For 20 years, the “civilian angels” have been covering the songs of the German rock phenomenon. In the podcast, the musicians explain why their love for the band from Frankfurt is so deeply rooted in their homeland
That has never happened before in the German music landscape and has never happened again since: When the Böhse Onkelz in 2005 with the mega festival “Vaya Con Tioz” (a Spanish modification of the Mexican saying “Go with the gods” to “Go with den Onkelz”) officially ended their career at the Lausitzring in front of around 150,000 spectators, they left a similar hole in the culture as the lignite excavators did in the landscape there: the band, which since the 1991 release “Wir ham’ still far from enough” went gold or platinum for every album, had built up the largest hardcore fan base outside of the mainstream that probably ever supported a German artist. In any case, there is no other way of explaining why, in the years that followed, whole hosts of cover bands dedicated solely to the Onkelz’s oeuvre met with such uninterrupted enthusiasm: there are such tributes for many greats, from Pink Floyd to Helene Fischer, from Rammstein to Rod Stewart -Artist.
But only for Onkelz cover bands could the GOND (stands for “Biggest Onkelz Night in Germany), founded in 2006, establish its own festival, which itself attracts up to 20,000 people. Still, by the way – although the originals in 2014 used the word ” final” reinterpreted and resumed their career with a brilliant comeback (200,000 visitors saw the live resurrection of the Böhse Onkelz in Hockenheim). “Bands like us helped to bridge this gap”, says Holger Rockstroh “Angel in Civil”: “We are fans and have kept the fire for the people.” The band from Ehrenfriedersdorf, founded in 2002, is one of the, thanks to the amazingly authentic voice of singer Dirk Wölfl
most popular Böhse-Onkelz cover bands – in their home country anyway, but also beyond.
In the Ore Mountains (as in many East German regions) the passion for the Böhse Onkelz plays a special role. Rockstroh and Wölfl explain why this is the case in the new episode of the podcast “Something Culture Must Be”. For example, the actual start of the band’s career from Frankfurt (Main) coincided with the reunification: Die Onkelz, hitherto quite negatively conspicuous as a skinhead band, renounced this scene and occupied a niche with crudely written German-speaking metal; Despite songs like “Nothing is forever” or “Only the best die young” many down-to-earth fans met in the market. The fact that the Onkelz (after often superficial observation!) often did not believe this reorientation despite corresponding confessions in the mainstream strengthened the identification factor for many Ossis, who knew such rejection well. In the podcast, the Erzgebirge musicians explain exactly what this fascination means!
The podcast In the new episode “Some culture must be” the angels in civilian clothes tell about
an unbreakable enthusiasm. The episode can be found on all podcast platforms!
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