Germany

The Freed - Bad, Bad, Baby

Begun in 1965 in Sarrelouis, a town in the Alsace region of Germany very close to the border with France, the band had three Germans: Dave Kelly (Wolfgang Mersinger) on vocals and guitar, Kurt Horbach on bass, and Norbert Hohlweg (spelled Hohlweck on the EP) on drums, with Eddy Van Nelfen from the Netherlands on rhythm guitar. Occasionally Frank Farian, the founder of the Hansa label, would join them on keyboards.

That summer the Rhythm Checkers traveled to play the Puce Palladium in the town of Juan les Pins in the French Riviera, and on November 8 they opened for Jerry Lee Lewis at Paris’ Olympia Theatre, playing r&b hits like Ride Your Pony and Long Tall Sally. They went over big, leading to a month-long booking at Kiki Chauvieres' club the Locomotive in Paris.

Both are solid songs, though the production brings the drums and vocals to the fore and buries the fuzz guitar on Theme of the Rhythm Checkers. On this song especially, Roland's voice reminds me of Roky Erickson's though I'm sure he was unaware of the Elevators at the time.

They also cover Bo Diddley’s Said Oh Yeah and, surprisingly, a great version of "On Your Way Down the Drain," originally by the New York group the King Bees. This song is crude as can be, a real garage classic.

On February 21, 1967 they returned to the Olympia to open for Chuck Berry. By this time another former member of the Black and White, Danny Gentner replaced Kurt Horbach on bass. A hoarse Roland Bauer opens their set with a shout of "Vivre le rock n' roll et vivre les Rhythm Checkers!"

This wild performance was recorded for their second EP, featuring all cover songs this time: Long Tall Sally, Kansas City, Land of a Thousand Dances, and the Small Faces’ recent release I Can’t Dance With You. Again they're engaged to play Paris clubs, this time the Tchoo Tchoo, the Poporama and the Bus Palladium.

In 1963 they shortened their name to the Kentuckys, and new members included two brothers, Manfred Weiler on rhythm guitar and Bernd Weiler on Hammond organ. Still later Peter Zadina came in on bass and Rocky Zimdars on drums and vocals. They became known for dyeing their hair odd colors and dressing up as women on stage.

They released two 45s on the Bellaphon label. Their first, 'Uncle Willy' is a good if conventional German beat record.

Their second is another thing altogether. The fuzz cuts loose on Old Hangman Is Dead after the opening chant. Stupid Generation features Rocky Zimdars' lyrics and madcap laughter, and makes for a timeless anthem.

Both were issued with picture sleeves, but the copy I tracked of their second down doesn't have it. The band also cut a version of Cadillac that went unreleased at the time.

Peter Zadina left the group in '67, but the Kentuckys continued into the '70s with various lineups. Peter Frohn died in 1987, and Rocky Zimdars in 2006.

The Kentuckys - Uncle Willy
The Kentuckys - Old Hangman Is Dead
The Kentuckys - Stupid Generation

Special thanks to Bernd Rüttgers for sending in the sleeve to Uncle Willy!

The German Bonds - So Mystifying

In 1965 they contributed a good version of a song I'm not a fan of, "Remember" (aka "Walkin' in the Sand") to a couple Star-Club various artists lps of the time, Scene '65 and Sweet Beat.

The line-up changed from time to time, but by 1966 consisted of Rainer Degner lead guitar and vocals, Peter Hecht keyboards, Jurgen Bock rhythm guitar, Dieter Horns bass and vocals, and Peter 'Peet' Becker drums. This line-up recorded their strongest record, "We're Out of Sight", backed with a great adaption of the traditional "Sing Hallelujah", released in September of '66 on Polydor International. It took me nearly three years to track down this one!

The German Bonds - We Are Out of Sight
The German Bonds -Sing Hallelujah

Their last recording was for Fontana in 1968, the awful pop tune "Skinny Eleanor" with a somewhat better freakbeat-ish song called "Birthday Is Today" on the b-side.

The Bonds have some connection to obscure Star-Club artists like the Fixx and Our Gang, so I'll include the best side of the Fixx's only release, "Looking for the Right Girl".

The Fixx - Looking for the Right Girl

Clint Talbot - vocals / rhythm guitar
Tom Winter - lead guitar
Dave Field - Hammond organ
Barry Beaumont-Jones - bass
John Redpath - drums

Five British servicemen stationed near the Dutch border at RAF Wildenwrath in West Germany formed the Motives in 1965. In 1967 they released an EP The World is a Trapezium on the Dutch Telstar label.

I would love to see a legitimate reissue of the EP with good sound quality. Until then, I'm including transfers of the songs sent in by fans of the group. The fidelity leaves something to be desired, but this music deserves to be heard:

The Motives - God Save Our Gracious Cream
The Motives - I Can Hear Colours
The Motives - Ice Woman
The Motives - Baby of the May

David Field, keyboardist for the group, recently contacted me and kindly provided the photos and history presented here:

 
My personal background is that I learned the piano as a child, learned a little guitar also during school years. I had no band experience at all before I joined the RAF. When I was posted to Wildenrath, Clint Talbot (vocals) had formed the original band with a different drummer and lead guitarist, (neither particularly good) and Barry Beaumont-Jones on bass. They were all serving RAF members.

Clint and I worked in the same hangar and I used to sit in during practice sessions which were held in the hangar crew-room at night. As we all worked shifts, there were occasions when one member or another could not get time off for a particular gig and I offered to stand in on either lead or bass. I did this on several occasions to help out. I then revealed that I could read music and could play the piano. They suggested that I join the group permanently as a keyboard player. Eventually a second-hand instrument was acquired and that’s how I started with The Motives.

John Redpath was a schoolboy whose father was in the RAF at Wildenrath. If I remember correctly, he was a friend of Barry Beaumont-Jones who suggested he come to a practice session. He did, got on the drumkit of the original drummer, and blew us all away with his drumming skills. A short while later, the original drummer was voted out by the band members and John Redpath invited to join the band.

A similar thing happend with Tom Winter. He was also a civilian, the son of a Security Officer at RAF Wildenrath who had heard about the group and turned up at a practive session one night. He asked if he could play a number with us, borrowed the guitar of the original lead guitarist and proceded to dazzle us with his skills. The original lead guitarist quickly realised that Tom was in a different league and left voluntarily. Tom then joined us!

The band had been doing very well and becoming more popular throughout Germany with both the Service venues and civilian clubs. Our manager was also a member of the RAF and stationed with those of the band who were service personnel at RAF Wildenrath near Wassenburg, quite close to the Dutch border. He was Sgt Graham McMurdo, a Scotsman who had a flair for organisation and was a communications expert in the RAF. The bass player, Barrie Beaumont-Jones worked in the same section as Graham who was, in fact, Barrie’s boss.
Graham had decided that we should record a demo record to help to promote the band. This was to be done at the ‘Telstar’ Recording Studio in Weert, Holland. The band paid for around 120 copies. Some were kept to distribute around promotional organisations and used as prizes during our gigs throughout Germany. The remainder were split between the band members to do with as they pleased. My family still have 4 copies.

Incidentally, the sleeve of the EP record was designed and drawn by Tom Winter who, apart from being an incredible guitar player, was also a very talented artist. The drawing of the chap on the front of the record sleeve wearing spectacles, is actually a caricature of Graham Mc Murdo! 

The tracks we were to record at ‘Telstar’ were all written by Tom Winter. We had of course practised them all beforehand, however, when we got to the studio, we virtually rearranged all of the tracks from what had been practised as we had the full facilities of the recording studio at our disposal.

The other thing I remember personally was that in the band, I used a Phillips Phillicorda keyboard which had been bought from a dutch group we used to gig with occasionally. Their keyboard player was upgrading to another keyboard and so had the Phillips available for sale. The band paid for it and I paid the band back out of my gig money! When we got to the recording studio, however, there in the corner, was a Hammond L100. I asked the sound engineer if I could use it for the recoding rather than my own instrument. He said yes and so the Hammond was used.

The tracks were all used at gigs once the EP had been produced.

As far as the reissue of two tracks of the EP are concerned, I new nothing of this until recently. Purely by chance, I had googled ‘The Motives’ which came up with an extract from Sweet Floral Albion Issue 13 under the www.marmalade-skies.co.uk banner. In this extract, Tom Winter and Barry Beaumont-Jones had been interviewed by someone from the webzine. The interviewer asked Barry B-Jones if he was aware that two of the tracks had been released by Killroy (KR1551 June 1970) and had featured on the ’Waterpipes & Dykes’ compilation where it had been suggested that it was the work of ‘Opus’. Interestingly, the ‘Kilroy’ label was owned by Johnny Hoes, the owner of the ‘Telstar’ label in Weert which explains pehaps what had been going on! It would be interesting to discover where the ex-members of ‘The Motives’, Telstar and the Killroy label stand legally on this reissue?

Two members of the group formed a band caled Mr Fantasy: Tom Winters and Barry Beaumont-Jones. This lasted about a year after which Tom Winter left and joined Opus 23. John Redpath joined a group called Emergency.

When I returned to the UK, I formed my own discotheque but did not continue with the keyboard until much later, and that privately at home, not in a group. I have at home a Hammond organ and a Yamaha PSR S900 keyboard.

If anyone knows of the whereabouts or email addresses of any of the former memmbers of the Motives I would like to here from them as I havn't seen any of them since 1968.

David Field

The Tony Hendrik Five - I've Said My Say