I am totally shocked. I recently wrote Bernd Hartwich, who died on March 11th of cancer at the age of 53 and left behind his wife and daughter, and was surprised that he did not report back. In addition to Fehlfarben, Family 5, Andreas Dorau and Der Plan, his Merricks are my absolute favorite German pop band. On the masterpiece album "In unsere Stadt", a charming tribute to Munich, that he unsolicitedly sent me in 1990 - like he did before with the EP "In Amerika" (1989) - for review in my film and music magazine Spirit - A Smile in the Storm (www.spirit-fanzine.de), there is a legendary sentence on the record sleeve: " I make music that my friends like ". How beautiful and true! Toy instruments played cheerful-melancholic ska-melodies, the ingenious musical gems were titled "Kasperle und Krokodaul" or "Der Fußballsieg" (Bernd was a passionate supporter of 1860 Munich and loathed the FC Bayern). We became friends after the Merricks gig at the Popkomm music fair in Cologne in summer 1990 - and met again and again over the years, especially in Berlin, not only when he was a guest with the Merricks or his later band Der Englische Garten, where he enjoyed walking with my Husky Labrador Hokis - Armenian name for My Soul " And Bernd, a huge fan of Maestro Ennio Morricone, was a good soul himself! He was also an excellent DJ. We wanted to put on records together in clubs , we have to postpone that if we float together on cloud seven through another, strange and mysterious world. So tragic that he died two days before the new album "Bei Tag und Nacht" (Tapete Records) was released. Rest in peace, dear friend! (photo: Archive Spirit Hairapetian)
- with DerEnglische Garten here: München.
