- The 2025 anniversary tour
Rock'n'blues with history and a view to the future.
It was back then: In January 1975, five young men took to the stage of a pub in Mahlow near Berlin. Their name was ENGERLING, said the pub owner and added: "Well, they won't get far with that name ..." He was around 50 - I wonder if he lived to be 100? Engerling turns 50 and is fortunately still not a cockchafer, because as we all know, they don't live very long!
Somehow, Engerling haven't really fitted in anywhere over the years and yet have managed to remain true to themselves and their audience. For the GDR cultural functionaries, the band around pianist and songwriter Wolfram Bodag seemed too far removed from the ideal image of song-like rock "as an independent GDR contribution to international music culture" to really make it big. Blues purists, on the other hand, criticized the lack of authenticity of a blues band that cared little about adhering to the original twelve-bar pattern and instead mixed blues elements with rock and soul elements at will or even got carried away with long improvisations that would have fit much better in the psychedelic flower power camp.
For 50 years, the East German band has persistently honed its own style with intelligent lyrics on the borderline between German rock and blues and has thus earned itself a loyal, but not at all "Ostalgic" audience.
"Earthy honesty! Their May bug name sounds like a chronic stage of development. But what better description for a band? Engerling and their broad concept of blues have been scoring points with originality since 1975. The anniversary performance of the eastern formation is live - strong!" (Events, 2021)
In 2005, a fine 5CD box set with all five studio albums and all three singles was released. A new studio album by Engerling is in the works. Rock legend Mitch Ryder from Detroit, USA, has also made use of the band's musical qualities for 30 years by touring Europe (D, A, CH, B, NL, F, E, SE) with Engerling. In 2004, the joint DVD "At Rockpalast" was released (since April 2012 as a double DVD with the complete concerts and interviews), in 2024 Mitch Ryder & Engerling released their 10th CD and in the same year they went on tour together for the 26th time: the "30th Anniversary Tour" (1994-2024).
