Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk are a german Krautrock/Electronic band from Düsseldorf.

History
Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider first met at the Robert Schumann Hochschule during the late 1960s. They joined the band Organisation and released the album Tone Float in 1969. After this they formed the Kraftwerk.

Early lineups of the band varied frequently, as 6 musicians joined and left the band from between 1970 and 1974 (notable musicians who joined the band during this time include Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, who left to form Neu!. The first two Kraftwerk albums (Kraftwerk and Kraftwerk 2) are free-form Krautrock and the third album (Ralf Und Florian) introduced synthesizers to the group's sound. These first three albums were produced by Conny Plank.

Autobahn introduced the band to critical success, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Top 200. After this, the band spent money updating their studio, meaning that they could now produce their own albums.

In 1975, Kraftwerk were able to embark on a large tour of the USA to promote 'Autobahn'. This tour brought the band to countries such as America, Canada and the UK for the first time. On this tour Hütter and Schneider played keyboard parts on synthesizers, and new members Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos played percussion on home-made percussion instruments. The band embarked on another tour in 1976 to promote Radio-Aktivität - when the tour was completed the band decided to stop live performances.

In 1981, during the recording of the Computerwelt album, the band began to modify the Kling Klang studio in order to bring the studio on tour, which they did later in 1981. The Computerwelt tour also was notable for the introduction of visual elements such as slideshows and films to Kraftwerk shows. This tour also introduced the famous practise of having mannequins on stage to 'perform' the song 'Die Roboter'.

After the Computerwelt tour, Hütter encouraged the other members of the band to become vegetarians and to take up cycling. He also wanted to record a whole album based around cycling, but the rest of the band did not like this idea, and they decided to only record a single - Tour De France. During the recording of this single Hütter was involved in a serious accident where he suffered head injuries and slipped into a coma. Around the same time Wolfgang Flür left the band and was replaced by Fritz Hilpert.

In 1990 the band played a few 'secret' shows in Italy. During this time Karl Bartos left the band. In 1991 the band went on a full scale tour to promote the remix album The Mix. For this tour the band recruited engineer Fernando Abrantes to replace Bartos. However, this lineup was short lived as Abrantes left shortly afterwards. He was replaced by sound engineer Henning Schmitz to complete the remainder of the tour.

After the 1991 tour, the band played a concert at the Tribal Gathering festival in 1997, and in 1998 they toured countries such as Japan and America for the first time since the Computerwelt tour. The band took another break after this tour, with the only output from the band during this time was the Expo 2000 single.

In 2003, the band recorded their first album of new material since 2003 - Tour De France Soundtracks. Before the album was released, the band embarked on a large tour (called 'Minimum-Maximum', based on a line from the song 'Elektro Kardiogramm'). This time the band chose to perform using Sony VAIO laptops, instead of taking the Kling Klang studio on the road again.

In 2008, Florian Schneider left the band. He was replaced by video technician Stefan Pfaffe. Pfaffe left the band in 2012.

In 2012, the band began their ongoing 3D concert tour, entitled 'Kraftwerk - Retrospective 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8'. These shows usually take place over eight nights, where the band play one of their studio albums each night. This tour has recently been extended for another twelve dates, beginning on the 16th September 2015 and ending on the 9th October.

Influences
Kraftwerk are known to have influenced multiple artists, including many synth-pop acts who had success during the 1980s, such Gary Numan, Ultravox, John Foxx, OMD, The Human League, Visage, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell.

Trivia
In 1976, David Bowie asked the band to be the support act on his Isolar tour, but they declined.

During the recording of the Computerwelt album, no members of the band owned a personal computer, nor was there one in their studio.

The vocals for the song 'Tour De France' were recorded on the stairs of the Kling Kland studio.

The band are very reclusive, going to the point where the telephone in the Kling Klang Studio has no ringer (to prevent noise pollution). Instead, callers are asked to call at a certain time, where Ralf Hütter will answer the phone.

Discography
See: Kraftwerk Discography

Live Performances
See: List of known Kraftwerk live performances