The Blizzards Shady Groove

The Blizzards

A soldier stood outside in the cold by the washing tub, his upper body free, the small transistor radio bawling. Suddenly it rang: I don't feel like getting up today - music from his old buddies, the Blizzards. That was Jerry Dethlefs standing out there. And he'd made a mistake, got off in a fight in the middle of rehearsal: "Fuck you all!" You know how it is. When making music, questions of style are also about questions of being and identities. Egos collide, the rags fly. Some want it melodious, others want to rock'n' roll, that the rind crashes. So was Jerry. But because the others didn't want it that way, he grabbed his guitar, took the mini organ under his arm and pulled away. "Now you can see where you are without lead singer!"

When Jerry Dethlefs finally realized what he was missing - the beloved music and the old buddies - he decided to come back for a rehearsal and apologize. Horst George had already practiced that, and now he was playing along again. However, Horst had the old ruling wisdom better than our Jerry: Divide and rule! So he moved home from one to the other and became very private in private: "You don't mind if I play again?" Who would refuse that to an old buddy?!? But when Jerry then appeared in the rehearsal room and completely unprepared met a band that had just got a set of new pieces in, it was 1:4 and he got a cool decision: "No, not anymore. We're doing just fine without lead singers!"

All this happened at the end of 1963, even before he was due to serve in the German Armed Forces in October 1964. Joachim Beutler: "We practiced in a garden house. There was a scary fight between Horst and Jerry for some titles. I stopped by to calm her down. Jerry was very angry, packed up his little Philips organ and left:'Bye, guys, that's it!' We stood there like dopey - without lead singer, and none of us sang! Not a sweetheart! We tried out what everybody had. And they said, "We're doing just fine." And four of us meant more pay for everyone, but our Blizzards certainly didn't think that way back then.

We are in Stade, which is north of Hamburg, down the Elbe. And at the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s there were also a lot of young people who were not necessarily into Trad-Jazz or Dixieland; but in the absence of a real rock'n' roll band they had to make do with the coughing on grandma's washboard and the coughing in grandpa's garden hose. So they moved to the Downtown Skiffle Group. At the same time there was The Swing Town Hot Stompers as a trad-jazz band with a skiffle impact and Joachim Beutler on the banjo.

They were announced, because a hard core within the troupe also gave rock'n' roll interludes: Dieter 'Dieten' Meyer (drums), Joachim Beutler (solo guitar) and Gernot Schäfer (rhythm guitar) played a set of rock'n' roll while making music - Jerry Lee Lewis, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, Everly Brothers. With only one microphone, only one 20-watt Telewatt amplifier for all instruments, without bass, but with a list of possible band names from The Dwarves to The Sharks. Joachim had once read about a blizzard in Canada, so he suggested The Blizzards.

Vote, carried! From the Steamboat Skiffle Group Gerd'Jerry' Dethlefs (vocals, rhythm guitar) often came to (permanent) temporary rock'n' rollers. Here and there Jost 'Mac' Schneider was also drumming, who was later active at the Minstrels in Hamburg.