Spliff
| Spliff | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | German rock , Neue Deutsche Welle |
| founding | 1980 |
| resolution | 1985 |
| Last occupation | |
Vocals, drums
|
Herwig Mitteregger |
Vocals, keyboard
|
Reinhold Heil |
| Bernhard Potschka | |
Vocals, bass
|
Manfred Praeker († 2012) |
Spliff was a German band that existed from 1980 to 1985. Her musical repertoire combined rock , funk and electronic music . In particular, the keyboard sounds from Reinhold Heil and later the electronic drums from the Simmons SDS V brand shaped the sound of their music.
The band
Herwig Mitteregger , Bernhard Potschka and Manfred Praeker met in the political rock band Lokomotive Kreuzberg . Together with Reinhold Heil , then active in the Bakmak jazz formation , and Nina Hagen , they became known as the Nina Hagen Band and released two albums.
After separating from Nina Hagen, the four musicians conceived the rock opera Spliff Radio Show together with the singer Alf Klimek ("Klimax"), the German-American DJ Rik De Lisle and the singers Lisa Bialac and Lyma Russel at the suggestion of the manager Günther Rakete . It was premiered live on May 24, 1980 at the Kant-Kino in Berlin ; it is a "bitter satire on the music business around the fictional rock star Rocko J. Fonzo" and has its rise and fall on the subject. The English-language album was performed in Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Stockholm and London and was released in 1980 (on CBS ). Although the cover does not explicitly identify the term Spliff as a band name, but only as part of the album name, the liner notes contain “Spliff are” with the four band members also mentioned here; Alf Klimek appears under “starring”, while Lyma Russel, Lisa Bialac and Rik De Lisle appear under “featuring”. The background to this is that the Spliff members did not want to repeat the bad experiences they had in working with Nina Hagen and therefore sought distance from “ front-line pigs ”.
In early 1982 their first German-language album 85555 was released, which has now been released under their new band name Spliff. The band name refers to an alternative scene name for a hashish cigarette ( joint ) and is based on the throw-in “Spliff” in the Nina Hagen song hot from the LP Nina Hagen Band . The album was named after its catalog number (like the Yes album 90125 a year later ). It has a simple cover design with gray and red characters on a white background. Spliff was subsequently attributed to the so-called Neue Deutsche Welle , even if the band “couldn't do anything” with this attribute. The album was also released in an English language version as the 85555 International Version . It has a different cover; it shows the band, with Reinhold Heil presenting the LP cover of the German version in his hands.
Her biggest hits from that time were Heut 'Nacht and Carbonara . The other singles Déjà vu (from 85555 ) and Das Blech (from the also German-language album Herzlichen Glückwunsch, released at the end of 1982) were also very successful in the German charts. The video for Congratulations was shot with the participation of the later trance producer Paul Schmitz-Moormann . Manfred Praeker was responsible for romantic ballads (Teut Nacht, Duett Complete) for Spliff . In 1984 the last regular spliff album Schwarz auf Weiß was released with the single Radio, for which the group went on tour with Curt Cress on drums, comparatively unsuccessfully. In 1985 the band members split up due to musical differences and various solo projects.
Joint activities after the breakup
Reinhold Heil, Manfred Praeker and Bernhard Potschka founded the group Froon in 1987 together with Lyndon Connah, which only had a minor hit with Bobby Mugabe and which was dissolved again in 1989.
In 1990 CBS released the CD Spliff Remix, on which various producers remixed well-known Spliff songs. In 1992 a spliff box Alles Gute was released in aluminum packaging, which documented the band's greatest successes.
In 2004 Manfred Praeker and Bernhard Potschka got together again and founded the band Bockx on Spliff with the manager Andy Eder. They re-recorded old Spliff songs as well as their own pieces. However, there was no CD release and only a few appearances.
Solo careers and activities for other artists
The spliff musicians produced and wrote for other artists who were also managed by Jim Rakete . Manfred Praeker and Reinhold Heil produced the group Nena from 1982 to 1986 , including the first album of the same name, and helped it achieve its great international breakthrough. The piece once is never was written by Praeker.
1984 Praeker produced the LP week of Extrabreit and 1986 album The doctors of the same band . He was also often active as a guest musician, so u. a. for Achim Reichel .
Herwig Mitteregger has been releasing solo albums since 1983. The biggest commercial hit was the 1985 single Immer mehr from the album of the same name. It was followed by three more albums by CBS / Sony and an LP in 1997 by Universal. After a long break, during which Mitteregger devoted himself mainly to his family while living in Spain and only performed occasionally in Germany, the album Insolito was released on his own label Manoscrito on May 23, 2008 , followed by the album Fandango in June 2009 .
Particularly noteworthy is the collaboration between Mitteregger and Manfred Maurenbrecher and Ulla Meinecke , for which he produced several albums on which he and some Spliff members played. The Meinecke duet Feuer unter'm Eis appeared on the LP in 1983, if not forever, then at least forever .
Bernhard Potschka released an album with other musicians from 1992 to 1993 under the project name Perxon or Potschka Perxon. Since the mid-nineties, Potschka devoted himself more to flamenco, released three albums under his own name, produced the album River of Return by the Berlin group Agitation Free in 1999 (for which he played flamenco guitar and Udu in the song Das kleine Uhrwerk ) and also performed more often than Soloist or with the Duo Guitarra Pura.
Reinhold Heil had the Cosa Rosa project together with his girlfriend Rosa Precht , who until then had also played the keyboard in Ulla Meinecke's band . They released the album Traumstation in 1983 , from which the track Rosa auf Hawaii was decoupled and which was awarded platinum. He then produced two more successful albums. Rosa Precht died of stomach cancer at the age of 38. Heil has been working successfully as a film composer in the USA since the late 1990s. He composed and played among many others the music for Run Lola Run and Perfume - The Story of a Murderer .
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
|||
| 1982 | 85555 |
DE1  (56 weeks)DE |
AT4 (26 weeks) AT |
- |
First published: January 1982
|
| 85555 - International version |
DE61 (1 week) DE |
- | - |
First published: August 1982
|
|
| Congratulations! |
DE4th  (26 weeks)DE |
AT5 (14 weeks) AT |
- |
First published: November 1982
|
|
| 1984 | black on white |
DE10 (11 weeks) DE |
- |
CH19 (6 weeks) CH |
First published: September 1984
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
more albums
- 1980: The Spliff Radio Show
- 1990: Spliff Remix
Compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
|||
| 1994 | All the best (Best Of) |
DE71 (8 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: December 1993
|
more compilations
- 1996: Spliff and Friends
- 2001: Media Markt presents Spliff
- 2005: The Best Of
- 2010: Kult - 30 Years Spliff (2 CDs)
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
|||
| 1982 |
Carbonara 85555 |
DE5 (23 weeks) DE |
AT13 (4 weeks) AT |
CH3 (9 weeks) CH |
First published: May 1982
|
|
Déjà vu 85555 |
DE36 (10 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: September 1982
|
|
|
The sheet metal Congratulations! |
DE5 (19 weeks) DE |
AT6 (10 weeks) AT |
- |
First published: November 1982
|
|
| 1984 | Radio in black and white |
DE58 (5 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: September 1984
|
more singles
- 1980: Spliff Radio Show
- 1980: Jet Set Star
- 1981: Rock'n'Roll Refugee
- 1982: Today night
- 1983: Close your eyes
- 1983: Congratulations
- 1984: Telephone Terror
- 1984: Labyrinth
- 1990: Déjà vu (remix)
- 2003: Carbonara 2003 (vs. Ameno)
DVDs
- 2012: Live at Rockpalast
swell
- ^ Christian Reder: Reinhold Heil. DM - Deutsche Mugge, 2008, accessed on June 13, 2015 : "That was the phase in which Günther Rakete was not just a manager, but sparked a creative spark: he had the idea for the Spliff Radio Show."
- ↑ Liner Notes from The Spliff Radio Show (CD re-release, 1989)
- ↑ raleva: Spliff - The Spliff Radio Show. More images. Discogs , August 27, 2009, accessed June 12, 2015 .
- ^ Christian Reder: Reinhold Heil. DM - Deutsche Mugge, 2008, accessed on June 13, 2015 : "We were still so traumatized by Nina that we classified singers as 'front pigs' and didn't let them get too close to us."
- ↑ Spliff - Carbonara in the online "Musikrecherche" at SWR1, accessed on May 24, 2015
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: albums / singles
- ↑ Gold / platinum database DE
Web links
- Spliff at Allmusic (English)
- Spliff at Discogs (English)
- Spliff at laut.de
- Team-Europe-Group / e @ team-records Management & Verlag Bockx on Spliff // Artist-Side