Week of February 21, 1999
Hanus Berka (sax) from Prague came to Germany for the first time in the
mid-sixties. After an extended stay in Las Vegas, he settled in Munich and
formed Emergency at the end of 1970, comprising
Udo Lindenberg
(drums), Barrie Newby (guitar), Jiro Matousek (keyboards), Otto Bezloja
(bass), Dusko Goykovic (trumpet) and Reddy (vocals) - four Czechoslovakians,
one German and an Englishman! Their debut album proved them to be more related
to the European
jazz
scene than the German one. For "Entrance" (1972), most of the
band was changed, as jazz combos tend to be!
Udo
Lindenberg was replaced by John Redpath and on occasion, famous drummer
Curt Cress also performed with the band. At the end of 1972, Emergency
was re-organized again, and signed with Brain Records. "Get Out Of The
Country" (1973) was recorded by Berka, Peter Bischof (vocals), Richard
Palmer-James (guitar,
ex-Supertramp, later
with D.D.Sound, La Bionda!), Jerzy Ziembrowski (bass), Veit Marvos
(keyboards, ex-2066 & Then), Martin Harrison
(percussion) and Bernd Knaak (drums). Bischof had a soul-ish voice,
resulting in a merging of jazz, soul and funk rock, quite song-oriented and
mainstream. The best track was the 12-minute title track. "No
Compromise" (1974) was recorded by Berka, Palmer-James, Frank Diez (guitar,
bass, ex-Armaggedon, later with
Randy Pie, Karthago,
Ihre Kinder,
Atlantis), Ralf Toursel (piano) and Hans Stoer
(bass). Arguably, this was their best album, due to larger doses of
inspired instrumental work. After Emergency disbanded, Frank
Diez and Peter Bischof recorded a similarly-styled album together for Atlantic
in 1975.
Emergency 1971 CBS 64381
Entrance 1972 CBS 64528
Get Out of the Country 1973 Brain 1037
No Compromise 1974 Brain 1052
Gold Rock 1975 Brain 201.104
Taken from Cosmic Dreams at Play - A guide to German Progressive and Electronic Rock by Dag Erik Asbjørnsen, Borderline Productions, ISBN 1-899855-01-7