Klaus Renft Combo
| Klaus Renft Combo | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Peter Kschentz at a performance by the Klaus Renft Combo in 2003 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | skirt |
| founding | 1958, 1990 |
| resolution | 1975 |
| Website | www.renft.de |
| Current occupation | |
| Thomas Monster Schoppe | |
| Detlef Delle Kriese | |
| Gisbert Pitti Piatkowski | |
| former members | |
Drums |
Thomas Bürkholz |
| Christian Kuno Kunert | |
saxophone |
Constantin Papamoschou |
Guitar, saxophone |
Bernd Schlund |
saxophone |
Hans-Dieter Schütz |
trombone |
Bernd Seifert |
Drums |
Hans-Dieter Schmidt |
Keyboard |
Michael Heubach |
Guitar, vocals |
Peter Caesar glasses († 2008) |
Drums |
Jochen Hohl |
| Gerulf Pannach († 1998) | |
Vocals, saxophone, guitar |
Peter Pjotr Kschentz († 2005) |
Bass, guitar, vocals |
Klaus Renft († 2006) |
guitar |
Heinz Prüfer († 2007) |
singing |
Hans-Jürgen Beyer |
| Marcus Basskran Schloussen († 2019) | |
| Guest musician | |
Keyboard |
Robert Gohlis Hoffmann |
guitar |
Marco Zimmermann since 2007 |
The Klaus Renft Combo , now also Renft , is a German rock band founded in 1958 and one of the most famous in the GDR . As a result of system-critical texts, the artistic activity was always accompanied by temporary performance bans . In 1975 the GDR authorities finally ordered the band to be dissolved. Former members came together for a reunification in 1990 and have been active in a changing line-up ever since.
history
The Klaus Renft Combo was founded in 1958 by Klaus Jentzsch in Leipzig . Renft was the maiden name of Jentzsch's mother Charlotte. From then on he used it as a stage name. In the beginning the band was inspired by Fats Domino and Little Richard , later by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles .
After the group was banned from performing in 1962, Klaus Renft founded the Beat group Butlers in 1964 . In 1965, the Butlers and other beat groups were banned from appearing , which led to the so-called Leipzig beat riots , in which young people demonstrated against the beat ban. In 1967 the performance ban for the Klaus Renft Combo was lifted again. Thomas Bürkholz joined the band as the new drummer. From 1969 on, the songwriter Gerulf Pannach, who was critical of the regime, was increasingly responsible for the band's lyrics, with the support of Kurt Demmler . At the same time, Peter Pjotr Kschentz (* 1941 in Nischwitz ), who had previously worked as a driver for the band, became a permanent member of the band. He played the saxophone, flute, violin, accordion, guitar and other instruments and composed some songs for the Klaus Renft combo such as Liebeslied , Die alte Mühle and the smoking blues .
In the following years the band was able to release several singles - among others with the title Between Love and Zorn - and their only two studio albums for a long time due to the temporary liberalization of cultural policy (see also Music of the GDR ) . With the titles contained on it such as Wer die Rose honors , Encouragement, After the battle and As I was like a bird, the band developed into one of the most famous and popular rock groups in the GDR. Before the release of the second album, the band name was shortened to Renft; that was also the name of the second album.
Relations with the state organs turned out to be problematic, as many of the song texts contained criticism of “ actually existing socialism” between the lines . The songs written by Pannach for a third album were rejected by the authorities. The song Faith Questions, for example, addressed the NVA construction soldiers, who were largely hushed up by the state . In the rock ballad of little Otto , Otto's failed escape was even discussed, so that Renft was banned in the summer of 1975. In the following years some band members left the GDR voluntarily. Pannach and Christian Kunert were expatriated after nine months in the central remand prison of the State Security in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen and the threat of up to ten years in prison .
After that, the group was effectively dissolved. However, the group Karussell , which was founded in 1977 with the former Renft members Peter Gläser and Jochen Hohl, and which also had some songs from the Renft time in the program, is seen as the successor band .
In 1990 the band got together again for a reunification tour through the GDR. In 1996 band founder Jentzsch had to leave the band temporarily. 1997–1998 the band operated temporarily as Monsters Renft because Jentzsch claimed the naming rights for himself. Published in 1999 Renft after nearly 25-year break, their third studio album As if nothing had happened . In 2003 the band celebrated their 45th anniversary with a concert on Rügen .
On September 18, 2005, multi-instrumentalist Peter Kschentz died of lung cancer on Poel .
Christian Kunert devoted himself to his own projects, and Thomas Schoppe took over the position of front man. After Kunert's hearing loss and the death of the band's founder Renft in autumn 2006, the band formed four people for the program "Gang of Four 2007". Performances with "Caesar and the Players" began again.
On March 18, 2007, guitarist Heinz Prüfer had a fatal accident on the way back from a performance in Altdöbern . In his musically supporting role he seemed hardly replaceable. In the meantime, however, Renft has found a successor in Gisbert Piatkowski . On October 23, 2008, the band's former guitarist, Peter "Cäsar" Gläser, died of complications from cancer, on December 1, 2019, Marcus Schloussen. Schloussen was replaced by Peter Rasym for the current tour .
In January 2020 Detlef Kriese announced his departure from the band for the spring of the same year.
Honor
On 9 October 2007 the band's founder Klaus was a short street in front of the clubhouse and venue to mark the first anniversary of the death Renft "anchor" in the district of Leipzig Möckern in Renftstraße renamed.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Klaus Renft Combo Amiga |
Re-releases:
|
| 1974 | Renft Amiga |
Re-releases:
|
| 1999 | As if nothing had happened Amiga ( Sony Music ) |
|
| 2007 | Farewell and move on market stuff |
Live albums
- 1990: Live 1990 (Fluxus)
- 1996: Live In Concert ( Buschfunk ); Double album
- 2010: Renft Goes On (Live 2010) ( Marktkram )
Compilations
- 1980: Rock from Leipzig (Taraxacum Buchversand)
- 1990: The early years ( Amiga )
- 1993: Between love and anger ( Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin )
- 1994: Das Erbe Renft - Who honors the rose (Amiga)
- 1996: The most beautiful ballads (Amiga / BMG )
- 1997: 40 years of Klaus Renft Combo (2016: Buschfunk)
- 2003: We want to be uncomfortable (Buschfunk); Rarities 1971 - 1975
- 2015: The Greatest Hits ( Sony Music )
Box sets
| year | Title music label |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Between love and anger sixteen |
Contents: the first three studio albums, a CD hits + rarities and a DVD |
| 2018 | 1 + 2 Sixteen |
Content: the first two studio albums on LP |
literature
- Klaus Renft: Between love and anger. Autobiography . Edited by Hans-Dieter Schütt . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89602-135-4 .
- Detlef Kriese: After the battle. The Renft story - told by the band itself. Written down by Delle Kriese . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89602-170-2 .
- Michael Rauhut, Thomas Kochan: Bye, Bye, Lübben City . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-602-X .
Web links
- Official homepage of the Klaus Renft Combo
- Portrait at deutsche-mugge.de
- Portrait at ostbeat.de ( Memento from October 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Fuchs, Kunert and Pannach on jugendopposition.de ( Federal Agency for Civic Education / Robert Havemann Society )
- Original sound recording from September 22, 1975: "Pronouncing the ban" (video)
- Works by and about the Klaus Renft Combo in the catalog of the German National Library
- Torsten Groß, Nilz Bokelberg: Podcast about the history of the Klaus Renft Combo
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerd Zeuner: In the footsteps of Jimi Hendrix. In: meinanzeiger.de. March 11, 2013, accessed February 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomas Gerlach: Ostrock legend Klaus Renft Combo: The living things stir . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 4, 2018, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed August 7, 2018]).
- ↑ Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR. 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 245.
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/233626610017788/photos/a.688698791177232/2615382878508804/
- ↑ https://www.renft.de/delle-kriese-trommelt-nicht-mehr/