aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’
# 04: Potsdam Ska Festival, Potsdam, GDR, 1990
El Bosso & Die Ping Pongs
Braces
Lindenpark, Potsdam
Hello friends,
a very nice choice by Little Loser, this – a gig I had nearly forgotten about, but memories came back quickly for a change: this is just another concert which I attended on behalf of my mate Alfred: as mentioned before, he is the one who – rather unsuccessfully – tried to establish himself as a manager for all sorts of independent bands, starting with The Braces from Krefeld, one of the many third-wave ska outfits of the late 80s/early 90s.
Ska at the time was a difficult issue, it must be said. The few gigs that did take place in a halfway near distance were attended by strange folk indeed: mainly by people who came in for the music and for drink and dance. But also by people whose idea of a good time was to disturb others, fights started by them were a common sight. Now, those of you even older than me might have witnessed concerts by, for example, The Specials in 1979 – Jerry and Terry’s message was crystal clear, I always thought: ‘unite (in music), don’t fight!’. Apparently this plea hadn’t yet reached German ears 11 years later: it was still a constant clash between fascist skins, S.H.A.R.P people and the few visitors with suits, shirts and ties.
So when the very first Potsdam Ska Festival took place in the summer of 1990 in – you’ll already have guessed that – Potsdam (a town in the southwest of Berlin right at the opposite end of Germany), the organizers, Brand Rudy (a small West German company), knew that serious trouble might well be expected. The venue, the Lindenpark, was an old GDR youth club, not that big really – so it’s not that hard to tell in retrospect why the venue and Brand Rudy decided to engage top notch security companies: West Berlin’s Teddy Semke (nine of them for 2.500,- Deutschmarks) for the Friday and another Berlin company for the Saturday (six guys then for 21,- Deutschmarks each/hour). Plus the Brand Rudy and the Lindenpark entourage (one of the two bosses worked for the German border police for eight years), which meant per night there were about 50 bouncers around! Not too shabby for certainly not more than 1000 guests, right? Also, two East German police vehicles constantly patrolled around the Lindenpark in circles, whether their plastic Trabant cars added something to a secure feeling remains questionable though … I thought it was more an amusing sight than anything else.
Either way, all this manpower turned out to be the right decision: two great days and nights were had, as well security-wise (only one head-injured skin, hit by a bottle, two bleeding noses) as financially: the event grew to be Europe’s biggest Ska Festival for years to come, bands from all over the world played there until they called it a day in, as far as I know, 2010.
In 1990 though you could feel the tension everywhere: the wall fell just half a year before, but it would take another six months before Germany was to be fully united again, which means in early July 1990 Potsdam was clearly GDR! There were a few East German bands, Bull Frogs, Michele Baresi, Messer Banzani but mainly the acts came from West Germany. To be frank, the East German combos weren’t pretty good in comparison, probably that’s why they were used as openers.
Now, as you might imagine it wasn’t all awe and admiration with the GDR folk when the western bands and fans arrived at the venue, quite the opposite in fact (mind you, we haven’t fully outlived this discrepancy now, some 36 years later: sometimes it’s still decadent Westerners against unsatisfied Ex-Commies!). So all in all the beginning of the festival was a bit, let’s say, ‘tenacious’, but it evolved pretty quickly into an utter chaos of fun, dance and drink. So much so in fact that the guests drained the entire goddamn awful GDR draught beer by early Saturday evening. No problem for the bands and us who had backstage access: there were incredible amounts of West German canned beer to keep us going, of course it was generously smuggled outside by us when the Eastern brew was empty.
I have seen the main bands so often in the late 80s/early 90s, memory is rather blurred when it comes to specific gigs. I’m sure though all of them (the usual suspects really, if you’d rather – the scene was pretty small it must be said) were brilliant, as they always were. And the main reason is that there were no big headed egos within those bands, you see. They all were kind of ‘big bands’, with easily seven, eight, nine people on stage, so hiding your ego certainly was not an easy task, mind you! You have the lead singer, you have the rhythm section, you have the horn section etc. – and as long as all of them think they have the most important part, things are bound to go wrong.
In hindsight this may be the reason why I always thought The Braces were the best of the lot, they hardly fought about such things, as far as I can tell. Also, they were more melodic than their contenders, something which I always loved. They even used a violin and an electric piano on stage, something the other bands would not dream of. Close second came El Bosso & Die Ping Pongs, very nice people indeed, and their trombonist, Professor Richie, later found worldwide fame as Dr. Ring-Ding!
When the third Ska wave finally hit the beach a few years later, it was all over soon: many combos disbanded, so did The Braces. After that I occasionally met the trumpeter in Aachen whilst he studied there (not so his stunning younger sister alas, whom I had an absolute crush on), he is now a top urologist / head physician somewhere in the south of Germany.
Here’s the line-up for the two days of the festival: Bull Frogs, No Sports, Michele Baresi, The Busters, Heinz 57 (Blue Chateau), El Bosso & Die Ping Pongs, Messer Banzani, The Braces, Skaos.
And finally, here’s some music:
Messer Banzani – ‘Peace Is Wonder’ (’92)
El Bosso & Die Ping Pongs – ‘Immer Nur Ska’ (one of their first, their signature tune really, a live version thereof from ’86)
Skaos – ‘Going Insane’ (’88)
Busters – ‘Wish You Were Here’ (’93) (and yes, you Pink Floyd-completists: it’s that one!)
No Sports – ‘King Kong’ (’89)
Braces – ‘The Letter’ (’89)
Take good care,
Dirk
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 