Whether the encounter with the two Gudat brothers was accidental or intentional, I don’t know.
In any case, Helmut, the younger of the two, played the saxophone, and Horst, his older brother, the accordion, and piano. Both assured me that they would gladly make themselves available for the reestablishment of the chemistry combo. I was skeptical. Dance music had changed radically.
Since the beginning of the sixties, the Beatles revolutionized the style of music with the until then unusual instrumentation of their electrically amplified guitars and the skillful polyphonic, very harmonious singing.
Despite the intense resistance of the GDR superiors, who dismissed this music as a decadent imperialist machination, the youth in the GDR was also enthusiastic about the Beatles. However, we lacked both the technical prerequisites and the musical skills to imitate this music.
The accordion became completely unsuitable for the stage, and even the saxophone lost importance as a leading instrument. To make matters worse, we also lacked a bass player. As a replacement for the accordion, we urgently needed an electronic organ or an ionica, the forerunners of the modern keyboard, in order to be able to make music at least halfway in keeping with the times.
We also lacked a good amplification system for vocals. The club orchestra had an organ, but hardly used it. After an intensive approach to the club management, the instrument was made available to us on loan. The rehearsals could begin.
And a few weeks after this bumpy new beginning, a lucky coincidence helped me to buy a used Regent 50 amplifier system. After a few gigs without bass, Joschi from Bohemia found his way to us. He was an excellent double bass player and a wonderful colleague.
Some time later, I got hold of a brand-new bass guitar along with its accompanying amplifier. The bohemian thoroughbred musician was thrilled. The changeover from double bass to bass guitar took place as if on its own. The band members only felt that the drive of the rhythm section had become harder and more intense.
The chemistry combo experienced its rebirth. However, the transport problem remained unsolved. Fortunately, my friends from the repair shop supported me. They advised me to mount a towing device on the Trabant and allowed me to use the workshop whenever I wanted.
They procured a cannibalized Trabant body, and from the rear I built a trailer. To gain more storage space, the spare wheel was mounted on the outside of the trailer. One spare wheel was enough for three axles. All, bulky but relatively conductive instruments like the drum set we transported in the new roof garden.
Apart from the laborious work, the procurement of the accessories such as coupling, draw tube, electric cable and much more was a heroic task. The police acceptance and the official registration of the finished trailer turned out to be relatively simple because axle and lighting corresponded originally to the road permission order.
The result was only a modest start. Even with the trailer, we were not spared the time-consuming commutes. 𝓣𝓸 𝓑𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭…
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