p!off?: s/t

"1980, Friday evening in the Munich suburban pub Panoptikum. My girlfriend draws my attention to the fact that behind me two guys are talking about looking for a new guitarist for their band. I turn around, chat them up (Jochen and Thomas) and praise my skills to the skies. A few days later I'm standing in Thomas' perfectly equipped practice room with my Ibanez Les Paul copy. We jam a little while -- jazz rock, to which I can contribute very little due to my lack of skills. We quickly agree on a new style: minimalist, no drums, just a drum machine, Moog and organ, less guitar, dry bass. And German lyrics! We don't really know or want that this should be 'NDW'. But of course we listen to DAF, Ideal, FSK, Fehlfarben and -- yes, SPLIFF too. These influences are undeniable. So we found the PISS OFF ORKESSTR, which very quickly becomes P'OFF ORKESSTR and then finally P!OFF?. Ambitious and inspired, we produce a demo cassette that already contains 'Das dicke Kind', 'Großer Bruder', 'Pass Auf!', and 'Walkman' and send it to various record companies -- including Munich's 'Ariola', which is desperately looking for NDW acts because the Ariola empire has missed this trend. Therefore, they 'buy' about 25 bands at the drop of a hat -- and P!OFF? is supposed to be one of them, because they expect some good airplay mainly from 'Walkman'. Producer god Anthony Monn (Amanda Lear, Relax, Saragossa Band, Fancy et al.) takes us under his wing and manages to keep the original demo sound, but to improve it considerably. 'Mein Walkman ist kaputt' didn't make it into the charts, but it was played more often on the radio and the Album didn't sell badly. In 1982, however, NDW is now commercialized to death and that ship had sailed. But we stay together (under different band names) and over the decades become first New Romantics, then Indie Rockers, then Grunge Noise Makers and finally Electronic Freaks. In 2009, for my fiftieth birthday, we decide to play a few songs from the old 82 record live, which becomes a huge success. And so we are -- again as P!OFF? -- still on the road with our old songs. The '82 album has become a sought-after collector's item and cult object -- so we are very happy that Bureau B is presenting a lovingly remastered reissue after almost 40 years." --Alex Weidner