The history of Grobschnitt (meaning "Rough Cut", as in tobacco) is quite a complex one. In fact it goes way back to 1966 in Hagen, with the band " Crew", reputedly one of the very first true Deutsche-Rock bands. They existed until 1969, when they met up with another local band called "Charing Cross". These bands joined together for a while as Crew Blues Session, but there was much conflict, with members splitting off, like the eccentric rock-theatre band Wutpickel. Thankfully, for the curious amongst us, much of this Grobschnitt pre-history is documented on the third Eroc album, which includes Wutpickel and Crew Blues Session recordings.
Grobschnitt proper, was formed in February 1970. Their diverse background in Deutsche-Rock, psychedelic, theatrical and progressive musics, and wide range of influences, all added up to making Grobschnitt into a highly original, yet accessible rock band.
Notably their style drew on Pink Floyd and Yes stylings, but their song style and humour lent more to Frank Zappa and Gong. In fact, Grobschnitt, like Gong, all assumed pseudonyms.
They used to have pseudonyms like :
Eroc, their long serving drummer (from the beginning through to the early-80's) whose real name is Joachim H. Ehrig,
(Gerd-Otto Kühn), Mist (Volkar Kahrs), Popo (Wolfgang Jäger), Wildschwein (Stefan Danielak).
In fact it became the convention to use these names in the late-70's.
Grobschnitt's debut presented a mature band, blending classical and space-rock styles, with complex dual guitars and keyboards in a music that oozed an eccentric psychedelic feeling. In these early times Grobschnitt were already working towards their ultimate triumph "Solar Music" with the album's closing cosmic excursion "Sun Trip".
The album SOLAR MUSIC LIVE stands as one of the finest progressive albums of the late-70's.
