Percewood's onagram
Percewood's Onagram was a German-American band around Wolfgang Michels based in Bremen and Delmenhorst .
Significance in music history
The band existed from 1969 to 1974 and released four albums on their own record label Virgin. The label of Percewood's Onagram called Virgin was established by Richard Branson before the company of the same name existed , which makes them Germany's first " independent " band. Alexis Korner promoted the group and wrote the liner notes for the debut album.
Percewood's Onagrams pioneering role in German rock music was evident in her unorthodox musical and lyrical style as well as a cover artwork of her albums that was provocative for the time (one record sleeve showed a reversed swastika , originally a sun symbol in Indian mythology).
Band history
The group name goes back on the one hand to Mike Percewood, a "figure from the Scottish highlands invented by Wolfgang Michels, around whom Michel's mysterious stories spin".
“Onagram” can be read as “on a gram” (literally translated: on one gram), which means something like “to be high” (through a gram of hashish ). “Percewood's on a gram” would therefore mean “Percewood is stoned”. On the other hand, it can be understood as the intonation of “ anagram ”. Thus, “Percewood's Onagram” could also be freely translated as “Percewood's transformation”.
Similar to the punk bands in 1976, the group was too provocative and headstrong to reach a mass audience. This was due on the one hand to the unusual music that refuses to be clearly stylistically assigned, and on the other to the sometimes very critical and provocative texts.
Television discovered the group: In 1970, she appeared for the first time in the ARD telecast IN 2/70 on. Further appearances u. a. at Radio Bremen followed.
Percewood's Onagram were one of the first originally progressive German rock bands who swam against the musical current: While the so-called Krautrock -Bands u. a. turned to electronic music or improvisation, Percewood's Onagram worked primarily in the acoustic genre. PO's compositions were idiosyncratic and had clear song structures, while the other German bands primarily devoted themselves to sound experiments.
The fourth and final album Ameurope was the most mature work of the group, which was supplemented for this production by two Americans - Peter Conant-Schaffer on lead guitar and Geary Priest on drums.
Cause Me Pain and I've Got My Woman developed into veritable insider hits in underground discos in 1974 . Conant-Schaffer's guitar work in particular enhanced the songs written and sung by Wolfgang Michels on Ameurope . The work of the sound engineer Richard Borowski did the rest to make the album a "classic of German rock history".
At the height of their creative output, the group broke up, whose music is relevant to the present day, as regular re-releases prove.
1984 - ten years after the group broke up - the double album 1969–1974 sparked renewed interest in the group. Warner Music last released all albums of the groups in 2003 - in addition to Michels' solo oeuvre - in a remastered version and provided with various unreleased bonus tracks.
Singer, guitarist and composer Wolfgang Michels embarked on a successful solo career after the end of PO, was the first German musician to record in the USA and worked a. a. with Rio Reiser . Rio Reiser and Wolfgang Michels met through the sound engineer Richard Borowski, who was responsible for recording Percewood's Onagram and Ton Steine Scherben in the early 1970s .
Peter Conant-Schaffer from San Francisco worked with Wolfgang Michels even after Percewood's Onagram ended and played lead guitar on Michels' albums Full Moon California Sunset and Crazy Enough . The traces of Geary Priest, also American, are lost. Klaus Kaufmann works as an inventor. Jojo Ludwig is dedicated to the "theater 1" in Bad Münstereifel with Christiane Remmert. Kaka Neumann is now a professor of art in Cologne .
Since I met you my darling , originally published with English lyrics on the album Ameurope , was recorded in 1985 by Rio Reiser with German lyrics as Herzverloren (published in 2003 on the tribute CD family album ). Lonely Place by Ameurope appeared with German text, written by Rio Reiser, as Soon at home, also on the family album .
On the Germany tour 2003, which was documented by the WDR - Rockpalast in the "Harmonie" in Bonn, Michels u. a. also Percewood's onagram classics like Who's The Sailor , Cause Me Pain , Leaders .
In April 2008 the Michels album Heimat was released with a new version of Soon at home (in the original Lonely Places by Percewood's Onagram).
Members
Fixed members
- Wolfgang Michels - singer, guitarist, lyricist, composer (1967–1974)
- Klaus Kaufmann - piano (1967–1974)
- Eddy Muschketat - harmonica, percussion (1968–1974)
- Peter Conant-Schaffer - lead guitar (1973–1974)
- Jojo Ludwig - drums, guitar, bass, harmony vocals, flute, percussion (1968–1973)
- Geary Priest - drums (1973–1974)
- Gerald Heinemann - harmony vocals, percussion (1973–1974)
- Uwe "Bass" Meyer - Bass (1974)
- Mike Percewood - Spiritual Advisor (1967–1974)
Loose members
- Rainer Kosch - bass
- Friedrich Thein - drums
- Ala Dietrich - drums
- Thomas Moench - flute
- Bongo Knoch - Handmade phase-shifting
- Kaka Neumann - percussion
Discography
Vinyl sampler with various artists
- German Rockscene Vol. II 1976 Govi (with Percewood's Onagram Track I've Got My Woman )
- New Coming 2 1978 Babylon (with Percewood's Onagram Track Not Only For Girls )
- Rock In Deutschland Vol. II 1981 Teldec (Do-LP, with Percewood's-Onagram-Track Leaders (No War No More!) , A.o. with Can, Fehlfarben, Klaus Schulze, Udo Lindenberg, Ton Steine Scherben, La Düsseldorf)
LPs
- Percewood's Onagram , Virgin 1969
- Lessons for Virgins , Virgin 1971
- Tropical Brainforest , Virgin 1972
- Ameurope , Virgin 1974
- 1969-1974 , Onagram / Edel Contraire 1986 (Thursday LP, sampler with many diverse unreleased tracks or alternative versions and unpublished photos)
CDs
- Percewood's Onagram (First Album) , Warner Music 2003+
- Lessons for Virgins , Warner Music 2003+
- Tropical Brainforest , BMG 1994 & Warner Music 2003+
- Ameurope , Castle Communications 1990 & BMG 1994 & Warner Music 2003+ (with new cover)
- 1969–1974 , Onagram / Edel Contraire 1999+ (sampler with 7 unreleased tracks or alternative versions)
- Original Album Series Warner Music 2014+ (includes Percewood's Onagram albums Percewood's Onagram , Lessons for Virgins , Tropical Brainforest , Ameurope and the first Michels solo album Full Moon California Sunset ), digitally remastered, with unreleased tracks and alternative versions as well Liner notes with rare photos
literature
- Ehnert, Günter: Rock in Germany: Lexikon dt. Rockgruppen u. Performers / Günter Ehnert; Detlef Kinsler - (3rd, updated and expanded edition). - Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1984 - ISBN 3-922542-16-6
- Interview with Wolfgang Michels by Tom Sobilo, published in the music magazine Hartbeat! (D) I / 1994
- Christian Graf: Rock Lexicon Germany . Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2002, ISBN 3896022733
- Asbjornsen, Dag Erik: Cosmic Dreams At Play: A Guide To German Progressive And Electronic Rock. Borderline Books, London 1996, ISBN 1-899855-01-7 .
- Seim, Roland & Spiegel, Josef (Ed.) - Only for adults. Rock and pop music: censored, discussed, suppressed Telos Verlag, book accompanying the exhibition in the Rock'n'Popmuseum Gronau, Münster, 2004, ISBN 3-933060-16-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.germanrock.de/lexikon_show_band.php?show=7 Germany's first independent band: Percewood's Onagram. In: Prinz, 2/95
- ↑ See Seim, Roland & Spiegel, Josef (Ed.): Only for adults. Rock and pop music: censored, discussed, suppressed
- ↑ http://www.germanrock.de/lexikon_show_band.php?show=7 The album 'Ameurope' is a classic. In: Neue Presse, Hanover, 4/82
- ↑ http://www.rockpalast.de/schatz/at_the_club03_12/play.html ( Memento from October 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive )