Moritz von der Weide

Born in 1955 in Muenster, (then) West Germany, Moritz had a very musical family which still has an influence on him today. His father and mother regularly performed as a two piece middle ages renaissance band playing a variety of instruments in the regular agricultural festivals.

It was at University in Hanover in 1976 that he got his first real taste for rock. Highly impressed by the numerous rock bands of the period, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath in particular, Moritz purchased his first instrument, a Les Paul Copy, and from then on he has never looked back.

With a steep family tradition in farming, it was during a visit to the great Yorkshire show many years ago that he met his English wife to be, Hilary, and with their 2 children, Thomas and Stefan, they are now firmly settled into life in the faming community in the west of England.

It was in the early 1980's that Mortiz met up with Jim Brodie, and over the last 16 years, they have worked together, first of all in Adelangst, and then later in various rock opera projects. Jim's technical expertise is highly complemented by Moritz's medieval  / renaissance musical slant

Moritz von der Weide
Favourite Band            The Who
Favourite Guitarist        The Edge
Most treasured solo      Hi Ho Silver Lining by Jeff Beck
Favourite Album           Lovedrive - The Scorpions                             
Favourite Guitar            Fender Strat Eric Clapton Signature model

 

Jim Brodie

Born as Alfred Worthington in Burnley in 1958 our "Alf" soon realised he aspired to different things other than football and the local cinema which kept the other boys interested.  "It was seeing the Monkees on ITV that did it for me, at first I thought the Beatles were a bit square, but then they were a bit weird later, but the monkees stayed true to form, they never sold out.  I saw the monkees on the telly and decided that's what I wanted to do".  Alf practised for hours and hours every day and played in various local outfits until he felt confident enough to audition for bands further a field.  It just so happens that Belgium rockers Skid Dog were looking for a new guitarist to replace Irvine Ziggerhalt who had left to try for a solo career.  Alf jumped at this opportunity, auditioned and "got the gig".  .  The first thing that Skid Dog management persuaded Alf to do was to opt for a name change as he explains "They didn't think the name Alf or Alfred was really hip (I suppose they were right) and wanted to use the name Jim instead, however I insisted on the "Brodie" surname.  Why?  At the time there was a very popular television program called "The Professionals" which had two main characters, called Bodie and Doyle.  I wanted to use the Bodie name, although I got it a bit wrong it, but never mind.  I still perfer Jim Brodie to Jim Doyle!".  The newly crowned Jim Brodie spent the next 4 years with Skid Dog before teaming up with Moritz for the wonderful band Adelangst and then other projects.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Jim Brodie
Favourite Band               The Monkees
Favourite Guitarist           Moritz von der Weide
Most treasured solo         The sax solo on Careless Whisper (George Michael)
Favourite Album              Tales of Topographic Oceans - Yes                             
Favourite Guitar               Gibson Les Paul

The History of Adelangst

From the remnants of Skid Dogs came Adelangst.  Skid Dogs, who formed in 1976, roared their merry way through Europe, creating mayhem wherever they played (apart from Hull, that is) and finally collapsed, with a major and permanent split in 1980.  As Jim remembers "What started off as a dream- come true became a nightmare.  I was fed up of not hearing the music, all I could hear was the sound of our singer hitting the floor all the time, he was so bloody out of it, and the fans were completely crazy and wouldn't listen at all to my softer solos or introductions.  After Skid Dogs I thought that was it, I'd had it with the music business and I was going to give it all up and become a  hairdresser.  But them Moritz got in touch....."

Moritz had already had a career with the London Symphony Orchestra as a French horn player however became disillusioned after seeing his rock contemporaries having a better life style.  "Not just that" says Moritz "they got different girls to shag each night, just standing there all the time every night.  You didn't get much of this sort of thing with the LSO.  Hell I'd been trying for years to get a snog from the principle clarinettist but she wouldn't budge.  So I thought, sod this, I'm off to the world of Rock".  Moritz had early success when he released his first LP "Aliens" which had a cult following across Europe and elsewhere, although not in the UK.  However it was his guitar work that impressed most, and his live concerts soon became legendary.  In 1981 Moritz was looking for a team who could launch his career, and at just the same time Jim Brodie left Skid Dogs....

Adelangst was formed in 1981.  Jim and Moritz remember well meeting up in the Worcestershire area and discussing forming a band that could rival the top performing acts of the day.  Called 'Adelangst' (which means Fear of the Realm!) the team quickly went about finding a bass player and drummer that would match up to their requirements.   Jim suggested they use former Skid Dogs drummer Steele Stem and as Moritz had no objections they took on Steele immediately and went about trying to find a bass player.  In the end they were forced to place ad advert in Melody Maker and had to endure several auditions.  "It was really awful" says Moritz "we kept getting people who could actually play, like that Mark King bloke from Heaven 17 or whatever, all this bloody flashy twangy bollocks.  Me and Jim just wanted a guy who looked the part and could basically thumb along one or two notes per song".  Eventually they chanced upon Canadian Alan Hasner who was over from Nova Scotia hoping to break it big in the UK.  Next up was a singer, and Moritz this time had the man "I had really enjoyed the chart hit 'lets all go to town' by Breakaleg, and although they were just a manufactured band I knew the singer had talent, so I got in touch and asked him if he wanted to join a serious rock band, and he did.  This was Ralph Jenkins.  The band was complete.

 

Adelangst Mk 1 1981 - 1983

Jim Brodie: Guitar
Moritz von der Weide: Guitar
Steele Stem: Drums
Alan Hasner: Bass
Ralph Jenkins: Vocals



The management was obviously very keen to get a record out so the band immediately went out on a long tour of Germany in order to get enough funds for a studio session at the famous Medley Studios in Gloucester.    This German tour has gone down as legendary in the fans opinion as the band were essentially unknown and yet revealed a future potential which was still yet to be realised.  As Moritz remembers "we really didn't know what to do so we spent a lot of the time jamming on stage.  The bloody Germans loved it and yelled for more.  In many respects we wrote most of the 1st LPs numbers whilst on stage in Germany.  In fact I remember a couple of times Alan Hasner would stop everything and say 'hey isn't that a B not a G' or something and suddenly remember he was playing in front of an audience, but the Germans didn't seem to notice anyway and clapped the impromptu moment, strange really".  It was also on this tour that the initial problems with vocalist Jenkins surfaced "We very quickly ended up calling him Jerkoff Jenkins, he was such a tosser.  He kept waltzing up to any promoter or person who was in the industry and telling them that he was available and that Adelangst was only a stepping stone for him to progress onto better things.  At one stage he even was talking to members of UFO on the tour about how better he was than any of their vocalists, without even realizing that he was speaking to the people who did the singing.  It didn't bode well for the future"

The picture included on the right here is of the Muenster, Germany gig. Jim remembers "that's me in this picture taken by one of our famous fans, Michael Bloss.  It was hot, sweaty and loud.  I will always have wonderful special memories of these gigs as we never, in my opinion, achieved the same intensity again after these gigs". Thanks to Michael for the photo, he pointed out that he has around 60 photos from this gig and is willing to swap copies for other Adelangst memorabilia with other fans anywhere in the world.  Please email us if you want to contact Michael.  We don't allow direct contact through this official site or else we will simply become a dumping ground for all Adelangst traders.  Sorry.  Jim also remembers "that's Taff Haddock stood in the background, my first guitar roadie.  God he was shite, all he ever talked about was bloody politics!”

Despite early concerns about Alan Hasner, the band met up back in Gloucester for the recording sessions that would lead to the first LP "Inserted Gently".  Jim remembers "The Medley studios were down by the river, I don't think anything exists of it now, but it was an awful place two floors below a seedy shop that appeared to double as a brothel. Even Cornwall wasn't too keen on it.  It was about this time however that Moritz ended up with his long term love Candice. I'm not sure if she came originally from 'upstairs' but then what with Cornwall's reputation I could hardly complain."  Moritz adds "it was here that I visited the Opera and in the interval met the love of my life, Candice.  It really was love at first sight for us, we watched the rest of Wagner's Tannhauser whilst snogging in the wings, it was wonderful, especially during the Pilgrims Chorus to the Virgin, marvellous. I do have to add that things with Candice came to a rather sticky end after a gig at some castle in Solingen, Germany during a short European tour in 1985". I was quite depressed at this point and while contemplating a return to my love of farming, I met Hilary at the Great Yorkshire Show and she turned my life around.” Anyway back to Adelangst:

Back in the studio, Jim takes up the story "although all the songs are credited to Weide/Brodie it was me who always came up with the riffs and words, in fact most of it really" however Moritz remembers things differently "I remember for example the classic track ‘He's looking out (for me)’ actually came off a riff I was working on.  Jim heard it and altered it a bit and then brought it back to me as if he'd written it.  As for the words I wouldn't want to be associated with most of them words anyway"

The first LP was released on 2nd September 1983.

Inserted Gently (1983)

Side 1:

1. He's looking out (for me)
2. Flowered Curtains
3. The Diary of a drug fiend
4. Hound Doug
5. Toe Grabber
6.Treason   
7. Snipin Grouser
8. Hipnotic Loving
9. Hard Times
10. Diswasher Woman


 

All songs written by Weide/Brodie.  The cover was designed by Joseph Richard.  Moritz remembers "we hated that cover.... I mean.. the title was supposed to be at least a bit sexy.. but we ended up with some strange medical or financial nonsense.  Maybe the guy thought that the catheter was being inserted gently, or some wad of finance was being inserted, but that's not what Jim and I were thinking of, especially with Cornwall and Candice around.  We made sure with our management that any future LP's we would take control over the cover to ensure it portrayed the image of the band correctly"

Following release of the LP the band was clearly wanting to have maximum impact, however first thing on the mind of Moritz was to get rid of "Jerkof".  "We didn't have a choice, Ralph Jenkins was essentially the biggest tosser around, and he can sue me for that if he likes I don't care". The band decided to depart from their original singer, and also just for the hell of it, the bass player who's Canadian accent was becoming a bit annoying as well.  Trying to find a new singer and bass player was a bit easier with the band having established something of a reputation already within the music world in London.  In the end, Ex-Lordhope singer "Malcolm Hudson" and ex-Jungenhorne bass player "Klaus Fuchs" joined for the upcoming  world tour. 

 

Adelangst Mk 2 1983 - 1985

Jim Brodie: Guitar
Moritz von der Weide: Guitar
Steele Stem: Drums
Klaus Fuchs: Bass
Malcolm Hudson: Vocals

This is the Adelangst Mk 2 version that most fans would like to see reunited.  The classic Adelangst, even if no actual official studio recording of the band was made (Mk3 made the 2nd LP) this is the one that is most discussed by fans at home and abroad.

                        Inserted Gently World Tour: 1984 – 1986

Jims immediate recollection of this tour is ‘a battle that nearly killed us all off’. Moritz comments ‘By the time we finished the tour, the band had a completely different line-up. The management kept coming back to us saying ‘oh yeah guys, in two weeks we’ll give you a break’ and basically this went on for nearly two years. I lost my soulmate, Candice and Jim ended up in rehab after becoming addicted to German Frikadelle (for you non Germans, this is like a pork burger)’

Rehearsals for the tour started in November 1983. The album was due to be released soon after so the gigs were being lined up to literally feature all the tracks off the album. Jim recalls: “you can imagine both Moritz and myself gave each other 35 minutes each for our signature solo spots, and just as a token gesture, we gave Steele about two and half minutes for his drum solo (both Moritz and myself hate drum solos). What with the material off the new album, that gave us a pretty complete set list. Just for good measure at encore time (if we could be bothered to play one) we’d fit in ‘Lovehunter’ by Whitesnake, as Moritz and myself had perfected a joint slide guitar solo.

Moritz had always been fairly well known in Germany, Austria, Holland and Belgium, so the plan was to start the tour here and then build up for the rest of Europe in mid 1984 and then hit the Far East later that year, culminating in a two month tour of the States in early 1985.  Jim recalls ‘somewhere down the line the management had this great idea to send us all over the place, particularly eastern Europe. It was awful! The Berlin wall, remember, had not come down yet and so getting through Communist customs every two weeks was a logistical nightmare. Also it did not do the ego any good at all, by nobody having a clue who you were.’ The number of times we screamed out ‘we’re bloody rock stars for gods sake’, it was truly unbelievable.’

The 1984 tour kicked off in Belgium. This turned out to be particularly memorable. Taff recalls’ it was about the time of Margaret Thatcher at the height of her anti European rants. Rebate Rebate, that’s all she ever went on about…….. I think I digress here, sorry. In Brussels, Moritz picked up a urinary infection that nearly put the whole tour back three months’ In fact things were more serious than it looked. Jim recalls ‘ It was all very embarrassing actually. Moritz used to wear these ludicrously tight trousers, but unfortunately you could see the padding from the incontinence pants underneath. We ended up dressing Moritz in a way too large frilly overshirt that made him look like Meatloaf. After each gig, we couldn’t let the girls backstage for thirty minutes or so as Moritz had to wring himself dry.

Eventually full health returned to the band and soon they were blasting through Germany and Austria. Jim says ‘it was at this time I became addicted to Frikadelle. Breakfast, lunch, pre-gig and post gig, I would sometimes eat 15 a day, it was horrendous. When we eventually left Germany I started to have withdrawal symptoms. I ended up at one point lying in a field in Holland for two days doing cold Turkey (or cold pork as Steele would supportingly say)’

Nothing, however, was going to stop the progress of the band. By this time they were into the late 1984 and the Far eastern tour was due to commence. Moritz: I don’t know how we survived this. The kids out there were crazy. The girls were rushing here, there and everywhere. Candice couldn’t keep her eyes off me for 5 seconds as I was guaranteed to be led into temptation. My main recollection of this tour is Taff getting fixed up with a ladyboy in Bangkok, and as he wanted to get value for money, he just turned the poor guy over and shagged him from behind.  It’s absolutely disgusting when I think about it.

The concerts by this time had a familiar ring to them. The intro tape would play which was the News at Ten theme tune and as the guitars crashed in to the Flowered Curtains riff, Jim and Moritz would enter from opposite sides of the stage walking on a single tight rope, which was suspended 15 feet in the air. As they met in the middle they would turn to the audience and perform a double summersault onto the stage below. This was a truly spectacular start to each gig and without doubt confirmed the growing reputations for Jim and Moritz becoming true gods of guitar. Taff mentions: ‘it was pretty hairy in those days. There was no safety rope or anything. I don’t know how they did it. True professionals indeed’. After Flowered Curtains, the audience were subjected to He’s looking out (for me), Treason, Diswasher Woman then Hound Doug.  After this came the first blitzkrieg solo spot of Jim. My trademarks, Jim recounts, were twofold: firstly I would throw the guitar 20 feet into the air (see picture to the right) and when it came down I would balance it on my foot. I’ve earned thousands in royalties over the years from this. Secondly I would play the riff to ‘Hawaii Five O’ with the guitar above my head, while my entire body was being immersed into an enormous vat of beef dripping.’ Thirty five minutes later it was over to Moritz: ‘I would start by playing Deutschland ueber alles blindfold, while being suspended upside down from the drum riser. To cap everything off, I would attach myself to a safety harness and have myself swung over the audience while playing the William Tell Overture.

At home over the Christmas period all parties involved were highly on edge. There was no particularly lengthy vacation period allowed by the management, and it was after a two week period that the band met up again in Grimsby to commence the 28 day UK tour. Once again the tour was immediately hit by problems; Moritz: ‘It was my bladder. During the Christmas period I had the chance to visit a specialist who thought I might be having prostate problems. I tell you, I’ve never been so violated in my whole life. My arse felt like it had been penetrated more times than a Bangkok lady boy’. Taff Haddock also remembers some ingenuity by the crew: ‘We had a catheter with a piss tube, but we painted the piss tube black. When Moritz had the tube connected, the black tube came out of his pocket (leading to a very large plastic bag that was hidden behind his stack) and it looked like a black guitar lead. We all felt very proud of ourselves with that improvisation.’ The rest of the tour went pretty smoothly and apart from the odd naked women jumping up on stage dancing away at the last gig in Southend, all eyes began to focus on the upcoming US tour.

Luckily for the band, they managed to get a slot (for a limited number of gigs) as opening act on the Deep Purple Perfect Stranger reunion US tour. Jim recalls ‘this Purple tour was going to be big and we all felt extremely proud that we’d been invited. Mind you, deep down both Moritz and myself did feel superior players to Ritchie Blackmore. Our intention was to blow Blackmore off the stage at every given opportunity’. As it was, the band members found Ritchie to be quite an amiable person. Moritz: ‘Of course I’m German, and Ritchie and me hit it off straight away as I would talk to him about the language, we’d exchange a few words in German and it also transpired that the Muenster cathedral (in my home town) was also one of his favourite buildings. On many occasions we would chat about castles and witches and warlocks and things. I must admit, if you ask my personal opinion, I did find him to be a bit of a sad git. That guy is supposed to be the greatest guitarist of all time, however the way he acted, he was more like Duggy No Mates or his best friend Colin Sad’.

The rest of the US tour passed without incident apart from in North Carolina. Taff: ‘we landed in a place called Raleigh Durham. Well Jim was so pissed he thought he was in Durham (north of England), so he starts yelling and screaming about ‘Howay the lads’ and all that shite. Anyway he got so pissed he upset some religious nut cases and this resulted in him being arrested (again). Two nights in the slammer, and we had to play one gig without him. To this day I don’t think he’s allowed back into the US’.  The picture shown here is from one of those rare gigs, it's Malcolm Hudson giving it his all (well, what he had anyway).

One final anecdote from the Purple tour goes to Jim: ‘It was the singer Ian Gillan. Talk about a prima donna. His voice for the whole tour was awful, I mean really awful. I think the kids who paid good money deserved a lot better. Anyway everytime a kid came up to Gillan and said ‘I’m a really big fan of yours’ Gillan would just say ‘I’m sure you are’ turn away and walk off. ‘His whole attitude stank. He was not the type of person you wanted to be around. He also had the most appalling hunched shoulders I’ve ever seen, particularly first thing in a morning at the hotel’.

As the US tour drew to a close so some of the simmering tensions in the band rose to the surface. Klaus Fuchs, the bass player, was becoming more prima donna like day by day. He felt that he should be playing in Deep Purple and that Adelangst were holding back his talent. Jim did not see it that way: ‘things came to a head as the US tour was finishing. We were all knackered and we all needed a break, however deep down, Moritz and myself knew we needed to change the band round. We needed new blood to continue the success, and basically we decided at the end of the Purple tour to sack Klaus and Malcolm.

Following on from the US tour Adelangst by now had quite a massive following with the success of the first LP, finally reaching the masses by word of mouth alone as Jim remembers "The promotion for the 1st LP was awful.  They had that bloody stupid medical like picture all over t shirts and caps and pens, and so on, but without our name on at all.  I mean Pink Floyd can get away with that sort of thing, but not us". 

In September 1985, a press announcement confirmed that Klaus and Malcolm were no longer in the band. ‘This was a particularly hard time for us’ comments Jim, ‘but it was also very exciting’. Discussions between Jim and Moritz continued as to which direction to take the band in, and over Frikadelle (to satisfy Jim’s cravings) one night, they both agreed to work as a four piece with a bass / vocalist. ‘Obviously, the guy would have to be good’ mentions Moritz. ‘We didn’t want oooooh and aaaah’s from the guy, we wanted the real thing. Fortunately, Jim and Moritz had just the guy in mind, a young bass / vocalist from the Birmingham area, UK called Glynn Hawes. ‘If we tell the truth’ says Jim ‘we offered Glynn the gig in New York on the Purple tour, but we had to keep it hush-hush’.

With Malcolm and Klaus out of the way, the plan was to do a low key European tour and then get into the studio in early 1986 to record what was to be the seminal album ‘Mallard’. Of course fate tends to rear its ugly head and of course for a variety of reasons Mallard would not be recorded for over another year. With the new blood in tow, the band commenced on a low key European Castle tour beginning in Germany in September. ‘Would you believe it’ says Jim, ‘we ran into Ritchie Blackmore again. He had finished the European leg of the Purple tour and he was now on holiday, visiting German castles up and down the country. We bumped into him in Solingen as we prepared to play a gig in the courtyard of the castle. We got our photo with him in the German teenage magazine Bravo, mind you. The gig in Solingen was also the end of the road for the Moritz – Candice relationship. ‘I don’t know what happened’ says Moritz. ‘One minute we’re the perfect partnership, the next she disappears backstage with the concert promoter for fifteen minutes and when she returns she had incurable Thrush! That was the end of it as far as I was concerned’.  

 

Adelangst Mk 3 1985 - 1988

Jim Brodie: Guitar
Moritz von der Weide: Guitar
Steele Stem: Drums
Glynn Hawes - Bass/Vocals

 

With Glynn settling in to the band the outlook for 1986 looked very promising. ‘It was very exciting’ recalls Jim. ‘In the past, the starts to the year had been terrible, we just hoped that this time we could get into out stride right away’. As it was, the first half of 1986 was a disaster. No one had informed the band that Glynn was hopelessly addicted to Balti curry. ‘Jim mentions, ‘we thought it a bit strange on the German castle tour, when Glynn would disappear back stage every few minutes and when he reappeared on stage he was stuffing Naan bread into his mouth. It was all very odd. At the start of 1986 we sat down with him and he reassured us all was under control, but after a few weeks his behaviour became more and more erratic. Most nights he would be mumbling to himself things like ‘chicken, chicken, but beef might do’. The guy had lost it completely. We decided to put back the recording of the album until he had his life under control. This of course would take quite a while

1986 turned out to be our ‘nearly big year’ for Adelangst. The new album should have been recorded; promoters in the US were offering gilt-edged contracts to the managers and in August the band got a further break (or they thought they had) for the UK. The band got a call in August from the promoter of the Castle Donnington Rock Festival. Moritz recalls "Here in the picture on the right you’ll see Adelangst playing at a last minute warm up gig after being put on standby for Donnington 1986.  Note the cool look of Jim and Moritz on the left - We found out at the last minute about this gig - and had to do a quick run through in some school playing field near Nottingham. You’ll see in the picture that the backdrop we used at this time was an office block façade. It measured about 60 feet wide by thirty feet high. The stage in the picture was no more than 15 feet wide. What a nightmare! For Donnington, the opening act Warlock had some contractual issue that meant they may have to pass on the gig - Adelangst were put on standby but when we turned up, Warlock management had put things in order.  In the letters page, this event is referred to by roadie Taff Haddock and this was when Jim got thrown out for impersonating Ritchie Blackmore - those were the days eh!!!"

After this, things ground to a halt. For the next three months the band technically split up. Jim recalls  ‘it was very depressing. Moritz went back to the farm with his new wife and I became a recluse, but perhaps living in a terrace house in Burnley is perhaps not the right place to do this. We got a call from Glynn in October saying that he was fit again, and his Balti addiction was under control, the managers still had faith in us, and Moritz, thank god, was persuaded to come back from sticking his arm up cows’ arses up to his shoulder. Adelangst was back and this time we were ready to storm the rock world. Studio time was booked for three weeks in November 1986, and so it was with adolescent excitement that we got back together in early November and started to plan the Mallard album project’.

                           Mallard (1987)

1. Renegade Nuns
2. Paranade
3. The Road
4. Snake Enhancer
5. The Mole
6. Donner und Blitzen
7. Fake tan
8. Brush with Death
9. Renegade Nuns (turkish wrestlers mix)

All Songs written by Weide/Brodie apart from Renegade Nuns written by Weide/Brodie/Schulze.  The cover was designed by Moritz von der Weide.  Moritz remembers, "this was a bit of a balls up really.  Jim had wanted to name the LP after his favourite actor Arthur Mullard, however being a relative foreigner I'd never heard of him so I thought he said the dedication and name of the LP would be Mallard.  Well you can imagine Jims face when I first showed him the cover, a great picture of a duck surrounded by naked young women (a bit like Electric Ladyland, only with a duck in the middle, cool eh?).  Well he was very upset indeed, and the LP might have been called off at that moment if it wasn't for some fine work from the London Graphics Company who superimposed a picture of Arthur Mullard with the duck.  We had to lose all those naked women though, which was a shame.  I enjoyed the photo shoot with the duck and naked women mind you, but that's another story, Ducky!  Anyway, our first LP sleeve was a disaster and this 2nd one was at least designed and planned by both Jim and myself, even though most people were dumbfounded by it".

Almost immediately after the release of Mallard though the group had their biggest shock yet when new bass player and singer announced that he was leaving to join a gay commune in South America, and guess who his new partner was...  Steele Stem!   Moritz "We had no idea Steele was gay.  OK the leathers and the complete lack of interest in girls (even Cornwall) should have been a clue, and the odd disappearances, and some rather odd behaviour, but we didn't know.  Trouble now was, we were down to a two piece, just Jim and myself".   Jim "it was at this point that we seriously thought that the band was no more.  I couldn't contemplate going on without Steels, he had been with me for so many years and had provided a backdrop for my whole career up to now. 

As Jim and Moritz met up on Copenhagen in 1988 little did they know that the rest of the year was technically going to become their "lost weekend".  However musically it wasn't lost forever, it was just a lost cause for rock and Adelangst fans.  Jim: "We ended up making music together that reflected our outlook on life at the time.  As a twosome we also wanted to do something completely different".  For a while Adelangst was forgotten and the two musicians became underground Ambient artists Fog3B.  Moritz "To this day most of the people who listen to Fog3B have no idea the music is by two hard rock guitarists from Adelangst, we are well known in that field as pioneers in Concrete Ambience."  After working on various concepts for 6 months Jim and Moritz released Fog3B's only true work, the triple CD "Measuring Time Intervals".  Jim: "it's really difficult to get hold of now, but at the time we were completely unknown as Fog3B.  Our Adelangst fans would have had a fit if they knew it was us, as it was totally different to the usual output from Moritz and me.  I think the period worked well for Moritz and I getting a break from the usual touring schedule.  It's a shame really that we didn't carry on as Fog3B, who knows what triumphs we might have had.  It's one of the biggest shames in Ambient music, particularly Concrete Ambient."

 

Just as Moritz and Jim were already considering their post-Adelangst life the management pointed out how well Mallard was selling.  We looked at the charts internationally, and indeed the new LP was doing very well."  Jim:" I guess at this stage the management again piled on the pressure, along with promises of silly money (which never arrived in the end) to reconvene the band with other musicians." 

So it was in 1989 Jim and Moritz decided to resurrect Adelangst and started to look for a replacement singer.  The problem was that singer Glynn Hawes sounded really quite like Malcolm Hudson, who sounded quite like Ralph Jenkins.  The band still owed much to the original style of the original singer.  As luck would have it, Ralph was out of work following a very poor attempt at a solo career.  It was simply too tempting.  "Looking back, we should have known not to re-recruit jerkoff Jenkins, but we were forced into doing something by the management and made the ultimately disastrous decision of recruiting that tosser again, although only on a 2 year deal". 

But what to do about a drummer and bass player?  Bearing in mind the era, many chart bands simply didn't bother with a drummer or bass player at all, but just used a drum and bass machine.  In hard rock?  Surely not.  However Adelangst management were quite keen.  Moritz "they liked the idea of something different to tell the press, and they sold it to us on the basis that the electronic drummer and bass player would only get a 45% each of their share, which meant there was more for us".  Jim was not impressed "I used to have a good rapport with Steele, but with a bloody synthesizer it is impossible, it just goes and plays and doesn't react.  How on earth was I going to cue the bloody thing in at the end of my solo?  I just used to stare at the synth/keyboard thing and get more and more certain that we should have closed down the band post-Mallard and ignore the management.  If only we had..."

Adelangst Mk 4 1989 - 1992

Jim Brodie: Guitar
Moritz von der Weide: Guitar
Ralph Jenkins: Vocals

As usual the band didn't have much time to think about it's future before embarking on another huge tour, first of all taking in South America.   Jim and Moritz remember things starting off OK, that is, until they tried to play a gig.  Jim "the drum and bass machine was operating by one of our long serving roadies but he wasn't supposed to do much apart from start off the click track which only the band could hear, and off we go.  The drum sounds and song patterns had been worked on for a couple of months prior to the gigs, and although they lacked spontaneity they did actually work".  However on the sound check just two hours before the first gig in Brazil, the crew realised that the hard disk which contained the two months work had not managed to survive the flight.  It was essentially bare, and the band was essentially drummerless and bassless with a huge gig due to kick off within a few hours.  Moritz "we had to get Colin Hall our main roadie, to operate the drum and bass computer manually.  He actually stood just off stage with the drum and bass keyboard/computer in front of him, trying his best to sound like the real thing, but it was simply awful.  I mean, Colin was a guy who setup lights and humped gear, and we were expecting far too much from him."  Jim remembers "following the opening riff to 'He's looking out;' the crowd erupted and we all waited for Colin to hit some kind of glorious drum fill before the band crashed back in.  Trouble is he just didn't know the keyboard well enough, and we got some kind of trebling disco "ping pong" type noises instead.  God it was so embarrassing"   The band went on in this vein for three nights before cancelling the remaining South American tour, to the huge annoyance of the fan base.  Moritz "I daren't ever go back there, they threatened us with everything under the sun.  In the end we had to tell them it was my medical problems that had re-occurred, although that wasn't actually the case".

Two months later the band regrouped, with a new drum and bass computer (backed up to the hilt with redundant hard disks, secondary power supplies and two musical operators and two permanent IT operators that ended up costing far more than session musicians would have.  The tour of Australia and Japan was about to begin.....

Jim: "The trouble really started during the Australia tour.  We didn't realize it at the time but Ralph Jenkins had already signed up for the following year to startup a new band under a Japanese label that essentially was a copy of the Pet Shop Boys.  If you remember the Pet Shop Boys were just a keyboard player and singer, and Ralph had already got it in his head that Adelangst was just a vehicle for his talent, and not really a band at all.  This coupled with the ridiculous idea of the bass./drum machine doing a solo."  Moritz "Jim and I hate drum solos, so why on earth we were persuaded to let the machine do one, I can't imagine.  Apparently our management got the idea from Queens live performances of Bohemian Rhapsody, where the band would leave the stage during the middle operatic bit. The light show and music carried it.  Trouble for our management was that the drum and bass machine didn't sound very good at all on it's own, and the audience thought that we'd all done a runner and buggered off ."  The tour did manage to produce some good concerts, but only if the drum/bass technicians hadn't had too much booze the night before, and also if Ralph Jenkins remembered he was in a band and not a solo artist.

By the time the band hit Japan, the group was aware of Ralph’s signing in Japan.  The press were all over him.  Jim and Moritz couldn't believe the fuss.  Jim "I mean here we were, the famous Adelangst, but all the Japanese were interested in seemingly was bloody Ralph Jenkins, and his fame and return to the scene was all down to us anyway.  We were furious".  This fury is clearly heard in many bad concert tapes from the era where Jenkins tries even to advertise his new act whilst half way through key songs by the band.  Moritz "one of the songs off Mallard is The Road.  Essentially the chorus says Keep on down the Roooaaaddddd!  Jenkins would sing this quickly but then put in a bit about next year’s tour for his Pet Shop Boys rip-off gang, it was really quite ridiculous.  In the end we had to get the management to put a stop to it".

By the time the tour ended up in the UK the band was having serious trouble doing a gig without Jim or Moritz, or both of them, being sorely tempted to smash their guitars on Ralph Jenkins head during the opening number.  In the UK the band had a solid following, however they were really wanting to see the classic Mk2 line-up, however were treated to Jenkins in an odd "new romantics" pop kit, a drum/bass machine (even the technicians were getting groupies by this stage though) and the ever faithful Jim and Moritz guitar partnership.  The band had agreed to do a live show for Radio 1 however this had to be cancelled as Jim and Moritz were far too concerned about the impact of the sound and how different it was from what people were expecting at gigs.

Jim " The name of Adelangst was being destroyed town by town; at the last gig in Liverpool I knew that the band was no more.  We just couldn't go on.  Backstage I was inconsolable, and right at the end Moritz threw his guitar into the air and had already turned his back to walk off before it came crashing back down on to the stage. We climbed into our cars and drove off into the night back to my place in Burnley. We made the decision there and then to bring things to a close.  Jenkins still had some time on his contract, but we got management to pay him off and then officially disbanded the group, much to the managements disappointment."

However Jim and Moritz prefer to concentrate on the glory days; Moritz: "Adelangst was a great hard rock outfit with two fantastic LP's to it's credit, and some fantastic live performances.  There are loads of outtakes, some of which we will be putting on our www.godofguitar.com  website." Jim finishes off "Adelangst continued the form of The Monkees, Led Zeppelin and Whitesnake and created a new bedrock of guitar rock fans that would ensure the continued interest in the band, and also for Jim and I".

After they disbanded in 1992, Jim and Moritz have kept in touch and corroborated on various Rock Opera Projects including the classic "Tummy" which made it's initial debut in Skegness in 2003.

Moritz and Jim would like to thank all their fans for their dedication and support over the years.

Adelangst Mk 5 2005 to the future!

Jim Brodie: Guitar
Moritz von der Weide: Guitar
Steele Stem: Drums
Bob Fascofelbofel: Bass
Malcolm Hudson: Vocals

 

To everyones amazment in 2004 Jim and Moritz decided to reform Adelangst and are due to tour in 2005.  The following was posted on their official website:

Steele Stem is THE Adelangst drummer.  Last seen in concert in 1986 with the band, Steele left Adelangst in 1988 to join a commune in South America with Glynn Hawes, our then singer/bass player, after announcing his “coming out”.  Since then he has straightened himself out a bit (he’s still gay, I was meaning financially and socially), has left Glynn and lives in Bedfordshire with his new partner Bob.  I know that many Adelangst fans will be delighted to see Steele back with the band, and with his old Skid Dogs partner, Jim Brodie. 

As it happens, Steele's new partner Bob Fascofelbofel is a good bass player but much more importantly has great long hair (still his own as well!).  It was simply natural for us to approach Bob to play the bass on tour (well, and everyone else had let us down,  anyway as he and Steele can share a room it’ll keep the costs down a bit).  Bob has previously played with many professional bands and was last seen playing on television (as a member of the house band on the Parkinson show).   Bobs surname is not made up, honest.  He comes from the Ukraine and when two big families joined together a couple of generations ago they decided to retain both parts of the surname within their new family surname, and the Fascofelbofel’s were born.  It’s a good name for anagrams though, if anyone out there wants to try. 

Finally we have Malcolm Hudson who toured with Adelangst for two years in the early 80’s.  Malcolm was regarded as pivotal in keeping the group together during these highly successful and turbulent years and we are really pleased to see him rejoin the band.