name Cochise was borrowed from an Apache chief of the same name and programmatically symbolizes this resistance. Accordingly, Cochise often appeared at concerts on political events that interested these movements, for example in Mutlangen , the house-to-house fights in the Ruhr area, at the West Runway near Frankfurt am Main , at the nuclear power plant in Schmehausen and in Wackersdorf .

Despite little media presence, the group was successful at concerts and record sales. In the nine years of its existence, Cochise played at more than 1,000 concerts and sold over 120,000 records despite little advertising and media support.

The beginnings

The prehistory of Cochise begins with the folk revival in the mid-1970s. In Dortmund , a first house near the Wischlingen Revierpark was occupied by students and the demand for an autonomous youth center was made. Due to the increasing politicization of the youth movement as well as the need for concrete, critical texts and harder music, the group was formed in early 1979 as a half folk line-up with Pit Budde on guitar, Klara Brandi on flute and bass, Michael Hager on oboe and Günther Holtmann on the electric guitar.

After just a few concerts, the group was commissioned to write the music for the youth theater play Escalator Downward , but with the condition that a drummer and a technician be brought into the band. So Peter Freiberg and Philipp Nadolny came to Cochise and the overture to the play emerged, which opened almost all Cochise concerts in the next few years as a signature tune : Down the escalator .

At the end of 1979 the first Cochise LP with the title Rauchzeichen was released , still entirely in the folk style. Various songs such as What can be more beautiful on earth , Ballad von der Hester Jonas and Rauchzeichen became classics of the folk, eco and peace movement. Like the song , the lyrics to the song Rauchzeichen , composed by Fred Ape during the week , are an adaptation of the prophecy known as the Cree's prophecy . The long-playing record became a success, the group a sought-after live act in clubs, at political events and festivals all over Germany. An excessive touring life began for the band , which only ended in 1988.

The second LP by Cochise, We will live , was already marked by the worsening political conflicts. Peter Freiberg had left the group for a solo career and band Die Conditors and Michael Hager concentrated fully on his music studies. For the two came Tom Kuehn (drums) and Martin Buschmann (keyboards, saxophone) in the band. The title song of the LP is the radicalized form of a peace movement slogan: We want to live . But this formulation, which was felt to be too adapted, was not enough for the group. Songs like Now or Never, Anarchy! , but also the quarry pond song Last Somma warn wa swim or the Neil Young broadcast The Indians are still a long way off .

Success phase

In 1982, in the middle of the "hot phase" of the squatting in the Ruhr area and the street battles around the West Runway, the third LP was released, Unter Vultures . Gert Rickmann-Wunderlich now played the drums and Walter Speckmann was at the mixer . Both were Cochise friends from the Rock gegen Rechts initiative . The music on this LP is hard, partly punk. The direct experiences of the arrests and political trials are reflected in the songs. "Front reporting" judged outsiders, but this was partly seen by the band. Songs like The Hangman , You Pukes Me, or Form Gangs were examples of this. Also in 1982 the Cochise-Songbook was published by Heupferd Verlag die ERDE was not ALWAYS so… . All the songs from the first three LPs, many photos, newspaper articles, comics and commentaries made the book a contemporary document of the political and cultural scene.

In 1983 Cochise recorded an instrumental LP with compositions by Pit Budde: The Puma Moves North . In the same year the band recorded the LP when the elephant goes to the disco with the children's songwriter Klaus W. Hoffmann , which is still regarded today as one of the most important productions with modern children's songs.

A highlight was the appearance of Cochise at the peace demonstration against the NATO double resolution in Bonn in front of 300,000 people. But the large rallies also marked a turning point in the movement. Alternative and peace movements were discovered as consumers and the left political culture differentiated itself.

As one of only a few bands, Cochise stayed away from marketing and in 1984 released their fourth LP again on the small label Wundertüte : The earth wasn't always like this . Dorle Ferber had come to the group for Martin Buschmann and brought a new timbre to the Cochise sound with her violin. The title song became the hymn, Snow at Easter and Laughs me calmly reflected the zeitgeist and indicated the end of the political movement.

1985 the fifth LP Cochise Live was recorded with an expanded line-up . Martin Paul from Ton Steine ​​Scherben , Büdi Siebert and Joe Koinzer were guests . In 1987 the sixth Cochise LP How the Mouse Became an Eagle was created , an Indian story with acoustic music. The examination of Indian spirituality was reflected in the composition and texts .

Late phase and dissolution

From 1984 to 1987 Andreas Held (drums) and Eckard Freund (guitar) were Cochise members. In 1988 Cochise went on tour for the last time - with the line-up that had shaped the character of the band most intensely: Klara Brandi, Dorle Ferber, Pit Budde, Günther Holtmann, Gert Rickmann-Wunderlich and Walter Speckmann as a technician. During this farewell tour, Cochise produced the seventh LP Trail's End with live recordings and pieces that were played in the cloakroom and even in the hotel room.

The former Cochise musicians Klara Brandi, Pit Budde, Michael Hager and Walter Speckmann met again with percussionist Martin Hesselbach for a Pit Budde CD project with instrumental music and in 1990 released the CD artificial paradise as "Puma X" . Also in 1990 Pit Budde published the songbook Spiel der Zeit with songs from the late phase of Cochise. At this point, however, the Cochise musicians had already parted ways.

Pit Budde went on tour in Germany in 2007 together with the Turkish musician and singer Ahmet Bektas . The program was entitled: Through the Desert - Songs from Cochise .

Publications

Albums

  • 1979: Rauchzeichen (Folk Freak) (CD 1996)
  • 1980: We'll Live (Folk Freak) (CD 1996)
  • 1981: Among vultures (lucky bag) (CD 1997)
  • 1983: The puma moves north (lucky bag)
  • 1984: The earth wasn't always like this (lucky bag, CD 1997)
  • 1985: Cochise Live (lucky bag) (CD 2002, Conträr Musik)
  • 1988: How the mouse became an eagle (Crow music) (CD 2003, Conträr Musik)
  • 1988: Heimliche Hits (Best Of; lucky bag) (CD 1997)
  • 1989: Trail's End (surprise bag) (CD 2003, Conträr Musik)
  • 1990 as Puma X : Artificial Paradise (energy)
  • 2009: Escalator Reverse - Rare & Live 1979–1986 (Sireena Records)

Posts on samplers

  • 1973: For a free youth center (Trikont)
  • 1979: my job is getting tougher (falcon discs)
  • 1981: We want to live (Folk Freak)
  • 1983: Beautiful living (abba fix)
  • 1983: For the Indians (lucky bag)
  • 1984: Live in Papenburg
  • 1986: From folk to rock
  • 2000: Break the Chain (Misereor)

literature

  • Cochise: The Earth Wasn't Always Like This - Collected Songs from Cochise. Heupferd Musik Verlag, Dreieich 1980, ISBN 3-923445-00-8 .
  • Pit Budde: Game of Time - Songs from Cochise. Song book. Heupferd Musik Verlag, Dreieich 1990, ISBN 3-923445-02-4 .
  • “Really cinematic, the story.” On the story of the folk rock band Cochise. A conversation with Pit Budde. In: Bernd Drücke (Ed.): Yes! Anarchism. Lived utopia in the 21st century. Interviews and discussions . Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-87956-307-4 , pp. 32-44.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Golyr: Lyrics "Rauchzeichen" - Cochise. Retrieved December 26, 2015 .