Musical Biography and Bands

Musical Biography

1964 Born in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt

1971-74 Flute lessons with Miss Siegmann 1975-77 School choir Gottlieb-Daimler-High School

1982-84 RAPPELKISTE


1984-85 Several short lasting band projects

1969/70 Early musical education


1973-76 Accordion lessons at Mrs Kärcher


1975-76 Classic guitar lessons at Mrs Ehrle


1976-79 Youth orchestra Mandolinen- und Gitarrenclub

Wanderfreunde Fellbach


1978-80 Eventual guitar lessons by a theology student, Mr

1981-82 First band experiences as guitar player with

unolds chool mates

1987-90 JOCHEN CLAUSER SEXTETT


1988-91 PAMBAND


1996 CD-Recording with Broken Toy, the band split

Civil service, studies

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1992-96 BROKEN TOY

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afterwards

Move to Schweinfurt

1998-2003 HEARTBEAT


1998-2003 LAGER 8


2000-2003 Regular guest musician at the Workers’ Unions

Song Group Schweinfurt

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Preliminar termination of all activities due to professional

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reasons

2005 Studio musician with the Clear Heart Brothers, CD

production


2005-07 Recording of the song compilation “All by myself”

in my basement

Again a creative break

2009 Production of the first „real“ album “Way of life” at

Recording Studio Hirschfeld


2009 – PLATFORM NO 6


2011 – PAMBAND 2.0

2016-2019 Erratics

2016 – SCHNOED & THE HIGH FIELD BAND


2016 Recording of the album “SEVEN : THIRTY” with

the High Field Band

2018-2020 Recording of the Album „Somehow Incomplete“

with the High Field Band, finally released in 2021

BANDS

RAPPELKISTE

(1982-84)

Typical College Band, we were all 16 or 17 years old. Mixed

set list with rock’n’roll covers and partly “germanized”

versions of rock classics plus some own songs. The band

played some 10 gigs in those 2 years. Different musical

preferences created some tension in the band, and then

some of us were just ready with school and had to leave.

Finally the band split after a legendary gig at the youth

sports festival in Stuttgart.

Dirk Hülser (synth, tp, voc), Holger Hethey (b), Rainer

Stadelmann (dr), Michael Bosch (gui),


Stefan Hiss (voc), Schnoed (gui)

JOCHEN CLAUSER SEXTETT

(1987-1990)

Founded by three students during learning sessions. Over

time it developed into a hobby band without serious

ambitions or even gigs. Nevertheless a good playground for

me to test own songs and learn how to keep a band

together. 1990 I left in order to concentrate on PAM. The

band ceased to exist some time later after some more

fluctuation. The ones I remember playing with the band at

least for a while:

Jochen Clauser (gui, voc), Frank-Michael Hahn (gui), Waldo

Gronbach (key), Sylvie (key),


Knut Wuchtig (b), Müller (b), Frank Stocker (sax), Olli

Deinert (dr), Schnoed (gui, voc)

PAMBAND

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(1988-1991)

For sure the band that influenced me the most. Complete

Bio and lots of information on www.pamband.de

The band consequently concentrated on own songs, in the

beginning all written by Chris Frank, and over time I could

bring in some of mine as well. Or better: some of my

fragments developed into songs with Chris’ and the bands’

support and help. „Way of life“ is one of them, and „Free

yourself“ as well. We had gigs around Stuttgart, took part in

competitions and were good on our way. But somehow it

wasn’t yet enough, and we disagreed about the next steps

to take. Some wanted to cover songs in order to get more

gigs, and the typical and annoying disputes took place.

Mastermind Chris had enough and founded another band

project. Some months later he left for Hamburg, and PAM

became…

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(1992-1996)

Now I was the front man, whether I wanted or not. In

principle I wanted, and I started to write more songs in order

to avoid becoming just another cover band. In the end the

concept for the set list was to have three equal portions, one

being my own songs, the second one some of Chris’ ones

(he allowed us to do so), and the third one a hand full of

covers which fitted to our setup with two saxophones.

Selected material, not the typical stuff which all cover bands

use to play. Robert Cray, Eurythmics, Gary Moore, the

Doobies. From time to time we had a gig, but not more than

one or two per year. Finally I tried to switch to german and

translated some of my songs, even though English is so

much easier to sing, and we fired the keyboarder. As our

last activity we recorded a CD with six songs of mine, two

from Chris which I translated as well, a song by Counting

Crows for which I wrote a german text that I still like today,

plus a sort of fragment that evolved during the recording

session and which I, much later, translated into English then

(“Hope or desperation”). We produced 10 copies of the CD

and took ‘em home with us. Then we parted, and three out

of the five left Stuttgart.

Musicians with PAM and TOY: Lothar Niebert (key), Anja

Niebert (voc), Külz (b), Noop (b),


Müller (b), Christoph Stummer (dr), Mr Beasly (sax, gui,

voc), Frank Stocker (sax, voc), Wenke Walz (sax, voc), Jo

Kieferle (key), Chris Frank (voc) und Schnoed (gui, voc).

HEARTBEAT

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(1998-2003)

Having moved to Schweinfurt due to professional reasons, I

joined a duo which played entertainment music at all kind of

events. A very instructive period with respect to harmony

vocals, rehearsal discipline, singing while bass playing,

event organisation and so on. I owe my two mates quite

much, and they were patient with me. The extension with a

third man, however, offered them much more possibilities to

enhance their set list and their range of styles. In the end

the musical portfolio contained Country, Rock, Oldies,

Singalongs and a hand full of dance numbers. We played

some 5 or 6 gigs per year, more was just not possible

besides job and family, and 2003 I quit after all with very

mixed feelings. We never lost contact since then, met for

sessions and played a hand full of events together just for

fun, and since 2016 Chris O is playing the drums with the

High Field Band.

Chris Ortloff (dr, voc), Inge Ortloff (key, b, voc), Schnoed

LAGER 8 / ERRATICS

LAGER 8 (1998-2003)

ERRATICS (2016 – 2019)

Right after having moved to Schweinfurt I met two guys who

were very much into blues rock and especially ZZ Top, and

they used to sit together in their free time, trying to train

themselves to play the guitar. They were looking for

somebody to teach them all those famous riffs and licks: La

Grange, Dust my broom, Sharp dressed man, Fool for your

stockings, I thank you, Tush and so on. We met several

times and made friends. Over time, a band evolved out of

these sessions, without public ambitions, just for fun and for

the sake of playin’ together. Some more cover songs were

added to the program, by Bad Company and Otis Redding,

Westernhagen, Hootie&the Blowfish and so on. But also

here I tore the rip cord in 2003 for professional reasons

again, even though I jumped in as session musician from

time to time later on, even on drums, and I played two gigs

with the boys of which one even found its way into bavarian

television. Meanwhile and after quite some fluctuations

around the two founders, they call themselves the

ERRATICS. They asked me to join them for a farewell

concert for their old drummer, and I re-joined for three years

in 2016. They’re doin’ really good, and it’s fun to play with

‘em, but some differences about the development of the

band forced me to step out again in late 2019.

In the early days the band consisted of Jürgen Reeg (voc,

gui), Udo Fleischmann (b, gui), Heiko Sandmann (dr) and

myself (gui, voc), later then Jürgen (voc, harp), Udo (b),

Felix Kemmer (gui), Patrick Fleischer (dr). And sometimes

me (gui, voc).


DGB SONGGRUPPE

(2000-2003)

A group of unionists, looking for combattants and fellows for

the annual charity concert for the women’s house in

Schweinfurt. I could choose some songs to feature at the

gig, and I played bass or guitar in some others. The set list

contained roughly 30 songs, and there were two or three

more special guests besides me. The band setup used to

change from song to song, most of the members were multi

instrumentalists. All in all I played four of these concerts and

featured quite some rare songs which I wouldn’t have dared

to play with any other band, such as “Der Traum ist aus” by

the legendary german political rock band Ton Steine

Scherben, but also songs by Stefan Stoppok, Big Country or

David Lindley. Plus the fastest ever recorded version of

Eurythmics’ “When tomorrow comes”. Or Kraftwerks “Model”

with my 11 years old daughter Isi on keyboards. Great

moments with great people and musicians.

With me played in these years Sonja Stöcklein (gui, dr, voc),

Ossi Mitschke (dr, perc), Peter Schüllermann (b, sax, gui,

voc), Michael Dietzel (gui, harp, dr, voc), Mickey Bergmann

(b, voc), Möff Streit (voc), Thomas “Limbi” Limbach (gui).

And me of course (gui, b, voc)

 

PLATFORM NUMBER SIX

(2009-today)

During the economic downturn in 2009, the atmosphere in

the company I work in was depressed and negative, but a

colleague of mine had an idea. An event from employees for

employees. He started to look for artists of all kind in our

workforce, actors, singers, dancers, bands, and set up a

program for the evening. And he founded a band, initially as

a Blues Brothers copy act. During the rehearsals the

musicians got appetite for more, and the story began. Seven

years later, Platform No 6 is in principle still a company

band, but we’re also playing at charity events outside SKF.

The fluctuation of the early days has ended, we’ve enlarged

our set list to more than 30 songs, amongst them a small

hand full of my own ones, and it goes on. The band played

in the factories of Luechow and Muehlheim, in Bamberg, in

Gothenburg/Sweden, in Steyr, in Bodenmais and even in

Wuerzburg state prison. Most important to us is our common

mission, the joy and fun of playing music together. We’re

working hard on the quality of our performance, but we’re

not aiming to compete with professional cover bands.

Musicians over the years: Torsten Nordgren (tp), Christiane

Ilgenfritz (voc, sax), Gesine Eichhorn (voc), Nicole Egert

(voc), Uwe Engelbrecht (voc, perc), Manfred Glahé (dr),

Claudia Rossbach (voc), Kerstin Korbacher (sax), Stefanie

Heck (sax), Albrecht Nestle (tp), Toni Stürzenberger (tb,

harp, acc, voc), Dirk Weippert (key, voc, gui), Nicole Lieb

(voc, perc, fl),


Christian Daller (gui, mand, sax, voc, b), Jürgen Bruhn (b,

ban), Kilian Ungemach (sax) and myself (gui, voc, b).

 

PAMBAND UNITED (2.0)

(2011-today)

The best infos on this one you’ll find again on

www.pamband.de.

Chris F and myself found each other again on StayFriends,

more by accident and some 18 or 19 years after we once

parted. Chris visited me in Schwienfurt, and we started to

think a reunion with just five of us. No female vocalists, no

horns. In autumn 2011 five guys in the middle of the 40s met

for a weekend workshop, and since then we’re doing this

twice a year. We’re not playing the old songs, but new

material written by either Chris or myself, we’re doing audio

and video recordings and issue ‘em on youtube. Not aiming

for professional quality of course, none of us has enough

time for doing so. We’re all fathers, and we’re all hard

workers in our respective jobs. Nevertheless these

workshops are intensive and productive sessions, focussing

on music and nothing else. Far away from five buddies

having a fun weekend…we know each other well and

respect us deeply, and we’re working on our songs with

energy and passion. We know we won’t be able to do live

gigs in this constellation being spread all over Germany

from Hamburg to Freiburg, even if we did it twice at 50st

birthdays in 2014 and 2019. However, to me this band is the

ideal formation to test my songs and to work on fragments.

Several of my last songs were finished during these

sessions, were recorded as samples for the other bands

with which I intend to play the songs later on, or even kept

on videos…

Chris Frank (gui, voc), Lothar Niebert (key), Christoph

Stummer (dr), Norbert Jansen (b), schnoed (gui, voc).

THE HIGH FIELD BAND

(*2015)

“My” band. It took so long until I dared to give it one more try

to found a band focusing on my own songs. It started at the

new year’s event of the green party, where my wife was

acting as chairwoman of the Schweinfurt section. I was

invited to play there, and so I asked the best musicians I

know to accompany me. We played 10 of my own songs

plus some carefully selected covers from Neil Young to

Tracy Chapman. This went pretty fine, and we decided to

record an album in our own. This happened from January to

August 2016, and since September it’s ready. End of

November we issued it on all major internet stores as well.

All revenues generated by the album are donated for charity

purposes. With this band, I am focusing on acoustic guitars

more than before, there are hardly any electric guitar solos

left, instead Albrecht is the main soloist with his trumpet.

The songs are breathing transparency in this setup, the

vocal harmonies have become the main element, and the

instruments are doing a precise but decent job. In a way, the

songs as such and consequently the lyrics have gained

importance. Typical for a singer/songwriter maybe, at least

it’s the way I prefer to do music and especially my songs

nowadays.

Chris Ortloff (dr, voc), Chris Daller (b), Nicole Lieb (voc, fl),

Albrecht Nestle (tp), Isabelle Schön (keys) and schnoed

(gui, voc).