1979/2024 Happy 45th Anniversary Uncle Ernie!!

Remembering the first concert with my former high school band…

July 7, 2024: 45 years ago today (1979) the first official concert of the then newly founded blues-rock band Uncle Ernie took place in the sports hall of Zwiesel high school.

Press release July 1979: “Four young musicians got together under the name Uncle Ernie. This band specializes in blues, both in its original form and in a mixture with rock elements. With this mix, Uncle Ernie is unique among the many rock groups in the Zwiesel area. “Tomorrow, Saturday, July 7, 1979, the four musicians want to give their own concert, which will take place at 8:00 p.m. in the gymnasium of the high school…” was the advance announcement in the local daily newspaper “Bayerwald Bote”. Well, performing at an open air festival with other bands is one thing, but playing your own concert is something completely different. Because when it came to P.A. systems, lighting, budget for advertising material, etc., the band had absolutely nothing at that time! But in the 1970s there was this small but fine art and music scene in Zwiesel, you know, hippie flair and so on… And that’s why, in the spirit of this zeitgeist, everyone helped put this concert together. The high school’s student administration had posters and flyers printed and took care of setting up the stage, musician friends provided sound and lighting systems, friends, parents and relatives spread word of mouth. And Doub’s uncle? In the absence of a van or something similar, he quickly loaded the entire set of instruments, including the band members, onto his hay wagon and hauled the entire circus from the practice room to the gym on the day of the performance with the tractor. Yes, that’s how it was back then! The concert itself was sold out with over 200 visitors and was a great success for Uncle Ernie. Doub and my humble self, together with guitar guru Bluns, basically played our own opening act. With three acoustic guitars and instrumental pieces ranging from country blues to folk to jazz, the congregation was prepared for the main attraction of the evening. And then it started: Mäx (dr), Frank (b, guit), Doub (guit, b, voc) and Tommy (guit, b, voc) rocked the stage… Initially a bit nervous and awkward perhaps, but in the end everything was fine good. And the sound wasn’t all that bad, at least for the circumstances at the time, with home-made loudspeakers, cassette recorders converted into distortion pedals, wobbly cymbal stands and Japanese replicas of Gibson guitars strung with extra-thin piccato strings. What was left was an astonished, enthusiastic audience, a huge banner that read, “What do we like to hear?” Uncle Ernie!”, stacks of empty beer crates and the Uncle Ernie insight: “Today the Zwiesel sports hall, tomorrow the San Diego Sports Arena!” The press wrote: “As it turned out, the four musicians were a big hit and the enthusiasm increased with every piece…” We, the four main actors, were also thrilled! How old were we then, 17, 18? Compared to the experiences of a current young person of the same age, such a concert experience may seem downright insignificant, but what counted for us – for Mäx, Frank, Doub and myself – was the music and this incomparable feeling of happiness after the concert. That’s the real thing, folks… Happy 45th Anniversary Uncle Ernie!!