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Propaganda 1985

T-Zers, NME 24 November 1984
A vicious telegram plopped into the T-Zers bag concerning the first known split at ZTT.  Andreas Thein, founder member of their Propaganda, has apparently left the band after Claudia the singer struck up an especially strong rapport with young whizz kid Paul Morley...
Paul Marries Bombshell, NME 23 Feb 1985

Teenagers Flock to Stockport to Throw Themselves in Mersey - Heartbroken youngsters have been congesting the streets of the hometown of pop's most eligible young bachelor.  Paul Morley of ZTT Records got married on St Valentine's Day to Claudia of Propaganda - in Acapulco.  He and his German bride flew to Bali for their honeymoon and managed to return to Paul's mansion in downtown Chorley the very next day.
Smash Hits Competition, 5 June 1985
Propaganda, those sexy German devils, have given Bitz lots of records and things featuring themselves with not very many clothes on.  There's 15 picture discs, for instance, which, apart from featuring the best song in the history of the known world, "Duel", has this wicked snap of them plastered all over it.  As do the 15 mammoth posters - lots of naked shoulders smeared in paint, you know the sort of thing.

And then there's the 15 "Duel" double packs (very rare and featuring a single of - double gasp - unreleased material!) which has a picture of the singer Claudia in a tubular steel vest (and nowt else... eek!).  Bit much for the old blood pressure, what?  So if you like all things naughty, as those tykes at ZTT seem to, you might like to try and answer this question and win the lot.  Here it is:

Which of the following are not signed to ZTT: a) Instinct b) The Cult c) Anne Pigalle or d) Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin?

Answers on a postcard to Smash Hits Propaganda Competition, 52-55 Carnaby Street, London W1V 1PF.  Get them here by June 18.
Gucci, Gucci, Gander (Review of A Secret Wish), NME 6 July 1985
Michael, Suzanne, Ralph and Claudia, according to their corporation's press release, did not want to stay stuck in Dusseldorf where they'd only be appreciated by a handful of "worth but dull" journalists, even if it meant being photographed by Smash Hits and Bravo.

But it turns out that when Claudia and Suzanne get photographed for Just Seventeen fashion spreads, they are a deal more inspiring as an idea than when they are wrapped in Barthes, Moretti and Benjamin, worthy but dull stars of the sleevenote scene.  Gazing upon the unaffected twosome whilst listening to the immaculately straightforward melody on their 'Duel' ( a song which halts you in your tracks), a comparison starts to nag.

Non-English voices singing in English are so much more appealing than British or American ones.  Because the words don;t seem to come so glibly, there's the implication that they are more sincerely meant, which is why Abba get away with singing such drivel.  It is the Abba factor that makes Propaganda so promising as a major pop happening.  And if the following consideration seems to concentrate, as usual, on the females' impact rather than the males', it's because I refuse to discuss Herr Dorper and Herr Mertens because they look as if they've come to take your teeth out.

The actual music, when Claudia is not singing or Suzanne pronouncing, varies from some inexcusably horrid jazzy twiddling in 'Murder of Love' to the sublime gliding trumpet in 'Dream Within A Dream'.  You kind of hope that having given us two dazzling singles, they will abstain from practising rock music, but no.  Should one feel betrayed?

The album's fragile overture, 'Dream Within A Dream', where Suzanne gives a reading which suggests a female Ariel, comes to set the spell for the rest of the proceedings.  A stately, almost medieval affair, spoken over a muted chorus of heavenly sounding hosts, it builds up to a finely Wagnerian crescendo where the effect is one of a credible Nico.  The LP ends on a variation of this theme, 'The Strength To Dream', a forest of synthesised violins being rained on by a steady downpour.  It's not long before they throw in some bloody great thunderclaps, a cutely kitschy goodbye.  SOmeone ought to make a compilation of the 20 best rain effects on record, and the weather can take the place that culture has so long denied it.

When will someone make an assemble-it-yourself LP, one where you can dispense with all the tracks that ruin the mood of a colection?  Then we could extract all the blaring majesty and "exciting, complicated" rhythms, leaving us with just 'Duel', their debut 'Dr Mabuse', the 'Dream' sequences and their slower but taller treatment of Josef K's 'Sorry For Laughing'.

Given that the cover boasts some truly compelling photos (especially the one where they are all pulling faces like angry marmosets), 'A Secret Wish' could have been a lethal weapon.  Never mind.  We can at least console ourselves with the knowledge that any adolescent girls who grow up wanting to be Claudia and Suzanne will make this world a better place.
No. 1 interview - 24 August 1985
Claudia Brucken and Suzanne Freytag, the vocal and visual front half of Propaganda's pantomime horse are not just partners in crime. Suzanne and Claudia have been close friends for the past five years, ever since they were introduced at a friend's house in Dusseldorf.

Despite an age difference of six years the pair warmed to each other's diverse personalities. Claudia is the impulsive, inquisitive and headstong one who recently married ZTT media man Paul Morley. Suzanne is the quieter more experienced figure who's still single.

Now, Propaganda's third single P. Machinery is grinding up the chart and the band have just returned from their first American visit.

In between discovering that Suzanne was stricken with a nasty sinus complaint and that Claudia had spent five days living on chips and salad, we found time to ask them a few saucy questions.

THE FIRST LIFE
What are you like the morning after the night before?
S: Claudia is usually quite bad tempered, especially if she hasn't had enough sleep.
C: It takes me some time to wake up. Hours. I don't like seeing Suzanne first thing and I don't like her to see me.
S: By six pm I'm just about with it...
C: The night time is the best time for us both.

What are your favourite pick-me-ups?
C: Champagne in moderation. I don't need a drink to wake up and I avoid hard drink like whisky.
S: I like Irish whiskey. It has to be Irish because it's smoother than Scotch. I drink vodka too.

THE CHASE
Do you have a favourite expression, something you say all the time?
S: Claudia's is a German phrase "Und ich weiss nicht was" which means "I dunno and so on and so on..."
C: I say that at the end of sentences, it's like your blah blah blah, an expression I hate but amjust getting used to. Suzanne's are more common ones like "Oh yeah" and "you know".

If you were invited to appear on Mastermind what would your specialist subjects be?
C: If I were I'd choose the works of Caspar David Friedrich, a l9th century writer. S: I'm interested in lots of subjects but mostly literature. I like Klaus Mann, Hoffman. I read in English sometimes. I like Katherine Mansfield's short stories and I've started to read Graham Greene.
C: We read lots of hard stuff at school in English. Books by Baldwin, Harold Pinter, and Samuel Beckett but that was to study and analyse the language. For pleasure I've just read Sartre's The Game Is Over and more recently Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose.

Do you know each other's favourite food?
S: Claudia is a vegetarian, she just lives on chips and salad.
C: (staring hard at her friend) That's because they don't have fresh vegetables in America. We both love Japanese food at the moment, it's a passion. I like tempura and prawns. Suzanne likes sushi (raw fish) and Italian food.

Are you good cooks?
C: Suzanne's cooking could, erm, develop a bit more. The last meal she cooked for me was 18 months ago, spaghetti bolognese. It was alright.
S: Claudia is a good cook, well quite good. She makes a mean mushroom soup and her vegetable soup is a good standby.

Do you enjoy housework?
S: What? Like hoovering? I don't know anyone who does. I hate cleaning floors and clearing up dirty bathrooms.
C: I'm not exactly over fond but I'll do it if I have to.

SECRET WISHES
What sort of men do you like?
S: No special type. I wouldn't say I go for blond men with blue eyes. It depends on things like their expression, their personality and interests.
C: I like extreme men, ones who are extrovert. I like the eccentric male personality. Not many people have those characteristics. I respect people with different attitudes.
S: I don't mind eccentricity if it comes from within, if it's honest. I don't like role players.

What are each other's preferred styles of clothing?
S: She likes baggy things always. Yes?
C: That's right, comfy clothes. I don't want to feel restricted. The tight white dreas with the feathered ahoulders I wear in the `P. Machinery' video is something that Paul (Morley) bought for me from a guy near Portobello Road.
S: I like formal straight lines. I used to wear baggier garments and lots of trousers. Now I prefer dresses and skirts.

Is Claudia a good singer, Suzanne?
S: (not batting an eyelid ) Mmmm, yes I think she is.
C: Suzanne is not exactly a good singer but she has a good way of expressing herself, a strong character to her voice.
S: Thank you, how sweet.

DUEL
Do you have many arguments?
S: Oh yeah, all the time. Claudia often says things I disagree with. The problem arises when you spend so much time together, and then the travelling gets on everyone's nerves. First we shout and then we don't talk and then we forget it.
C: I sulk if I think I'm in the right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe that isn't sulking, maybe I'm just angry.

SORRY FOR LAUGHING
Do you enjoy a good sulk Suzanne?
S: Of course, but nobody likes to admit to it. I tend to want to be alone. If I'm pissed off I don't want to see anyone.
C: It's different if you sulk like a little child to get attention.
S: If you take the piss out of Claudia she gets mad. At times she can't laugh at herself. You've really annoyed her now.
C: (annoyed) I'm not annoyed! I can laugh at myself! Depends on my mood. I need distance. Sometimes I'm laughing at myself and people just don't realise.

Are you ever silly with each other?
C: Suzanne can be. We take the piss most out of Ralf (Dorper) because he is so German and so straight. A bank man who writes pop lyrics? I think that's very stupid and funny. Actually, Suzanne isn't stupid too often. She's very sensible which can be very boring.

FOR ARTISTS ONLY
Do you see yourselves as artists?
C: Never. In Germany if you use that expression you're being pretentious. If I say "I'm an artist", people laugh.
S: It's an English misunderstanding. A musician is a musician. An artist is someone who paints.
C: Tell me that George Michael is an artist and I'd disagree. He is a very clever songwriter and a very bad singer but what he's doing is not artistic...

What would you do if a waiter spilt hot tomato soup all over you?
S: Claudia would freak out and swear a lot in German.
C: So would Suzanne but she'd swear a bit less.

Are you friendly to strangers?
C: Suzanne is very friendly
S: Claudia isn't. She'll let people know if she isn't interested in them. She's more cautious and I'm more open.

THE LAST WORD
Has success changed Propaganda?
C: I hope not. One thing I value is my private life which I try to keep separate from work.

What does the other look like with wet hair, say after swimming?
S: Huh?
C: She looks like a wet fish?
S: Right! She looks like a drowned rat!
C: Thanks. I didn't exactly see myself as a drowned rat.

What are your favourite possessions?
S: Her hats collection
C: True, I've got about ten. My best hat is one I can only wear in winter. It's black with a yellow knitted tube bit like a hairpiece that blows about in the wind.
S: Well, I love my bed. That is my favourite possession. I don't collect anything as a hobby. I prefer making things like jewellery. I trained as a goldsmith. I enjoy making brooches and chains.

They read books, too? Adam Sweeting on good Propaganda from Germany - The Guardian Interview - Autumn 1985

"I think for England we are a very exotic thing", said Claudia Brucken, one quarter of Dusseldorf's most celebrated export, Propaganda. She's quite right, Propaganda's alchemical fusion of Germanic classicism with panoramic pop is a deluxe potion in any language. If Phil Spector had been German, he still wouldn't have been as good as this.

Propaganda divide neatly down the middle between the girls, Claudia and the sylph-like Suzanne Freytag, and the boys, Ralf Dorper and Michael Mertens. Mertens somehow still manages to be the percussionist with the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, while Dorper works in a bank in the same city.

Suzanne has an alternative career as a goldsmith when she can make the time, which leaves Claudia as the group's only full-time pop person. She's married to Paul Morley, eminence grise of the group's record label ZTT and a man who has devoted years, as journalist and entrepreneur, to devising ways of poking the music business in the eye.

Propaganda begin their first-ever tour this weekend widing up at Hammersmith Palais on November 7. They'll be augmented by drummer Brian McGee and bass player Derek Forbes who, once upon a time, comprised the rhythm section of Simple Minds. It's probably no coincidence that Propaganda's first and so far only album, A Secret Wish, often recalls the symphonic grandeur driven by a cool electronic heart which Simple Minds perfected on albums like Sons and Fascination.

Propaganda first shimmered into view with 1984's single Dr Mabuse, a Faustian piece of work suggesting illicit pleasure culminating in inevitable damnation. At once, the group had begun to imply a broader cultural base that pop music is accustomed to. Could it really be true that they read books?

When A Secret Wish appeared in July, glasses were raised almost everywhere. It contained Duel, the magnificent hit single which had preceded it, while the literary hints were expanded upon by the opening track Dreams Within A Dream based on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

"Michael wrote the music for Dreams Within A Dream, and I think you can see the classical influence from the opera," mused Claudia. "The music was written, then we saw this poem and thought it fitted the music so well, and it would be a very good introduction to our first album. And it brings everything into question - what we're doing, why we're here."

With the insane commercial bubble of Frankie Goes To Hollywood perilously close to bursting, ZTT (allegedly on the lookout for a buyer for the Frankies) applied shoulders to the wheel on Propaganda's behalf. Production credits for the album went to Steve Lipson, but ZTT's musical director Trevor Horn had kept a close watch on progress in the studio.

"If he doesn't like something, he won't allow it to go out," Claudia confessed. "Sometimes he pops into the studio and says 'play me what you did', and he'll say 'mmm, okay' or 'no, that's rubbish!'".

ZTT release Propaganda's new five-track EP in early November, called Wishful Thinking, and comprising remixes and some previously unissued material. It remains to be seen whether Propaganda can elude ZTT's tiresome penchant for cerebral games-playing.

They've already run into a spot of trouble over a quote from novelist J.G. Ballard which appeared on the sleeve of their single P-Machinery, referring to the origins of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group. Ariola, who distribute their records in Germany, insisted on the quote being removed.

According to Suzanne, "We did not choose the word 'Propaganda' because in Germany it has got a fascistic background."

Claudia added, defiantly: "I think if you have a name like Propaganda, you have to do propaganda. You can't be wishy-washy like Tears for Fears or Wham!" There's an ongoing debate within the group about objectives and how they should be achieved. But there's no mistaking the clear authoritative voice of Propaganda's music.

Propaganda's Tour, NME 5 October 1985
Propaganda have been preparing for their live debut, and are now all set to go.  They begin their first ever tour later this month, taking in ten venues around the country. - at Manchester Ritz (17 October), Norwich East Anglia University (29), Nottingham Rock City (30), Leeds University (31), Liverpool Royal Court (1 November), Glasgow Barrowlands (2), Coventry Polytechnic (4), Birmingham Powerhouse (5), Leicester Polytechnic (6) and London Hammersmith Palais (7).  London tickets are £4.50 (advance), £5 (doors); prices vary elsewhere.

Footnote by Phil Stubbs: Propaganda's first gig (which I attended) was in fact at Salford University Maxwell Hall, and not at the bouncy-floored Ritz. And it was on 27 October 1985.
Edited by Phil Stubbs. Back to ZTT main page.