Who was/is Oktoberklub Berlin ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Oktoberklub
The Oktoberklub was founded in 1966 as Hootenanny-Klub Berlin. At that time it was not a permanent ensemble, but a casual meeting place. The atmosphere was unusually casual by GDR standards. Both amateurs and professionals performed, Perry Friedman, Hartmut König, Reiner Schöne, Bettina Wegner, the beat group Team 4 and many others. Bettina Wegner said about this time: "The principle was that everyone could come on stage - a great time! Most of them played Bob Dylan, but some of them played themselves. I was eighteen years old in 1966, and I just wanted to sing, and I enjoyed it, but politically for me at that time only Vietnam was an issue. 68 it was different."
In connection with an official campaign against so-called 'Anglicisms' and the prohibition of an event with the title 'Jazz and Folksongs', the Hootenanny Club changed its name to Oktoberklub under pressure 'from above' and has now been developed into the model of a new singing movement with great media effort. The club was "one hundred percent red, convinced, honest" (Reinhold Andert), regarded itself for a long time as an 'agitprop troop of the FDJ' and appeared at many political events and actions. He brought new sounds of his own into the official culture, but often allowed himself to be instrumentalized. That earned him the name 'Kaisergeburtstaggssänger'.
In its repertoire, the club had international political songs (some of them in poems), original creations ('GDR-konkret') as well as traditional folk and battle songs. The musical style was a mixture of song, chanson, skiffle and rock music. The club was the initiator and organizer of series of events such as the OKK (Oktoberklub-Klub, the first discotheque in the GDR), the festival of political song and 'Ein Kessel Rotes', and in 1972 he gave the impetus for the development of song theatre in the GDR with his cantata Manne Klein and the programme 'Liebesnachtschicht'. He has received various awards, including the Star of Friendship among Nations in Gold in 1986.
The October Club was an amateur group, at times with a semi-professional core. The line-up changed frequently, there were times when the club had more than 40 members, but not all of them were artistically active. Important authors were Reinhold Andert, Kurt Demmler, Gerd Kern, Hartmut König and Gisela Steineckert. The club was also "of great importance as a talent reservoir for the youth-oriented music sector" (Olaf Leitner). For example, former club members later worked in cultural institutions such as the Record Department or the General Directorate of the Entertainment Art Committee or made artistic solo careers.
While the club had played an innovative role for the entire song scene at the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s, it largely lost it at the beginning of the 80s. From 1986 a rejuvenated team tried a new beginning. In collaboration with Gerhard Gundermann he wrote some thoughtful, self-critical songs. In 1989, the Oktoberklub musicians were also Gundermann's accompanying band. On 5 May 1990 the Oktoberklub performed for the last time.
Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.2, For whom we sing (3-CD)
/various-songwriter-in-Germany-vol.2-for-who-who-we-sing-3-cd.html
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