FOUNDED:
1984, Duisburg/Germany
f l t r: Tom Meibusch git, Peter Müller drums, Andreas Putzer bass, Lothar Bayer keys, Mike Krollmann voc
OK, let me see if I remember all the stuff. Lets's start with me.
Mike.
1984 I was in a band called ZEBO. Drummer was TWINQUE real name Christian Schramowski. A very silent guy-Barrett like- . I mean that guy did not talk. No way. And oh god, you was never shure what was going on his mind. But surely it was for good sake. My Wing Man (and I always want someone to be at my side) was Tom Greiner. That was before he changed his name to Tom Liwa . Well, I was feeling lost in the band. We weren't really good. Both of us wrote good songs, but the sound was ahh aiaiai oh. OK. The DUISBUG scene was hot. There was more genius out there than in West-End, better believe me. There was Markus Steinebach - today still playing with Mr Liwa - there was Tom Meibusch. And there was Peter "Pete" Müller. He was the only one who had a steady job wich meant income so one day when I decided to quit ZEBO for personal reasons (everybody knows stories that go like this, isn't it?) Pete said 'Don't worry, I buy a drum set and play in the new band that is going to come'. And so he did. That was the time when I met Andreas Putzer (before he changed his name to Flemming) (Change returns success-Syd Barrett sang). I fall in love with that guy from the very first date we had. Not a queer thing, a buddy sing thing. He shared his apartement with Markus Steinebach. Andreas made sound with Tom Meibusch also Andreas was a bass player on speed way back when and Tom played his wonderful space glissando guitar. He owned a VOX AC30 and had this tape echo, one day I will put some songs on our page, what a sound he did with his wonderful Epiphone CASINO (and he still does)! I don't know who asked who but we wanted to form a band! But somebody was missing!?! Right! Lothar Bayer, he was big with MINOTAURUS and then had several bands with me (EIY, LOGO). LOGO 1982
An incredible keyboard player. Analyser, Master Mind, someone to check out the own borders, if you know what I mean. So, that was the first Line-Up of SECRET PARTY SERVICE! We got ourselvs a room, everybody had something for his sound, I even owned a power mixer (150 watts! That was a sensation!) from Blackfield. Ha, I spent 10.000 DM on it, 5000 Euro. Today, ok, fog it! We started to learn and play and learn and play. But we had a problem. There was the needle and the damage done performed live by me, shame on me!, and we had no gigs. We went to the studio to record a demo. To cheer up I guess. We recorded 4 songs. I still got em. HEY JIMMY (by Ric Ocasec, CARS), Low Down (by the band) (with wonderful keys and guitar phrases and sad sad vocs), an instrumental by Lothar and a german song (SOLL DAS LIEBE SEIN). Yes folks, we are able to perform in german and english. Hui Buh. After we finished the demo we were wiser but only to face an additional problem. We weren't satisfied with our drummer. He was ok, but he had difficulties to play well enough for us, and exact at that point Lothar said he quit! I remember it like it was yesterday. He and his wife Rita came to a rehearsal and we did our full programm, like a show. Only thing I was in a bad mood, it took ages for me to put my mike into the right height, and we had a bad day. But that is the dark side of magic bros & sis, one day bad and I mean VERY BAD WORSE EVEN WORSE and next day GOOD! WORLD CLASS A! The best. And on that day we was down down down low low low slow mo. So Lothar quit. Plus we had no drummer. We were lost.
But then - one day -hooray-another way for gnomes to say hhhuuuuuuuu-we were back in bizzness, due to Markus Niklas the emperor. The WOMANIZER! MARKUS FOREVER!!! A drummer who broke every heart. Young ones old ones. Markus ruled! We took only a short time to polish our programm and went to the studio SC-Sound, Duisburg , again to make a demo (again) to apply for gigs. The studio owner Holger Schreiber was so so sad that Lothar quit but Tom did things with his guitar some do to their women, so that was that. Holger created a warm and positive atmosphere and offerd always solutions when things got weird. We did 3 songs, I think Cold Turkey (John Lennon) and 2 of our own songs and Markus started immidiately to write letters with cassettes (imagine no CD's). Andreas girl friend Daina worked for a photographer and did really excellent photo work on us, so we had professional stuff to get gigs and we did! We started to play and play. We hit the local scenes, like Eschhaus Dusiburg, Zeche Bochum, Live Station Dortmund just to name a few.
fltr: Mike, Tom, Markus, Andreas
And we played in Bayern, in Baden Würtemmberg (Heidenheim, HEIKE, but that is another novel) and we were damm good. Let me tell you a story. One gig in a fully crowded place. The crowd wants us. They never heard a single note. But it is Saturday night, everybody wants to have fun. At last we climb on the small stage. It's dark, complete dark. We couldn' t see anything. And then PETER ELTFELD he should start the show with his big illuminated photo (dia?). But where is he? We cannot see if he is there. 'Peter?' No anwser. We don't know how to put some lights on, so we were forced to wait. The heat. The crowd. Then a rumble on the door. 'No one gets in without a ticked' we hear, and then Peters comic like high voice 'But I'm a member of the band-lemme in'. And we 'let him in, please!' Were we glad! Then Peters voice again 'ääääh, can somebody give me a hint where to plug me in?'. Oh no, but all of a sudden he found electricity and we went with our opener JIMMY and I guess some are still talking today about that special moment in time, boy we went for it. Twice as fast as we usually did, but in a rush we conquered our audience and they loved us! SAT DAY! That's it- Some fall out of love and some fall deep into it! SECRET PARTY SERVICE! And we served them. And partied. The place to be was definitely there with us. And when we finished our program they won't let us leave the stage. So we did our complete set again. And still they wanted more. So we improvised and played and I sang with words that came to my mind (I still do today) and afterwards the club owner gave a big party and we all did our usual stuff. Markus the heart breaker, Tom and Andreas talk talk do the philosophy thing, drinking, laughing, and me in a room with her).
So, that was the scene of our concerts. Our set twice and some songs to calm them down. After a while for reasons I don't know the show was over. Everything fall apart. Andreas & me quit.
LonelyTheVideo 1987
Markus and Tom fall apart. And then there was calmness. Tom moved to Kassel. After a while Tom started to do sessions with Andreas. And they asked me to join.
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fltr: Tom, Andreas, Mike
......THE PRODUCTION YEARS for absolute beginners ....and zooom! Let me take you with us. Andreas and Lothar: Proud owners of the brand new KORG M1. And we had a 4 track tape recorder to tape with. Every take a take was our job. Yes, and while Lothar worked as a studio musician, composer on demand and live player Tom, Andreas & me created the most legendary KASSEL TAPES. Usually Andreas and me drove 250 kilometers (for american reades: these are 160 miles) on special weekends with all, and I mean ALL, of our equipment to meet Tom in Kassel to gather in his room in his living community. All kinds of freaky and weird people coming in to say hello. And listen to us. All of us with cranked up headphones making strange noises with cheap electronic gadgets (casio keyboards to name one).
ENERGIESTADT
Sometimes we had a real live audience and we managed it to listen to several headphones at the same time (there wasn't a headphone amp we used every head phone out we could achieve and so sometimes we had 7, 8 headphones working simultaneously). Then better stuff came alive we could afford by and by. The microphones needed to be changed from SURE SM58 to AKG C1000, we needed and got an 8-track tape recorder, then this and then that. But most of all we performed live. Live meant Tom hit the record button and we started. Sometimes it sounded just like you imagine it has to sound, bad, ugly, smuggly, ohmygod! - but sometimes as if by magic - a song -a song - a real good one to listen again to song - and out of this melange we made cd after cd. Parallel we recorded track by track productions made like chess. Everybody had his tasks. Written. Lothar (although not yet recording with us was with Andreas the first to own Cubase. Before that they were doing ATARI and FALCON hard disc recording including everything excluding nothing) And still producing. Working on it. Making it sound better. And stranger. And the best thing - no one told us : You have to do it THAT way. How lucky we were and we are.
Silent Picture Symphony 2001 - fltr: Andreas, Mike, Tom
There was one Gig in between in Essen/ZECHE CARL Tom, Andreas & me performed out of the blue with a female guest singer and it was fun after all those years ago (Thank you George) playing on a stage in front of real people.
Energiestadt-LIVE-2001
We got a video with 3 weird songs, all sung in german (and not in broken english).
Anyway - at that point in time Tom fall in love with Karen from nz and pheew he went for it. He did it. Cool cat Tom.
die JUWELENKÖNIGIN
And then, when Andreas and me realized (a duo? and then there were two?) Lothar knocked rocked shocked into our lives again (thank my lucky stars!) just a few months ago and look what we got, now what we can offer to you. Songs. That's our business. Some sound like this some taste like that, the flavour of the month can change in a weak week to blue suburban smoke caps twisting in the autumn winds on full moon. And I mean with full orchestral instrumentation to change rapidly into 2 instruments telling nuts.
But the most important thing of it all, it doesn't matter what kind of equipment is there to make sound with, we had fun recording with the most simple stuff and we still are inspired with our expensive german microphones (hello to Steely Dan). Sound has to come from your heart and soul.
Go for it and hey! you've got gods best gift of all - time (isn't it good?)...
SILENT PICTURE SYMPHONY welcomes you
Woman & Man
...TIME TO REHEARSE
Hi there and hooray last December we rented a magic room to do our rehearsals in, wot a thing indeed! It offers a real stage, the acoustic will be excellent and we are all very excited. Right now we're checking on the equipment side and soon the show will start.
Hallo & Hi folks, it's me, Mr Prayer Man & Fortune Teller snear of the year 85 and something else I can not say here but I got news for you! We offer you the bargain of the month! IT'S A SALE! Yes, we announce our new CD. 70 minutes, what a mess and here is the deal: You don't have to pay to listen to all of the songs, you can listen on this hot spot here and with the money you have saved you can BUY CD's from our friends like DEUX or you can send a beautiful cheer up gift to KUMIKO (Hi there) or you can save the rain forest or give it to a homeless person. Whatever, it's your choice.
SIRIUS LOVE
by SILENT PICTURE SYMPHONY
A stunning soap pop opera filled with desires, SEX, crime & candlelight confusion, a midnight exploration, a home movie soundtrack for people young at heart. Go choose your poison song and be happy for a minute, it's your lean smile that pays us, we made it for YOU - enjoy!
Aah, if we had someone out there who likes to make a clip, we will give our material and we will forgive everything, promised, give us a hint. Amen. Until that happens watch us under OUR VIDEOS. It was 20 years ago today!
Christian Schramowski is back! Now we do not only play in Stereo - we play in drums too! Welcome back - it's not quite the story of the lost son by sense it's more the picture I see while bibling through my thoughts of sacred visions. The tension rises!