Engerling

In the organizer's words:

Back then, in January 1975, five young men took to the stage of a pub in Mahlow near Berlin. They were called "Engerling", said the pub owner and added: "....na, they won't get far with that name.... "He was around 50; I wonder if he lived to be 90? Engerling is 46 and fortunately still not a cockchafer, as we all know they don't live very long!

Somehow they didn't really fit in anywhere over the years and yet managed to remain true to themselves and their audience. For the GDR cultural functionaries, the band around pianist and songwriter Wolfram Bodag as a blues band seemed too far removed from the ideal of song-like rock "as an independent GDR contribution to international music culture" for them to really make it big. Blues purists, on the other hand, criticized the lack of authenticity of a blues band that cared little about adhering to the original twelve-bar pattern and instead mixed blues elements with rock and soul elements at will or even got carried away with long improvisations that would have fit much better in the psychedelic flower power camp. For 47 years, the East German band has persistently honed its own style with intelligent lyrics on the border between German rock and blues and has thus created a loyal, but not at all "Ostalgic" audience.

"Rock'n'Blues" with history and a view to the future.