-
BAND-HISTORY
-
POSTERS + PHOTOS
-
MORE INFOS
2000
Not many bands managed to stay the course from the late sixties to the new millennium – but Birth Control did! In 2000 the band rocked again from January to December in Germany and Switzerland. Through touring with the band and running the BC homepage I gradually came into contact with previous band members.
Ecki’s memories:
Suddenly and unexpectedly a letter arrived from Bernd Koschmidder: "Excellent homepage, you’ve put a lot of work in it. I think these items are in good hands with you." The ‘items’ were a poster from OHR (1970) and the poster 'Charisma at the Marquee' (1971), which Koschi had taken home after the gig at the Marquee Club. This was obviously a brilliant present (see tour posters). Little Lord scanned everything from his old photo album and ‘Bubu’ Sobotta came to the gig on the open air stage in the Berlin Citadel (2003) and gave me the English version of the 'Operation' LP. One day Jörg Becker (keyboards 1983) brought a CD with recordings from Nettetal-Lobberich and Bad Zwischenahn. The last recordings were taken only four days before Bruno’s death. The idea of a rarity CD was born. I phoned Nossi to get his go-ahead – he immediately agreed. And I still had this ingenious song 'Meta Ventilator'…! The original material was not really good but I did what I could. In March 2000 the CD Live Abortion was ready – and the fans loved it! Even now people ask for this disc, which, of course, has long been sold out. Perhaps one day a label will find interest and employ suitable people for the processing, then we may have a re-release.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In autumn 2000 we had an enquiry from the GoodTimes magazine: for their last issue of the year they wanted to print the Birth Control Story and asked me for help (history and scans for the discography). Of course I responded immediately and scanned the record covers in high resolution. The editor in charge didn’t do more than copy parts of our homepage and then add his name to the story! Peter Seeger, at that time proprietor of the GoodTimes magazine, later printed a reference and thanked us for our contribution.
The cooperation with GoodTimes resulted in the tour dates being printed under "GoodTimes presents", and I set up the website for GoodTimes. After Fabian Leibfried took over the magazine (2006), the website was taken over by his editorial staff and redesigned with a new layout. The contact remains to be very good and GoodTimes continue to present the band.
2001
After the last gigs in 2000 Hannes Vesper left the band. He also played in Xaver’s Trio and had problems with the gig dates. Also he toured with a gospel band as sound technician. But it was only a time out, just under two years later he returned. The new bass player was Rainer Wind, who had already acted as a substitute in 1999, with his six-string bass guitar. His first gig with BC was as early as 13.03.1999 at the Schwarzer Adler Rheinberg, where also Sosho gave his debut. Hannes stepped in for Rainer when he wasn’t available. As Hannes also played the organ, it happened that he stepped in for Sosho on the keyboards and then Rainer played the bass (Tiefenbrunnen 2002). During the 'Rock am Elm' event he even operated the mixing console because Showcraft were completely booked up (1999)! That’s what they call multitasking – or something like that ;-)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In May the Birth Control Biography was published in the "Never-Ending-Lexikon" by the publisher 'Rolf Reupkes Rockverlag'. It’s a 'single sheets collection' of rock biographies which were published 12 times a year and were meant to be expanded continuously. Unfortunately, the project was discontinued a short time later.
2002
In June we had a gig with Status Quo in Leverkusen. The way the management and the crew behaved defies any description. I expressed my criticism in one of the event reports (see press 2002). After that we received anonymous death threats in our guest book from so-called fans! This can be read in the old guest book entries no. 329 to 343.
At the beginning of the year ASS Concert contacted us and wanted to organise a tour together with Peter Panka’s Jane. We obviously agreed. In May the time had come: the 'Krautrock Meeting Tour' took us to the North - from Wilhelmshaven to Lingen. The tour was very well attended, so we started a second part in October 2002 which took us from Rendsburg to Basle. But first the posters had to be scrapped because they had JANE printed on them and not 'Peter Panka's Jane'! Insiders know about the legal battles between the different Jane formations and of course this mustn’t have threatened the tour. In the meantime it’s become rather worse. Hopefully, the 'Kraut-God' will soon exert power over the brawlers to get them together again.
Straight after that we played three gigs together with Guru Guru! At that time nobody expected that we would continue gigging with them on our 40th anniversary tour throughout the year 2008.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Ecki’s memories:
10 Ten days before the autumn tour I had broken my right shoulder joint. An operation wasn’t possible, only tying the arm firmly to the body and keeping it still. That was easier said than done – with 3000 km behind the wheel. When we came back they had to put me into a scanner. The shoulder was completely inflamed and boiling hot. The doctor suggested an amputation…! This shook me up, and for several weeks I even wiped my a** with my left hand. Luckily, the arm is still there and I can also play table tennis again :-)
2003
The tour for the new studio CD ‘Alsatian’ started on 25.09. at the Musiktheater Rex in Lorsch and took the band to the east of our colourful republic. As part of this tour there was the third and last Krautrock-Meeting with Jane, from Lorsch to Munich (5.10.). In autumn I was on tour not only with BC but also with Vanilla Fudge, whose first gig after 30 years was recorded by myself and published as the official live CD. I tried very hard to organise a gig for the two bands together but for some reason we couldn't make any time arrangements that suited both. Really a shame, that would have been a highlight. Instead we played with Eric Burdon and Ten Years After, among others.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Ecki's memories:
The 'Rockfreunde Regensdorf' had invited the band once again after 2001. This time we were playing as headliners after Ten Years After and Eric Burdon. But before that we were in for a surprise when suddenly Carvin Jones came on stage with the Twin Dragons and gave a half-hour interlude. One of his gig dates had been cancelled, so he came round in Rengsdorf. Then he sold his CDs at the merchandise stall – and eventually fell asleep. Suddenly there was a light failure on the ground, only the stage was still lit. Carvin woke up and said, “Man, what happened with the fuckin’ light?” ;-)
For this gig I brought 'my' Charisma poster from the Marquee Club. I wanted to show it to the Brits (TYA), because they never gave me their go-ahead for recordings. Leo Lions immediately asked me how much I wanted to have for it. "Nothing, of course, that’s not for sale and priceless anyway. Even for a recording licence I am not giving that away!" So much for a petty act of 'revenge' ;-)
We then stayed at the hotel bar with Joe Googh and the Twin Dragons until dawn and laughed about the most unbelievable stories, which were told ... a brilliant and unforgettable night.
2004
The 35th anniversary tour! Normally this would have been due in 2003 but we took the 35th anniversary of the first record production (single 'October – Freedom') as a starting point. Just in time for the start of the tour on 25.09. – exactly one year after the last studio CD – the live CD of the Alsatian-Tour was completed. Originally the band did not want this (because they were ‘only’ microphone recordings) but the response on the side of the fans proved the Wallbreaker release right!
One highlight of the tour was the gig in Lorsch, for which we had brought our old mate Peter Föller back on stage. Since quitting the band in 1978 it was his first stage appearance at the Musiktheater Rex with BC, and he was enthused by the young musicians which Nossi had gathered around himself. Anyway, Peter had tasted blood and it wasn't to be his last gig with the band.
From October 2004 the magazine 'Oldie Markt' printed the complete Birth Control Discography over four editions, with many record covers and photos. For this purpose I scanned all LP, CD and single covers in print quality and sent them across. After that and despite several enquiries I didn't hear from the editor in charge (Frank Küster), until today (26.11.2009), when he demanded that I should remove the two Oldie Markt cover scans from our website (see below)! However, I have a licence for this! Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why our website now includes an imprint with copyright notes!
On 18.12. Nossi was invited to Hamburg for a gig of the band 'HONX'. This band had previously produced a CD with a cover version of Gamma Ray, with Nossi singing. Now they wanted to perform this live in front of selected fans at the MayDay in Hamburg. This was a cool affair and very different with Nossi as frontman only.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The perfect finish to the 35th Anniversary Tour was the long-desired gig at the WDR Rockpalast – with Peter Föller! In December 1998, during a gig at the 'Celler Kaserne', the fan club started a campaign "BIRTH CONTROL for ROCKPALAST" – with huge posters, t-shirts and signature collections. Later the appeal was put on our website. But only after a new generation of editors had taken charge of the WDR Rockpalast were we heard. The team of Peter Sommer even made it into a 3-day event with six Krautrock bands. In the video on the left you can see the encore "She’s Got Nothing On You" with Peter Föller. (© WDR 2004 – please regard the Copyright!).
Ecki's memories:
It was a lucky encounter of ideas in the minds of different people. For some time the editorial board of the WDR Rockpalast were considering producing a Krautrock Documentary. On 24th March Vanilla Fudge had their Rockpalast gig in the ‘Harmonie Bonn’ as part of the Crossroads Series. I was there and finally I was able to speak to Peter Sommer personally. Of course we soon started talking
about BC and the long overdue Rockpalast gig.
"I used to be a BC fan myself, what do they do nowadays?" Peter asked. I immediately fetched from my car the current studio album 'Alsatian' and one of my live recordings. "Take your time and listen to this – they are better than ever" was my reply. A week later Peter Sommer phoned me up: "The editors have long been playing with the idea of a Krautrock production. I could imagine that well, but it should be done properly – 3 days and 6 bands! Do you still have contacts with other bands of that time?" Of course I had. Only five minutes later I sent him the details of Epitaph, Karthago, Guru Guru and Ramses. I didn't have any connection with Amon Düül II at the time, the contact with Jane was made through the WDR. A few weeks later everything was confirmed. Unfortunately, they did not decide in favour of Ramses but instead invited Jane. But the event was fixed – we finally had our Rockpalast gig. What did it matter that we woke up in a Hotel in Bonn on Christmas Eve? By the time the Christmas presents were handed over, I was already back home – and there I could watch the complete concert once again – on video.
Another amusing anecdote: on 22.12. I already travelled to Bonn in order to meet Epitaph and Jane – of course in my ‘working clothes’ (Big Fat Mama t-shirt). In the vestibule of the ‘Harmonie’ I met Anke Rauch (she wrote the online diary for the Krautrock-Palast). Amazed, she asked why I was already here. With a serious face I replied that I got the day wrong. And she believed it and put it into her diary ;-) You can read it here – external link - in german language!