Frumpy was a German progressive rock/krautrock band based in Hamburg, which was active between 1970–1972 and 1990–1995. Formed after the break-up of folk rockers The City Preachers, Frumpy released four albums in 1970–1973 and achieved considerable commercial success. The German press hailed them as the best German rock band of their time and their vocalist Inga Rumpf as the "greatest individual vocal talent" of the contemporary German rock scene. They disbanded in 1972 although the various members all worked together at various times over the following two decades and they reunited again in 1989, producing three more albums over five years after which they disbanded once more.
Years active: 1970 -1972, 1990 -1995
Formation:
All of the band members met as performers with Germany's first folk rock band The City Preachers [de], formed by Irishman John O'Brien-Docker in Hamburg in 1965. In 1968, the band had split, with O'Brien-Docker and several other members parting company. Singer Inga Rumpf, a distinctive "un-feminine" sounding vocalist often compared favourably with Janis Joplin, continued to use the band name with a line-up including drummer Udo Lindenberg, singer Dagmar Krause, French organist Jean-Jacques Kravetz and bassist Karl-Heinz Schott. In the spring of 1969, Lindenberg left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Carsten Bohn, who by November that year had grown disappointed with Krause and called for the band to pursue a new creative direction, "a fusion of rock, blues, classical, folk and psychedelic."
Reforming in March 1970 as Frumpy (a play on Rumpf's surname inspired by seeing the word "frumpy" in a CBS record catalogue) the new line-up of Rumpf, Bohn, Kravetz and Schott debuted at the Essen International Pop & Blues Festival in April 1970, where two of their songs "Duty" and "Floating" were recorded and released on the live compilation album Pop & Blues Festival '70. This was followed by more tour dates in France, Germany and the Netherlands, an appearance at the Kiel Progressive Pop Festival in July 1970, and at the Open Air Love & Peace Festival at Fehmarn, September 6, 1970.
Recordings:
They recorded their debut album "All Will Be Changed" in August 1970. To promote the album the band embarked on a fifty-night German tour with Spooky Tooth, as well as playing supporting slots with Yes, Humble Pie and Renaissance. The album received both critical acclaim and commercial success.
Initially the band played without a guitarist, which was unusual in the rock genre, and the band instead made great use of Kravetz's "spacey organ excursions" and his powerful Leslie Rotating Speaker System, a sound modification and frequency modulation device. Rumpf said: "In the beginning we were happy enough as a quartet. I played and composed exclusively on an acoustic guitar. It was only later that we began to write songs that called for a guitar." In 1971, just before the band started recording their second album, called simply 2, they recruited former Sphinx Tush guitarist Rainer Baumann to the line-up. The album, "heavier and more mature progressive rock with classical overtones in Kravetz's organ ([and] occasionally mellotron) work," repeated the success of the first, and gave the band a hit single with "How the Gipsy Was Born", which would become their "signature tune." The German music magazine Musikexpress dubbed Frumpy as the best German rock act of the year, while Inga Rumpf, variously described as "smoky", "demonic" and "roaring," was declared by national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to be the "greatest individual vocal talent" of the German rock scene so far.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frumpy
Past members:
Inga Rumpf [de]
Jean-Jacques Kravetz
Rainer Baumann [de]
Karl-Heinz Schott
Carsten Bohn
Erwin Kama
Thomas (Carola) Kretschmer [de]
Discography:
- All Will Be Changed (1970)
- Frumpy 2 (1971)
- By the Way (1972)
- Live (1973)
- Inga Rumpf – Second-Hand Mädchen (1975)
- Now! (1990)
- News (1991)
- Live NinetyFive (1995)
How the Gypsy was Born: https://youtu.be/gqq2tBk49Fs :
Source: Wikipedia
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