Mau Mau (band)

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Mau Mau
General information
founding 1981
resolution 1983
Last occupation
Wolfgang Spelmanns (* 1955)
Vocals, bass
Michael Kemner
Vocals, synthesizers
Gottfried Heimermann
Lorenz Altendorf

Mau Mau was a German New Wave band from the area of German American friendship .

prehistory

The band was founded in 1981 by DAF guitarist Wolfgang Spelmanns and DAF bassist Michael Kemner. Both lived in 1977/78 together with Kurt Dahlke and the drummer Robert Görl in a shared apartment in the “Grün In” inn in Gevelsberg-Silschede , where they ran a jazz rock formation called YOU . Attending a Wire concert in Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf (November 9, 1978) was a decisive experience for the band to reorient their style towards the New Wave. Gabi Delgado from Düsseldorf, from the band Mittagspause , joined the band as a singer, the formation changed its name to German American Friendship and played its debut concert on February 7, 1979 in Ratinger Hof.

In autumn 1979, bassist Michael Kemner left the band and became a founding member of the Düsseldorf band Fehlfarben . Guitarist Wolfgang Spelmanns followed in December 1980 after Delgado and Görl forced him out of the band during the production of the album “Alles Ist Gut”, which finally brought DAF's commercial breakthrough. At first it was intended that Spelmanns would only take a break at DAF, but in February 1981 it was announced that the separation was final and Spelmanns wanted to do something new.

Plaza Hotel (1981/83)

In March 1981 it was reported that Spelmanns was recording a single with a singer in Werner Lambertz's Düsseldorf studio. The single ("Movable Targets" / "Nice to be in Uniform"), on which Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit and the singer Tabu (Claudia Sennlaub, Spelmann's future wife) appeared, was released over two years later in November 1983 under the name Plaza Hotel .

Mau Mau (1981-83)

Michael Kemner left the Fehlfarben in the dispute after the recordings for the second album "33 Days in Chains", which took place in June / July 1981 in Cologne. He directly joined Wolfgang Spelmanns, and in October 1981 the founding of the joint group Mau Mau was announced . At the moment they are working “from session to session” on a studio album, on which Jaki Liebezeit and two singers were guest musicians. Two permanent band members were added with Gottfried Heimermann (vocals, synthesizer), who had previously worked in a band called Cortison in Aachen , and the "Wuppertal free jazz drummer" Lorenz Altendorf. Spelmanns, Kemner and Heimermann shared the vocals, and Claudia Sennlaub, Mascha Ohlow and former DAF manager Bob Giddens also appeared on the album as guest singers.

As part of the booming Neue Deutsche Welle , the band was able to sign a contract with the major label Polydor . The album "Kraft", which had been recorded in Robert Hartmann's studio in Cologne, was finally released in February 1982. The music press reacted cautiously to the album, in some cases it was panned.

In the first half of 1982 the band also played several live performances, in which Mau Mau played in groups of four without guest musicians and alternated from song to song on vocals and also on the instruments.

In May 1982 the commercial single "Herzschlag" followed, which received radio airplay and later appeared on various NDW compilations. In contrast to the LP, which offered a DAF-related New Wave, the single sounded more like New German Wave due to the use of nursery rhymes and hits.

On June 1, 1982, Mau Mau appeared in the Berlin Music Hall as the backing band of the performance artist Wolfgang Luthe . Wolfgang Spelmanns also produced a Dada video "The fourth dimension" with Luthe for his maxi-single "Jupheidi at dawn".

In January 1983 it was reported that Mau Mau had finished a second studio album, but that the band had allegedly reduced to the duo Spelmanns / Kemner. This second album "Auf Wiedersehen" remained unreleased, but appeared in September 2013 as a bonus on the Japanese limited reissue of the "Kraft" album.

In February 1984 it was reported that Spelmanns and Kemner were producing a single in Berlin with the "real Heino" Norbert Hähnel . The single was released in 1985 and identified the "Edelweiss brothers" as producers.

Then Kemner founded the band 20 Colors , while Spelmanns turned to video art.

Discography

  • Kraft , album, 1982
  • On the hunt , single, 1982
  • Heartbeat , single, 1982
  • Goodbye (unreleased album, 1983)
  • Moving Targets , single, 1983 (as Plaza Hotel )
  • Kraft (CD reissue, contains Auf Wiedersehen ), album, 2013

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Michael Kemner. In: Jürgen Teipel : Waste Your Youth , Suhrkamp 2001, page 47.
  2. ↑ Kevin S. Eden: Wire ... Everybody Loves A History. SAF Publishing 1991, page 188.
  3. ↑ Interview with Michael Kemner. In: Jürgen Teipel: Waste Your Youth , Suhrkamp 2001, pages 130-131.
  4. ↑ Interview with Wolfgang Spelmann. In: Jürgen Teipel: waste your youth , Suhrkamp 2001, page 132.
  5. ↑ Ulrike Groos, Peter Gorschlueter, Jürgen Teipel (editor): Back to concrete . Catalog Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 2002, page 27.
  6. ↑ Alfred Hilsberg : The robber and the prince. German American friendship. In: Sounds , March 1981, pp. 28-31.
  7. ↑ New. In: SPEX 2/81, February 16, 1981, page 3.
  8. ↑ News. In: SPEX 3/81, March 16, 1981, page 5.
  9. ↑ Fast + Ephemeral . In: SPEX November 1983, pages 4-5.
  10. ↑ Interview with Michael Kemner. In: Jürgen Teipel: waste your youth , Suhrkamp 2001, page 290.
  11. ↑ a b P.S .: Mau Mau . In: SPEX 10/81, October 19, 1981, page 4.
  12. ↑ Frank Apunkt Schneider: When the world was still going down. From punk to NDW. Ventil Verlag 2007, page 284.
  13. ↑ LP review by Olaf Karnik. In: SPEX February 1982, page 27.
  14. ↑ LP review by Tina Hohl. In: Sounds April 1982, page 58.
  15. ^ LP review by Gabriele Meierding. In: Musikexpress April 1982, page 74.
  16. ↑ Clara Drechsler : Mau Mau . In: SPEX March 1982, pages 14-15.
  17. ↑ Dates. In: SPEX June 1982, page 33.
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Luthe: Geil and Happy . In: Luthestudioberlin.de website.
  19. ↑ New . In: SPEX January 1983, page 5.
  20. ↑ Mau Mau: Kraft (new edition limited to 300 pieces, Japan, September 30, 2013)
  21. ↑ groove + diamond. In: SPEX February 1984, page 5.

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