Carol Of Harvest

Carol Of Harvest Is A German Progressive-Folk-Rock Band From Cadolzburg Bayern Members Beate Krause Vocals Axel Schmierer Guitars Keyboards Programming Jürgen Kolb Keyboards Heinz Reinschlüssel Bass Robert Högn Drums Ewa Grams CAROL OF HARVEST Were A Folk Band Founded In The Middle Franconian Town Of Fürth In 1976. Consisting Of Axel Schmierer * In Stuttgart On 10/11/1957 On Guitars Jürgen Kolb * In Fürth On 9/2/1955 On Keyboards Robert Högn On Drums Organ Builder Heinz Reinschlüssel * In Fürth On 5/24/1960 On Bass And Beate Krause * 1960 On Vocals.
She Replaced Another Singer Also Called Beate Who Had Only Performed At One Single Gig In The Fürth Municipal Park. Helmut Reinschlüssel Who Is Heinz' Elder Brother And Also An Organ Builder Operated The P.A. Axel Schmierer Admired After Curfew A Band Founded At His School With A Very Good Guitarist. He Learned To Play The Guitar Himself Because He Wanted To Join That Band. He Applied When They Were Looking For A New Man On Rhythm Guitar Then Was However Rejected. He Thus Founded His Own Band Carol Of Harvest. The Band Name Was Inspired By Walt Whitman's Poem "A Carol Of Harvest" From 1867 Axel Was Very Impressed By. Their Rehearsal Room Was Situated In Nuremberg. With 65 Sq. M It Was Rather Spacious. All Songs Both Music And Lyrics Were Written By Axel Schmierer. He Preferred The English Language For His Compositions As He Considered It To Be More Expressive Than German For Their Kind Of Music. He Wanted To Convey His Own Feelings And Ideas As Well As Topics Relevant And Known To Everyone. After About Two Years The Quality Of Their Interplay And Musical Mastery Had Developed To Such An Extent That They Could Consider Recording Their Own LP. Luckily For Them Jürgen Kolb Was Acquainted With A Certain Peter "Klex" Klimek Who Ran A Small Record Label Called Brutkasten In The Neighbouring Town Nuremberg. In April And May 1978 They Recorded Five Pieces Written By Axel Schmierer On A Four-Track Tape Machine In Peter Klimek's Recording Studio Situated In Uhlandstreet. They Were Immediately Mixed There As Well. The Band Members Bore The Expenses Themselves. For Peter Klimek It Was Thus A Paid Commission Which Is Why The Artists Do Still Own The Rights. The Record Didn't Have A Title And Was Released In 1978 As A Small Edition Of Only 200 Copies Brutkasten 850004 Due To The Band's Tight Financial Means. The Records Were Sold To Friends And At Gigs. The Cover Photos Were Taken By A Certain Manuel In The Munich Nymphenburg Palace Garden Near The Home Of Rita Diersch Axel's Girlfriend Of That Time. The Big Photograph On The Cover Back Side As Well As The Small Picture In The Right Top Corner Show Axel Schmierer. The Style Of The Tasteful Songs On The Album Is Reminiscent Rather Of The Early 1970s Than 1978. Brutkasten Owner Peter Klimek Regards The LP As The Best Record On His Label. The Second Track On The Album's Flip Side Is Accidentally Mentioned On The Cover As "Treary Eyes". On The Label However The Right Title Is Given "Dreary Eyes". The First Track Is Correctly Listed As "Put On Your Nightcap" On The Cover Back Side Of The Original LP But On Its Label It Has Been Wrongly Specified As "Close To The Edge Of The World".
That However Is No More Than Just One Line Of The Song's Lyrics. When The Record Was Sold Out That Very Same Year Of 1978 They Briefly Thought About Repressing Another 200 Copies. As They Didn't Receive Enough Reservations They Eventually Decided To Abandon The Plan The More So As The Band Was At That Time Already About To Split. Heinz Reinschlüssel Axel Schmierer His Then Girlfriend Rita Diersch As Well As Another
friend Had Lived Together In A Shared Flat Since 1978. There Was Also A Carol Of Harvest Concert Poster Back Then. It Showed A Green Plant Printed On Blue Paper. The Group Split At The End Of 1978 When Beate Krause Quit The Band And Jürgen Kolb Had To Move To Rottweil For Professional Reasons. He Was Replaced On Keyboards By Rudi Linhard For A Short Time And Beate Krause By The New Singer Iris Meyer. But Soon After Their Band History Was Over. There Were No More Than An Overall Seven Gigs By Carol Of
Harvest. One Of Them At A Band Contest In Würzburg They Had Won Together With Another Band Called Blitzlicht. And There Was Another Contest In The Middle Franconian Town Of Ansbach Where They Qualified For The Next Round In Nuremberg. That's However Where Their Successful Participation In The Contest Ended. The Successor Band Were The Short-Lived Fool's Family. They Consisted Of Eight Members Amongst Them The New Singer Iris Meyer Axel Schmierer Heinz Reinschlüssel And Jürgen Kolb. When They Performed In Langenzenn Municipal Hall Fürth County Beate Krause All Of A Sudden Joined Them From The Audience In Order To Sing Along In Good Faith And Full Of Enthusiasm. Iris Meyer However Felt Ousted And Left The Stage Crying. In 2009 Axel Schmierer Released The Tasteful CD "Ty I Ja" Guma Music 01368 Together With Ewa Grams His Then Girlfriend From Poland. It Was Released As A Carol Of Harvest Production And Contains Both English And Polish Language Tracks Of A Style Halfway Similar To The 1978 LP. The Edition Comprised 1 000 Copies About Half Of Which Have Been
sold As Yet. The Collectors' Value Of The Original LP Has Meanwhile Increased Significantly. The Now Somewhat Outdated CD-ROM "Aga's DB" Thors Hammer THCD-ROM 01 From 2004 States A Way Too Modest € 650 Giving Seven Quotations. In The Fourth And Enhanced Edition Of His "Cosmic Price Guide” Wohltorf/Hamburg 2018 Ulrich Klatte Approximates The Real Value Somewhat More Appropriately By Estimating The LP At € 1 200. The Rock&Pop-Preiskatalog 2020 Vaihingen/Enz 2019 Of The "Oldie-Markt" Journal Quotes A Value Of € 1 096.50 For A Copy In Mint Condition. In His “1001 Record Collector Dreams" Vienna 1997 Hans Pokora Gives Four Units For The Record Which Corresponds To A Value Of DM 650-1 150 Or € 330-585. Some Years Later In The Work's Improved Reprint He Considered The Price Development That Had Occurred Until Then And Gave The Record The Highest Possible Amount Of Six Units Corresponding To A Value Of More Than € 1 000. The “Popsike" Web Site Www.Popsike.Com Lists The Most Expensively Sold Copy With US$ 4 000 € 3 577 Sold On Ebay In 2013. It Was Admittedly Hand-Signed By Beate Krause Axel Schmierer And Heinz Reinschlüssel Which Naturally Drove Up The Price And Is Thus Not Representative. The Most Expensive Non-Autographed Copy Is Listed With € 2 613 Sold On Ebay As The 43rd Bid In 2017. Other Copies Were Sold At € 2 500 And € 2 434 - It Was Thus Not A Rare Exception In Price. When Comparing All Of The Results There For The First Pressing And Extrapolating It To A Copy In Mint Condition One Will Come Up With The LP's Value Of € 2 000 - 3 000. Don't Be Misled However By The Fact That Some LPs Were Sold At Less Than € 1 000. Their Condition Is Far Away From Any Kind Of Mint Condition. Only A Tiny Part Of The Records Offered And Sold Is Actually In Mint Condition. The Results On "Discogs” Www.Discogs.Com Which Are Usually Rather Reliable Are Of No Use With Regard To Carol Of Harvest As Specifications On The First Pressing And New Editions Were Confused Here Out Of Ignorance. Only Two Copies Of The First Pressing Are Offered There Currently Namely For € 3 190 And € 4 000 Both Of Them In Near-Mint Condition. Robert Högn Died From Colon Cancer In 2017. Beate Krause Today Called Beate Sampson Is Now Working As A Music Journalist Presenter And Jazz Singer. Jürgen Kolb Is Living In Bayreuth And Working As A Pyrotechnician. Heinz Reinschlüssel Abandoned His Job As An Organ Builder As The Long Periods Away From Home Were Not Compatible With His Family Life And Has Been Working As A Male Nurse For The Last 30 Years Now. In His New Band He Is Today Playing Reggae And Soul Music. Axel Schmierer Is Working As A Social Education Worker In A Children's Home. Rudi Linhard Restores Moog Synthesizers Also For Rick Wakeman And Has Even Met Robert Moog In Person. Helmut Reinschlüssel Who Had Been An Organ Builder Just Like His Brother Is Meanwhile Qualified And Working As A Joiner. Iris Meyer Is Now Living In Australia But Occasionally Comes Back To Fürth. She Has Released Several CDs And Can Be Found On Facebook. Heinz Reinschlüssel Met Her Once By Chance In The Hospital He Works At When She Took Her Mother There. She Recognized Him When Looking At His Name Tag. Axel Schmierer Is Keeping In Touch With Her. There Were Several New Editions Of The LP Over The Decades Both As LPs And As CDs Some Of Which Were Legal And Some Illegal. The First One Was A Legal LP Re-Edition That Was Released By The Band Themselves At Robert Högn's Suggestion. It Came In 1994 And Was As True To The Original Edition As Possible. There Are Only A Few Differences The Cover Has A Matt Finish Now Instead Of A Glossy One. It Is Moreover Slightly Lighter Than The Original Cover Weighing 62 G Instead Of 67 G Without The LP . Thirdly The Printing Is Slightly More Blurred Than That Of The First Pressing. This Does Only Become Obvious However When Directly Comparing The Writing - E. G. Of The Brutkasten-Logo Lettering On The Front Side. Besides The Original LP Has “ST 850004-A" And "ST 850004-B” Stamped Into Its Run-Off While The Later Pressing Has "K 850004-A2" And "K 850004-B2" Instead. The Master Tape Wasn't Available Any More Even Back Then. An LP In Mint Condition Had Therefore To Be Copied And Decrackled Digitally Procedures Which Naturally Lead To A Slight Decrease In Sound Quality. As They Still Had Some Of The Original Covers A Small Part Of The New Pressing Was Sold In The Original Cover. There Were Moreover Some Original Covers That Had Waved Due To Dampness. They Were Added As A Second Additional Cover To Some New Pressings. Already One Year Later An Illegal New Pressing Was Released Which Is Difficult To Distinguish From The Legal One. When Demand Had Increased Sufficiently Another Legal Vinyl Edition Came Out In Spain In 2007 Guerssen GUESS 037/Gupen 018 . The Release Had Been Initiated By Robert Högn. The Edition Contains The Above-Mentioned Insert With Some Photographs On One Side As Correlated Above And A Short Band History On The Other Side. It Is Reproduced On P. 7 Of The Booklet At Hand. When This Edition Was Sold Out A Deluxe Edition Guerssen GUESS 037 DL Limited To 1 000 Copies Followed In 2011. It Differs From The Standard Edition In Heavier Vinyl Heavier Cardboard And Of Course The Different Order Number. The Next Release Was A Somewhat Dubious Affair. A Man From Berlin Enquired About The Rights. Having Obtained The General Consent As A Verbal Agreement He Simply Started Producing And Releasing The Album Without Any Contract And Without Paying Anything For The Rights. Good-Naturedly The Musicians Let Him Get Away With It. He Pressed An LP Elayas ELP 002 And A CD Elayas ECD 001 Both Of Which Came In 2018. The First CD Edition Had Been Released On Another Berlin Label Already In 2001 Second Battle SB 064 . Robert Högn Had Initiated The Release Of The Edition In The So-Called Digipak. It Contained Three Bonus Tracks Recorded With Simple Means By Jürgen Kolb During A Gig In Langenzenn In March 1978. When It Was Deleted Two Bootleg CDs Came Namely A Burnt CD-R At Least With A Printed Label From 2013 Prog Temple PTCD8017 And The Second One Released In Italy In 2016 Amphonotones 228 Both Of Them With The Same Three Bonus Tracks. Both Editions Are Marked As Illegal On Www.Discogs.Com But Only The Second One Has Been Barred From Sale. In 2018 Followed The Above-Mentioned CD On Elayas And Finally In 2020 The Final Edition At Hand With Seven Bonus Tracks. In Addition To The Three Familiar Bonus Tracks It Contains Another Four Tracks That Have Been Released Now For The Very First Time. They Were Recorded In The Studio Namely With The New Singer Iris Meyer Instead Of Beate Krause. An LP Edition On Garden Of Delights Is Scheduled For The Second Half Of 2020. Probably Without Any Bonus Tracks But With An Extensive Booklet. In December 1978 There Was A Two-Page Report On Carol Of Harvest In The Local Paper "Stadtblatt - Fränkische Stadtillustrierte". Four Photographs From This Report Have Been Used For The Booklet At Hand. The Report Was Written By Klaus "Fips" Phillip Who Also Brought Along Stadtblatt Editor Josef Uitz To The Interview With The Band. A Detailed Interview With Axel Schmierer Conducted In English By Klemen Breznikar Is Available On Www.Psychedelicbabymag.Com. The Band's Own Website Www.Carol-Of-Harvest.Com Has Unfortunately Been Deactivated By Now. Some LP Reviews Are Available In Music Magazines And On The Internet. Many Thanks For Their Support To Axel Schmierer Heinz Reinschlüssel Jürgen Kolb Beate Sampson Iris Meyer Helmut Reinschlüssel Christopher Högn Axel Amschler Klaus Phillip Josef Uitz Volker Spieker Uwe Geesmann Rolf Kowalski And Jürgen Kaun.
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Interview With Axel First I Would Like To Say Thank You Very Much For Agreeing To Do This Interview. Where Did You Grow Up? - Once Upon A Time – Long Ago – I Was Born In Stuttgart A Town In Germany. When I Was 3 Years Old My Parents Decided To Move To Fürth In Bayern. I Have A Sister – She Is 3 Years Older Than Me. I Really Don’t Remember Much About My Childhood – Its Like A Black Hole. My Mother Used To Say – That I Was A Very Quiet Child Always Friendly To Everyone. When I Was 14 My Life Began. I Started Smoking Did A Lot Of Sports And Had My First Girlfriend. With 16 Years I Began To Learn Playing The Guitar. My Dream Was To Play In A Band Called “After Curfew”. The Bassist Was In My Class And They Had A Wonderful Playing Guitarist Called Peter. But – They Didn’t Want Me – I Was Rather Disappointed. With Another Friend I Started To Cover Songs From The Band “America” – But This Was Just For Fun.
But Life Goes On And So Someday I Decided To Make My Own Music. Formation Of Carol Of Harvest?
- When I Was 19 Years Old Robert Högn Heinz Reinschlüssel And I Decided To Form A Band – Making My Music. I Had A Lot Of Stuff And I Think It Was Heinz Who Knew Beate Krause And So We Visited Her One Day And She Agreed To Sing In Our Band. She Was 16 – But Had A Beautiful Strong Voice. Jürgen Kolb Followed Joining The Band. I Had A Book From Walt Whitman – And The Poetry “A Carol Of Harvest” Was Exactly What I Wanted To Say……….. A Song Of The Good Green Grass ….. We Got A Wonderful Place To Make Music – A Very Large Building Out In The Green Where We Could Be Loud – No Neighborhood. This Was A Place For A Lot Of Parties And Good Songs. What Influenced You?
-My Inspiration Were Bands Like Camel Pink Floyd Gentle Giant Renaissance Clannad Etc. The Line Up Consisted Of Then 16 Year Old Singer Beate Krause Drummer Robert Högn Keyboard Player Jürgen Kolb Bassist Helmut Reinschlüssel And You On Guitar.
- Yes It Is True – Beate Was 16 Years Old – But Already Had A Great Power In Her Voice. In 1978 You Released Your Album. It Was Released By Brutkasten Record Label.
- At That Time There Was Not So Much Choice In Record Labels – Where We Lived. I Think The Price Was Also Very Important For Us. We Still Were In School – Did’t Had So Much Money. How Many Copies Were Pressed?
- It Is Correct – Only 200 Copies Were Made. What Are Some Of The Strongest Memories From Recording It?
- When I Write Songs – I Just Sit Down And Play My Guitar. From One Moment To Another There Is A Riff Or Chords And Thoughts Of A Story – I Can Imagine Very Strongly. I Record The Ideas – Melodies The Heart Of A Song Follow And In My Head A Song Is Created. In 1978 I Did The Same Thing – Poetry Melodies Chords Etc. When We Played The Songs In Our Band Room It Was A Very Good Feeling To Everyone Of Us – Something Like Ecstasy. We Were Rebellions Against The Old Regime. What Can You Say About The Cover Artwork?
- At That Time I Was In Love With A Girl Called Rita – She Came From Munic And One Of Her Friends Was A Boy Manuel Taking Wonderful Pictures Of Nature. The Front Cover Was Taken In A Park – Called “Nymphenburger Park” In Munic. What Happened Next?
- Yes We Had Some Gigs. I Remember One In Würzburg. It Was A Band Competition. There Was Another Band Called “Blitzlicht” – I Liked Them Very Much – Cause They Covered “Snowgoose” From My Favorite Band Camel. We Never Thought We Could Win – But In The End And After A Good Performance We Did Win – Together With Blitzlicht. Would You Share Your Insight On The Albums’ Tracks?
- Put On Your Nightcap – It Was Our First Song. When I Wrote The Song I Had These Pictures Of War – People Dying – People Suffering And On The Other Site This Man With His Nightcap On His Head – Going To Bed Living In His Own And Only Small World – Not Interested In Anything But Himself. Somewhere And You And Me Were Just Love Songs. Try A Little Bit Was Inspired By The Tragic Dead Of A Friend. What Happened Next?
- The Main Reason We Disbanded Was The Move Of Our Keyboard Player – Afterwards We Tried To Continue With Another Guy But Somehow The Record Was The End Of Carol Of Harvest – At That Time. Many Years Later You Reunited With Ewa Grams On Vocals.
- After Carol Of Harvest Disbanded I Never Stopped Playing Music. I Have Material For 20 CD’s On The Hard Disk Of My Mac. Somehow Everything Came Together Ewa Came Into My Life And A Friend Who Mixed The Songs – So We Published “TY I JA”. We Got A Radio Award From Radio Indy In America And Rather Good Critics For Example Progarchives .
We Were Played In Polish Radio For Several Times – But Until Now We Did’t Sell Very Much CD’s. I Think The Reason Is The Polish Language – But We Don’t Matter. I Like The CD Very Much – It Is My Music My Feelings – The Things I Want To Tell The World – That’s It. What Currently Occupies Your Life?
- I Am A Social Worker – Working With Young People Who Have No Home. I Am Also A Non Medical Practitioner And A “breath Therapist”. I Do A Lot Of Meditation And Of Course A Lot Of Music. Are You Still In Contact With Any Members?
- No. What Are Some Future Plans?
- Publishing New Music Opening My Own Practice. Being Happy Loving – Living.
How Do You Feel About The Fact That Young People From Other Parts Of The World Listen And Enjoy Your Music?
This Is Really Great – I Love This. It Is A Great Thing To Leave Footprints Where You Have Been Going. Source read less