Sounds April '72

Germany's cleverest and therefore probably sooner or later most successful German pop group, the Can from Cologne made possible what seemed impossible: they invited people to a free concert in the Cologne sports hall, which had been closed for pop concerts since the incidents at last year's Rolling Stones concert. The Cologne sports hall administration even waived the hall rent, Can's record company United Artists gave subsidies for the promotion, and the Can themselves invested almost 7,000 DM to make their free concert an event.

And it became a real event. More than 8,000 pop fans streamed into the sports hall and let themselves be magnetized by the hypnotic Can sounds for almost four hours. Among others, an artist with the "singing saw" as well as a Cologne blues talent named Alex were integrated into the program of the Can. However, a big announced laser light show failed its services. The Can themselves played almost three and a half hours in a row. This is nothing unusual for the Cologne pop quintet, because recently it had spontaneously turned out several times that they played four hours in a row. But what was successful as a spontaneous action turned out to be a miscalculation here, where it was planned. After four songs they had reached the end of their Concentration and tension, after which the music flattened more and more.

The Can wanted to offer a nice, long pop evening to Cologne's pop friends, who had not been able to experience a pop concert for many months. They certainly succeeded in this. In addition, the group, who see their future abroad, naturally wanted to do some advertising. And they succeeded, because both "Stern" and "Hör Zu" published long articles about the Can Free concert. If you compare the Can's investment with the advertising price of both bourgoisie gazettes, the benefit is clearly on the Can's side. (ZZ)