The Bläck Fööss (Ripuarian De Bläck Fööss) are a music group from Cologne, Germany, started in 1970. From 1973 to 2003 Werner Dies was producer of the music group.

[Bläck Fööss, 2020;

Ralph Gusovius (on the left of the gondola cabin), Mirko Bäumer, Günther "Bömmel" Lückerath, Erry Stoklosa (in front of the gondola cabin), Pit Hupperten, Hanz Thodam (on the right of the gondola cabin) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/%C3%9Cbergabe///einer///Bl%C3%A4ck///F%C3%B6%C3%B6ss-Gondel///an///das///K%C3%B6lnische///Stadtmuseum-4334.jpg]

Name of the band

The band's name in Kölsch, a local dialect of Ripuarian, in which the group predominantly sings, means barefoot. It is pronounced. In their early days the group would perform barefoot, which was later given up mainly after several injuries from remains of broken glass on stages.

Repertoire

The band's style of music is a cross between Schlager and pop, but they also perform songs with jazz, blues, rock and reggae styles. The group is famous for its a cappella singing. Many of the band's songs are popular carnival songs, while others are covers of bands such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, (Bütz mich, cover of Hey baby, 1990) Cologne music group De Vier Botze (En d'r Kaygaß Nummere Null!, 1975) Beatles (When I'm Sixty-Four, Penny Lane, 1989), Hollies or Willi Ostermann. In August 1985 the band got their biggest chart success, with the song "Frankreich, Frankreich" (English: France, France) landing in at number 9 in the German charts, after the band had entered the German charts for the first time with the song "Katrin" in January 1985.

Band members

In their first 4 decades together, the Bläck Fööss only had a few changes in membership. Dieter „Joko“ Jaenisch (1970-1974, 1977–1980; died in 1998), Rolf Lammers (1974-1977) and Willy Schnitzler (1980-2005) played keyboard. In 1994, the band had its biggest split, with frontman Tommy Engel leaving for a solo career after so-called creative differences. Willy Schnitzler left the band in 2005 after arthritis of the hand rendered him unable to play. He died because of a car accident in 2019. He was succeeded by Andreas Wegener. In January 2017 Singer Kafi Biermann and founding member Peter Schütten left the band and were succeeded by Mirko Bäumer and Pit Hupperten. Hanz Thodam replaced bass player Hartmut Priess after the band's traditional New Year's Eve concert of 2018.

Discography

Literature

Sources