MDR documentary about the love of music: “How Tina Turner came to Niedertrebra – amateur bands in the GDR” traces the attitude to life | MDR.DE

Almost all rock musicians in the GDR started out as “amateur dance musicians”. Also Dirk Michaelis: The singer and composer (“When I went away”), a trained bricklayer, drove from youth club to youth club for years to perform there. In this documentary he talks about his beginnings for the first time: “Through this hobby we had the opportunity to feel a bit of freedom. Even though we only went to Eisenach with the Trabant and trailer, it felt like ‘getting out into the world’.”

In the mid-1980s there were around 2,000 amateur bands in the GDR – and around 110 professional groups. The “Leisure Muggers” gave the youth the hits they longed for from Billy Idol and Bryan Adams, BAP and Tina Turner.

Like Britta Radig from Apolda, who was on stage for the first time at the age of 16 – at the Niedertrebra inn: “I was completely shy and introverted, and then it was difficult for me to act like a star. But then suddenly I was in – when Tina Turner with ‘Nutbush City Limit’…”

Amateur musicians in the GDR lived for music – but not from music: “Music was a hobby, fun – my fulfillment. To become a professional musician, you had to have a music degree. And I didn’t have that,” says Michael Krusche, a trained power engineer who founded the “Yoga” group in Bleicherode in 1982. Since usable equipment was hard to come by in the GDR, Krusche remembers: “I even built our lighting system myself – out of cake tins!” “Yoga” reunited for this film after a break of over 30 years. But what was planned as a one-off appearance has rekindled the old fire: now they want to continue.

The first women’s rock band in the GDR also started out as an amateur band: “Na Und?” from Dresden. “We definitely had a certain exotic effect,” remembers drummer and “band leader” Angela Ullrich, “at the NVA, for example, we were very popular – the soldiers danced on the tables when we played AC/DC.”

The history of amateur music also tells a lot about everyday life, the desires and constraints of life in the GDR. When the underground band “Diezucht” from Leipzig tried to get a state permit to play, they were granted it. “But they told us straight away: You won’t get any concerts with that name, we’ll make sure of that.” So “Diezucht” became “Die Art”, a legendary band in the alternative scene. They have been making music for 40 years now – still part-time to this day.