Member Since: 3/4/2007
Band Members: The original Rhythm Checkers was a German band from Sarrelouis playing beat music.
The Founding line up was in 1965
Dave Kelly (Wolfgang Mersinger) (D) (vocals/guitar)
Kurt Horbach (D) (bass)
Norbert Hohlweg (D) (drums)
Eddy Van Nelfen (NL) (rhythm guitar)
In 1966 they played in the French border town Strasbourg without Dave Kelly. With the search for a new guitarist they recruit Robby Stierheim ex Black and white; Roby take the band to see the Skat Five with her singer and drummer Roland BauerThe German were filled with enthusiasm and proposes him to become their singers
Rhythm Checkers at the Kibitz Strasbourg may 1966
During the summer of 1966 they became one of the favourite’s nightclub band of the French Riviera city Juan les Pins playing rock and roll and R&B standards
The Rhythm Checkers Juan les Pins summer 1966
In November 1966 they are opening for Jerry Lee Lewis at the Paris theatre Olympia. They play
Three song “Ride your pony (Lee Dorsey), “I’ll go crazy (James Brown) and “Long tall Sally (Little Richard) and receive ovations from the public
In December 1966 they recording her first extended play at the Kibitz club in Strasbourg
Two song are original compositions from Bobby and Eddy “Cause I need you †who
Sound terrific and “Theme of the Rhythm Checkers. The two others are cover; “Said oh yeah†was a Bo Diddley title and “On your way down the drain†was a cover from the King Bee from New York
THE RHYTHM CHECKERS 1966
Roland Bauer: (F) (vocals)
Robby Stierheim:(F) (lead guitar)
Eddy Van Nelfen: (NL) (rhythm guitar)
Kurt Horbach:(D) (bass)
Norbert Hohlweck(D) : drums
February 21, 1967 they go back to Paris for a new show at the Olympia theatre with a new line up Dany Gentner ex Black and White replaced Kurth. This time they open for Chuck Berry. They make a wild performance and played four song “Long tall Sally†the old standard “Kansas City written by Leiber and stoller for Wilbert Harrison revisited at the time by the Beatles.The Wilson Pickett hit “Land of thousand dances†and the Small Faces cover “I can’t dance with you “. These four songs will be published on disc by the small label AGD
During the autumn the band gets the reinforcement of the English keyboardist Chris Hadfield, but at the end of the years the famous Rhythm Checkers split.
The Rhythm Checkers with Chuck Berry at the Olympia Theatre 1967
Story from: Le Temps des Copains: Rock Twist Alsace Annees 60 (France only)
by Thierry Liesenfeld, Gerard Bickel La Nuée Bleue Strasbourg [1996]
Bomp review: Alsace is the part of France that sometimes belongs to Germany, and it values its own culture. Hence this lavish book, which begins with Bill Haley, follows rock & roll to France with Vince Taylor, and takes off on a wild spin through scores of artists and groups; some, like the Dynamites and Ronnie Bird will be familiar, and those who collect '60s Euro 45s and EPs will recognize many others. It's in French, but so what? The hundreds of amazing photos, many in color, make this worth having. Mostly they're hopeful, obscure groups ranging from dorky to menacing, and some are truly strange, like Le Ku Klux Klan, with white masks, or Les Meharistes dressed as arab sheiks, on a parade float with giant papier-mache Mod dancers, or Les Falcons looking ridiculous in Sgt. Pepper uniforms. I also like the shot of Chuck Berry with the worshipful Rhythm Checkers, looking suitably nonplused. Plus there's many photos of club, concert and street scenes, many rare records pictured in color, and more. I don't know where you'd find this (Amazon France doesn't carry it, but that doesn't mean it's not in print) but it's worth the effort. And oh yeah... it comes with a 25-track CD too!
Vous pouvez lire l'interview sur le lienhttp://surlaroute66.free.fr/html/rythm%20checkers.htm COMING SOON ON VINYL LP
THE COMPLETE RHYTHM CHECKERS RECORDING
FOR ORDER
ADRESS:
GROOVIE RECORDS
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RECORDS ARE ON SALE AT :
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RASTRILLHO RECORDS (ARGENTINA) www.rastrillorecords.com.ar
MONSTRO DISCOS (BRASIL) www.monstrodiscos.com.br
REVIEW :
The Rhythm Checkers were an exceptional beat group playing a raw mixture of rhythm and blues and rock and roll with a wild garage attitude. Maybe we can call them the European Sonics. Formed by musicians native to France, Germany and Holland with Roland 'Bouboule' Bauer (vocal), the regretted Robby Sterheim (lead guitar), Eddy Van Nelfen (rhythm guitar), Kurth Horbach (bass), later replaced by Dany Gentner and Norbert Holweck (drums), they set the stage on fire during their shows in France between the years 1966 and 1967. It is in Strasbourg where The Rhythm Checkers release their first EP with their powerful composition 'Cause I Need You,' which is a real classic of European garage rock. Their second EP is a unique document of their stage savageness thanks to these recordings captured live when they opened for Chuck Berry in Paris on February 1967. It's amazing how these guys made it live, they make my wig jump listening on record. The eight mythical tracks of their two rare records are present on this LP, and as a bonus, both sides of their single recorded in 1972 during the reformation of the group under the name of Checkers in the prog-pop style of the time. The record comes with an insert with all the history and never-published photos of the band, both in English and French. Limited release of 500 copies only!
(insound.com)
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Long running favourites of the garage beat ‘n punk crowd who count the likes of Diggin’ For Gold among the top compilations of the last fifteen years or so. The Rhythm Checkers were made up primarily of German guys, with a Dutchman, and a French wildman on board to complete the line-up - no doubt majorly transforming it in the process. They would soon become favourites of the 1966 Strasbourg & Paris club scenes, famously playing on a bill that included Jerry Lee Lewis, and Vince Taylor.Though The Rhythm Checkers’ discography was scant, with only a couple of EPs (released on the small AGD label) to their name during the original, brief heyday of the group, the sounds they produced were nonetheless fabulous; primitively so, and the original discs are now becoming increasingly scarce, even in collector circles. However, you don’t have to shell out a small fortune for the real McCoy any more - on the rare occasion that the original EPs do show up - as Portugal’s truly fine Groovie label have come up trumps by heaping everything together, and unleashing them on this crazy long-player.‘Cause I Need You’ is one of the group’s few original compositions, written by guitarists Robby Stierheim and Eddy van Nelfen, and with its crude frug’n’strut rhythmic style is easily one of the set’s strongest tracks. Pure slow burning cool in the way that some cuts on The Pretty Things’ awesome Get The Picture LP are. The way the ‘Checkers effortlessly insinuate their barrage of noise deep into your brain draws parallels of similarity with the ‘Pretties also. ‘Theme Of The Rhythm Checkers’ is special too, and their highly-personalised and fairly brutal rendering of (New York outfit) The King Bees’ ‘On Your Way Down The Drain’ has to be heard if you dig mid-‘60s raw, wild euro-beat-punk.The group’s primal soul reveals itself to great effect on more than one occasion too, especially Bo Diddley’s ‘Said Oh Yeah’ and thunderous covers of ‘Land Of 1000 Dances’, 'Kansas City' and their quite tortuous, and great reading of ‘Long Tall Sally’, with the just-ever-so-slightly over- exuberant vocals of Roland Bauer, known to his bandmates and friends as ‘Bouboule’, which in French slang approximates to “The Fat Guyâ€. The Groovie folks have also dug up the last remaining sounds the band left behind in the form of a 1972 single bearing a couple of funky wah-wah, and Hammond-style workouts. While these are not so essential for garage fans, being of a much milder persuasion, they are nevertheless mildly enjoyable, and it's good to hear Roland was in fine voice a few years farther down the line, but it's really nothing when compared to the brutal rhythm & beat-punk attack the group conjured up in late 1966, and early 1967. Vive le rock’n’roll, vive les Rhythm Checkers!
Lenny Helsing Shindig magazine
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JUKEBOX MAGAZINE N°260 AOUT 2008
Record Label: AGD 1966/1967 - GROOVIE/METEO 0010 P2008
Type of Label: None