Die Beatles und die DDR · Musikalische Lesung mit Wolfgang Martin u. Manuel Schmid
Sixty years ago, in October 1963, a spectacular TV appearance by the band The Beatles, founded in 1960, at the London Palladium led to mass hysteria.
A few months earlier, on March 22, 1963, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr released their first number one album "Please Please Me." With the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand," launched in November of the same year, their international success began.
The new musical virus, called "Beatlemania," infected musicians all over the world – even in the GDR. Across the country, guitar and beat bands were founded after the Liverpool model. The GDR record label AMIGA released three singles and a Beatles long-playing record in 1964/65.
However, when Walter Ulbricht, GDR State Council Chairman and SED party leader, railed in 1965 during his speech at the 11th Plenary of the SED Central Committee against the influences of decadent Western rock music on the young beat scene in the GDR and demanded, "… with the monotony of Je-Je-Je … one should put an end to it," it seemed to come to a sudden halt. But this only spurred the musicians on even more, as the Beatles had already become role models and mentors for many bands in the GDR. Thus, the influence of the Beatles on the East Rock landscape soon became indispensable. And the "official GDR" also developed quite a good relationship with them over the years.
How these developments took place is described by music expert Wolfgang Martin in the present volume, who has invited well-known artists and representatives of Beatles fan clubs, which also existed in the GDR, to share their experiences.
It becomes clear: For most musicians and especially the fans in the GDR, the Beatles had become immortal. And what began 60 years ago and revolutionized the world of popular music will remain important for further generations.
Wolfgang Martin, born in 1952 in Luckenwalde, worked as a radio editor and moderator at the station Voice of the GDR from 1976, as editorial director from 1982, and as head of the music editorial team of the youth radio DT64 from 1986.
In 1992 he moved to the newly founded East German Radio Brandenburg (today rbb) and has been the music chief at Antenne Brandenburg since May 2003 until his retirement. He published in numerous music magazines of the GDR, CSSR, and FRG and is the author of several music nonfiction books.
His latest publications with Bild und Heimat include: How Western Music Came into East Radio (2020) and You Don't Catch Paradise Birds. Homage to Tamara Danz (2021).
Manuel Schmid
was born in 1984 in Altenburg (Thuringia). From 1992 to 2009, he took piano lessons with Michael Scholler in the fields of rock, pop, and jazz. Between 2000 and 2002, he followed with drum lessons in the fields of rock and pop and from 2006 to 2009 vocal lessons in rock, pop, jazz, and classical music. Furthermore, Schmid obtained a diploma at the SAE Creative Media Institute in Leipzig in the field of audio engineering and has since been working as a producer and sound engineer.
Since 2000, the musician has also been performing solo with his own programs as a singer and keyboardist.
But not only as a soloist, but also as part of an established band, Schmid has gained his experiences over the years. Since 2012, he has been the singer of Germany's oldest art rock group Stern Meißen, where he has succeeded greats like Reinhard Fißler and Ralf Schmidt alias IC. He has significantly shaped the albums "Bilder einer Ausstellung" and "Freiheit ist" as a composer, lyricist, arranger, and producer.
Laterne
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
