The Petards Anthology (6-CD Deluxe Box Set)

The Petards

THE PETARDS IN A FAST COURSE

They loved making music and shared a common vision and the will to realize it. They revealed surprising abilities and talents with which they almost lasted for a few years for themselves and for the entire Upper Hessian region.

She achieved many of her early goals: Well over 1000 performances, 100,000 sold copies of the 1st LP, repeated tours abroad, No 1 hits, LP release in Japan etc. Only the biggest wish: they were denied a number 1 in the USA. The story of the Petards is a very unusual success story, even if the Schrecksbacher firecrackers never became intercontinental rockets...

They not only had more ideas than most of their rock colleagues, they also implemented them permanently themselves:

They offered a sovereign stage choreography.
They designed their own stage clothes and had them sewn.
They were the first band in the country with an ingenious lightshow (incl. strobe lights). The individual parts for this were purchased from the Kassel-based electrical trade.
They were the first band to distribute stickers with their own logo (and other promotional material anyway).
They built up a network of 380, mostly really active fan clubs, which made them as popular as they are today only possible via MTV/Viva.
They repeatedly exchanged the concert stage with a theater stage
They organized the legendary Herzberg festivals, at which German pop mainstream met the underground for the first time.
To top it all off, Arno delivered his incomparable drum solo every evening at his shooting range with two bass drums (New!).

Eventually they were overtaken by the times, the spirit of the times, the growing competition (with hair, musicians & managers & connections), sometimes even overtaken: For some years they set the bar very high for other bands. They consistently fulfilled their demands, which many an alternative Krautrock/Underground band failed to meet:

They were absolutely independent.
They wrote their own plays.
They were their own road managers for a long time.
The man on the rhythm guitar was the manager.
The man on bass was the fan support.
They designed their own logo, posters and record covers themselves.
They were also as professionals their own promoters, organized many appearance from A - Z themselves.

Actually, this band shouldn't have had any success, because they were carrying around some handicaps. It speaks for them that they took them away effortlessly for years:

The Petards had no manager, no connections in the music business, no role model to copy.
They were, albeit ambitious, yet isolated boys from the deepest province.
Two band members were objectively seen very moderate musicians.
Two band members wore toupees from the beginning because of their sparse hair growth. (A phenomenon that is still rare in rock history.)

With this CD edition of their total output, 25 years after the end of the band, a late happy ending is delivered.

Let's go back to the beginning....