The Namedrop Post (Where I meet famous people of Hardcore History)
A lot of artists and producers, especially the upcoming ones, post stuff like:
"I once played at a party at which [insert name of famous DJ X] was also on the line up", or
"I once exchanged glances with [famous producer Y]", and so on.
So I usually try to omit this kind of stuff.
Yet, I write a lot about hardcore, and people have asked me about 'personal stories' regarding my own involvement in the hardcore scene, too.
So actively trying to avoid this topic means canceling out a lot of stuff in the end, and is, imho, another way of dishonesty.
So here is one post where I do a lot of name-dropping. And mention personal experience.
It should be seen as a bit of a fun text, with humor and a sense of irony in many cases. And some of the stuff here gets truly personal, and I dearly hope none of the names and people mentioned here feel offended and annoyed. Because this is not my intention.
It's all in good sport, right?
But I assure all this stuff here is true, and to the best of my memory. Nothing that is made up or intentionally silly - just the bare facts.
So... let the name dropping begin!
MC Dick Rules (reverse-paparazzi)
A lot of people go to gigs of famous artists, and try to take a photo of them. For me it was the other way round.
On my 22th birthday I went to a Resident E party. After celebrating my birthday with a glass of sparkling wine next to a huge gravel pile (it hit midnight while we were still on the road, and that gravel dump site was the only place where we could park the car) we finally got there.
Line up was quite decent, with Dano and Manu le Malin playing, amongst other.
Marc Acardipane did a great live set too, accompanied by his MC Dick Rules (of "I like it loud" fame).
At that time I had the habit of going to parties with swim shorts underneath my pants, then stripping down all clothes until I was only wearing the shorts, and dancing the night away. No no, I didn't want to be macho or impressive this way - to the contrary.
I was on the slightly chubby side, wore glasses, incredible hairy from chest, back to the feed, with zero muscles... so, yeah.
Anyways, after the live performance, dick rulez set next to the stage and chilled with his girls (the dancers from the live performance). One of the women spotted me in this almost nude state on the dancefloor and pointed this out to the others.
They all had to laugh (in a friendly way), and dick rulez suddenly pulled a camera out, motioned me to pose for a picture, and he took a few shots. Kind of like a reverse paparazzi moment.
I wonder if he still has those pics!
Berlin
The first gig I ever played was at the fuckparade in berlin, in the year 2000, at age 19.
But even though I was booked for two gigs, I neither had a way to get to berlin, nor a place to stay.
Eventually some people of the otaku record store, that also ran the blut record label, on which I just had a release earlier, offered me to get to berlin with them in their car, because they were booked too; while a friend offered to take me back with his car, when the fuckparade weekend was over.
Finding a place to stay was a harder task, though. I asked multipara, a guy I knew online since the mid-90s, as he ran a site for discographies on labels such as fischkopf or shockwave (long before discogs existed!).
He had invited me to berlin before; but this time he had no free room to crash either. but, he suggested that I should ask christoph fringeli of praxis records if I could stay at his and hecate's place; i did, and he agreed to it!
all in all it was good decision, as it turned out a to be a fun weekend (you can read more in the text linked above).
so anyway, the otaku crew dropped me of at their place, and had a very nice welcome. after some hours of talking and doing some planning for the weekend, i had to leave to get to some other location. Hecate gave me two kisses on the cheeks when i left - a totally normal, harmless, very common gesture in europe in order to say good-bye to an acquaintance or friend.
But at that time, I was completely socially awkward and not used to situations like this, so when she placed her lips on my cheeks i actually got quite the shock and pulled my head away in an instant reaction.
this apparently became the "talk of the weekend" for the remainder of the time, and eventually led to eiterherd volunteering to become a type of "personal dating and sex coach" for me (not the only and not the last person to volunteer for that position - but i guess i was just a hopeless case in that regard).
Hanin Elias
Hanin played in Hamburg in 2003, in order to support her just released "no games no fun" album. I loved that release, so i went to the concert. Also, at this time I ran a radio show on some anarchist communist self-organized radio station, which made me eligible to get a press accredit on card by the goverment (oh the irony!) and meant that I basically could get into any concert or party for free at that time (i did not make as much use of it as i should, but i got into some good events that way).
So I went to her concert, and her show was much better and complex than most other acts at that time, that either just "pressed play", or "pressed play and screamed". she had video art for each song, and other gimmicks.
at one song, she pulled people from the crowd on stage in order to dance with her during the performance.
of course i quickly moved forward and let her pull me up, too.
after the song was finished, the other people went back into the crowd, but i decided to stay on stage, and danced for her songs till the end of the show.
one must know that back then, concepts like "the stage is for artists and vips only, you plebs stay down there", and so on, was not as common as it is now, and it was usual that "normal" guys and girls went up to the stage or to the dj, etc.
still, i wondered if that was a bit of an asshole move on my part - i mean, it was *her* show and all - but i later read an entry in her tour diary, stating that the hamburg show was especially good because "there were even some sexy dancers on stage".
all worries resolved. thanks, hanin!
Tanith
I played a lot of gigs in 2002-2003. One time I was booked at a Schwerin Hardcore and Speedcore party. Tanith was the headliner. At that point, he was only playing Techno, and not connected to the Hardcore scene anymore.
My time-slot was quite early, and i played an all-out speedcore set. After that i just joined the party. The parties ran for a long time, were sweaty and exhausting, so some people went to sleep in the chill-out room. I decided to lie down on the main stage instead and fell asleep there. No no, i wasn't drunk or on drugs. I had just unusual sleep habits, like sleeping on two swivel chairs, or sleeping while sitting in a train or in a bathtub.
But anyway. After approximately 1-2 hours of sleep, i opened my eyes again, and first thing i saw was tanith playing his set, and looking down at me when he noticed i woke up, giving me a big "dude, what the fuck?" look.
What a way to wake up!
The Otaku store and Hardy
After the container record store had closed down, "otaku" was the main and only place to get hardcore records in hamburg, where i live.
It was run by ex-container, ex-fischkopf hardy storz, who also was managing blut records there (as mentioned above).
This record store had an extra-ordinary selection of hardcore records from the most obscure labels.
So yeah, a few years on i was chilling with christoph fringeli, who runs praxis (as i mentioned before), in berlin.
He ran one of the most important distribution networks for this kind of music.
He was telling me about the plentiude of problems that came with running such a distribution, and how much less records were sold than in the early days of the 90s.
We came to the topic of otaku, and christoph mentioned how hardy had the peculiar habit of only ordering 1 copy of a new record for his store.
Fringelli added that he then always says "Hardy is ordering a record for Sönke again". I laughed a lot at this thought.
I thought that Christoph was joking. But nowadays it might have been true. After all, who else in hamburg was buying these records?
Non- hardcore famous people:
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Jodorowsky has always been a huge, huge influence on me. I named my "anarcho-psychotic" EP after one of his graphic novels in the incal series.
At one point i noticed he was regularly posting on twitter (now x).
I wrote a post about my anarcho psychotic EP and its connection to his oeuvre and tagged him.
Not expecting or hoping for anything.
But he actually reposted it! A few thousand people read that post, and then probably quickly forgot it. And jodo probably forgot it too - after all, i guess plenty of strangers like me reach out to him each month.
That for a short amount of time, jodorowsky was aware of my record, and aware of my existence - even in the most minuscule of ways - is something that feels to me like a completion of my life, and maybe a completion of my music, too.
Holly Johnson
I've been a fan of frankie goes to hollywood for a long time, and 'the power of love" is one of my all time favorite songs ever.
Many years ago, google tried to start its own social network, "google+". I got on there, and started some discussion groups for Hardcore, but also one for new wave music.
After a while, I noticed that holly johnson was on google+, too.
I decided to follow him. And he followed me back. He even liked some of the things and tracks I posted. No, it was not a fake account. Judging by his posts, it was also not run by some promo agency on his behalf (one can't be sure, though, i know).
We never talked, it just stayed at that level.
But, yeah, it was interesting.
Thus ends my name drop post - for now!
