In July 1978, Karin Luner visited her home town of Düsseldorf. As a student of Prof. K. H. Hödicke, she had gone to New York to study there. In Düsseldorf, we went on a disco tour with Florian from Kraftwerk. That’s how we got the idea to start a band too. Karin had taken drum lessons in NYC with Fred Maher, Lou Reed’s drummer. I moved to Berlin for the winter term. In the spring of ’79, I met Beate Bartel, a sound engineer at Sender Freies Berlin. She, too, had long been thinking about starting a band. And Beate already had a name: Mania D.. In May 1979, Karin returned from New York and, together with some of Beate’s friends, Mania D. was formed. Bettina Köster on tenor saxophone, Gudrun Gut on the Moog synthesiser. On the recommendation of Beate Bartel, our bass player, I travelled to Paris to visit her friends. They helped me buy a Henri Selmer alto saxophone. I’d had a total of eight years’ music lessons in flute, piano and theory. And wanted to forget it all very quickly. Always these restrictive rules – how is anything new ever going to emerge?
It was Karin`s idea to shoot a Super 8-film for our performances. She did the direction, styling, make-up and our fashion for the film „Fashion Intellection“. The film was shot at the ICC, International Congress Center Belin and on Teufelsberg, a high mound formed from the rubble of the Second World War. We had been supported by Michael, my brother.
And then: most glorious music, I assume. Bettina Köster with „Der Novak“. „Kaltes klares Wasser“ and „Geld/Money, Malaria with Bettina and Gudrun, Director Brigitte Bühler. Beate Bartel with her band Liason Dangereuses „Los niños del parque“, produced by Conny Plank, who gave Kraftwerk, Eurythmics, DAF, Ultravox a.o. their sound. BLÄSSE with „Lieben Sie Saxofon“ SAMO© idea of two sax melodies playing around each other. „Die Sonne“ Gudrun and Blixa Bargeld, just cool.
Election Party 1980, Düsseldorf: 5 saxophones – Frieder Butzmann, Albert Oehlen, Ulrike Harbig, Horst Gläsker, Eva G. Vocals & Bontempi: Diedrich Diederichsen. Drums: Markus Oehlen. Guideline:
