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Ulf Kruger
Back in 1961, the fourteen-year-old Ulf Krüger formed 'The Owl City Washboardmen', which later became the only German skiffle group to release a long-playing record.
From 1963 onward, he worked in various amateur beat bands before turning professional in 1966 as drummer of 'Some Folks'. In '67 and '68 he appeared in Hamburg's Star Club and elsewhere as a member of 'William Thornton & The Chicago Sect'.
Ulf Krüger was one of the founding members in 1969 of 'Leinemann', a band in which he featured as washboard player and vocalist.
The young band's production company and publisher was PEER MUSIKVERLAG.
STERN magazine wrote: 'With its mixture of ragtime, rock and skiffle, "Leinemann" heralds a new era on the German pop scene ...'
As house band at the legendary 'Onkel Pö', 'Leinemann' was a pioneer of the 'Hamburg Scene', producing two first-class musicians in the persons of pianist Gottfried Böttger and violinist Lonzo Westphal.
After numerous television appearances and tours, including with the English 'King of Skiffle' Lonnie Donegan, the band stopped performing live in 1976 but went on making records.
As early as 1973, Krüger had begun producing Hamburg Scene artists for PEER, Henning Venske and Günther Willumeit for instance.
1976 saw him team up with the fun rock'n'roll band 'Rudolf Rock und die Schocker', writing the original lyrics which he also sang for the band's first album. Many other albums followed.
That year, humorist Dieter Hallervorden became a regular customer for Krüger's ideas.
1978 resulted in the first collaboration with later comedy star Olli Dittrich and the first Top Ten placing in the sales charts with Johnny Hill's 'Ruf Teddybär eins vier'. Lyrics: Ulf Krüger.
1979 witnessed the successful songwriting and producing team of (Django) Seelenmeyer & Krüger. A series of hits ensured the comeback of German rock'n'roll legend Ted Herold and secured a series of tailor-made hits for their own band 'Leinemann'.
Along came 1980 and Lonzo's 'Die Dinosaurier (werd'n immer trauriger)' was a cult hit with Krüger's lyrics, and in 1981, Ted Herold reached the peak of his second career with 'Die besten sterben jung' and 'Gib Dein Ziel niemals auf'.
In the mid-Eighties, Ulf Krüger was producing the 'old masters of British Beat', Neil Landon (Flowerpot Men, Ivy League, Fat Mattress) and young rockabillies The Ace Cats, writing songs for Peter Maffay and more, and co-designing the cover for Stefan Remmler's single 'Feuerwerk' with Klaus Voormann (Manfred Mann, Plastic Ono Band).
Along with Django Seelenmeyer he produced all kinds of records, among them discs with Medium Terzett and the Dutch artist Robert Kreis.
The Neue Deutsche Welle duo 'Paso Doble' had all its songs written for it by Krüger under the pseudonym of Sonja Mangold. 'Computerliebe' was their greatest hit, destined to be even more successful years later.
Peter Schilling's second biggest success after 'Major Tom' was 'Terra Titanic' with its Ulf Krüger lyrics.
1986 was a big year for Ulf Krüger. He became manager of Beatles photographer Astrid Kirchherr and joined the Star Club veterans' band 'Dirty Dogs' as percussionist. He also performed some spectacular gigs with 'The Undertakers' horror show, from which the Neil Landon Band emerged, and continued to appear with them for several years.
In 1987, among other things, he produced the hit 'Guten Morgen liebe Sorgen' with entertainer Jürgen von der Lippe.
1988 was the year when Krüger set up K&K, an umbrella company for his rock'n'roll picture agency, management of Kirchherr and Star Club merchandising; together with Klaus Voormann, he produced Wigald Boning's group 'Bremen'.
Voormann and Lonzo in turn joined forces to produce the album by Ulf Krüger the artist. The 1989 chart single 'Dr. No' was written, like all album tracks, by Krüger.
Managed jointly with Seelenmeyer, Edition Dagobert scored a Number One hit in France with the duo 'Avalanche' (Johnny Come Home) and three Top Ten singles and a platinum album in England with the 'London Boys'.
1991 crowned several years of research with the publication of the 20-disc documentation 'The Hamburg Sound', in which Krüger traced the development of Sixties beat music in the Hanseatic city with the aid of anecdotes, quotes, band family trees and discographies.
Still at the start of the Nineties, Ulf Krüger produced artists like Nationalgalerie and King Rocko Schamoni and began work as an adviser for the John Lennon Talent Award offered by insurance company Itzehoer Versicherungen. This developed in subsequent years into Germany's most important talent competition for young artists.
The feature film 'Backbeat', dealing with the young Beatles' early lives in Hamburg, employed Krüger as historical adviser. Apple Corps entrusted him with the Hamburg research for the Beatles Anthology.
His own company K&K organized photo exhibitions in New York, London, Washington, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
1995 marked the release of the Udo Lindenberg single 'Ich will den Platz in meinem Herzen neu vermieten', a Krüger composition. Krüger wrote a variety of sketches and gags for the RTL comedy series 'Samstag Nacht'.
K&K presented exhibitions in the Bremen Kunsthalle, in Vienna and in Budapest.
The new version of 'Computerliebe' with 'Das Modul' reached Number 3 in the Musikmarkt charts and proved to be the year's best-selling German-language single.
1996 saw Genesis Publications in England publish the second bibliophile photo album in collaboration with K&K. Two parallel photographic exhibitions were staged simultaneously in 20 US shopping malls each. Four discs featuring the sensationally successful PEER artist Blümchen, a young singer who had Krüger as her lyricist, turned up in the charts: 'Herz an Herz' (#4, Gold), 'Kleiner Satellit' (#9), 'Du und ich' (#17), LP 'Herzfrequenz' (#18, Gold).
On January 1, 1997, PEER MUSIC celebrated the foundation of Edition Ulf Krüger.
More Blümchen songs made the charts: LP 'Verliebt' (#7 Gold), 'Verrückte Jungs' (#22).
Krüger presented the Genesis book he edited, 'B.I.G. - Beatles in Germany' at the 'Beatlefest' in Chicago.
Blümchen and her 'personal songwriter' Krüger continued their successful streak in 1998 and '99 with six chart placings, two of them in the Top Twenty.
In April '99, 'Bear Family Records' released the 4 CD box 'Die Ariola Star Club Aufnahmen' including a 96-page book by Ulf K, the launch of the Genesis book 'Hamburg Days' followed in August in Tokyo and at the Chicago 'Beatlefest', and in December, Sir Paul McCartney presented the book put together by Ulf Krüger in the prime-time German game show 'Wetten Dass' on ZDF.
In the year 2000, K&K took over the music and photo archive of the St. Pauli chronicler Günter Zint, amounting to some 100,000 negatives.
Several K&K photo exhibitions took place, notably in the Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin and the Mathew Street Gallery in Liverpool.
March 2001 witnessed the premiere at the St. Pauli Theatre of the musical 'All You Need Is Love', produced by Bernhard Kurz, with Krüger as co-author and co-director.
In September, Krüger published his 'Beatles Guide Hamburg'; in December he released his 3-CD box 'Star Club - The Most Famous Beat Club In The World' complete with 120-page booklet.
Between July 19 and 21, the first 'Estrel Beatles Festival Berlin', organized by Krüger, attracted 10,000 fans. The Krüger-produced Tony Sheridan album 'Vagabond' was given its public launch there.
2003 was the year of Ulf K cover versions. 'Herz an Herz' with Sandra S. conquered the Austrian charts, Peter Schilling successfully re-recorded 'Terra Titanic', and 'Future Trance United' entered the German charts with 'Face To Face' (Herz An Herz).
The second 'Estrel Beatles Festival Berlin' was held in the summer, and Krüger played in England with his 'UK Five' before such luminaries as Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr.
Over 800 songs crediting Ulf Krüger as author have been recorded to date. The most successful have been published by PEER.
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