Special: ELECTRI_CITY Conference 2021 - Düsseldorf 2021

me and all - Hotel & Ratinger Hof, Düsseldorf, Germany
1st - 3rd October 2021
ELECTRI_CITY Conference 2021 with the topic: “Der Ratinger Hof 1978 - 82” - Live concerts by King Kurt & Fehlfarben + Supports

The ELECTRI_CITY Conference took place for the seventh time and organizer Rudi Esch welcomed guests from the immediate vicinity of the “Ratinger Hof”. The topic of this year’s conference is “Der Ratinger Hof 1978 to 82” and, in addition to the usual talks, there were also concerts and an exhibition. Bands like MITTAGSPAUSE, MALE and DAF were formed and played in the “Hof”. “Hof” was the nickname of this club and became the best address for progressive music.


Day 1

On the Friday, a lot of fans came to the Bar of the “me and all - Hotel” in Düsseldorf and wanted to listen to some guys who were guests in the “Ratinger Hof” in the years of 1978 - 82. The first talk with Jäki Eldorado (German musician and music manager), Wolf Lauenroth (German musician and journalist) und Christian Baumjohann (ARCHIV B) was about the beginning of the “Hof” and the change from a “Hippie-Meeting Point” to the birthplace of the German Punk-Scene. On a big display on the stage, the audience saw a lot of pictures from this time.



At the second talk on this day the English music journalist Erik Stein talked with Harry Rag (German musician from SYPH) and RALF DÖRPER (German musician, i.e., PROPAGANDA, DIE KRUPPS) about the early days in the “Ratinger Hof”. In this time came a lot of young people to the “Hof” to party. A lot of the guests were musicians or want to be a musician. With courage, creativity and a lot of fun bands were founded there, for example ZK (today DIE TOTEN HOSEN), DEUTSCH AMERIKANISCHE FREUNDSCHAFT (DAF) or CHARLIES GIRL (today FEHLFARBEN).



Frank Z. (musician of the band ABWÄRTS) from Hamburg / Germany was the guest of third talk. RUDI ESCH, not only organizer of the conference, but also musician and former bass player of the band DIE KRUPPS, talked with Frank Z. about his relationship to Düsseldorf and the visit of the “Düsseldorf Punks” in Hamburg.



After the Talks the most guests went to the “Ratinger Hof”, where the Psychobilly-Rock band KING KURT from the UK played. After a legendary concert in 1984 they returned to the “Hof”. But before KING KURT entered the small Stage, the German support band EVIL DALTONS entertained the audience with Psychobilly music.

Pictures of the conference

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Evil Daltons

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King Kurt

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Day 2

On the second day, some people were already waiting very early in front of the entrance to the conference to get one of the few seats. The reason for this was the announcement of the visit of Robert Goerl, the founding member and drummer of the DEUTSCH AMERIKANISCHEN FREUNDSCHAFT. But the first partner to talk was Peter Hein (musician, member of CHARLIES GIRL and founder of FEHLFARBEN). PETER HEIN was born in Düsseldorf and was one of the regular guests in the “Ratinger Hof”. In this round he spoke with Rudi Esch and told stories about the beginning of FEHLFARBEN and their first album ‘Monarchie Und Alltag’.



The second guest of the day was Robert Goerl. The presentation of the book ‘Das ist DAF’ was canceled last year due to the lockdown and was postponed until 2021. Now Robert Goerl told a lot of interesting stories about the “Ratinger Hof”, the first meeting with Gabi Delgado (who died in 2020), the time in the UK and the way to the success of DAF. For example, when it was clear that Robert Goerl wanted to start a band with Gabi Delgado, the first rehearsals took place in the basement of the "Ratinger Hof" in the early 80s. After the talk Robert had a big surprise. At this event he presented the world premiere of the new DAF song ‘Ein Kind aus dem Ratinger Hof’. This is the second song he published from the following new album and as he said definitive the last album of the DEUTSCH AMERIKANISCHE FREUNDSCHAFT.



After this, the audience changed the place and went to the gallery “Galerie Hans Mayer”. There was the opening of the Jäki Eldorado exhibition ‘Wir brauchen keinen Anlass mehr’ - an installation of the “Ratinger Hof 1978-84” with many original parts and photos.

The special event of this evening was the live concert of FEHLFARBEN in the “Ratinger Hof”. But before FEHLFARBEN entered the small stage, the German band DIE HEKTISCHEN FLECKEN warmed the audience up. After a break to change the band equipment, the members of FEHLFARBEN went onto stage step by step. The last musician was Peter Hein, he was in the audience and talked to some guests. When all the members of the band were on stage they started right away and played all the songs from the album ‘Monarchie und Alltag’. The audience sang along all songs and danced. Of course there were also songs like ‘Grauschleier’, ‘Millitürk’, ‘Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran)’ and ‘Paul Ist Tot‘. Peter Hein had a lot of fun to sing again in front of an audience. But also, the other members looked very lucky to play. “The Pyrolator” aka Kurt Dahlke stood more quietly behind his keyboard and came for one song only onto the stage and danced.

Pictures of the conference

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Die Hektischen Flecken

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Fehlfarben

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Day 3

On the third day, we all met in the gallery to view the Jäki Eldorado exhibition ‘Wir brauchen keinen Anlass mehr’. Jäki Eldorado (curator and the first punk in Germany) led through the “Ratinger Hof 1978-84 Installation” and talked about the many photos and original parts. Rudi Esch found a special part by chance in a garage: the original neon sign from the “Ratinger Hof”. There were a lot of pictures to see. Pictures of the front with lot of guests or from the empty stage. Also pictures of pogo dancing people or sitting and drinking beer. In some of the pictures you could even find familiar young faces.



Jurgen Engler (MALE, DIE KRUPPS), Gabi Delgado (DAF), Peter Hein (CHARLEY‘S GIRLS, FEHLFARBEN), Robert Goerl (DAF), Ralf Dörper (Die KRUPPS, PROPAGANDA), Campino (ZK, DIE TOTEN HOSEN) - they are all “Kinder des Ratinger Hof” (Children of the Ratinger Hof). For the very first time at the ELECTRI_CITY Conference, Germany’s first Punk band MALE performed their songs live. The special on this concert was that Stefan Schwaab (member of MALE) played an acoustic-set of MALE songs all alone with his acoustic guitar. The other band on the evening was the JANIE J. JONES-TRIO. This trio is a part of FEHLFARBEN with Peter Hein (singer), Kurt Dahlke (keyboard) and Michael Kemner (bass-guitar). The band played songs of the 40-years band history in special electro-versions inclusive ‘Paul Ist Tot’ and ‘Platz da’.

Pictures of the conference

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Stefan Schwab - Male

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Janie J. Jones-Trio

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All in all, this were very nice three days - very interesting first-hand stories about the “Ratinger Hof”, straight from the people who really went in and out of the “Ratinger Hof” at the time.

All Pictures by Andreas Klüppelberg