Preface --Prologue -- Creamcheese -- Origins -- 70. Early stages ; I knew Conny for ages -- 71. Social background ; Ruckzuck -- 72. Neu! ; Conny ; Neu! live -- 73. Neu!2 the second album ; Ralf & Florian & Wolfgang ; Aspekte TV show -- 74. Conny's studio ; Autobahn ; Oskar Sala ; Neu! 75 ; Hero ; Harmonia ; Dingerland ; Ratingen, Blauer See -- 75. Tour the USA ; Bartos ; Broadway ; Beach Boys ; Outside View UK ; Radio-Activity -- 76. Bowie ; Role models ; La Düsseldorf ; Klaus and Thomas ; Silver Cloud -- 77. Mata Hari shopping mall ; New German style ; Trans-Europe Express ; Flammande Herzen ; Moroder Munich Sound -- 78. The Man-Machine ; Riechmann ; Viva ; New wave -- 79. Ratinger Hof ; DIY ; Noise performances ; DAF -- 80. DAF.co.UK ; Fehlfarben ; Der Plan ; Experimental performances ; Individuellos -- 81. Der Mussolini ; New wave style ; Stahlwerksinfonie ; Pure Freude record label ; German Unity Festival ; Wahre Arbeit: Wahrer Lohn -- 82. Computer World ; Full steam ahead! ; Liaisons dangereuses ; Tech stuff -- 83. Belfegone ; Tour De France ; Dazzledorf -- 84. Propaganda ; Techno pop ; JaPlan -- 85. Entering the arena ; Néondian -- 86. Electric Café ; Ex & Pop ; Outro ; Reprise -- Appendix. The men ; The machines.
. - Just like Memphis and Rock'n'Roll, Dusseldorf is regarded as the Mecca for electronic music. The capital of North Rhine-Westphalia became the centre of an analog electronic movement from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. This is the oral account of the city's most influential bands, including Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Die Krupps and many more. This history uncovers the myths and reality of the bands emerging from the artistic backdrop of a wealthy German post WWII modernistic city and explores the emergence of the electronic scene in Dusseldorf and the conditions that fostered such a creative explosion and became so influential for musicians and artists all over the world. Interviews include Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (OMD), Martyn Ware (Human League), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Rusty Egan (Visage) Ryuichi Sakamoto and producer Giorgio Moroder. [This] is the definitive account of Düsseldorf's most influential bands, including Kraftwerk, NEU!, La Düsseldorf, Rheingold, DAF, Propaganda and many others. Rudi Esch, bass player of industrial band Die Krupps, has carried out more than 50 exclusive interviews to create this fascinating insight into the secretive scene. He has followed the trail of those who shaped and lived through this era, as well as those who were genuinely influenced by it; bands like OMD, Heaven 17, Visage and Ultravox, all of whom became ambassadors of this revolutionary new form of music"
