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In Lucerne, three authors work on the rock and pop history of their city. You’ve already found some treasures.
For some people it may just be a few old songs on sizzling and crackling records – played by bands whose names hardly anyone knows anymore: Kirk’s Patrol, Day Flies, The 5 Dorados.
For Urs Hangartner it is more. Much more.
“This is a treasure of incredible value,” says the Lucerne culture journalist. “It shows that Lucerne had a rock and pop scene early on that didn’t have to hide behind those in the big cities.”
Around 500 Lucerne bands have been located
Hangartner is about to unearth this treasure together with the musicians Roli Duss and Pit Furrer. Their goal: the ultimate dictionary of Lucerne rock and pop history from 1960 to 2000.
Every band that has crawled up from the depths of their rehearsal cellar and played concerts at some point during this time should appear in it. A real detective work that has been going on for ten years now. The three have identified around 500 bands so far.
Legend:
Digging deep into the history of Lucerne’s rock and pop scene: culture journalist Urs Hangartner (left) and musician Pit Furrer.
SRF/Barbara Anderhub
The fact that the authors have been active in the Lucerne cultural scene since the 1970s helps with the research. Many musicians know them personally, and they send them boxes of material – photo albums, contracts, posters. Everything is viewed, scanned and saved on multiple hard drives.
Legend:
A lot has accumulated: Every Thursday there is an editorial meeting, then the material is viewed, evaluated and digitized.
SRF/Barbara Anderhub
But there are always “phases of despair,” says Urs Hangartner. In some cases, material is promised to them, but not delivered even after repeated requests. “Today they are doctors or lawyers, they used to make wild rock music – it seems as if these people want to deny their past,” he says.
Even before punk, there was a lot going on in Lucerne
Pit Furrer is convinced that this past holds a lot that needs to be saved for the present. “It’s often said that Lucerne was particularly important for punk, with the former Sedel prison, where an alternative music center was created in 1981,” he says. “But we always thought: there was definitely more.”
Legend:
The Lucerne singer Vera Kaa in 1984 in front of the Sedel: The alternative music center in the former prison gave the band scene important impulses far beyond Lucerne.
key stone
In fact: As the three encyclopedia authors found out, there was already a high density of bands in Lucerne in the 1960s – at a time when the music program of Radio Beromünster in Switzerland still sounded as if rock ‘n’ Roll never been invented.
Bands learned songs from foreign radio stations
“They listened to foreign radio stations and bought English bands’ records to learn their songs,” says Urs Hangartner. “Some flew to London to get an outfit like that of the Beatles or the Kinks.”
Some bands flew to London to get an outfit like that of the Beatles or the Kinks.
Some of the formations were able to celebrate great successes. The Day Flies, for example, played in 1969 as the opening act for the English Small Faces. And the Dorados – who started out as The 5 Dorados with beat music and then developed in the direction of hits – performed in front of an audience of millions in Rudi Carrell’s Saturday night box “Am Laufen Band” in 1974.
The band Flame Dream, which Lexikon co-author Pit Furrer co-founded in 1972, also has a large audience to this day – although only a few are likely to know the band: The SRF radio show “International” uses a nameless additional piece as its signature tune, which end of an LP from 1980.
The authors of the Lucerne rock and pop lexicon have collected anecdotes like these in abundance. However, even after ten years of work, it is still unclear when the book will appear – Pit Furrer says they still do not have all the information together. ‘But there’s no going back. We swore we’d bring out the encyclopedia. And this oath is valid.”