1981

Picture 1: Timo (then HH-Milch, later CBN, even later Die Knallschoten) with Tanju (then brother of Knallschoten singer Kajan, later fame/ Nikki Sudden). It could be Stickel in back between them (of Channel Rats fame) - but we are not quite sure...

Picture 2: Buttocks, Rampe, ca. 1981

The Buttocks were the real hardcore punk band prior to US-Hardcore swapping over to Germany - they were fast, loud and hard. This pic was taken at a show at the "Rampe" were they played with SLIME, PUNKENSTEIN, KOTZBROCKEN and others - it was a crowded house and the bands realy rocked they place.

"Just prior to the show we noted that from an apartment accros the street some teddy-boys were sorting us out with the help of some spyglasses - and they were also pointing with a gun (supposed to be an oxygen-gun) at all the punks thismade the kids giving a short visit to the apartment, a door crash and and some trouble for the teds in the appartment..." (Rudi K.)

Those were the days prior to UPTS (United Punks, Teds, Skins)...

Picture 3: Hanging out at Unterm Durchschnitt aka Konnekschen (Thomas Koch (AdSW Fanzine), Biber (Knallschoten), Kaufi(Grober Unfug), ca. 1981

Another Saturday hang-around at Konneckschen (then shop and lable) - please note the great "inverted iro" by Biber that shooked all parents!

"Around 1980/81 we started to invade the Konnekschen regulary on every Saturday morning with a bunch of kids from Hamburg’s westside. Back then I had died blonde skunk-stripes in my black spiked hair and Biber did his famous anti-mohawk hair cut (which was indeed an brilliant act of irony and clever protest to all these conformity going on in the Punk scene back then), we came both from Hamburg-Niendorf and so we were hanging around together, although we often got in trouble through these hair cuts, incl. being insulted as ‚pigs‘ or ‚scary looking kids‘ (Wie sieht der denn aus ?) and throwing out of a bus by the bus driver for doing nothing just for being Punks, it was great fun." (Thomas Koch)

Picture 4: Hanging out at the Mönkebrunnen (unknown,Thomas Koch (AdSW Fanzine), unknown, unknown), ca. 1981

Another Saturday hang-around at the Mönkebrunnen - for the first years this was the meeting point for all punks from all parts of Hamburg. Then the scene moved to cheaper quarters like Karoviertel, Schanze, St. Pauli or Ottensen - were the young punks found cheap appartments when they moved out of their parents homes.

Picture 5: Robert Nitz, owner of Konnekschen Records on tour w/ Grober Unfug, ca. 1981 (somewhere in southern Germany on the way back from recording the Grober Unfug LP at the famous Sunrise Studios in Switzerland).

Robert Nitz is a well know legend to all oldpunks - what a man! He did the first records, he did a lot of rock bootlegs and he operated out of a tiny record store later known as "Unterm Durchschnitt" and known to oldpunks as "Konnekschen" only. Sometime in 1982 he died in Berlin, rumors say alcohol & drugs ruined his heart. Toni & Benus of Grober Unfug then made a one day search in the norther part of Germany as another legend states that there is an very old farm house somerwhere in Niedersachsen where all his bootlegs are stored. As they did not find it - it may be still out there...

Picture 6: Hanging out at Juz Korachstrasse, 1981 (unknown, Rosche, Lui, Witte, Erwin)

"That`s how it was these days. Hanging out at shows , drinking lots of beer and please never forget to be loud and obnoxious." (Minus)

Picture 7: Kotzbrocken,JUZ Korachstrasse 1981 (Rudi Raschberger, Votzer, Lui)

"So much contemporary art in one photograph. HH Punk 1981: Cool guys , fast music and everyone is going crazy as soon as they start to play. This photo shows the moment shortly before the madness started. Faces in the crowd: Pizza , Biber , Appen , Roger etc..." (Minus)

Picture 8: Punkenstein, unknown JUZ 1981

"Is that a snapshot or what ? Punkenstein live at some youth club." (Minus)

Picture 9: X-Mal Deutschland, Markthalle Hamburg 1981

"X-mal Deutschland, named after a famous book by German author R.W. Leonhardt, started originally with a 5-girl line-up with fancy hairdos in 1980, they put out a few classic German Post-Punk records, later they changed in a more poppish vein, before they split-up around 1989. First time I saw them on stage was in the Gesamtschule Marienthal in spring 1981 in the eastern suburbs, they opened for Front (Ex-Coroners), and they were funny and really entertaining, as far as I remember. Unfortunately the band was never so popular in Germany in the 80's, but in the U.K., today they have had a legendary standing in this so-called 'Gothic-scene' for being one of the first German Post-Punk bands!" (Thomas Koch)

Picture 10: Cover of "Szene Hamburg" Magazine Jan 1981 on "Plain Clothes Police rouding up the punks" (with two infamous people being rounded up that do not require further mention)

Picture Credits: (1) by unknown (supplied by Timo), (2) by unknown (supplied by Rudi K.), (3) - (4), (9)by Thomas Koch, (5) by Benus, (6) - (8) by Minus - All pictures are (c) 2011 by The Holy War Archive Foundation and unagreed usage will result in unhealthy punishment by the Holy War Team.