Kraftwerk-Birmingham Hummingbird

Kraftwerk-Birmingham Hummingbird July 1991 …..

Everyone on the Kraftwerk group has a starting point. The part where the interest in a band becomes slightly obsessional or the interest deepens. For me the story of Kraftwerk in my life as a major part was sealed by the policy of the tape libary of Kenilworth Libary. It was 1988 and I had a list of albums I wanted to hear, I went down with a list and found myself picking this slightly strange yellow tape(computer World). Obviously it was an excellent album to start with and I was fascinated by the structure and composition on the songs. The drum sounds were unique and everything was in its correct place. In 1989 i had an intrest in industrial bands so I went to see Front 242 and Front Line Assembly as well as other acts. Waiting to see Kraftwerk was like the impossible dream, there was talk in the press that two members had left and initially there was an artcile in the November 1990 issue of select magazine outlining they had performed live.

When it was announced they were playing live it was really hard to get tickets in a straight forward way. I thought the bigger chains in Birmingham like HMV would sell it. They had contracts with the other major venues. The Hummingbird was a reasonable size venue but it was not the Birmingham NEC. In Birmingham at the time there was Richer Sounds(hifi shop) and a comic shop next door. The most unlikely place to get a ticket was a shop selling comics.
I was told by an old school friend that if I could get a ticket could I buy two as he wanted to suprise his sister. However when it came down a week before she was trapped by university and as a result my friend came instead. He was like completely unconverted to Kraftwerk.

The Hummingbird itself was just out of town and was a medium size venue. Although the concert was advertised in the adverts of the music press the queue oustide the venue was long but not excessive. When going into the venue the bands equipment was all set up behind the curtain. I recall a red and black feel to the curtain. Which I thought was in keeping with their designs. The mixing desk was more at the back at the venue and their was music played , but the changing of the music was not good. So there were times you would hear a track and then there would be silence for a good 5 minutes until they put something else on. When I saw Front 242 the premusic played before the gig was stunning, stuff like Nocturnal Emissions ‘No Seperation’ played through a large PA system. With Kraftwerk the band might have had a hand in the decision to have no support act and little music. If anything although I thought it weird at the time it meant when the band started you were ready. The crowd was getting rowdy at one point. Then about about an hour of waiting the lights dimmed and then their was a projection onto the curtains. ‘Numbers’ started as the curtains opened , with no band on the stage. Then they all came on to a massive applause.

The sound was stunning but in the first track I was left of the stage by the speakers. The sound of the numbers being sang in the song came out almost sped up and muddled, but also low and slighly high pitchedin frequency. The sound of that was really loud , almost to loud so I went more to the back and centered. As I was hearing the mix(excuse the pun) more left sided rather than central. I can wax lyrical about how every song and note was played to perfection. But in reality there was a sort of difference between the clarity of the albums which i had listened to over and over again. I remember at the time I thought that they were obviously a little rusty as they had not toured for so long.

In terms of track the highlights were ‘Computer World’, ‘Trans Europe Express’ and ‘Musique Non Stop’. Which was not the complete album version. Other tracks like ‘Numbers and ‘the robots’ were not the best. But it was still good to hear them in a live setting.

The band itself were quite animated. Hutter and Scnieder were like the teachers , Schnieder almost gave the impression that he did’nt want to be there and was resisting eye contact with the audience and other band members. Fritz and Abrantes were more outgoing. I have read articles about Kraftwerk at this time, especially on the youtube videos from the 1991 tour. Abrantes was animated during Pocket Calculator but it was Fritz who was the more outgoing and smiling a lot.

The finale was almost like a track you did’nt want to end. The sound itself is only what I can describe as surround sound. But I’m not sure if it was intentional as it could of been due to the venues acoustics. I always liked ‘Musique non stop’ but it was almost hypnotic. When the song finished the audience stayed for a while expecting an encore that never happened.

One last thing i remember was that I was expecting the band to have an audience that was going to be full of people in like rave gear and tracksuits, which was a common sight at raves. What struck me about the audience it was probably about 60/40 male to female ratio. Alot of couples and not really the audience I was expecting, most of the audience was in that 20-40 age range. That was an over riding thought I had at the time that the band had obviously influenced a new generation but they stayed away.

I think why the concert was so important to me. Was it was a vindication that my interest in computers and music was becoming more consuming. I was gaining a massive interest in Computers applications like Databases, Speadsheets. So I had a band that were touching on issues and showing a way forward. At that time you were aware they were touring and possibly doing new material(well you hoped) and you felt like the best was yet to come.

After leaving the concert I remember waiting at the train station and there was loads of fans of the band called It Bites(Calling all the Heroes). So there I was with short hair and wearing black and there was all these long haired almost hippe types around me. Then a group of them starting to sing It Bites songs, that train journey was the longest I have ever known.

After the concert I think I went from being a fan to knowing I would have a lifetime interest in the band. It also shown me that their vision of the future , even though it was 13 years previous was still just as relevant , if not more so.
The conceptual albums were artistically stunning but it was the sonic nature of their sound that set them apart from their competition.

MARCH 4, 2018 EDIT