To the considerable ranks of MIG Music’s jewels of German rock history comes another treasure: the album “Reflections On The Future” by Mannheim band TWENTY SIXTY-SIX & THEN from the year 1972.
To clarify one thing up front: This edition has nothing in common with those unspeakable re-releases from before. The material has been carefully remastered and extended with eight new bonus tracks (studio live versions featuring Curt Cress on drums with Donna Summer as the guest vocalist). In addition to those, the new MIG edition comes as usual with elaborate liner notes and lots of photos; the short of it: a well-rounded and impressive legacy of one of the most talented bands from the early days of Krautrock!
Along with groups like Aera, Emergency, Karthago or Kin Ping Meh, TWENTY SIXTY-SIX & THEN is among the ranks of progressive hard rock bands springing up overnight like mushrooms in early Seventy which are now included in the genre Krautrock.
The band was founded in May 1971 at Mannheim, the original line-up being singer Geff Harrison, Veit Marvos and Steve Robinson – both organ, guitarist Gagey Mrozeck, Dieter Bauer on bass and the drummer Konstantin Heinrich Bommarius.
Geff Harrison, founding member and front man of TWENTY SIXTY SIX & THEN, remembers the early time well. Geff hails from Salford, a town in the Northwest of England and part of the Metropolitan County Greater Manchester. With the Manchester band Some Other Guys he came to Germany during the mid-sixties. The band played more or less successful gigs in the country, mostly, where the allies had soldiers stationed. At the end of the sixties, Some Other Guys became I Drive. The band lived in Munich and toured through Bavaria a lot. Their musical style had also changed – rock with progressive and psychedelic elements.
One day Geff stranded on Turtle Island and stayed in Mannheim. “For me, the community Turtle Island was something like a new cultural base.”
The band TWENTY SIXTY SIX & THEN were talented young musicians who partly lived in that community. Rehearsals and arrangements took place in the basement, and it was here where most of the compositions, riffs and hook lines were created. “The ideas for the tunes mostly came from our keyboarders, Steve and Veit. Together with our guitarist, they developed the framework and the structure of our songs, after that I specified the vocal melodies and wrote the lyrics”, Geff Harrison says. “That always went well and in a very relaxed manner.”
With the album “Reflections On The Future” TWENTY SIXTY SIX & THEN signed with record industry giant United Artists Records which had already released bands like Hawkwind, Black Widow, IF, Amon Düül II, Can or Canned Heat at this point.
But the project was not meant to last. The album “Reflections On The Future” was greatly appreciated by critics and the radio played tracks of the debut even though they were far too long. Nonetheless, it did not reach a wider audience.
After the commercial failure of the LP the band called it quits after just one and a half years.
But instead of scattering into all directions the members of the band stayed in Mannheim and made a career with two more krautrock veterans: the band Emergency (Veit Marvos) and Kin Ping Meh (Gagey Mrozeck and Geff Harrison). “Our drummer Konstantin Bommarius joined Abacus, who had just gotten a long term record deal with Polydor”, reported Geff. “Steve Robinson tackled some projects with Michael Bundt (Nine Days Wonder) and our bassist Dieter Bauer played with bands like the jazz-rockers from Aera, the Jim Kahr Group, Margo and Lüül. After our time with Kin Ping Meh, Gagey played in the bands of Edo Zanki and Herbert Grönemeyer. He wrote some songs for Herbert, too, “Alkohol” for example. Sometimes he even produced or did the arrangements.”
After his time with Kin Ping Meh, Geff Harrison concentrated on his own career and celebrated in 1975 his solo debut with the prestigious album “Salford”.
On 24. Februar “Reflections On The Future” by TWENTY SIXTY SIX & THEN will be available.