La Düsseldorf

After Neu!

La Düsseldorf was formed in 1975 by Klaus Dinger, formerly of Neu!, his brother Thomas and Hans Lampe, an engineer from the Neu! years. English Wikipedia says Klaus, Thomas and Lampe first used the name for small concerts in 1974 while Michael Rother stayed at Forst. Klaus Dinger was born on March 24, 1946 in Scherfede, Westphalia; Thomas Dinger was born in Düsseldorf on October 28, 1952 and died on April 9, 2002, aged 49. Klaus signed with Teldec after leaving Brain Records, and the debut was recorded from September to December 1975 at Conny Plank's studio in Wolperath. La Düsseldorf came out in June 1976 and was produced by the band and Plank, with "Düsseldorf" at 13:17, "La Düsseldorf", "Silver Cloud" and "Time"; AllMusic gave 4.5 of 5, and Stylus called "Time" its masterwork.

For Viva (1978) the band dropped Plank and bought its own Düsseldorf studio, recording from June to September 1978 with Klaus producing. It took about a year and a half, aimed at foreign markets with mostly English lyrics, and Wikipedia says it sold over 150,000 copies in Germany, though a Head Heritage reader review cites a figure of over a million; Teldec's foreign distributor went bankrupt just before release. "Rheinita", the 1979 single, reached number 3 in Germany, and EMI reportedly offered 1 million marks to break the Teldec contract. Individuellos came in 1980, and Thomas left in the early 1980s. Néondian (1985) was released as Klaus Dinger + Rheinita Bella Düsseldorf. Klaus later worked as 1-A Düsseldorf with Damo Suzuki and Nils Kristiansen, and released La! Neu? in 1998 and Japandorf (recorded 2008) in 2013. He died on March 21, 2008, aged 61 (the lead of Wikipedia says March 20).

Bowie reportedly called the band the soundtrack of the eighties, and Brian Eno and OMD are cited as admirers. Damon Albarn told Falter that Dinger's music evokes a Germany of golden-sand highways. The book Electri_City by Rüdiger Esch came out in 2014, and the documentary Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock in 2019. Because of heavy overdubs the music was difficult to play live, and for a free television concert members mimed and danced.