Engerling

He was about 50; I wonder if he lived to be 90? Engerling is also approaching 50 and is fortunately still not a cockchafer, because as is well known, they do not live very long!

Somehow they didn't really fit in anywhere in all these years and still managed to stay true to themselves and their audience.

For the GDR cultural functionaries, the band around pianist and songwriter Wolfram Bodag as a blues band seemed too far away from the ideal image of songful rock "as an independent GDR contribution to international music culture" to really let them make it big.

Blues purists, on the other hand, criticized the lack of authenticity of a blues band that cared little for adherence to the original twelve-bar scheme and instead mixed blues elements with rock and soul elements at will, or even stooped to long improvisations that would have fit much more into the psychedelic flower power camp.

For 47 years, the eastern formation has persistently honed its own style with intelligent lyrics, on the borderline between German rock and blues, and has thus created a loyal, but not at all "ostalgic" audience. They have been on stage for 47 years now!

And that is pure happiness for all fans.