Beat-Club
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Beat-Club was a German music program that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, West Germany on Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen, the national public TV channel of the ARD, and produced by one of its members, Radio Bremen, later co-produced by WDR following the 38th episode.
History
Beat-Club was co-created by Gerhard Augustin and Mike Leckebusch. The show premiered on 25 September 1965 with Augustin and Uschi Nerke hosting. German TV personality Wilhelm Wieben opened the first show with a short speech. After eight episodes, Augustin stepped down from his hosting role and was replaced by DJ Dave Lee Travis.
The show's earlier episodes featured live performances, and was set in front of a plain brick wall. It underwent a revamp in 1967, when a more professional look was adapted with large cards in the background displaying the names of the performers. Around this time, a troupe of young women billed the "Go-Go-Girls," were introduced to dance to songs when their performers couldn't appear.
In early 1969, Travis was replaced by Dave Dee, of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. On 31 December 1969, Beat-Club switched to color and again featured live performances. Dee departed in 1970, leaving Nerke as the lone host.
In the later years of its run, the series was known for incorporating psychedelic visual effects during many performances, especially following the switch to color.
The Grateful Dead performed on the show on 21 April 1972, halfway through their European Tour (selections of which would make up the live album Europe '72). The band played a shorter set than usual, but still included crowd favourites such as "Truckin'". The set is believed to be the last professionally filmed appearance of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who retired from the band following his final gig at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles shortly after the end of the tour owing to medical reasons and he later died in March 1973. In 2014, the footage had its first theatrical screening in theatres across the US.
Acts on the show
The show is notable for being the first German show dedicated to popular music, and featured artists such as The Moody Blues, MC5, The Equals, King Crimson, Grateful Dead, Captain Beefheart, Joe Cocker, Zager and Evans, Cream, Frank Zappa, The Small Faces, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Gene Pitney, Ten Years After, Iron Butterfly, Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Ike & Tina Turner, The Who, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, Bee Gees, The Beach Boys, Chicago, The Doors, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Kraftwerk, Yes, and Robin Gibb in its seven-year run. In 1972, it was replaced by Musikladen.
Performances from the show were seen on VH1 Classic, and reruns air in several European countries. Several DVD collections have also been released.
Relaunch
Beat Club is now broadcast on Sunday afternoons between 1 and 3 pm as a weekly radio programme on Radio Bremen 1 and on a web channel offered by the radio station. The radio show is still hosted, rather nostalgically, by Nerke, reprising her role as presenter for the series.
The 2008 Video on demand web portal launched for Beat-Club and Musikladen was replaced by a YouTube channel in 2010.
