Trio History ("We're drifting further...")

Trio were:

Stephan Remmler: voc, casio
Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel: git
Peter Behrens: dr

Trio from Großenkneten (North Germany) celebrated their biggest commercial success in the early 80s during the "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Wave). Their biggest hit was "Da da da", released in April 1982.

They didn't need very much to achieve their success:

Stephan Remmler celebrated very cool spoken lyrics half English, half German , guitar player Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel played just the basic notes on his Fender guitar and avoided any kind of solo, while stand-up-drummer Peter Behrens used a very reduced drum-kit (just bassdrum, snare, hi-hat and one cymbal). Furthermore Stephan Remmler sometimes played a couple of childish toy-instruments.

This very spare instrumentation told the confused listener the secret concept behind Trio: They tried to reduce various styles of music to an absolute minimum. This musical minimalism was intended to show the very essence of a song, by leaving out the whole masquerade (thick production and arrangements). Some people interpreted this as comedy - but they were definitely wrong.

From 1981 to 1985 Trio released three studio-albums, a live-cassette and an unsuccessful movie. There also were many single-releases in Germany and world-wide. The minimalistic concept can be heard at its best on the first album ("Trio", 1981).

In 1981 Trio were known just to few people, but in the following years they became some kind of cult - and they still are today.

After the split-up (1985) only Stephan Remmler was successful as solo-artist.

Detailed history:

Stephan Remmler and "Kralle" Krawinkel became local heroes in Northern Germany in the late 60s with their band "Just Us" (a.k.a. "MacBeats"). They played a two-week engagement in the world-famous "Star Club" in Hamburg. "Just Us" split up in 1969 and Remmler and Kralle went separate ways. Kralle formed his own band "Cravinkel", which released two albums in the early 70s. Stephan Remmler recorded two singles under the pseudonym "Rex Carter". Neither of them had any success. During these years Peter Behrens played the drums in a psychedelic rockband ("Silberbart") and also released one album in 1971. The three guys knew each other.

After having no success both Stephan Remmler and Kralle studied and became teachers at the university of Oldenburg. Kralle still played in a band called "The Emsland Hillbillies". Together with the bass-player of this band (Horst Bösing) and an unknown drummer he founded with Stephan Remmler a band called "Wind". They lived together in a rented house in Großenkneten (address: Regenter Straße 10a). "Wind" recorded a simple demotape but didn't play any gig. After Horst Bösing left the group in 1979 Stephan Remmler and Kralle had new plans for the future...

In 1980 they searched for a drummer via ads in a couple of newspapers. A few people applied for the job. Before each applicant was allowed to play drums, he had to drink a Bommerlunder with the other two. When Peter Behrens showed up, they never got past the drinking. They became friends, and from now on Behrens was the drummer. Before that he had worked as a circus clown. In the end, they decided against taking a bass player into the band, as they thought their sound was much more interesting without a bass and named themselves "Trio".

After a long period of rehearsing they played their first gig at their usual hangout "Gasthaus Kempermann", where later they shot their promotion-video for "Da da da". In February 1981 they released a rare self-produced 10"-mini-album (featuring the songs "Lady-O-Lady", "Sunday You Need Love" and "Broken Hearts For You And Me –live-"). Especially because of their concerts they became an insider tip in Northern Germany.

In 1981 Klaus O.W. Voormann returned from the USA. Voormann was an intimate friend of the Beatles. He had known them for a long time before their breakthrough in the early 60s. After the tragic death of John Lennon in October 1980, for whom he played bass to the very end, he returned to his German roots and had a try as talent scout and producer for the German major label Phonogram. He heard of Trio and decided to produce them. In October 1981 the first album of Trio was released. It was simply titled "Trio" and was recorded on a 16-track-tape-machine in an old pigbarn. Curiously their private address and phone number (+49 4435 / 2300) was stamped in big letters onto the front of the plain white record-sleeve. The album is still one of the most important records from Germany of all times ever. To promote the album Trio chose the direct way: In the afternoon they played short gigs in German record stores, in the evening they toured the clubs. In spite of this funny idea the record didn't sell very well.

During this tour the song "Da da da" was written. It found its way onto the already released album in a second edition (in fact a third edition; the very first rare edition featured a bonus-single) and was also released as single plus a 12” extended version. They recorded the song together with Dieter Meyer ("Yello") in a studio near Zurich. The backings were performed by Anete Humpe - singer of the German band "Ideal" from Berlin. The “Ideal”-drummer performed some percussion on the recording. "Da da da ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" became one of the biggest hits of the "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Wave). It reached number 2 in the German single-charts. The single was a world-wide success, too. It was released in 30 countries. It reached number 7 in the UK-single-charts. In Europe alone 3 million copies were sold. For the non-German-speaking countries an English version was recorded (“Da Da Da I Don’t Love You You Don’t Love Me Aha Aha Aha”). Trio became really big in Brazil and Canada. One of the reasons might have been, that “Da Da Da” meant “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me” in Brazil...

Trio became even bigger in Germany. One of the reasons were their regular appearances on the "ZDF Hitparade" hosted by Dieter-Thomas Heck. On that show musicians of the Neue Deutsche Welle had already pushed aside the interprets of Schlager music (cheese).  It obviously attracted a lot of attention that during the broadcasts of "Hitparade" Peter Behrens was eating apples instead of playing drums to the playback-tape. For each appearance on the show they came up with a new joke. Stephan Remmler, for instance made an impression with his neverending supply of tasteless glasses.

A bunch of concerts followed. They played in some European countries and were seen in "Top Of The Pops" in the UK. After they already had played a TV-show in February 1982, some other shows followed. They never wanted to be labeled "Neue Deutsche Welle" (Neue Deutsche Welle) and created another description for their music: "New German Happiness".

Most people thought that Trio was just a pure comedy-band. But they were wrong. Even if they were funny - they didn't want to be. Trio just wanted to show the simple components of popular music. They shut out the whole masquerade and reduced all kinds of music to a basic minimum. Trio didn't use heavy recording-techniques, there was no reverb, no delay, no light show, no complicated melodies. They stole all illusion from music.

In October 1982 the second single "Anna - Lassmichrein lassmichraus" was released, but it wasn't included on the album "Trio". It reached number 3 on the German single-charts and was also released world-wide in an English version ("Anna - Letmein letmeout"). During the same time a live-tape was released. It really was only available on cassette (in 1992 it was re-released on CD). Apart from live-versions of the well known songs from the first album, they presented a couple of very strange shortstories. For example they presented their personal plastic lovedoll “Carmen” on stage and explained to the audience that a waterball works out far better than a lovedoll. After they had published their private address on the first album, they decided to do so with the number of their bank-account. This earned them about 100 Deutsche Mark, which they gave to Greenpeace.

In June 1982 they played their last gig in Germany but continued to play on some TV-shows.

In December 1982 they were seen on a big TV-show, which was a world-wide live-broadcast. They performed “The final version of Da Da Da”, which was a combination of “Dance Little Bird” and “Da Da Da”. They also played a basic version of their yet to be released song “Tooralooralooraloo”, supported by an orchestra and a female choir.

In late-1982 Trio rented a lonely house in Switzerland to compose and record new songs. A new album had to be released soon . The first result followed in May 1983: a single called "Bum bum". To promote this single, an expensive shortmovie was shot in Spain. The clip featured Domenica, the most popular prostitute from Hamburg. Her gigantic tits can be seen on the front cover of the single - the words "BUM BUM" written in lipstick onto both of them. "Bum bum" was released in English, too ("Boom Boom"). This single reached the US-record-stores, after "Da da da" and "Anna" had failed. "Boom Boom" underwent a special remix for the American listeners.

But the second album ("Bye Bye") came out quite late in autumn 1983. The sleeve was plain white again and contained eight separate fields reserved for commercial ads. Every edition of the album (six were released) received more and more ads. Neither "Bum bum" nor "Anna" were included on the album in their first versions. Both songs were heard in new recordings. "Bye Bye" was released in various forms world-wide. On some international pressings "Da da da" was included again. In Germany the songs and the running order of the songs on the album changed with every edition.

"Bye Bye" was released in Canada and USA under the title "Trio And Error". Their producer Klaus Voormann introduced Trio to his old friend Yoko Ono. On the German edition of the album (and only there) a cover-version of a Yoko-Ono-Song was performed ("Wake Up"). This song was the only German support for a album that contained only Ono-compositions (US-release only).

With their second album Trio began to drift away from their minimalistic concept. Only few songs sounded similar to the first album. Most songs now had a bassguitar, few an organ, strings, female choir and a couple of guest musicians. The album was never performed live in Germany, but three singles were released: "Herz ist Trumpf", "Turaluraluralu" and "Tutti Frutti". The last single wasn't successful anymore. All three singles were released in English, too: "Hearts Are Trump", "Tooralooralooraloo" and "Tutti Frutti".

In winter 1983 Trio played a short tour in the USA and Canada. Yoko Ono was seen in the audience, as they played at Madison Square Garden. The concert was reviewed by the New York Times (“Excellent!”).

In Germany they didn't play live at all. They also didn't appear on TV. Peter told in an interview, that there were plans to tour with an circustent – but this never happened. In 1984 things became very silent around Trio. Stephan Remmler and Peter Behrens left the house in Großenkenten - bored of the never ending busloads of visitors. Peter went to Baden-Baden and Stephan found a new home near Munich. Only Kralle stayed in Großenkneten. Trio went on holidays and followed some solo-activities. Kralle joined the band around Marius Müller-Westernhagen. Stephan released a single titled "Feuerwerk" (also released in English as "Fireworks" and Spanish "Fuegos Artificiales"), which he performed with a nine years old girl “Nina” (in fact: Angela Smecca). Peter had a first try as an actor in the movie "André schafft sie alle". Peter was charged with driving under influence of alcohol and went to jail for four months.

In late 1984 they met again. When the promotion-clip for "Bum bum" was shot the idea of a movie with Trio came up. So in 1985 Trio shot a 100-minute-movie directed by Dominik Graf and produced by Bernd Eichinger. The budget was 5 million Deutsche Mark. The movie was titled "Drei gegen Drei" (“Three against Three”) and was premiered in September 1985. Of course, Trio performed the soundtrack, containing the title-song "Drei gegen Drei", and "Wahnsinn" (“Madness”) and "My Sweet Angel".

But the movie was a giant flop. He was released on video-tape and was seen just one time on German Television.

At the same time Trio released their last studio-album "Whats the Password". It contained the three songs from the movie and a couple of other songs. The sound of the album was far away from the minimalistic concept. The instrumentation was unlimited. The sleeve shows Trio holding each other in their arms. But Peter Behrens wasn't involved in the production at all. He was replaced with Curt Cress, a well known German drummer. The album also featured the sisters Inga and Anete Humpe. Three singles were released ("Drei gegen Drei", "Ready For You" and "My Sweet Angel"). None of them reached the charts, neither did the album.

After this flop Trio split up in 1985. Stephan Remmler later said that the minimalistic concept had been pushed to a death end. The possibilities to play music just with guitar and drums were far too limited. They didn't want to split forever. They planned to meet again after a couple of months, but they never did.

Stephan Remmler found a new home in Switzerland to work on his solo-career. He had the biggest commercial success in Germany after the split-up. His biggest hits were "Keine Sterne in Athen" and "Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei". “Keine Sterne in Athen” was released in English, too (“I Don’t Go To U.S.A.”) and topped the charts on the Phillipines (guess why...). He continued to release a couple of albums. In 1996 he left the music business. In 2003 he produced a few songs for his three sons Cecil Jonni and Lauro. Their first single "Everybody Cha Cha" reached position 28 in the single-charts. Cecil, Jonni and Lauro re-released also a new version of "Da da da".

Kralle continued to play the guitar for various artists. In 1989 he left as the last Trio-member the house in Großenkneten and now lives in Berlin and spends a lot of time in Spain. In 1993 he released an excellent solo-album and supported Stephan Remmler on a couple of concerts. But they didn’t perform together. He managed to get an entry in the Guiness Book Of Records for having the longest ride on a horse ever.

Peter Behrens released a handful unsuccessful singles. One single should be mentioned: A German version of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" titled “Dep De Dö Dep” which Vega liked very much. As he later said he spent all the money he earned with Trio on alcohol, drugs and prostitutes. 1995 he worked again as a clown in a circus. Later he took care of Aids-victims in Wilhelmshaven. Until 2003 he played drums in an unknown band called "Alec, Mike & Peter". He developed into a good example for a fallen star and attended some TV-shows in this role. Peter Behrens was unemployed again and again and lives today in Wilhelmshaven in a small flat right above a pub.

After the split-up of Trio a best-of-album was released in 1986, laconically titled "Trio 1981-1985 Fünf Jahre zuviel" ("Five Years Too Much"). Their biggest hits were released in extended versions. No one wanted to buy it and it never entered the charts.

Things went very silent around Trio for almost a decade. No one cared about them. A lot of cover-versions of “Da Da Da” were released, mostly techno remixes.

In 1997 a commercial for Volkswagen was released in the USA which featured "Da da da". The song became quite famous in the USA. The 1983-release of "Trio And Error" was re-released on CD ("Da Da Da") with some changes in running order.

Around the Millennium the 80es became quite popular again in Germany. The German musician Herbert Grönemeyer recorded his own version of "Da da da" for his project "Pop 2000" which reached the charts. As he said, he always has been a fan of Trio and wished to record a Trio-song for quite a long time. Soon, a new best-of-Trio-CD was released, this time titled "Triologie".

In 2001 there were rumors that Trio were going to reunite. Kralle and Peter really wanted to. Two songs were recorded, but not released. The record company wanted the new Trio to sound like "Da da da". But Peter and Kralle had other intentions and the idea didn’t develop any further. By the way, Stephan Remmler didn't want a reunion of Trio.

2003 was a very good year for Trio-fans. In summer a DVD was released which featured all their promotion-clips - even some unreleased ones. The climax was an expensive double-CD-set ("Trio Deluxe Edition") which contained a remastered release of their first album plus lots of bonus tracks. The webmaster of this website supported this re-release.

In summer 2004 an indie-label from Kiel released a Trio-Tribute-CD.