Nico’s recording of Das Lied der Deutschen reviewed by Andrew Petrie

At London’s Rainbow Theatre on the evening of 1 June 1974, after the applause that greeted her performance of Das Lied der Deutschen died away, Nico told the crowd that Germany’s national anthem of the past 50 years was “a harmless little song”. Ever the provocateuse, she had apparently been inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s incendiary version of The Star-Spangled Banner to radically re-harmonise the song better known to most of us as Deutschland über alles, after its opening line. If anything, hers was a more outrageous move than even Hendrix’s Woodstock meltdown: rightly or wrongly, the song had troubling associations from relatively recent history.

However, the song was almost 200 years old by the time Nico recorded it, and for the first 40 or so years of its existence was simply ‘Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser’, Haydn’s hymn of praise to Francis II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The poet August Heinrich Hoffman von Fallersleben added a new set of words to Haydn’s melody in 1841, turning it into a revolutionary call for the unification of Germany. This, alas, is where the ambiguity creeps in.

Non-German speakers could be forgiven for missing the distinction between ‘über alles’ (‘above all things’) and ‘über allen’ (‘above everyone else’). Hoffman wrote not about German superiority over other countries, but about the need for a united Germany to replace the loose collection of tiny nation states then in existence. Nevertheless, Das Lied der Deutschen has long been willfully misinterpreted, first for propaganda reasons – as supposed evidence of Germans’ claim to be the master race – and later as a result of simple xenophobia.

In her deadpan way, Nico, the most talented member of the Velvet Underground after John Cale, delighted in exploiting precisely this ambiguity. She was booed when she performed the song in her native Germany: audiences there were shocked at her inclusion of the first verse, which, with its strict geographical delineation of what constituted ‘Germany’, was still associated with the Nazi regime. She probably didn’t help matters by dedicating it to the Red Army Faction’s Andreas Baader, then in the custody of the German authorities accused of a string of bombings and anything but harmless.

Nico’s recording of Das Lied der Deutschen was released as the final track on her album The End…, and is a truly remarkable work. Putting a different set of chords under Haydn’s world-famous melody was a ballsy move for anyone, and in doing so Nico joins a long line of composers that includes Paganini, Tchaikovsky and Bartok. Indeed, Nico takes a more radical approach than the first two of these.

Hipsters will tell you that Nico’s 1968 album The Marble Index is her greatest work, but they’re wrong as usual: there’s nothing on that admittedly fine long-player anywhere near as startling as Das Lied der Deutschen. Hers wasn’t a recipe for commercial success or even much acclaim: the album languished in the can for a year, and Nico never recorded for Island again.

Listen to Das Lied der Deutschen: here 

Text by Andrew Petrie 2018

Giles Macdonogh's After The Reich reviewed by Chris Hick

Forget what you know, or you think you know about Europe after the war. It is commonly viewed, as para-phrased by Hermann Göring and picked up by Winston Churchill that history is written by the victors. In the introduction to his book, Giles MacDonogh, in his book originally published in 2008, the author states that he had spent many years living in Germany and was struck by many of the stories he heard regarding people’s experiences. I too lived in Germany for 8 years and have my own experiences of the people of Germany. My observations, though my contact with Germans was limited, was they, particularly those of an elder generation was guarded and apologetic in equal measure. In Germany there are strict rules about how children put up their hands in class, how Nazi memorabilia (which is plentiful in antique shops) is sold with stickers over the swastikas (while pornography is sold legally and openly) and the display of Nazi imagery is censured. Conversely, school children have the history of the Third Reich thrust upon them and visit former concentration camps as a part of the school curriculum. In addition many German cities have Documentation Centres educating people on the Nazi history and stolperstein, brass cobbles are widely visible as public memorials in front of houses where former Jewish people evicted from their homes and where they were sent to for extermination. These are displayed all over Germany and the rest of the former occupied Europe. By contrast, Austria has been in a state of denial about its past and MacDonogh illustrates that this began from the moment the country was liberated; it conveniently forgot that Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, many camp commandants and leading SS figures as well as the top man himself, Adolf Hitler were Austrian. This book focuses on the fate of the German people after the war, a history mostly denied even to Germans.

This history of German collective guilt was brilliantly highlighted in Gitta Sereny’s book, ‘The German Trauma’, but Giles MacDonogh’s book, ‘After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift’ seeks to explore the terrible events in the last days of the war, the first weeks, months and years after liberation from Nazism with few Germans left unaffected. The book opens with the liberation of Vienna and the hammering the city took in the final days by Soviet forces. It was, as the character Holly Martins, says in the film ‘The Third Man’ (1949), that Vienna was like many other cities in Europe, “knocked about a bit”. The shots in the film's opening show a city almost flattened. Everywhere in areas liberated by the Soviets it was the same: industrial scale rape, theft, stolen watches, out of hand shooting of citizens and drunkenness. It also sowed the seed for the later issues surrounding zones of control in post-war Germany. This pattern continued until the German Götterdämmerung that led to the end of Berlin and the final death rattle of the Nazi regime, fulfilling its prediction of bringing down the German people with them.

For the first two thirds of the book what unfolds is a gargantuan human tragedy where the German people are now the victims on a grand scale. Now, of course it could be argued that “the German people brought this upon themselves”. It could also be said that in 1933 and thereafter you could not find a person in Germany who were against the Nazis and after 1945 you could not find anyone who supported them. They just evaporated. For me, I read this book after reading Max Hasting’s equally brilliant book, ‘Armageddon’ about the final year of the war from after D-Day to the end of the war. The biggest unfolding tragedy in that book, among many, is the tragedy that occurred in East Prussia and Konigsberg. ‘After the Reich’ demonstrates the horrors both the soldiers and the civilians suffered continued on an unbelievable scale. This tragedy continued in Berlin where Germans rightly feared the Russians who, as well as envious of the relative riches the German people had they robbed, plundered, stole and destroyed, as well as revenge for the suffering the Russians endured with 20 million dead. The spoils of war if you like.

Over the following months, even years the tally of German dead continued to increase. Of course in Poland the Soviets encouraged Polish (communists) to take over and push out the German citizens of Prussia and Pomerania, wiping these states off the map. Meanwhile, unbelievable atrocities took place in Czechoslovakia with Theresienstadt Concentration Camp changing caps and murdering Germans in massive numbers. Many thousands were murdered for simply being German. While Poland is more understandable, the scale of punishment and retribution against Sudetan and Czech Germans is puzzling. In 1943 Germans were under the yoke of the cold hearted SS administrator, Reinhard Heydrich and after his assassination the village of Lidice was wiped off the map. Yet, relative to many other countries Czechoslovakia had relatively fewer massacres and tragedies. In all 2 million Germans perished at the hands of their Soviet occupiers and in places was encouraged by other nationals.

What would be a bigger surprise to readers of this book is the treatment meted out to Germans citizens and prisoners of war by the other Allies. The French, the weaker of the four powers had learnt no lessons from the First World War and insisted on taking the Ruhr again and insisting on reparations. Meanwhile, the French occupiers, while fewer of course than their Soviet counterparts also carried out mass rapes and indiscriminate killing, particularly by their colonial soldiers. The Americans seemed to be indifferent to the plight of the Germans and, while there were of course atrocities carried out by the British, they treated the Germans with more respect and followed the rule of law. In all some 100,000 Germans were either deliberately starved by their American captors or as a by-product of their treatment.

Only once the zones had  been established and the lines in the sand had been drawn as a result of the fundamental disagreements between the Western Allies and the Soviets that the British and Americans saw to entice support from Germany with giving hope and something to work for by literal handouts. The Soviet Union’s frustration led to the blockade of Berlin in 1948 (although they never admitted it was as such) which led to The Berlin Airlift, thereby saving Western Berliners from starvation. Soon the Allied positions became entrenched which of course led to the Cold War proper. Hope only really comes to this book in its final pages, for the Germans at any rate. After reading the book the reader will feel if there is a hopeful follow-up book to read, it would be on the Wirtschaftswunder, or Germany’s economic miracle that followed.

It is not a history that has been much written about. For the BBC, Lawrence Rees followed his other studies of the Third Reich with ‘Behind Closed Doors’, but McDonogh’s book deals directly with the experiences of the everyday German and with their own testimonials, but not entirely. There is also a strong focus on the Potsdam Conference, the post war conference in which an enweakened Great Britain and a newer less experienced President in Harry Truman were up against the tenacious and sly stubbornness of Stalin (while the French were mostly left off the table). Elsewhere some of the book deals with the Nuremberg Trials with Göring and Albert Speer’s recorded thoughts, as well as those of literary writers such as Alfred Döblin (who had written the Weimar Period classic, ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’) and Heinrich Böll’s very perceptive observations of a post-war Germany. Germany had lost its dignity after the war and was made to feel it. Surprising and amazing therefore how the country has now grown as one of the most mature and respected countries in a modern Europe.

At about 540 pages this is a very thorough book. It is accessible, but at the same time would appeal to academics. It does have some photographic plates inside but the book could have benefited with more maps. There is one rudimentary map at the beginning of the book with hatching to represent the different zones of occupation as they were in Europe in 1945, but it would most certainly benefit, given the thorough intellectual rigour within the book of having better and more varied maps of the Berlin and Vienna zones and even of the quite complicated zones of the Austrian Tyrol.

Text by Chris Hick 2018

The Family Bucket reviewed by Harry Pye

The Family Bucket

Live at The White Hart, 184 New Cross Road

(16/12/2017)

I could be wrong but, although The Family Bucket were first on the bill, it seemed the majority of the crowd tonight were here to witness their live debut rather than see  Lucy, Henry’s Face or the headline act Mandy.

The Family Bucket are a punky three piece straight outta Coventry. They seem pretty tight as a band and I thought each member of the group was impressive or intriguing in their own way. Judging by the comments being shouted by certain members of the crowd it would appear the drummer (Cameron Collbeck)already seems to have his own fan club.

I noticed a tendency for songs with one word titles (Information, Because and Meanwhile) and all the songs were short and sweet.

I must admit I struggled to hear the lyrics but I know one of the songs is about Dionysus the Greek god of wine making and fertility. And I’m fairly sure I also heard something along the lines of “I wake up and don’t whether to laugh or cry.”

As tonight was an Xmas themed evening, each band added a classic Christmas tune to their set list. The Family bucket opted for “I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” I didn’t like their take on this track as much as the version by The Ronettes but it was entertaining none the less.

Lead guitarist Jim Aucutt shouts rather than sings and on one song he actually barks like a dog and bass player Alex Weeks held the whole thing together. I thought the whole set was brilliant from start to finish and I see a lot of potential in this band.

I don’t know if a Kentucky Fried Chicken Family Bucket is a bargain or a rip off but tonight’s performance was priceless.

Text by Harry Pye 2017

Photos by Alex Wojcik 2017

Lost in Paris reviewed by Chris Hick

Lost in Paris (2016) is the 4th feature collaboration between kooky real life husband and wife duo Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel who starred, directed, produced and wrote this light Franco-Belgian comedy. The film opens in a rather cartoonish snowbound Canada where Fiona receives letters from her Aunt Martha (veteran French actress Emmanelle Riva) to come over to Paris before people put her in a home. Fiona sees this as a golden opportunity to visit the great city and visit her aunt. Wide eyed Fiona arrives in Paris and immediately finds that her lack of French, despite speaking some, leads to a comedy of errors. Fiona arrives at Aunt Martha's to find no one here. Led to believe that she is missing, Fiona takes a walk down to the River Seine where she first catches sight of the Eifel Tower. While having her picture taken on a bridge, wearing her huge red rucksack, Fiona leans back and falls into the river and sinks to the bottom before ditching her rucksack at the bottom ]she is saved, albeit bedraggled by a passing bateaux mouche. Her belongings are retrieved from the river by Dom, a scatty bum. Fiona still cannot find her aunt and as chance would have it Dom and Fiona's paths cross as she goes in search of her aunt.

The ditzy and whimsical visual comedy of Lost in Paris only goes so far. Many have branded the pair's brand of comedy to be similar to that of Jacques Tati, but lacks Tati's subtelty, restraint and construction. Amelie (2002) is another film it has had parallels drawn with but also lacks that films huge style. The comedy is mostly visual and is deliberately old fashioned, of the Charlie Chaplin, burlesque comedy variety. Fiona particularly is kooky looking and her and the French non-English speakers trying to understand each other grows wearisome, while some of the visual gags are equally irritating, especially the split screen with both Dom and Fiona fantasising about each other while lying in bed. Never the less, they are a couple keeping the tradition of silent comedy alive and while this might not be for all tastes, this is to be admired, though in France this type of comedy has always been more popular.

Veteran Riva is a treat to watch in what would be a poignant role. Riva, who had appeared in many French classics also enjoyed a late career including in Michael Haneke's moving Amour (2012) about Alzheimer's disease, but sadly she died not long after the Lost in Paris was completed and two months before its French release.

Many of the locations in the film are shot in and around the centre of Paris and around the River Seine with a key scene supposed to be in Père Lachaise cemetery (but was actually shot at the Cemetery in Passy). One of the films best  scenes are some dizzying beautifully shot scenes on the Eifel Tower. The Statue of Liberty further down the Seine at Île aux Cygnes also features. Some of the blacker gags misfire, but the film will most certainly have its audience

Extras on the disc include an interesting study on the couple and how they fit and re-ignite a tradition in burlesque or silent comedy and some of the films that this one references. There is also one of the couple's earlier short films, Walk on the Wild Side (2000) included here.

Text by Chris Hick 2017
See Trailer

PUNK IS DEAD: MODERNITY KILLED EVERY NIGHT reviewed by Ben Willmott

PUNK IS DEAD: MODERNITY KILLED EVERY NIGHT

Co-edited and -written by Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix

ZERO BOOKS

The punk movement has, as this book readily acknowledges, been more closely analysed and chewed over more thoroughly than any other moment in pop history. While it’s true that it meant and continues to mean very different things to different people, it’s also true that in recent years the potted history version, shorn of its more interesting edges and lesser characters, is the one that’s prevailed in the age of post-pub BBC4 viewing.

While this book is more of a collection of everything from academic essays and lists to personal recollections than anything claiming to be a definitive history, its chorus of different voices and agendas ultimately creates a more accurate narrative. The opening piece sees Snatch’s Judy Nylon – that’s her referred to in Brian Eno’s 1974 song ‘Back In Judy’s Jungle’- reminiscing on her time in London, hooking up with Chrissie Hynde and partying with Nureyev and Keith Moon. It sets the tone well, emphasising that punk had a past as well as a future, the role of women and the American contingent in the capital’s scene, and the fact that it didn’t all revolve around McClaren and the Pistols.

Elsewhere there are several big name contributions, including an essay that Simon Reynolds wrote in 1986 arguing that, on its tenth anniversary, modern music needed to escape its punk-ness to show any hope of progress. ‘England’s Dreaming’ author Jon Savage provides a fascinating history, in list form, tracking the use of the word ‘punk’ from 1946 onwards in 123 different entries. Crass figurehead Penny Rimbaud, meanwhile, shares the experience of the band’s third ever gig in ‘Banned From The Roxy’, originally penned in 1977 but now viewed with the benefit of hindsight and some honest self criticism.

The most interesting bits here are the descriptions of the cast of thousands that populated and/or surrounded the scene at the time. People who weren’t in the bands that made it, those that were just there, feeding off the energy and the anarchy and reacting to it in a million different ways. The inhabitants of North London described in ‘Camden’s Dreaming’ by Richard Cabut, for instance, or the more impressionistic ‘Camera Squat Art Smiler’ by Neal Brown. They both stand up as vivid snapshots of the time as seen through their own eyes rather than any all seeing overview.

This is definitely a book for those who’ve read and digested all the starter level punk literature and are seeking something a little more. They’ll find it here for sure - a generous hit of the hard stuff.

Text by Ben Willmott 2017

No Maps For What We Know exhibition reviewed by Harry Pye

The Urban Photo Fest 2017 featured a variety of exhibitions, events and activities across Deptford, New Cross and Greenwich as well as a talk by Roger Ballen and conference at Tate Britain. One of the highlights of the festival for me was No Maps For What We Know which is on at 310 NXRD Galley, New Cross Road SE14 6AF (12pm-8pm) until the 17th of November.

This exhibition was curated by Sarah Ainsle and features artists from The Gate Room Members. "Who are the Gate Room Members?" you ask. Well...The Gate Darkroom are a a group of emerging artists who, for the last 6 years, have been running a not-for-profit photographic darkroom as a community interest company. They hang their hats at Thames-Side Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, SE18, 5NR.

The photo above is by Henry Palmer entitled Part-Time Geography (2013) it's a silver Gelatin print. It's one of a series of photographs on temporary landscapes and topography along the South bank of the Thames, tracking the physical apparition of redevelopment. To be honest I liked all the artists in the show and wish I had j-pegs of everyone's work. Ioana Marinca's Map of pain and recovery was made in response to the recent attack in London Bridge. David Whiting's "You Are Here" series of photos of Park Maps was impressive. 

I also liked the work inspired by the Thames such as Pathways by Tony Jacobs and a series of collaged images called Low Tide by Molly Behagg. 

The press release features the following quote:

"When does one need a map, if not when in unfamiliar territory or a foreign land? The photographers of the Gate Darkroom are going through a buoyant transition, having recently moved into their new home by the river, in Woolwich. Between the Iris shipwreck and the plastic moulding factory they are navigating a new territory, listening to the river, and searching for light. Memories will help them remember where they came from, and clues found on the way will lead them into an unknown landscape. Elements of information appear and disappear; names are edited out, new lines are marked and realities shift They will explore processes of mapping, shared experience, contours, boundaries, pathways, and inhabiting the urban edgelands."

For more info visit:

www.urbanphotofest.org/no-maps-what-we-know

Text by Harry Pye 2017

Ten Things We Learnt Watching Morrissey’s Berlin ARTE concert…

To buy or not to buy.  That is the question facing Morrissey fans as tickets go on sale for his next UK dates in March, despite the fact that at the end of his last British jaunt he said it was unlikely he’d ever tour this country ever again.  Would you expect anything less from the man who once sang, in the song ‘Disappointed’, “this is the last song I will ever sing / I changed my mind again.”

There are arguments on both sides, of course.  The Moz has been making some fairly questionable statements of late about UKIP, Jean Marie Le Penn and other dangerous undesirables, not to mention his seeing obsession with attacking London mayor Sadiq Khan.  But on the upside, his last long player ‘World Peace Is None of Your Business’ is probably his most interesting, varied and lyrically gifted album since ‘Vauxhall and I’, his current band has added a touch of South American gringo attitude that has pepped up his sound and the recent single ‘Spent The Day In Bed’ was a corker.

So, to help you at least make an educated guess before parting with not inconsiderable sums of cash required to get in, here are ten clues from the televised Berlin concert on German TV last week to help you make up your mind.

1. It might take his band a little while to warm up

It’s early days of course, but the band sound a bit rusty and rough around the edges in this gig, before they suddenly burst into life on ‘My Love I’d Do Anything For You’ and maintaining a higher intensity until the end.

1. The Smiths songs are taking a bit of a back seat again

There’s only one included in the whole of this hour-plus set, the seemingly here-to-stay and really very powerful rendition of ‘Meat Is Murder’ that regular fans will already know.  His normal sets are considerably longer, but you’re probably wise to assume there won’t be a deluge of previously unaired Smiths classics in the setlist.

1. ‘Low In High School’ has some corking tracks on it…

As well as the inspirational ‘Spent The Day’ in bed, with its Stevie Wonder-esque keyboard plonking, there are a couple of great new songs in the set.  ‘My Love I’d Do Anything For You’ is an apocalyptic sounding revelation, and ‘All The Young People Must Fall In Love’ taps into the rich vein of glam rock that informed ‘Panic’, ‘Glamorous Glue’ and ‘Certain People I Know’. ‘When You Open Your Legs’ isn’t half bad either.

1. …and a few also-rans too.

The current single ‘I Wish You Lonely’ doesn’t have much going for it – he’s always been terrible at choosing the right tracks for singles – and neither does ‘Home Is A Question Mark’.

1. There’s a new song in the obligatory cover version spot

He’s done Sparks, Buzzcocks and Ramones in this traditionally near-the-end slot in the set recent years, but this time it’s ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ by The Pretenders, which is no surprise in one sense, namely that Chrissie Hynde is a friend and fellow animal rights campaigner.  But it’s certainly the first time he’s covered a song by an act that Johnny Marr played with post-Smiths, which might suggest a bit of a thawing of the icy relations between the pair.

1. He’s still playing a few solo tracks he should have dropped ages ago?

‘Alma Matters’ and ‘Speedway’?  What, again?!! Really? Why?!!

1. He can’t resist a swipe at Trump

“Presidents come, and presidents go,” he sings in ‘All The Young People…’, clearly a subtle swipe at Donald Trump, without mentioning names.  The song, which at times bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott The Hoople, also contains the fantastic opening lines “Spend more on nuclear war if that’s your chosen illusion / Incinerate innocent men and women and children…”

1. He’s still obsessed with chart positions

Anyone who’s read his ‘Autobiography’ will know that a disproportionate amount of time was spent moaning about how certain tracks only made certain positions in the UK chart.  Which continues here, we’re sorry to report.  It doesn’t matter – you’re Morrissey, FFS!

1. Some of the best songs from ‘World Peace…’ may have been dropped (but hopefully not)

No sign in this set list of ‘Kick The Bride Down The Aisle’, ‘Smiler With Knife’, ‘I’m Not A Man’ or ‘Staircase At The University’, all of which were highlights of the previous tour although tended to come in and out of the set rather than making themselves permanently at home. We’d take them over ‘Istanbul’ and ‘The Bullfighter Dies’ any time.

1. Moz has learnt to say ‘thank you’ in quite a few languages.

German, Spanish and French by our reckoning!  He also does a bit of a ‘Brit abroad speaking English in an unspecific foreign accent’ -  which will go down a treat at the UKIP conference.

Watch the Berlin concert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ITe_TAXAbo:

Text by Ben Willmott 2017