- We are the Robots

Geniuses or piss artists? Innovators or serial one-hit wonders? I’ve always been fascinated by Kraftwerk but have never been sure where they stand in the whole scheme of things. Where would they have been without Bowie’s endorsement, for example? Whatever you think, you have to note that their impact was huge.

Krafwerk redfine music #1

‘I remember somebody took us to a club in 1977 when Trans-Europe Express was out. It was in a loft club in New York, after hours; just as the DJ culture was starting when DJs began making their own records and their own grooves. This DJ was taking sections from Metal On Metal from Trans-Europe Express, so I thought, 'Oh, they're playing the new album'. But it went on for ten minutes! And I thought, 'What's happening?!' The track is only something like two or three minutes! Later, I asked the DJ; he had two copies of the record and he was mixing the two, and of course it could go on as long as people were dancing.’

Farley "Jackmaster" Funk

Many people think – wrongly – that Afrika Bambaataa’s "Planet Rock" used samples from Kraftwerk songs. While this was a major defining hit for hip hop and the birth of electro music, the song merely contains copied elements of "Trans-Europe Express" and "Numbers", as it would have required the early 80s equivalent of a super computer and approximately one shit load of money to generate the samples. Numerous artists have continued to sample and borrow from Kraftwerk's work subsequently, of course.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how German are these people?

Krafwerk redfine music #2

‘I suppose we influenced Bowie; at least, that's what he told us. He told us that when he first came to Germany, he heard Autobahn continuously on his car radio. We met in Germany, when he was casting about for a place to work, and we suggested he try Berlin. So we provided inspiration of a sort - electronic spirituality! As far as the British artists you mentioned are concerned, we did several very long tours in England, where we met some of those musicians in clubs. For us, it was wonderful to experience this type of interest. Before, we had always been considered outsiders, and suddenly we were on the inside.’

Ralf Hütter

The band are legendarily reclusive and freaky, we are led to believe. The documentary mentions an incident between Johnny Marr and Karl Bartos, who explained that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration would be told the studio telephone did not have a ringer, since during recording, the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, callers were instructed to phone the studio precisely at a certain time, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hütter, despite never hearing the phone ring.

My guess is that this was originally aired in 2001 or 2002 (please confirm) as there is mention of the somewhat underwhelming Expo 2000 but not of the ‘comeback’ album Tour de France Soundtracks:

17 bloody years we waited for this

Download the bbc documentary:



File length: 28 mins
Size: 26 mb

- Great moments in sport 1: German footballer breaks neck - plays on

In the Second World War Bernhard 'Bert' Trautmann was a paratrooper in western Russia. He was captured by the Russians and escaped, but was finally captured by the British. The English, as we tend to do, greeted him with the words "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of tea?". He was brought to POW Camp 50 at Ashton-in-Makerfield, in between St Helens and Wigan, before being transferred to a similar camp in Huyton, near Liverpool . In football matches between two camps he always played on the right midfield, but one day they had no goalkeeper and so Bert tried it and performed very well. It was during this time he became known as 'Bert,' as the English had trouble, surprisingly, pronouncing 'Bernd,' the abbreviated version of his name.

After the war he bravely decided to stay in Britain and played for the Liverpool County Combination club St Helens Town. During a friendly match against Manchester City, club officials were so impressed by him that they signed him. The fans of City, however, were not best pleased about having a former member of the Luftwaffe on the team. Season ticket holders threatened a boycott and various groups in Manchester and around the country bombarded the club with protest letters. Twenty thousand people demonstrated against the signing, holding banners like "Off with the German". Besides the issues with his nationality, Trautmann also made the heinous error of replacing Frank Swift, one of the greatest keepers in the club's history. After his first matches for City, however, the protests died when the fans realised that the boy was indeed a bit special.

In the years to come, Trautmann established himself as one of the best keepers in the league, and very possibly, in the world. One of Trautmann's greatest matches was the legendary 1956 FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Birmingham City at Wembley Stadium. In the 75th minute Man City led 3:1 and Trautmann, diving at an incoming ball, was knocked out in a collision with a Birmingham's Peter Murphy when he was hit in the neck. For the remaining 15 minutes he defended his net, because at the time there were no substitutions possible. Manchester City held on for the victory, and the hero of the final was Bert Trautmann, due to his spectacular saves in the last minutes of the match. Three days later, an x-ray revealed he had a broken vertebra in his neck. How hard was this man?


It's only a broken neck, I'll shake it off

He appeared in 545 matches for City during a 15 year period between 1949 and 1964. He had no caps for Germany, because the German manager Sepp Herberger would not call up German players who were playing in other countries. This had been particularly frustrating for Trautmann because for much of his career he had been regarded as the world's greatest goalkeeper. He won the FWA Footballer of the Year Award in 1956 for his FA Cup heroics.

In 1964 he finished his career with a testimonial in front of a crowd of 60,000 people, quite a change from the crowd that initially didn't want a German. Trautmann captained a special joint Manchester City & Manchester United XI that included Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, against an England team that included Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews and Jimmy Armfield. After the match, Bobby Charlton called him one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. Russian keeper and bighead Lev Yashin had this to say:

'There have only been two world-class goalkeepers. One was Lev Yashin, the other was the German boy who played in Manchester — Trautmann.'