Sputniks

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Sputniks is one of the most famous German beat bands . It was founded in 1963 and dissolved in 1966 under pressure from the GDR leadership. As the “ Beatles of the East”, the band achieved great popularity and, alongside the Butlers and Diana Show Quartet, was one of the leading bands of the beat movement in the German Democratic Republic . In 1996 the Sputniks started their "comeback" and have been touring in Germany and abroad since then.

Band history

The Sputniks emerged in 1963 from the Telestars and the Magdeburg Big Town Boys and quickly developed into one of the leading bands of the GDR beat movement. The band at that time included: Henry Cott'n Kotowski (drums), Achim Döhring (guitar), Gerd Hertel (guitar) and Bernd Emich (bass). The band premiere took place in the "Twistkeller" (Kreiskulturhaus district Treptow ), where the record label Amiga became aware of the band with the "handmade" guitar sound. Amiga recorded one of the band concerts in the Twistkeller and released the material on the single Guitar Twist . Renaming the band was a condition of the record company. The band was playing mainly popular "West title" and, increasingly, their own compositions, mostly instrumental pieces that later on other singles and samplers Big Beat I and Big Beat II appeared. The name change and the renouncement of English texts in the original compositions were concessions to the GDR authorities, who were initially open to the Beat movement. In 1965 Peter Nehls, Benno Pennsler and Michael Fritzen joined the band.

When riots broke out at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin's Waldbühne in September 1965 , the GDR leadership fundamentally changed its attitude towards the Beat movement. In the meantime, this had also become a mass movement in the GDR and thus uncontrollable for the GDR leadership. In East Berlin alone there were around three hundred "guitar groups", as the bands were called in official GDR parlance . In order to rule out similar processes in the GDR from the outset, such as those in the Waldbühne, the GDR organs reacted with strict controls, requirements and also with bans on performance . In 1966 the band was no longer up to the pressure and broke up. Kotowski went to Klaus Lenz , played and sang in the Modern Soul Band , the Uve Schikora Band and the Gerd Michaelis Choir before he dedicated himself to country music as Cott'n & Co. and moved to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984. Benno Pennsler celebrated successes with Horst Krüger and the Cantus Choir . Michael Fritzen founded his steam band , to which Nina Hagen and Achim Mentzel also belonged.

In 1996 the band was re-founded by Henry Kotowski and Bernd Emich, who died in 2002. Her comeback single Re-Entry was released a year later . Musically, the band is based on the 1960s and develops their very special sound, the "Big Bastard Beat", as they call it and which has meanwhile become the band's attitude to life. This includes newly arranged, well-known pop songs, performed in a distinctive way. The band has toured nationally and internationally since then and has appeared on stage with Johnny and the Hurricanes , The Rattles and other musicians. Her most recent successes include her appearances at the London Palladium on the Stars of the '60s show in March 2003 and as a surprise guest at the world's largest heavy metal festival in Wacken in August 2005. At the end of this performance, Sputniks presented together with Uncle Tom , the Singer of the German thrash metal band Sodom , the song The Ace Of Spades by Motörhead . In 2006, the band worked with the singer Nicole Freytag and presented, among other things, their successful pop hit You thawed the ice in me in the style of beat music from the 1960s. The instrumental titles Surfing on the Thames and Rock to Rock were used as soundtracks in the feature films Neues vom Wixxer and Tell around 2008 .

Current occupation

  • Henry Cott'n Kotowski (vocals, guitar, harmonica)
  • Michael Micha Lehrmann (lead guitar)
  • Marcus Schmidty Schmidt (drums)
  • Frank Schultze (bass)

Discography

LPs

  • 1965: Big Beat I ( Amiga Sampler)
  • 1965: Big Beat II (Amiga sampler)
  • 1981: The early years (Amiga)

Singles

  • 1964: guitar twist (Amiga)
  • 1964: Shazam (Amiga)
  • 1964: Nobody has kissed me at the Twist with Ruth Brandin (Amiga)
  • 1964: Leila with Perikles Fotopoulos (Amiga)

CDs

  • 1996: Big Beat (Amiga sampler)
  • 1997: Re-Entry
  • 1997: DT 64-Story , Vol. 5 (Amiga-Sampler)
  • 2000: Amiga a go-go , Vol. 2 (Amiga sampler)
  • 2001: Surfbeat From Behind The Iron Curtain , Vol. 1 (Sampler-Archiv International Production)
  • 2002: BIG BEAT III ( Surf Twang & Rock'n Roll / Buschfunk )
  • 2014: Gitarrentwist 1964 & Rock To Rock 2014 (Sony / Amiga)

Filmography

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Portrait at jotwede-online.de , accessed on June 30, 2014