Genre: garage
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: Yes It's Time
Company: Star Club
Catalog: 158
019 STY
Year: 1966
Country/State: Hamburg, West Germany
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5942
Price: $275.00
Formed in Hamburg, West Germany in 1962, The Rivets became one of the city's first beat bands. The initial line up consisted of lead guitarist Henry Buttgereit, drummer Jens Engelhardt (aka P.H. Jackson), rhythm guitarist Raimund 'Raimi' Seidl, and bassist Rolf Nieke. Nieke's musical career was quickly sidetracked when he was drafted into the Bundeswehr. Henner Hoier was brought in as a replacement, followed in short order by Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse who then took over bass duties.
left to right: Henry Buttgereit, Raimund Seidl, Henner Hoier, P.H. Jackson
left to right: Raimund Seidl, Henner Hoier, Jens Engelhardt,
Henry Buttgereit, and Michael Dreysse
The band's initial break came when they beat out 28 other groups to win the German equivalent of a battle of the band contest sponsored by Hamburg's famed Star Club. The win also saw them picking up the somewhat dubious title of being named 'Hamburg's Beatles'. The resulting attention led to club dates in Denmark and the UK. It also got them a slot opening for The Rolling Stones during a brief 1965 German tour. That was followed by opening slots for other bands including The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Who. Unfortunately success brought personal issues including differences in musical direction. Unhappy with the rest of the band's interest in expanding their repertoire beyond beat music Buttgereit and Seidl quit. The pair subsequently formed The Shouts with bassist Nieke who had completed his stint in the German military and drummer Peter Meissner. The pair were then replaced by rhythm guitarist Joachim Koschnitzke.
Following another personnel change that saw original drummer Engelhardt replaced by Porgy, the quartet were signed by the German Star Club label. Over the next year they released a series of three singles:
- 1965's 'Now Decide' b/w 'Lucille' (Star Club catalog number 148 518 STF)
- 1965's 'Dei Velt is voll Musik' b/w 'Komm' (Star Club catalog number 148 538 STF)
- 1966's 'The Girl I Love' b/w 'Time for Love' (Star Club catalog number 148 545 STF)
The singles generated sufficient sales for Star Club to finance an album. Produced by Siegfried Loch, 1966's "Yes It's Time" was interesting on a number of counts. Unlike many of their German beat competitors, the band's debut featured a largely original collection material with all twelve tracks performed in English. True, some of the lyrics seemed to lose a bit in translation ('Thommy'), but try to imagine the results had an English band recorded a collection in German. It also found the band largely abandoning their earlier beat roots in favor of a more updated sound that owed quite a bit to early-1960s Merseybeat bands. While songs like 'Time for Love' and 'The Loving Game' were pretty basic pop-rock outings, on tracks like 'Temptation' and 'The Girl I Love' they showed sparks of originality that you wouldn't have expected from a German beat band. Elsewhere Dreysse, Hoier, and Koschnitzke split lead vocal duties with Hoier having the strongest delivery. All sang with noticeable accents, but most of the performances were energetic enough so that you didn't notice the accents all that much. For whatever reason (perhaps to avoid paying royalties?), a couple of the songs listed as ban originals were actually cover tunes - The Platters' 'Only You' and Curtis Mayfield's 'Um Um Um Um Um' were both listed as band originals.
- A decent up tempo number highlighted by a cool guitar figure on the chorus. 'Temptation' made it clear they'd been listening to lots of British Merseybeat. With an energetic performance, it made for one of the standout performances. rating: **** stars
- 'Thommy' (their spelling not mine) was a goofy pop number that suffered somewhat from Dreysse's heavily accented English and some dumb handclap sound effects. On the other hand the Chuck Berry guitar solo was nice. rating: ** stars
- One of the album's strongest compositions, 'The Girl I Love' had a great melody that bounced between moody, ballad and bouncy up-tempo romp. Add some nice jangle guitar and it was easy to see why this one was tapped as a single. rating: **** stars
- Even though it was credited as a Hoier original, 'Only You' was actually a pretty rote cover of The Platters chestnut (okay the song was actually written by Buck Ram and Ande Rand). Interesting choice of a cover, but you had to wonder why they bothered; particularly since Hoier was clearly straining to hit the song's high arrangement ... guess they needed to have a make out song in the repertoire. rating: ** stars
- 'Time for Love' found the band returning to conventional Merseybeat. The song actually had an interesting arrangement with some nice guitar chords and a nifty multi-part harmony vocals. Quite commercial. rating: *** stars
- Opening up with some nice electric keyboard, 'The Loving Game' was a bouncy pop song. In spite of the accented vocals the melody was strong enough to carry it off - would have made a nice hit for a second tier UK band like Freddie and the Dreamers. rating: *** stars
- With 'I Got a a Feeling' side two started out with a lame, slightly country-flavored ballad. Painful one to get through this one. rating: ** stars
- Another track mis-credited as a band original, 'Um Um Um Um Um' was in fact a cover of the Curtis Mayfield/Major Lance hit. While their version didn't stray too far from the original, they turned in a surprisingly attractive cover. rating: *** stars
- 'Secret Love' started out sounding like a bad slice of opera, but then morphed into a decent mid-tempo pop song. The highlight came in the form of the cool guitar figure that kept the song chugging along. rating: *** stars
- The first couple of bars of 'Moonlight Talk' sounded like a Van Morrison and Them track, but the song proved to be the band's best stab at a garage rocker. Nice jangle guitar throughout and Hoier turned in a nice vocal. rating: **** stars
- 'The Land of Make Believe' was a sappy and instantly forgettable ballad. rating: ** stars
- Because it was such a goofy performance, the sunshine poppy 'Kinky Boots and Leather Clothes' was easily the album's highlight. The chorus la-la-las combined with lyrics like "I just want to be a steady date ..." made this one irresistable to me ears. rating: ***** stars
Hardly
my favorite German beat album, but all told a surprisingly enjoyable
debut. Shame they couldn't keep it together in order to record a
follow-on album with a bit more originality.
"Yes It's
Time - The Rivets" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Temptation (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke) - 2:16
2.) Thommy (Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse) - 1:39
3.) The Girl I Love (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke) - 1:45
4.) Only You (Henner Hoier) - 2:58
5.) Time for Love (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke - Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse) - 2:04
6.) The Loving Game (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke) - 2:16
(side
2)
1.) I Got a a Feeling (Henner
Hoier -
Joachim Koschnitzke) - 2:22
2.) Um Um Um Um Um (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke - Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse) - 2:04
3.) Secret Love (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke - Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse) - 2:33
4.) Moonlight Talk (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke - Michael 'Kuno' Dreysse) - 2:04
5.) The Land of Make Believe (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke) - 2:03
6.) Kinky Boots and Leather Clothes (Henner Hoier - Joachim Koschnitzke) - 1:59
Over the next two years the band began chasing popular tastes while continuing to release a steady stream of singles:
- 1965's 'Barbara Ann' b/w 'I Got a Feeling' (Star Club catalog number 148 546 STF)
- 1966s 'L-O-V-E' b/w 'Yum Yum' (Star Club catalog number 148 561 STF)
- 1966's 'Wade In the Water' b/w 'She Hardly Ever Calls Me Honey Anymore' (Star Club catalog number 148 574 STF)
- 1967's 'The Lion' b/w 'Make Up My Mind' (Star Club catalog number 148 589 STF)
- 1968's 'It's a Long Way To Tipperary' b/w 'Watch the World' (Fontana catalog number 269 389 TF)
There's also at least one posthumous Rivets 45:
- 1970's 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' b/w 'Barbara Ann' (Philips catalog number 3236)
In 1968 the band called it quits with Hoier joining The Rattles where he replaced Bernd Schulz. He stayed with the band two years, subsequently joining The Les Humphries Singers and then pursued a brief solo career. In the mid-1980s he rejoined a reactivated Rattles line-up.
Hoier has a small website (in German) at:
http://www.hennerhoier.de/index.htm
Following the band's collapse Dreysse reappeared as the managing director for the Star Club. He went on to manage other clubs including Hamburg's Madhouse disco before opening up his own club (Kuno's Backstage Bar) and in the mid-1990s he became a fixture on German television where he hosed a music program.
Dreysse also has a small German language website at:
Seidl also remained active in music. As mentioned, he was a founding member of The Shouts, played in Route 64 and released a solo CD in 2007 - "My Memories" ().
He also has a small German website at:
http://www.route64.de/Die_Band/Raimi.htm