THE THUNDERBIRDS live at Hille Bille Tanzkeller 1966

The Thunderbirds (Bernd Berger, dr, Herbert Moizisch, voc, g, Heribert Müller, b, and Robert Whatsisname?, eh, Robert Crash, voc, lg ) were from the Remagen/Sinzig area.

Die beiden Tonaufnahmen wurden 1966 im Hille Bille Tanzkeller in Weißenthurm bei Koblenz gemacht, eben dort, wo die Berliner The Rockin‘ Chairs 1964 zur Profiband mutierten.

These recordings were made in order to be sent to CBS, Frankfurt, and get the Thunderbirds a record deal. I guess, they were never put in the mail.

Robert Crash: “This private taping was done at Hille Bille’s with the doors closed and without any audience. Lacklustre announcements, no-one out there to be fuelled by enlightenment during that afternoon. Our repertoire used to be at around 70 to 80 songs by weekly dropping two or three of these and bringing in an equal amount of new ones. My Baby Baby Balla Balla.” However this private recording session (if you can call it this) reveals that the band also did original songs.

Bandphoto  l – r: Heribert Müller, Herbert Moizisch, Robert Crash, Bernd Berger

•  THE THUNDERBIRDS - Remagen, live in Weißenthurm, 1966 – (There Shouldn’t Be) A Lot To Say (Crash)
• THE THUNDERBIRDS - Remagen, live in Weißenthurm, 1966 - Hey Girl (Marriott-Lane)

Robert Crash: “Oh baby baby balla balla…  it was only 56 years ago and it feels like last night. Putting a stamp on this issue: "Must be erledigt sofort!" I still have the Hille Bille smell in and up my nose and the perfumes of the 14 years old working class girls from the Bims Gebiet, the latter a result of the volcano outbreak only 13.000 years prior to the one specific Schaschlik-Bude Weißenthurm in front of the above Beatschuppen. The girls got the engines running but we spoke different languages. Shame…!
The recordings were supposed to go to CBS Records - address: Am Palmengarten, Frankfurt, due to the initiative to one Graf Donald (or of similar spelling), who was homo-biologically interested in our drummer, just like that other guy, say Brian Epstein.
One thing: The Hille Bille Tanzkeller was it! The real deal located at the outer fringes of Koblenz, where we also played learning by doing about a professional lifestyle that side of Kurfürst Salentin Gymnasium, Andernach - Hello Charles Bukowski who I met later on in California - with teachers busy to imprint the Latin language and the cruelties of the Roman Empire into our soft brains without ever answering the question: why all that business in the first place?”

The Thunderbirds also had a 7” EP “Evil-Hearted You” out that is incredibly rare. The press run was less than 25 copies. Happy is the person who owns a copy. I am one.

Further memories of Robert Crash: “A band from Glasgow showed up in Remagen playing at the Rheinterrasse, then part of the huge Hotel Fürstenberg of ex-owner and famous racing driver Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola. Lurking around prior to showtime spotting a sonic blue Fender Stratocaster resting on stage. The first one ever seen outside of the New Musical Express!
What then happened that evening sold me to the devil including being strapped to Rock ‘n’ Roll hell for the rest of my life. All by free will but under the influence! The band was 'The Chaperones'.
They opened that evening and immediately I was in the shoes of lead guitarist Robert 'Bobby' Campbell from the first second onwards. I was 16, Bobby was 21. He broke his whammy bar and the 'endless tape' of his echo machine. Me smelling big disaster - no mercy! I brought in my acoustic guitar during their rehearsals joining the band in the afternoon next day and Robert corrected that one chord of 'Peace Pipe' by the Shadows from D minor to G7. Learning by doing. I also acted as a translator German to English and back between Robert and one of the local Fräuleins. Asking Robert to write down the lyrics of 'Whole lotta shakin..' by Jerry Lee and he did.
When the band eventually left Remagen I went back to the Rheinterrasse, jumped on stage in the afternoon while nobody was there, plugged my EKO guitar into an amp of the local Schunkel Band which usually played for the tourists in the evening, turned on the vocal mic and there was a whole lotta shaking going on. Dust came out of the floor boards. No further questions asked.
By staying in touch with Robert Campbell over the years, he'd send me 45's by the Fentones. I'd send him HB cigarettes and he ended up in 1965 with the John O’Hara’s Playboys in Mainz Gonsenheim. So I went to see him, didn't care what band he's was with. He'd traded his Strat for a Gretsch semi hollow and no more Shadows in sight. Sonically. Know what I mean.
Anyway, visited Bobby in '76 coming in from New York when he lived in Sheffield. Times had changed and everything was different, needless to say. You know, the 70's made the 60's so forgettable back then. This for whatever reason. Like the arrogance of the 70's or something. Or the drugs or the flared trousers.“

 

Post scriptum: Robert Crash has worked as a professional musician, artist, photographer since the early seventies. He was well-known figure on the Punk scene, returned to Germany fronting an Art Rock band and became involved in The Eurythmics and Robert Plant’s ventures. Maybe he comes up with some unreleased material by, for example Psychotic Tanks, which might grace this blog.