Produits de The Broom Town Band ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD und mehr

THE BROOM TOWN BAND

The Broom Town Band developed in 1962 in Bad Bramstedt near Hamburg from a band that had changed from Dixieland Jazz to Skiffle.

How the somewhat strange name of the group came about was explained in an article about the six amateur musicians in the 'Kieler Nachrichten' in 1963: "... Well, as former Jürgen Fuhlendorf high school students, they knew from local history that their father's town derived its name from the Low German 'bram', the name for the broom bush gorse, which still grows rampantly on the Liethberg. Bramstedt therefore means something like 'broom town', and in English broom town means 'broomtown'... The start began in the village Dammklause in Hitzhusen. Since then, the guitar boys have performed in many places. Everywhere they swept teenagers and twens off their feet. Now they are top class.

The soul of the band is 23-year-old theology student Peter Rakow. He plays solo guitar and sings. The business side of things is taken care of by 21-year-old shipping clerk Gerold Rabba (guitar and vocals). His 27-year-old brother, locksmith Hellmut Rabba, handles the bass guitar. Toolmaker Max Grümmert (20 years old) also plays guitar. The drummer is 22-year-old carpenter Manfred Liebschner. The youngest of the ensemble, television technician apprentice Klaus Meinert, 19, also sings. He imitates (Chubby) Checker. But with his songs from 'Porgy and Bess,' he can also produce soft tones."

The article goes on to emphasize that the members of the Broom Town Band dressed pleasantly unobtrusively and dispensed with the fashionable Beatle hairstyle.

Manfred Liebschner: "In reality, Klaus Meinert was the singer of the group, and not Peter Rakow, as stated in the 'Kieler Nachrichten' article. Klaus also played the banjo." ... "We looked different from the other groups. We wore white shirts, black ties and black vests."

In this outfit, the six Bad Bramstedters successfully participated in the Hamburg Star Club competition on December 1, 1963, which earned them participation in the recording of the Ariola long-playing record 'Twist Time at the Star Club Hamburg 3 - Rock-And-Beat-Bands Competition'. Incidentally, the trout twist recorded by the Broom Town Band inspired the group Leinemann, popular in the seventies, to record the so-called Turkish trout twist.

Manfred Liebschner: "We were used to playing in the countryside. There were always lots of spectators and we earned good money. In the Star-Club it was like a pigeon coop backstage, several bands in the evening, always idle in between ... and when I went to one of the bars at noon and said to the barmaid: 'So now we'd like to eat,' she naturally looked at me with complete incomprehension. In the countryside we really got something to eat. There was nothing like that in the Star Club. I didn't really want to play there that much."

The management contract offered by the Star Club was rejected.

The Broom Town Band continued to enjoy local popularity until late 1964/early 1965. Then it disbanded.

Manfred Liebschner later played for a year with the nationally known Quartermasters from Itzehoe. Today he has a business for refining pianos and concert grand pianos in terms of sound and playing technique, and sells and tunes these instruments.

His son Jens has followed in his father's musical footsteps and has even overtaken him in terms of fame. He is a drummer with the well-known group Illegal 2001.

Peter Rakow became an educator, Gerold Rabba a business economist. Hellmut Rabba is a design engineer and Klaus Meinert runs a metalworking company. Max Grümmert is a mechanical engineer.
© Bear Family Records®

Copyright © Bear Family Records® Tous droits réservés. Aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être réimprimée ou reproduite sous quelque forme ou par quelque moyen que ce soit, y compris l'incorporation dans des bases de données électroniques et la reproduction sur des supports de données, en allemand ou dans toute autre langue, sans l'autorisation écrite préalable de Bear Family Records® GmbH.

Weitere Informationen zu The Broom Town Band auf Wikipedia.org