Back then, in January 1975, five young gentlemen climbed onto the stage of an inn in Mahlow near Berlin. They were called "Engerling", said the pub owner and added: "....na, but they won't get far with that name....". He was about 50; I wonder if he lived to be 90? Engerling turned 44 and is fortunately still not a cockchafer, because, as we know, they don't live very long!
Somehow, in all these years, they didn't really fit in anywhere 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 song-like rock "as an independent GDR contribution to international music culture" to really let them make it big.
Blues purists, on the other hand, criticised 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 45 years, the East German band has persistently worked on its own style with intelligent lyrics on the borderline between German rock and blues and has thus created a loyal, but not at all "Eastalgic" audience.
