Krautrock special & Kraftwerk on BBC TV (UK)

BBC4 are showing a 1 hour special called "Krautrock-the rebirth of Germany" on Friday 23 October at 9pm. This is followed by "Kraftwerk:Minimum maximum" at 10pm.

Well, that was a brilliant programme. I like and admire most of the bands that were introduced (particularly Amon Duul II, Can, Neu and Faust) but I'd never seen them on the small screen and I thought they were a thoroughly likable bunch.

Maybe the best point of the programme came at the end, when the presenter pointed out that, as opposed to certain rock stars, none of these Krautrockers have ever become millionaires or "knights of the realm". They are all still leading a relatively low-key existence (apart from the present incarnation of Kraftwerk, perhaps) and they are still what they were 30 or 40 years ago: experimental musicians.

Some more food for thought. Was Werner Herzog really the greatest German film director of the classic Krautrock period? I sure love his work, but who's to say he's greater than Fassbinder or Wim Wenders?

And finally: most of the musicians now being interviewed were clearly happy and proud that the BBC was devoting an entire 58-minute programme to them. And rightly so. As ever, I was in awe of their foreign language skills. Impossible to imagine a programme in which a few dozen ENGLISH musicians express themselves so fluently and wittily in German (or French or Spanish, or any other language which is NOT their mother tongue)!

Excellent doc. Loved hearing a bit of Popol Vuh on TV. Missing: Ashra Temple. Can't have everything I suppose. The BBC rule for putting this stuff on.

Edited by emdiar - October 24 2009 at 08:10

Well yes, there ARE exceptions. John Greaves sings in French and Kevin Ayers is probably quite fluent in Spanish by now...

I really enjoyed thst Krautrock documentary on BBC4 also looked at the Kraftwerk concert as well (shame about Florian Schneider's departure, Ralf Hutter the only original member left now).

Was glad they showed Kraftwerk's song Ruckzuck on the documentary, one of my favorites from that era and Tangerine Dream.

Shame they didn't show more of Klaus Schulze (our Richocet (Victor)  would have appreciated this show ).

I not saying it is but I reckon there a connection with this BBC documentary and the Synth Britannia from last week (both featured KraftwerK), many band featured on Synth Britannia were influenced by Kraftwerk and other German bands of that time.


Edited by PROGMAN - October 24 2009 at 11:32

Can someone put it on Youtube or something?

Did anyone manage to catch the documentary of Krautrock followed by a Kraftwerk performance and also The Mars Volta at abbey road?Was a great night of television and although I'm fairly knowledgeable of krautrock,it really made gain so much respect for the guys in germany in the 60's.If you haven't you should be able to find it all on catch up tv and Iplayer.