It’s over on December 30th: After 50 years, the band City wants to say goodbye to the stage. Until then, they do one last lap – the title has a double meaning. “The Last Round” is not only the title of our farewell tour, but also our last round disc that we recorded,” explains singer Toni Krahl, who gives information on the phone with guitarist Fritz Puppel. Since 1972 they have played 2500 concerts and sold over 15 million records. “The Last Round” is a double album. One CD contains new songs, the other classics, partly re-recorded with friends like Dirk Michaelis and Silly, partly recorded with the Berliner Symphoniker.
Everyone who grew up in the East has their own personal city experiences. Their debut album “Am Fenster” was one of the first Amiga discs I bought myself. The melancholic over-hit was celebrated in discotheques in the late 1970s, although today it is difficult to imagine how people danced to a minute-long violin solo. I experienced City in a cultural center of the National People’s Army, where they played the classic “Tell me where the flowers are” in front of the soldiers and non-commissioned officer students. The whole room shouted: “Here!” to “Say where the soldiers are!” “We recorded the song for the ‘Rock for Peace’ campaign, which was supposed to have the motto: Our rockets are good, the others are bad.” , explains Fritz Puppel. “The officials were flabbergasted when we suggested it – the song would have been too pacifist.” provoked the same reactions there as you did!”
“Just pray”
Since then, the piece with the message of peace has been part of her live repertoire without interruption. But they never would have believed that it would become so topical again. A few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Puppel and Krahl are visibly shaken. “Neither of us are Christians,” says Krahl. “But actually you can only pray.” The singer, who went to school in Moscow for a few years, had already dealt with Russian tanks in 1968: Because of his protest against the invasion of Prague, he was imprisoned at the age of 19. Rock music with attitude is part of their DNA, affirms Puppel.
Their best album “Casablanca”, from which they have now re-recorded titles such as “ZB Susann” and “Wand an Wand”, offered provocative lyrics. Another city experience: When the band was asked by an FDJ official at a big festival not to play the song “halb und halb”, Toni Krahl agreed – and instead recited the text with such striking lines in front of tens of thousands: “And it comes out of the radio in a low voice: Half of humanity is dying somewhere. Demigods dance around the golden calf – that’s the demimonde – half and half.”
City continues to work with Alfred Roesler-Kleint to this day – all of the new texts come from him. With “We’ve sown wind”, “The Last Round” again contains a song with philosophical aspirations. The catchy piece is divided into two parts, both lyrically and musically. First, Toni Krahl sings at a slow pace about mankind’s ambitions to move mountains: “There is nothing that prevents us from being better.” But then the dialectical reversal takes place: Man has not become better. We let refugees drown, rivers dry up and tweet our hatred.
Krahl and Puppel admit that the implementation was not easy for them. “We came to a dead end here, it was exhausted too quickly,” explains Krahl. Two young songwriters from Canada, where Roesler-Kleint lives, came to their aid: Michael Friedman and Kerry Galloway.
No more laughing and no more drumming
On the other hand, the slouchy piece “Apocalypso”, which seems to make fun of the apocalypses about the end of the world, now seems almost flippant in the face of the real apocalypses. “The song was actually intended for Corona,” explains Krahl. They dedicated the last song to their drummer Klaus Selmke: The City founding member died two years ago and had recorded the first version of “War Gut” himself – at that time the song was dedicated to a friend. With a small text change, it was made suitable for Selmke: “No more laughing and no more drumming”.
After the death of their drummer, it was clear to those who remained that they only wanted to do this last big round without him: “I’ve been on stage with Klaus for almost 49 years,” says Puppel. “The picture on stage always tells me: someone is missing!” Roger Heinrich will be a guest on the drums on the two upcoming tours. They will contest the first last round in May under the motto “Rock Legends”, together with Dieter Birr, Dirk Michaelis and Silly – some common songs are on the second CD. The tour had been postponed several times due to Corona.
On their own tour in the summer they will be accompanied by the Berliner Symphoniker. “We have to discipline ourselves,” says Toni Krahl. “You can’t forget a verse and just add it to the end.” Fritz Puppel always put the song at the center: “Rachmaninoff on six strings never interested me!” Be in awe of the songs and let stardust trickle in.”
At the moment they don’t have any plans beyond the very last concert. Toni Krahl, 72, is currently so deep in the “Last Round” tunnel that he has no energy for plans afterwards. Fritz Puppel, at least 77 years old: “For me, December 30th is That’s it – after that it’s New Year’s Eve for a year.”
The double album “The Last Round” will be released on April 1st. at Electrola/Universal Music;
City on TV: Sat., 2.4. 8.15 p.m., MDR The big city evening; Sat., 9.4. 10 p.m., RBB 50 years City
City Live: with the rock legends on 22.5. in the Max-Schmeling-Halle; with the Berliner Symphoniker on 23.7. in the Parkbühne Wuhlheide; very last concert on 30.12. in the Mercedes-Benz Arena