[engl] The story so far: in the late 1970s, a new four-piece band call themselves Hans-A-Plast, named after a self-adhesive plaster with a non-stick wound pad. The group’s ranks are soon bolstered by a fifth Beatle — or should we say a fifth plaster — Annette, allowing drummer Bettina to focus exclusively on her drum kit. »None of the new bands can match Annette for sheer energy, she can sing you into submission,« Alfred Hilsberg announces in Sounds magazine. The band go on to win the newcomers of the year poll, as voted by the music paper’s readers. They play gigs when and where they can get them: an anti-fascist festival in Berlin, the Wuppertaler venue Bo?rse, the »Into The Future« festival in Hamburg. Before long they are ready to record a baker’s dozen of songs in their home town of Hanover. It takes them less than a week, including the mix. When the music industry come calling, Hans-A-Plast keep them at bay with outrageous demands. The eponymous debut album features cover art by cartoonist Uli Stein and is released in true DIY fashion on »No Fun«, the label founded by the band for this very purpose. A thousand copies would see them break even, but before the new decade begins, they sell ten times that amount. The 2nd No Fun Festival attracts a crowd of 2,000. Things are happening so fast. A legendary gig is recorded for a Rockpalast television broadcast in 1980. » Rockpalast a guest of Hans-A-Plast,« the young punk singer shouts into the microphone to open the show. »We always seemed to be in a hurry,« she whispers into the phone when I ask her about her old band’s second album. They were constantly producing new material, for pragmatic reasons as much as anything else. The concerts got longer. Live shows were always more important to them than the discs, Annette says. While tens of thousands still revel in the sound of the debut album, Hans-A-Plast have already left their 1-2-3-4 punk days behind them. The band undergoes a veritable metamorphosis. Annette throws herself wholeheartedly into her role as lyricist, finding inspiration in the likes of Sex Gang Children and hanging out in the Rote Kuh bar frequented by British soldiers stationed in Hanover — one of whom, Chas Briggs, designs the back cover of the new LP. Recorded in November 1980 at the Toncooperative studio in Hanover (like its predecessor), the second album virtually explodes with instrumental urgency: its dissonant guitars and increasingly avant-garde arrangements are reminiscent of the New York no wave scene. A singular nervous tremor is suddenly interrupted before everything rushes ahead again, left, right, radical rhythm shifts, bass drum quarter beats encircle atonal saxophone, nursery rhymes are fed through the meat grinder ... this hectic pace is reflected in Annette’s vocal melodies, alternating between a choirgirl and a caw, whooping, almost yodelling, enthusiastically singing of self-immolation or murder threats on (long since expired) actors. Drummer Bettina knits assiduously in the gaps between recording, so it’s apt that the cover of the new LP (released in 1981) features a clothing pattern. By the time the next »No Fun« tour comes around in June, Bettina is five months pregnant. The band take a break as Bettina and Micha become parents and Annette goes back to England, where she takes two A-Levels. She might still sing about Tu?tchenkleben but she no longer needs to pack parcels. The Hans-A-Plast royalties are enough to live on.

[engl] The story so far: in the late 1970s, a new four-piece band emerges, taking their name from a self-adhesive plaster with a non-stick wound pad: Hans-A-Plast. The group’s ranks are soon bolstered by a fifth Beatle — or should we say a fifth plaster — Annette, allowing drummer Bettina to focus exclusively on her drum kit. »None of the new bands can match Annette for sheer energy, she can sing you into submission,« Alfred Hilsberg announces in Sounds magazine. The band go on to win the newcomers of the year poll, as voted by the music paper’s readers. They play gigs when and where they can get them: an anti-fascist festival in Berlin, the Wuppertaler Schuppen Bo?rse, Hamburg’s »Into The Future« festival; before long they are ready to record a baker’s dozen of songs in their home town of Hanover. It takes them less than a week, including the mix. When the music industry comes calling, Hans-A-Plast keep them at bay with outrageous demands. Released in true DIY fashion on »No Fun«, the label founded by the band for this very purpose, the eponymous debut album features cover art by cartoonist Uli Stein. A thousand sales would see them break even, but before the new decade begins, they sell ten times that amount. The 2nd No Fun Festival attracts a crowd of 2,000. Things are happening so fast. Rockpalast records a legendary gig for television broadcast in 1980. » Rockpalast a guest of Hans-A-Plast,« the young punk singer shouts into the microphone to open the show. While tens of thousands still revel in the sound of the debut album, the 1981 sophomore disc moves on from 1-2-3-4 punk to dissonant guitars, radical rhythm shifts, and increasingly avant-garde arrangements. Hans-A- Plast virtually explode with urgency on »2« as Annette’s vocals alternate between a choirgirl and a caw, almost yodelling, singing enthusiastically of self-immolation or sending murder threats to (long since expired) actors. And then? A hiatus. With the band’s activities on pause, Annette takes two A-Levels in the United Kingdom and contemplates becoming an interpreter (already paying to start a course). One day, the phone rings — it’s Hans-A-Plast on the line, asking her to head home so they can get to work on what will be the third Hans-A-Plast album. For the first time, the band enlist a new producer - Jan Ne?mec is at the controls - and record in a new location, the Horus Sound Studio in Hanover. The tracklist includes »Monstertanz«, a song written by Annette in England and subsequently adapted by the band (the first time they create a song in this fashion). Hans-A-Plast then shoot their first (and last) music video, a DIY effort which debuts on Peter Illmann’s »Formel Eins«, a popular and pivotal television show. »Ausradiert« is released in early 1983, another demonstration of Hans-A-Plast doing what they do best: ignoring what has gone before and going off at a new tangent. Gone are the sudden breaks and nervous shivers of the second album, ceding to a more conventional song structure and sharper production.There is a more typically eighties flair to the band’s sound now, as the vocals and Bettina’s drums swirl in reverb. Renate’s bass slices like a knife and dual guitars ring out crystal clear. Lyrically, of course, nothing is off limits: Annette offers advice on how to be »Gut im Bett« (good in bed), rails against the sanctimoniousness of Christianity; cannibalism, stalking, the list goes on ... The door closes on the band’s No Fun label in the autumn of 1983. Whereas the first two albums sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, »Ausradiert« only manages 10,000. Ticket sales are down when the band hit the road in April and May (1983). This time around, Annette is pregnant, as Bettina was on the previous tour. The band begin to argue about which musical direction they should take in future. A sticking plaster doesn’t stick for ever. Echoing the name of the third LP, Hans-A-Plast find themselves ausradiert (erased).

[engl] The year is 2014: a sharp cry leaps out of my laptop’s speakers. »Ace!« the young punk girl yells into the microphone, »Let’s get this disco started.« She’s wearing leather trousers with back to front braces as she sings about hot boys with similar dress sense. The band play fast, their sound is clear, curt, and catchy. What is this and where did it come from? Hans-A-Plast is what it is, straight out of Hanover. Thanks to the internet, I can take it all in, right here, right now. It’s love at first listen. The year is 1978, fifteen years before I was born. 56 years earlier, the first self-adhesive plasters went on sale in Germany. A gang of four: two young women, two young men — Bettina, Renate, Jens and Micha — form a group and name themselves after the aforementioned plasters (Hansaplast). Before long, their fans are sticking plasters on their leather jackets. Meanwhile, Bettina, is on the lookout for someone to sing lead vocals so she can concentrate on the drums in the band instead. Back from a school exchange trip to the United States, where she learned how to anaesthetise boredom with whiskey, LSD and Patti Smith, Annette’s vocal talents are in the service of a girls‘ choir when they find her. In the two years since her USA sojourn, she has jobbed her way through Amsterdam and London as the sound of punk grows louder. She sees Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, and UB40 at the Vortex, but it’s the Slits and Poly Styrene with her X-Ray Spex who trigger an epiphany. Now she knows what she wants to do, or more precisely, what she has to do. Whilst in London, a teacher from Braunschweig implores Annette to return home to complete her studies and take her Abitur. Shadowed by the fear of nuclear war and a new generation of the Red Army Faction, Annette never actually completes her exams at the IGS Braunschweig school, but she does start her first band there: Slime (not the Slime that went on to greater fame) mix original songs with Sex Pistols covers. Annette takes »Man of Stone« (one of their own) with her when she joins Hans-A-Plast, the band she meets in November 1978 at the first No Fun Festival, where Hans-A-Plast and Slime play together. Bettina asks Annette if she would like to sing for them — yes, she would. Fast forward to the rehearsal bunker as Bettina hands Annette the lyrics to three songs: »Lederhosentyp«, »Rock ’n’ Roll Freitag« and »Hau ab du stinkst«. The creative spark ignites and the 3 songs soon become 13. A few festivals follow, including the January 1979 event »Into The Future« at the Hamburg Markthalle. In September of the same year, the band record their eponymous debut album in just 4 days, at the Toncooperative studio in Hanover, ably assisted by Rainer in his first encounter with punk. Emulating her idol Poly Styrene, Annette adds a wonderfully off-key alto saxophone to the mix: tracks like »Fu?r ’ne Frau« fizz with charisma and chutzpah, flying in the face of “good girl” expectations, just as one might expect. Annette, Bettina and Renate are soon to be found gracing the cover of Sounds magazine with the headline: »Frauen machen Musik« — shock, horror! Toncooperative also provides a label base for the band, releasing »Hans-A-Plast« on the studio’s Lava imprint.? One thousand copies represented the break-even point, but the album sold ten times that before the year was out. Although bigger labels came knocking, the group chose to set up their own record company under the name of No Fun. They packed and shipped most of the albums themselves: »Klebe Tu?tchen, klebe Tu?tchen...« The 2nd edition of the No Fun Festival attracts a crowd of 2,000, even without the Kondensators, Blitzkrieg or die Fucks, who decline on account of Hans-A-Plast having become too successful for their liking. No time to mope around, however, everything is happening so fast. Rockpalast record a legendary gig in 1980 for a television broadcast. When I listen to it 34 years later, it will change my life.