UK Bluegrass circa.1975 - The Echo Mt.Band.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Here's a clip of Bill Clifton playing in Germany during 1975.The band with Bill is the band that he founded when he came over to live in the UK - 'The Echo Mt.Band'. The Mandolin player is the Late Andy Townend,who i first saw when he came up to Manchester (UK) with Bill when he was 12/13 years old & who was possibly the best Bluegrass Mandolin player in the UK at the time,he was certainly one of the first i ever saw. Andy sadly passed away after a short illness in 1998 - who knows what he would have been like as a player now !. I only met Andy a couple of times,but the Banjo player in the clip,Andy's brother,Richard (Rick) i still know very well,& he's also a superb Fiddle & Mandolin player in his own right
Ivan;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXbCy-6JW9s

PS - I should add a note here,to say that another UK 'Cafe member, "Sprucetop1", e-mailed me with the info.on this.

[grassrootphilosopher]

As you may have noticed, there is a sign in the background that reads "Musikladen". This refers to a TV-show from the German TV-station Radio Bremen. The "Musikladen" was basically a rock/pop TV-show that sported the "hot" music of the day. They devoted a whole (live) show to Bill Clifton. That was the mid 70ies... In the early 70ies (it must have been around ´72) when the "Musikladen" was still called "Beat Club" they had the Birds with an astounding Clarence White burning up "Soldier´s Joy" (wrongly announced as Black Mountain Rag). Them were the day´s to watch bluegrass on German television.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've come across quite a few DVD's of 'older' stuff put out by a German record label (can't remember which one). Also going back quite a few years,when there were still US armed forces bases in Germany,there was a lot of 'country' music going on over there. I went to see the Stanley Brothers at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1966. They & the whole show were actually on their way to Germany to tour the bases over there amongst other gigs. Many 'Country & Western' bands from the UK went to Germany as well,during that period to do the same thing. From what you've said above GRP,there was a heck of a lot more 'country' music on German TV than there's ever been on UK TV,
Ivan:(