Rock-O-Rama

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rock-O-Rama
Logo of the label
Logo of the label
Active years from 1977
founder Herbert Egoldt
Seat Brühl (until 2005), currently unknown
Website www.rock-o-rama.net
Sub-label ALCD, BHCD, Endstufe Records, Erazerhead Records, Evil Records, First Floor Records, Holstein Records, Klan Records, Street Rock N Roll, United Records, Walhalla Records, White Power Records
Genre (s) Punk , hardcore punk (beginnings), right-wing rock (from 1984)

Rock-O-Rama was an important label for German and Finnish punk and later for right-wing rock in the early 1980s . In the mid-1990s, Rock-O-Rama was named by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as Europe's largest producer and distributor of right-wing extremist music.

history

Beginnings until 1984

First experiences in the music business of independent painter Herbert Egoldt († had 25. November 2005 ) from Brühl early 1970s as a producer of Rockabilly - bootlegs made. In 1977 Egoldt founded Rock-O-Rama, a record mail order company specializing in punk, which quickly became an important source of supply for the products of independent labels from Great Britain and the USA. A Rock-O-Rama record shop was also opened in downtown Cologne.

In 1979 Hans Wurst (Volker Hanreich), who like the other members of Vomit Visions ( Gießen / Löhnberg) was one of the best customers, persuaded Egoldt to publish the EP Punks Are The Old Farts of Today as a license.

By 1984 Rock-O-Rama had released around 50 punk albums and a few 7 "EPs, including some that are considered classics today. The poor sound for which Egoldt was responsible as producer was characteristic of the label releases productions were mainly German punk bands of the second and third generation, including raiding party , pre-war period , OHL and their side project the curse . in addition, some appeared hardcore punk albums are from Finland, as of Terveet Kadet and Riistetyt .

From the beginning, Rock-O-Rama had a bad rap. For example, Chaos-Z singer Andreas Löhr wrote in the biography for the double LP / CD Dunkle Strassen (1981–1995 complete) : “The label has always been a kind of phantom for us - only that the news about this house is becoming increasingly worrying were " . The militaristic record covers of groups such as OHL, sampler titles such as The Germans Come (with a Wehrmacht soldier on the cover) and the controversial texts by OHL and Cotzbrocken did the rest to underpin this reputation. The label is also criticized in the song Schock and Drama by Äni (x) väx . The subject of this and other criticisms was Egoldt's dealings with bands that - like MAF from Rüsselsheim - felt cheated and called in fanzines to boycott their own records.

The group Brutal Verschimmelt (BV), whose own anti-war cover design Egoldt did not use, provided the 100 copies of their LP with an additional sheet. This contained the texts that were not printed on the official text sheet, and the label's publication policy was criticized to the effect that, apart from a few free copies of their LPs, the groups did not pay a profit share despite high print runs and no consideration for wishes such as cover and text sheet design would be taken. Egoldt always kept quiet about what was produced after the first 1000 copies. He had marketed at least one further 1990 US pressing of the same BV LP by collectors without the knowledge of the band.

Due to the desire of many groups to publish records and the poor networking among the bands, which meant that the company's business policy was hardly ever made public, Egoldt was able to finally secure the rights to many productions despite his poor contractual conditions. Even the Böhsen Onkelz , who later had considerable financial resources, were powerless. Even bands like Vomit Visions and Der Durstige Mann (the first album Bier für Tot was re-released on Rock-O-Rama), which only granted licenses (limited edition) to Egoldt, had no way of determining the number of records actually pressed . In addition to his own productions, Egoldt later concentrated in particular on license pressing of the Finnish label Propaganda Records .

1984–1990: Right-wing rock boom

In the early 1980s, Egoldt also began producing skinhead bands. Including initially more left-wing such as the Caspar Brötzmann project The Allies . This was followed by Combat 84's Send in the Marines, one of the first more right-wing records and the first right-wing rock record with the Skrewdriver album Hail the New Dawn . After the success of the first Böhse-Onkelz LP, The Nice Man (1984), the focus of the publications shifted to predominantly British, American and some German right-wing rock bands. According to Shaun Walker of the National Alliance , rock-o-rama was "not necessarily pro-white [power], but had no problem with pro-white music and became the standard bearer for all white power music." O-Rama had no monopoly on this music, but almost all other attempts to found a new label for this music failed.

The store in Cologne, which used to be a meeting place for punks and New Wave fans, became the point of contact for the predominantly right-wing extremist skinhead scene in the Ruhr area as part of the business reorientation , while anti-fascist demonstrations took place in the mid-1980s. Soon no German punk band wanted to publish their records on Rock-O-Rama. Egoldt gave up the business in 1985.

In 1986, the authorities became aware of the label's activities and indexed the album The Nice Man of the Böhsen Onkelz. From the English right rock albums, u. a. from Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack , none were indicated. On the other hand, indexes were directed against the punk bands OHL and Cotzbrocken, who always denied a right-wing extremist sentiment, as well as the skinhead group Body Checks , which also did not belong to the right-wing camp and whose bassist later achieved success in the punk scene with Mob & Gesocks celebrated.

Rock-O-Rama spun off several sub-labels, such as Erazerhead Records, on which two punk LPs were released before this project was discontinued due to insufficient commercial usability, and First Floor Records, which is the sound carrier of the bands They Must Be Russians, Saigon, Release the Bats and Above the Ruins , covering a spectrum from post-punk to cold wave to indie pop.

1990–2005: wave of indexes, new publications and legal disputes

Example of the Spartan presentation of Rock-O-Rama CDs, CD covers by the Störkraft group

In 1990 some old punk albums were re-pressed, whereas the (mostly already disbanded) groups could not take action, as all rights were with Rock-O-Rama and Herbert Egoldt. On the advertising inserts of these reprints you can see images of the covers of punk albums next to those of neo-Nazi groups. When production was switched from records to CDs in the mid-1990s, new editions of some of the label's old punk albums came onto the market alongside new right-wing rock CDs. On February 3, 1993, the Cologne public prosecutor carried out a raid on Rock-O-Rama. 30,000 records were confiscated and the label was paralyzed for several months. The cause was a total of 40 charges of sedition . During this time Egoldt released further records through various sublabels, the most famous certainly BHCD, where most of the albums were pressed.

Around 1997 police authorities carried out raids of a previously unknown magnitude against right-wing extremist music publishers and confiscated hundreds of thousands of records from Rock-O-Rama alone. This measure and the subsequent indexing of most of the released phonograms significantly reduced the influence of Rock-O-Rama. Despite the financial collapse in the mail order business, CDs were still produced by right-wing rock bands. Egoldt, who was primarily oriented towards financial profit, began to invest in the real estate market in addition to the recording business and was thus able to secure a lucrative sideline.

In addition, he continued to operate Rock-O-Rama with his dubious business practices. He published numerous robbery pressings, second pressings and new editions without the consent of the bands. This went so far that he released the album Fame and Honor by the right-wing rock band Ugly , whose rights were held by Dim Records . Ulrich Großmann, who also has a bad reputation in the scene, then sued his competitor.

In the 1990s, Egoldt's right-wing rock business also began to collapse. More and more labels pushed onto the market, including the professional Funny Sounds by Torsten Lemmer and PC-Records . These labels, which are also profit-oriented, had, in addition to a significantly better production, multi-colored booklets and more professional management, an ideological proximity to their clientele. Calls for boycotts against the label increased. But since Egoldt had the complete back catalogs from Skrewdriver, Endstufe , Störkraft or Freikorps on offer, his business continued to be profitable.

Since 2005: Situation after Egoldt's death

In November 2005 Herbert Egoldt died of a heart attack and left a completely unclear legal situation with regard to the records and CDs published on his label, to which he alone owned all rights. The rights went to a sound carrier distributor from North Rhine-Westphalia, who then sued various companies and people who reissued Rock-O-Rama productions (some in more appealing packaging and improved sound through digital remastering ) after Egoldt's death . B. Dim Records from Coburg (albums Glatzenparty and The Death Is Everywhere by the Bremen group Endstufe and a CD by the British band Combat 84 ).

In 2012, hackers from the Anonymous group crippled Rock-O-Rama's website and released the customer data of around 1,200 accounts on the website.

Discography

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Christian Menhorn: Skinheads - Portrait of a Subculture . Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 3-7890-7563-9 , p. 206 .
  2. Chaos Z: Dark Streets (1981–1995 complete) . Weird System , 2002.
  3. Bela: Brutally Moldy . In: Trust . No. 158 (January / February), 2013, pp. no page number ( no. 158 online ).
  4. ^ A b Shaun Walker: The Growth of White Power Music. National Alliance , March 4, 2006, archived from the original on July 22, 2011 ; accessed on September 13, 2012 .
  5. a b Christian Menhorn: Skinheads - Portrait of a Subculture . Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 3-7890-7563-9 , p. 207 .
  6. a b Ralph Christoph: Hitler's back in the charts again. Herbert Egoldt and "Rock-O-Rama" . In: Max Annas / Ralph Christoph (eds.): New soundtracks for the Volksempfänger . 3. Edition. Edition ID-Archiv, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89408-028-0 , p. 111 .
  7. ^ National legal rock publications . In: Archive of youth cultures (ed.): Reactionary rebels. Right-wing extremist music in Germany . Tilsner, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-936068-04-6 , pp. 214 .
  8. ^ BH Records. In: DodoNetwork Discographies. Retrieved February 15, 2014 .
  9. a b Christian Menhorn: Skinheads - Portrait of a Subculture . Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 3-7890-7563-9 , p. 208 .
  10. ^ Johannes Radke : Hackers paralyze neo-Nazi website. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 16, 2012, accessed February 17, 2014 .

Web links