Death Came With A Bang!

I owe this post to the recent find by Phoenix Hairpins. Next comes the generosity of Andreas across the globe in Munich, who was kind enough to share a bit more info on the band Chim Chim Cheree!

The band began in 1983, hailing from Mettmann in the Düsseldorf area. Formerly members were in VD, Luzibär, and later formed Panic in Slumberland, Scarlet Masque, Die Autos... I have a 7" and compilation tracks by Luzibär, but never drew a connection to CCC! Thanks to Andreas, I shall be posting most of this music!

Members of Chim Chim Cheree! are:

Lloyd,

Opi; keyboards, synths

Jasper; drums

Joost; vocals

You can get the Serenade 12" and sampler songs here. The song Too Much Too Soon appears on a sampler LP, Pesthauch Des Dschungels. Another track, Remember the Rain appears on the sampler CD Godfathers Of German Gothic Vol. 1. (I shall try to rip the three volumes that make up the GOGG CD's soon.)

Tracklist:

01. Serenade

02. Scarlet Tears

03. Forever Or Never

Bonus:

-Too Much Too Soon

-Remember the Rain

***

Andreas tells some background:

Due to the nearness to Düsseldorf there were a lot of interferences betweeen musicans and bands. The most famous example of this colaboration betwen the two places is the band Die Toten Hosen, which consists mostly of persons with their origins in Mettmann. All of this musicians also went to the same schools, knew each other well and fell into punk at the same time.

The main part of most of the band we're talking about is Joost Schroeder, the singer of many of the Mettmann bands.

Here formed a punk band named VD early in 1978 and released some songs together with some other punk bandson a compilation record of the Schallmauer label. The band consisted 33/66 of Düsseldorf/Mettman members.

After VD he formed another band, this time 100% Mettmann, by the name of Luzibär. After one single and some other not released recordings, the band split up and Joost and the drummer Jasper transformed into Chim Chim Cheree!, together with another musician from a nearby village, who called himself Lloyd Mond (then in a band named Die Autos, now in a band with the name Die Innung.

They took it serious this time and secured a management deal with No Time Music, a semi professional label, which also managed famed electro punk rocker Tommi Stumpff. After a 12-inch EP and the 7-inch single and some differences to where the music should go, the band split up into Scarlet Masque (drummer Jasper) and Panic in Slumberland. Panic in Slumberland released one 12" and one LP, but somewhen split up once again over differences in the musical content.

Joost now goes by the name Joost Renders, and is now a filmmaker, lives in Berlin and you can contact him over his myspace site.

He is always happy to talk about his musical work.

Jasper sadly passed away some years ago.

The manager of Chim Chim Cheree! and Panic in Slumberland, Richard Gleim of No Time Music, now hass retired but can still be contacted over his blog.

He also is a famous person in photographic circuits as he made the first professional photographic documentations about punk in germany, e.g. punk in Düsseldorf, back from 1977 on. A very interesting person, with many stories to tell and photographs to show.

That's the story in short.