-
BAND-HISTORY
-
POSTERS + PHOTOS
-
MORE INFOS
2005
In October we received an invitation to the TV show Hit-Giganten "Die besten Rock-Songs" on SAT1! Hard to believe but the "Balder bonus" made it happen (Hugo Egon, of course, had been the drummer of the band during four months in 1968). We had two really nice days! Even though the TV show itself was complete bullshit – apart from BC, everyone was miming, even Deep Purple! Then they had the so-called experts who talked shop about the rock music of the 70s although they weren’t even born then. Only DORO was credible – of course she knows what she’s talking about. To top it all off they had Siegfried and Roy, erm … I mean Meine and Schenker of course, who said goodbye to good rock music a while ago …
Never mind, we had a lot of fun and also met Hugo Egon Balder personally. A relaxed and very pleasant guy – I wouldn’t have expected that!
As I said, BC were the only band to play live! Gamma Ray had to be shortened to 3'45'', which was like desecrating the title. For the broadcast they cut off another minute. But Nossi made a gaffe during the recording and showed his backside to the SAT1 audience! That’s live, during the dress rehearsal he had been very good ;-) Eventually, old Hugo also gave a performance. That was necessary because at the end of the day he used to be a band member. Well, and because of the above-mentioned "Balder-Bonus" BC were the last band before Deep Purple (although they weren't there at all but had been recorded two days before). Nevertheless, respect and thanks to Hugo Egon Balder and the whole SAT1 crew for the very pleasant, relaxed atmosphere and the perfect organisation!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Ecki’s memories:
After the broadcast they had an after-show party. The SAT1 Studio Band wasn’t really my cup of tea but there were plenty of opportunities to talk to all sorts of people. I spent most time with Doro. During BCs performance, when Nossi got behind his drumkit, she made a real gaffe and asked: "Who’s this old man there at the drumkit?" ;-))) I explained it to her… I spent the two evenings at the hotel with Arthur Brown. We hung out at the the hotel bar and had a good chat. It was a great honour for me to meet the "God of Hell Fire" personally. Even though his performance at SAT1 was more of a "punch and judy show" (fire helmet and so on…), for me he's still one of the greatest in music biz! A bit later I was able to see two of his real live shows (and even record one), and that was really great cinema!
Also the contact to Spencer Davis and his band was very friendly. During the two days in Berlin we agreed on the release of my recording of March 2005 as the "Official Bootleg Album". Spencer said about this: "There are so many bootlegs of the Spencer Davis Group on the market, now I finally have my own!" The CD has been on the market since January 2006.
2006 und 2007
In these two years the band took it easy – only about 20 concerts per year. In 2006 during the football world cup there were hardly any live concerts anyway, and we were also taken in by the world cup fever. But in both years we also played in new clubs and had friendly encounters, for example during the city festival in Delmenhorst, where we met “Beatclub” Uschi Nerke. Nossi gave her the DVD 'History'. The wrong announcement of 'The Work Is Done' at the Beatclub performance of 1971 (she announced the title 'Give Me Shelter') she couldn’t remember – which is not surprising :-)
The highlight of 2006 (for me) was the festival in Butzbach with Manfred Mann's (world class) Earth Band. This band is fun to work with! The old bassist of the 70s is now doing the merchandise. The first thing we did was swap the CDs and tricots ;-)
2007 was the calm before the storm: preparation of the Anniversary Tour… But also in this year there was a highlight: Giessen, Schiffenberg! A solo open air (only Birth Control) in front of over 600 totally exuberant audience members. Thanks, Ellen, for the perfect organisation and the whole shebang.
2008
40 years of Birth Control – Anniversary Tour together with Guru Guru, who also celebrated their 40th stage anniversary. What a year!!! 50 gigs in Germany and Switzerland – and at the Sweden Rock Festival. There is a diary (in german language) of this tour online (on the left in the side menu), which is why I don’t expand here any further. Just this:
In Andernach – in the middle of Gamma Ray – Mani Neumeier suddenly came on stage and played along. At that time I much regretted not having recorded this gig. You can't always have what you want ;-)
Shortly later this video (excerpt on the right) turned up on YouTube. Until now we don’t know who recorded this and we want to take this opportunity to ask the guy on the camera to send us a copy in the original size! Until now the band have never refused when someone asked if he's allowed to record. A copy for the archive however, should be a matter of course. In this case, however, they neither asked us nor did we get a copy!
Highlight of the tour was the Sweden Rock Festival. Here a few photos, everything else is in the Tour Diary.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
2009
At the beginning of the year a new stand-in on the guitar was taken on to replace Peter Engelhardt for a few gigs. No cheap replacement but high class reservist Martin "Ludi" Ettrich – rock guitar and talk box – something like 'our' Peter Frampton ;-)
Live highlight in August 2009 was the "Rock of Ages" festival – with a similar atmosphere as the Sweden Rock Festival, but smaller. On the 16th of the same month our newly designed homepage went online – slimmer, more transparent and (after 10 years of experience) also more professional and contemporary.
Shortly after the band gave their go-ahead for the release of a fan club CD of the 40th anniversary tour 2008, which was limited to 300 copies (see fan shop)! At the start of the ‘Krautrock-Legenden’ Tour 2009 (Summit of Krautrock at the Musikzentrum Hannover) the Hannover rock legend RAMSES were also on stage. They show no signs of ageing but very rarely performed live over the past ten years.
2068
100th band anniversary! Other fans will be listening to Gamma Ray and also this website will be maintained by someone else, if at all. We will long have been in Nirvana, but people will remember – so much is certain.