Real
Unreleased films from the teen band’s youth
The band Echt, consisting of Gunnar, Puffi, Kim, Flo, Kai (from left to right).
© SWR Press/Image Communication
They were also teenagers back then: a three-part TV documentary shows how the teen idols of the band Echt grew up themselves.
With hits like “You don’t have love in you” and “Weinst Du”, the teen band Echt provided an entire generation of teenagers with emotions poured into songs around the turn of the millennium. A three-part TV documentary revives this formative time and an important piece of German pop history.
The special feature: The trilogy “Echt – our youth”, which can be seen in the ARD media library from November 23rd, is based entirely on films that the band members shot behind the scenes at the time. Former frontman and heartthrob Kim Frank (41), now an author and filmmaker, takes real fans on a journey through time as a narrator from the release of the first single in 1998 to the band’s dissolution in 2002.
From the student band to VIVA
They were something like the Flensburg Beatles. The then 12 to 14-year-old students Kim Frank, Kai Fischer (43), Andreas “Puffi” Puffpaff (42), Florian “Flo” Sump (42) and Gunnar Astrup (41) are at the Flensburg Kurt-Tucholsky- school to form the student band “Seven Up”. Until they split up in 2002, the five made it a priority not to be called a “test band” or “casting band” or even a “boy band”. Everything about them is: real. From 1996 onwards they were on the road under this name, and the unthinkable happened: the videos from their 1998 debut album actually found their way onto VIVA’s nationwide music television. Hits like “We did it” quickly become anthems for an entire generation of teenagers. The five finally broke all barriers to success and popularity in 1999. “Say, are you crying or is that the rain…” millions of teenagers all over Germany asked themselves with them. But how did you experience this time yourself?
Between puberty and popularity
Kim, Kai, Puffi, Flo and Gunnar grew up alongside their fans. How were they during this time? How did you experience the phase between puberty and popularity? When they met again 20 years after their separation, the five could neither imagine a new album nor a teen revival tour. Instead, for “Real – Our Youth” they dug deep into their film treasure trove and made private recordings available for documentary processing. Kim Frank viewed and edited a total of 240 hours of material for the trilogy in a year and a half of editing time.
Frank has been a successful video and TV director since 1998, producing videos for Udo Lindenberg and all Mark Forster videos, among others. In the three-part documentary he packed everything that moved the band back then: dreams and fears, the first great love, the first scandals and lasting friendships, even after the breakup. Frank says: “I wanted to do something that was as close as possible to how we were back then. And that includes the beautiful, funny, but also painful moments.” Teenagers then and now will really enjoy the three 60-minute documentary films.