Written by In 2011 OMD’s Andy McCluskey told Prog how Kraftwerk were directly responsible for his band’s debut single Electricity, which went on to inspire a range of British synth-led genres of the 80s.
Kraftwerk changed my life in one day and in one specific place: September 11, 1975, Liverpool Empire, seat Q36. I was 16 and I’d already had an interesting summer – I’d bought a bass guitar with my birthday money, finished my O Levels and heard a song called Autobahn by a weird new German band called Kraftwer.
I looked like a young Tom Baker as Doctor Who – trench coat, Afro and long scarf. But like any teenager I was looking to create my own identity. Autobahn seemed to signal a new possibility to me. Then I went to see the band and it was extraordinary.
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The Empire Theatre was barely a quarter full, with a curious collection of hippies, disco dollies and proto-nerds. 1975 was the peak of prog rock – flared denims, flowing locks and guitar solos.
Imagine the impression when four dapper chaps with short hair take to the stage in suits and ties, and play electronic tea trays with wired knitting needles, neon names at their feet in perfect perspex boxes and haunting images of black-and-white European retro-futurist dreams projected behind them.
This was the beginning of my new future – a resetting of the points on the rails of my life with a flick of their electro wands. Piece after piece of visionary genius tumbled from the PA system.
Then finally came the track we all knew – the full, glorious, 23-minute monster version of the mighty Autobahn! The hippies nodded with more energy, the proto-nerds picked up the beat and the disco dollies tottered out of the venue.
Autobahn is almost reverse concrete music. They were trying to get their synthetic instruments to recreate the sounds of the motorway. Combining an experiment with a well-executed and beautiful piece of music is the Holy Grail.
In the distant future, Wolfgang Flür would recall that I met my new modernist heroes after that show, and went on to renounce the crutches of guitars and walk proudly into the electro light. The unfortunate reality was that the young McCluskey had to get a bus to James St Station and go home for school the next day.
But my life was changed. Within a month [future OMD partner] Paul Humphreys and I were making noises in the back room of his mother’s house with just a pile of cheap junk equipment – and we ended up writing Electricity.
Kraftwerk seemed to have a 50s idea of the future; a nostalgia for a future that was already failing to materialise. Radioactivity is the greatest song they ever wrote. When I finally got to know some of the band, I found myself in Wolfgang’s apartment, with Karl Bartos and the artist Emil Schult.
On the wall was a gold award for the Radioactivity single. I said, “Oh man, this is our favourite Kraftwerk song! To be honest, Electricity was just a fast, punky version of this.” To which they all chorused, “Yes, we know!”
Kraftwerk are still the most influential band in popular music. All dance music, hip-hop, rap and electronica sources right back to them, particularly their work from mid-to-late 70s and very early 80s. Their period of tenure is longer and deeper than anybody else’s.
