The History of The Twins - Part 13 (by SynthieM)

Chapter 13: 1985/1986 - The breach with Hansa and the move to CBS

The successful tour through Hungary was the hoped-for tailwind for the following release of our new single “Love In The Dark”, a song written by Ronny which took us back to the German Top 40 after our obviously somewhat daring experiment with “The Game Of Chance”. And just at the right time, when this single was released, I had managed to get us into a big nationwide TV show called “Rock Pop Music Hall” on ZDF, because I was on friendly terms with the show’s producer. To everyone’s big surprise, Hansa – “Fella” also got us into “Eurotops” which we recorded again with Mike Leckebusch for Radio Bremen and which was broadcast on ARD on a Thursday evening at 9 pm. Our third important TV appearance was at the show “WWF-Club” on WDR. Here we met Jürgen von der Lippe who successfully co-hosted this show as “funny caretaker” and laid the foundation for his later nationwide popularity there. The new album “Until The End Of Time” followed a little later in the summer of that year. It was the penultimate Twins album which was also released on vinyl.

My personal opinion on this album is conflicting. On the one hand it contains fine compositions, but on the other hand I think that we didn’t make the most of them. In my opinion, arrangement and production sound a little half-finished. As much as we liked Ken Thomas, the authority of Hubert Henle who had worked with us for years could not instantly be replaced at the mixing desk and I’m convinced that an external producer, in combination with a revision of the best songs, would have brought it all more forward. However, this album featured good songs like “I Need You” which was later released as a single in Canada, the title track “Until The End Of Time” and maybe also “Deep Within My Heart”. These songs would have been worth being produced or at least co-produced by external producers. This way they could have stood out more distinctly. So we were kind of lacking a higher authority, especially considering the fact that Ronny and I had rather different opinions on the choice and order of the songs. All things considered, the final result was okay, but in spite of numerous releases abroad we were not as successful with the album “Until the End Of Time” as many people had expected us to be.

Next to other trips abroad, we went back to Italy in autumn 1985. The new single there, released by the record company CGD, was “Deep Within My Heart”. As the song was also released as a single in Germany at the same time, we had hoped for a kind of cross promotion again, like we had seen it with “Ballet Dancer”. We were quite satisfied with being at the CGD, since we thought that this would now give us a reputation as serious artists in Italy, after all the hype of the previous years. However, we didn’t know that we had already been marked as a “teen-band” in Italy and that a lot of intensive convincing would have been necessary to get rid of that reputation.

To make us fit for a “serious” career in the Italian music business, a move to Italy would probably have been necessary to be in direct touch with the requirements and specialties of the Italian market. At that time, this was far beyond our thoughts, because we were rather “tired” of Italy. All the trouble with our former record company which we often suspected of not correctly paying us for our sales, the tragicomic lawsuit for our band name still running at a Roman court and a completely chaotic short trip to Venice in spring, where some fans had ambushed and positively chased us were still deeply rooted in our memories. These and other reasons led to the fact that we let our personal commitment in Italy slide a little, knowingly or unknowingly.

But after all, on a warm September night we stood as the top act of the “Festival Bar” in the famous “Arena di Verona” and presented our song “Deep Within My Heart” to a huge audience, at the arena and in front of their TV screens. We were received by the fans and the record company like old friends and got a huge applause in the fantastically lit, nocturnal arena. Even if we and the song were well received there, it didn’t hide the fact that “Love In The Dark” would probably have been a better choice for a single release in Italy. However, this song had already been released in Germany half a year before, during a time when we had been in between contracts in Italy – the contract with the old record company had ended and the new one had not been effective yet. So it was finally decided to release the new single “Deep Within My Heart” in Italy at the same time as in Germany. From today’s point of view, I’m pretty sure that this was a mistake. With the style of “Love In The Dark” it would have been much easier to replicate earlier success than with the somewhat solemn “Deep Within My Heart” which was not really fit for the dance floors.

In Germany, we could once again present the song in a nationwide TV show. Together with a live band consisting of “Ärzte” producer Uwe Hoffman on the drums, Micha and Eddie U. on keyboards and “Nena” saxophone player Bernd, we performed again at the “Rock Pop Music Hall” on ZDF before the successful and exciting year 1985 ended. The turn of the year 1985 was soon to come and actually, there were a few changes waiting for us in 1986.

I spent the beginning of the new year at home in Berlin, together with my wife and my sound engineer Ken Thomas. I still remember that there was a surprising change of the weather. After a comparatively warm Christmas, the temperatures suddenly dropped very low a few days later. On New Years Day we came up with the idea of taking Ken on a trip to the Pfaueninsel which could only be reached by ferry after a longer walk. I had warned Ken: “Please wear warm clothes”, so when we got out of the car I was rather surprised when Ken, dressed in modern English style as usual, but with rather light clothes consisting of a thin, short, black coat and his original English leather boots, set off for the 2 km long walk to the ferry. He smiled: “That’s not a problem; I’m toughened by the British weather and anyway, I don’t have anything else with me”, he said. He didn’t even wear gloves, let alone a cap. The temperatures felt like -20 degrees and we had a strong wind from the Northeast, but the shipping passage to the island was still open.

The longer the walk to the ferry lasted, the more silent Ken became. Two times he even fell on his backside because of his slippery shoes. In one case he almost slid from the completely frosted lakeside path into the water. When we had to wait for half an hour at the ferry station, he had enough. Politely, but in a slightly peeved tone he asked, whether it would still be long. Because of his chattering teeth I could hardly understand what he said and honestly, I’ve rarely ever seen anyone as miserably cold as he was on this cold morning. We considered what we should do, when finally the ferry came. He was finally “saved” by the warming room of the ferry station on the Pfaueninsel. They were obviously well prepared for extreme cases like “toughened” Englishmen and other tourists wearing too light clothes. After our one-hour walk on the island, my wife and I picked him up again. He sat directly on the large central heating, had meanwhile been defrosted and was cheery again.

There was another reason for Ken to spend the turn of the year with me. “Iko” had also performed at the “Rock Pop Music Hall” and what is more, the WEA had given him the money for producing an expensive video clip for his single “Wipe The Tears From My Eyes”. We were already working on songs for his album which was set for release by Warner Bros. in spring 1986. There also was another song which I had got wound up in and which I finally wanted to finish with his help. It went by the interim name “Fight”. The idea of this song was based on the armed conflict England had with Argentina in 1982, concerning the Falkland Islands. I had one day seen an impressive documentation on this armed conflict on TV and been inspired by it. The message “War On War” was the essence of this “peace movement” song and over the time I had recorded version with various singers, including our lyricist Tim Dowdall as announcer. I had repeatedly “tinkered with” the song throughout the year 1985, but somehow it never sounded the way I wanted it to sound. With a 23 years delay, “War On War”, now sung by Ronny, has been available for the first time on our album “The Twins Singles Collection” which we released in 2009 and I think that the final result is quite acceptable now. However, in retrospect it still makes me shiver when I think about how much money, time and energy I spent on this song which never turned out satisfactory back then.

In spring 1986 I was working on new Twins demos. During that time Ronny and I spent very little time together and both of us were mainly concerned with our own productions and other problems. I had meanwhile teamed up with our new saxophone player Bernd who also was an excellent guitar player and quite a good singer in order to produce a few smaller projects (including his own). So it automatically happened that he also helped me with the Twins demos. One example of this teamwork is the song “Love Can Change It All” which had initially been produced for Bernd, but which was finally sung much better by Ronny. Another example is “What Do You Live For?”, one of my favourite songs on the upcoming album “Hold On To Your Dreams”. By the way, the strong female vocals came from the soul singer Ackie Murray who was quite famous then, at least in Berlin. I still remember very well how sturdy Ackie, stomping and heavily sweating, shouted her “Uiacka, Uiacka” into my Neumann-microphone for hours, over and over again, until it was duplicated 20 times and I was finally satisfied with it.

At the Hansa, things had meanwhile changed to our disadvantage. Sure, we had had numerous releases abroad, but neither the single “Deep Within My Heart” nor the album “Until The End Of Time” had entered the charts, even if they had been close to entering. On the other hand, Dieter Bohlen’s artificial product “Modern Talking” had released three or four number one hits in a row and so they were the undisputed top band of Germany and of course of the Hansa. So basically, the Hansa expected us to release similar songs now, quasi becoming a second “Modern Talking”. There was just one problem - this was the last thing we wanted to do. We thought it was more than enough that “Modern Talking” constantly copied themselves. Our relation to the Hansa had already cooled down due to the fact that they had simply kept a part of our royalty advances to pay for the lawyers in the band name lawsuit, as described in the previous chapter. What is more, one fine day we also bluntly spoke our minds in front of the whole team, complaining about the TV promotion for the Twins which was completely insufficient in our eyes. This did not exactly help in improving our relation to the company.
Well, and then it happened that I had an appointment with Andreas Kirnberger of the “huge” CBS (later to become Sony Music) on 22nd April 1986, presenting my finally finished production of “War On War” to him. CBS used to be one of the best renowned record companies of the world and in Germany it was one of the big three. There were hardly any well-known artists on this planet that had never been signed there and being received by the “Artist and Repertoire” boss himself was a real honour for me. So I used the opportunity and played the Twins demos I had already composed and which I had “coincidentally” in my bag to him, even if that was not the main reason for my being there. Andy quite liked what he heard and I had to promise him to come back with further productions if things went wrong with the Hansa. So the interest of the CBS had been aroused. This put us in a position where we could wait and see what the development at the Hansa might bring.

In May 1985, my “Iko” contract was cancelled with a compensation payment. Unfortunately, the single “Wipe The Tears” hadn’t been successful and the almost completed, upcoming album and the following single “Moonlight” were not released by the WEA any more, after they had kept us waiting for months. And then, in the weeks that followed, it really happened that we cancelled the band takeover contract with the Hansa by mutual agreement, ahead of time. But at least – and that’s a fact which later should become very important to us – we did not completely break with the company and there were no personal animosities between Hans Blume and us.
After more than five years of successful work together, our ways separated by “mutual agreement”, as it is widely called. In spite of all the problems, we had had great success together, and Ronny and I were both of the opinion that a little break or at least a change of scenery would do us good.

We had used the time after my first visit to the CBS to produce more demos. The demo versions of “Mighty Shiver” and “Time Will Tell” had been finished and “Hold On To Your Dreams” and “One Day” followed soon afterwards. On 18th July 1986 I went to Frankfurt again and presented the new demos to Andreas Kirnberger, told him that we had recently cancelled our contract and also which conditions we expected in a band takeover contract. Andreas took notice of them and promised me that he would get back to me within the next three weeks. The Teldec in Hamburg where I had also been during that trip had meanwhile also taken the bait. So now we were in the comfortable situation of having two companies that were interested in us. A little later, the Teldec sent us their contract offer in written form. To make the best of the time I had to wait until the CBS got back to me, I spent an extended weekend in Budapest from 24th July to 28th July 1986. Our Hungarian concert agency had invited me and my wife to a concert of Queen in the Nep-Stadium of Budapest. This concert is now considered as their “most legendary” show. I even got free tickets for the VIP box. “Queen” were there during their “Magic Tour” and on this memorable evening they gave one of their greatest concerts ever. They were at the absolute crest of their fame and their creative power. The singer Freddie Mercury alone was worth all the money. Like a completely whacky diva he marched over the stage in his crimson royal cloak, a little later he put a lavishly decorated golden crown on his head and when the band played the song “We Will Rock You”, the whole audience of more than 60,000 people went crazy (if they hadn’t done so before). A really royal experience and one of the best live shows I ever had the pleasure to see.

At the beginning of August, when the CBS had said that our conditions were in the main acceptable, Ronny, our lawyer and I flew to Frankfurt/Main again for the final contract negotiations. There we managed to get a guaranteed takeover contract for three singles and two albums, combined with a non-refundable royalty advance which outshone everything we had ever been guaranteed in a contract before. So we declined the Teldec offer with regret. We celebrated this contract on 18th September 1986 in the “Bamberger Reiter” in Regensburger Straße, one of the most expensive and fancy restaurants of Berlin back then. Andy Kirnberger had specifically come to Berlin on that day, including a sightseeing tour through my studio and my “Bauhaus villa”. To celebrate this contract, I treated myself to my next Porsche, a 911 Carrera, in October. It was a wonderful vehicle with a dark blue all leather trim and during the following years I often drove it on many European race courses at Porsche club races. In November and December 1986, Ronny recorded the vocals in my studio in Hauptstraße. We were also close to deciding which song should be our first single with the CBS, either “Time Will Tell” or “Mighty Shiver”. Although we could generally be satisfied with the development, new problems were to follow soon.

Read in the next chapter: The CBS wants to have a say, relaxing on Hawaii, the crazy tour through the Soviet Union with Thomas Anders of Modern Talking.