Andreas Banaski

Andreas Banaski (born October 28, 1957 in Büchen ) is a German experimental filmmaker and one of the pioneers of pop journalism in the 1980s.

Act

Film and music

In early 1979, Andreas Banaski moved from the small town of Büchen near Ratzeburg to Hamburg , where he still lives today. He worked as a photo seller at Kaufhof and, influenced by punk , shot some Super 8 films under the pseudonym Kid P. together with his friend Donald Fuck . These films with grotesque image and sound collages from German contemporary history from 1933 to 1979 were already characterized by their humorous and provocative handling of the topics that moved the German public. From the Third Reich to crime street sweepers to international football matches. Together with Donald Fuck and Johnny Ego, Banaski also formed the concept band Sid & Su. Her three "anti-singles" consisted of a broken piece of record, a torn piece of cassette tape and various accessories. Both in his films and in his texts Banaski shaped a new, collage-like style - a kind of sampling avant la lettre .

Early texts

From January to June 1979 Banaski brought out the fanzine "Price Increase". Like Banaski's first fanzine, “Stunning Cunt”, published a year earlier, “Price Increase” was still a punk fanzine. The pop discourse that he and Diedrich Diederichsen later jointly pursued could already be recognized here ; for example in the articles about the band Blondie . Style elements from Banaski's later work can also be found in “Price Increase”, including the comparison and sequence of quotations and the use of the language of Bild -Zeitung and Bravo as a means of decontextualization. Banaski's development as an author a. a. through the polemically pointed writing style of the Englishman Tony Parsons , who wrote for the NME at the time , of Nik Cohn and of Julie Burchill .

Sounds

After repeated printed letters to the sounds (the first time in the June issue 1980) and one in the October issue of 1980 Kid P. along with Alfred MoP took a written page with singles reviews Diedrich Diedrichsen Banaski as solid free author in the Sounds editorial team, where he was allowed to review singles for the first time in the March 1981 issue. Banaski bought one of the video recorders, which were still not widely used at the time, and increased his treasure trove of movie quotes by primarily recording Hollywood classics from the night programs of the third television station. Kid P. also left an impression in the nightlife with his narcolepsy , which made him fall asleep standing up even in very noisy discos, and with the John Steed-style umbrella from the classic "Avengers" television series that he always carried with him .

Established in sounds , Banaski said goodbye to punk rock for good. From autumn 1981 he was given more and more space for singles and LP reviews, and in January 1982 his first big article, “Neues und Böses über Düsseldorf”, appeared, a settlement with NDW bands like Nothing or the KFC and certain protagonists from the West German new wave scene. Kid P. began to review books and films and, in the course of the legendary "Popsommer" year 1982, paid tribute to Motown classics (many original 1960s albums were re-released for the first time in late 1981), the pop of the 1960s and its 1981/82 reincarnations in the form of groups such as Soft Cell , ABC , Human League , the publications of the Compact label by Tot Taylor or the Dexys Midnight Runners . Banaski countered the macho habitus of 70s rock with an adoration of the girlish, he also used everything that the left-wing alternative hippies of the 1970s had tabooed : BILD , Bravo , hit parade pop, consumption, football fanaticism and the cultural history of the German petty bourgeoisie from Hitler to the classic, conservative aesthetic of Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Wallace films.

In contrast to Diederichsen's mysticism, Banaski relied on clarity in political thought. In addition, his openly displayed love for the Soviet Union could be used as an instrument of provocation. Kid P's reviews were either clear declarations of love and recommendations to buy or mocking criticism . Above all , he pissed off the new German bands, which used to be pampered in sounds , for example in his city series with sobering reports on the punk and new wave scene in Hamburg , Düsseldorf and Berlin . The Berlin article culminated in the proposal to give West Berlin and "punks, fixers, Turks, sex shops, ideal, squatters, dogs, dirt, pensioners, artists and similar Berliners" to the GDR . On the other side of his apodictic world design stood, among other things, ABC , whose gift of producing "lavish, great feelings that pierce the heart", in Kid P.'s opinion, leads to the improvement of humanity.

Kid P. also made his own love and suffering the subject of his writing. Especially in the last issue from January 1983 (before Sounds was discontinued) everything in Hollywood drama - every record review and every concert report - revolves around his love for editorial assistant Tina Hohl, with whom he headed the editorial archive of Tempo magazine from 1989 to 1996 . Banaski lives in Hamburg.

Works

Texts (selection)

• “The New German Wave. Their origins and failures. Your stars and your media coverage ”. In: Diederichsen, Diedrich (Ed.): Staccato. Music and life. Kübler-Verlag 1982, pp. 9-55. ISBN 3921265290
• "News and bad things about Düsseldorf" ( Sounds 1/1982, pp. 14–15)
• "New Year's Frustration" ( Sounds 2/1982, p. 8)
• "The truth about Hamburg!" ( Sounds 5/1982, pp. 26–30)
• "Kid P. was in Berlin!" ( Sounds 6/1982, pp. 22–26)
• "Ball of Confusion" ( Sounds 8/1982, pp. 36–38)
• "The little ABC of life, part 1" ( Sounds 9/1982, pp. 36–39)
• “Cupid Cupid? Stupid! Stupid! "( Sounds 1/1983, pp. 34–37)
• “In all humility. Van Morrison "( Spex 12/1988, pp. 46-47)

Movies

• 1979: The Truth About The Sex Gun Phantom
• 1979: Old Comrades - Kid P.'s homage to the most successful soccer coach in the world. Donald Fuck shows the greatest stages in the life of the football coach and person Helmut Schön.
• 1979/80: Victory of Faith - Kid P. sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in post-war history: he proves how the Russian linesman drove the German national team to win the World Cup in 1966. A late, but not too late, bow to the true world champion from 1966
• 1980: The Triumph of Will - The story of the hopeless fight between Inspector Keller and Lieutenant Kojak, who, wearing the mask of Telly Savalas, advertises the Mustang detergent in front of a supermarket.

Music and art

• "Melodies to Dream"
• "The good, the bad and the ugly"
• "Rhythm behind bars"

literature

• Diedrich Diederichsen: "The Russians are coming" In: Sounds 5/1980, p. 18.
• Ralf Hinz: "Kid P .: Pop-Leben." In: Ders .: Cultural Studies and Pop. On the critique of the judgment of academic and journalistic speeches about popular culture , Opladen, Wiesbaden 1998, pp. 210–218.

Web links

• "The romance of a revolution"
• "The Truth About Hamburg"
• "Kid P. was in Berlin!"