"Provoking wasn't difficult for us," smiles PANKOW guitarist Jürgen Ehle. "You only had to put André in the front, that was enough." Singer André Herzberg was a thorn in the side of the GDR superiors, as he portrayed an apprentice without a goat in the Paule Panke music spectacle, a counter-design to the ideology of the communist superhero. How he suddenly appeared on stage in 1983 wearing a Wehrmacht uniform during a television broadcast and not-so-subtly addressed the regime. How he sang about "old men" who had been "worshipped for too long". Bans followed and were PANKOW's daily bread. Not this record, not this cover, not this line of text. The band made a sport of it. It's not for nothing that punk resonates in the band name. The Berliners were far too popular for final reprisals. On their farewell tour "Bis zuletzt", PANKOW want to remind us of all this and how they remained constantly edgy with new music in the years that followed in 'Alles So Schön Bunt Hier'. A final declaration of love to the band, to the sense of togetherness that has made it easier for them and perhaps also their loyal fans to get along in the world. "Until the end" PANKOW go the way together.
The Berlin band PANKOW is saying goodbye to the music stage with the "Bis Zuletzt" tour from 2025.
PANKOW are guitarist Jürgen Ehle (guitar), singer André Herzberg, drummer Stefan Dohanetz and keyboardist Andreas Dziuk.