In general, seemed like they had fun playing Pocket Calculator, especially with how Florian and Ralf let the up-close audience have a quick turn at playing their instruments. Plus Karl is smiling quite a bit too, but I think it could be because he's seen the camera on stage and either can't keep in character knowing he's going to have his dancing seen by people on TV or because he was just having so much fun.
I read in Karl's book that Florian came up with the idea for Pocket Calculator when he brought a bag of toy instruments to the studio one day. It's the one song where he was clearly having fun in concerts. Seems he had a nice sense of humour. I can think of a couple of videos where Florian was goofing around. His mad scientist smile on BBC's Tomorrow's World in 1975. He gave bunny ears to the moderator at Discoring in 1981. He did silly air guitar poses during Pocket Calculator in New York in 1998. The audience loved it. He slowed down the robovox during Autobahn in Paris 2002 until Fritz next to him started laughing... Florian's Silverstar Club 1988 interview is also entertaining. He demonstrated the TI Language Translator he used in 1981 to do the computer voices on Numbers etc. He was cool and unique. It's inspiring. RIP Florian
Such a shame they abandoned this fantastic setup for laptops and hiding behind consoles that show nothing. When the curtains opened the audience gasped. And rightly so.
While I agree with you, it's understandable really; one of the synths they used back in the day (the EMS Synthi-A) runs around $21,000 at a minimum today and most of the stuff they used on this tour isn't cheap either, whereas digital is slightly less of a pain in the ass to deal with in some cases, so it's either pack up a bunch of synths that cost insane amounts of money and hope they don't get broken, stolen, or die onstage, or upgrade with the times out of pragmatism.
@@RampinUp46 not that they actually fiddled with the equipment in old Kling Klang while on stage. Only very few times, and in the dark, with little torches. Much of the equipment seemed to be there just for show, like the EMS vocoder 5000. And the big sequencer on the left behind Hütter was only functioning during The Robots.
I feel there were certain rhythmic irregularities in Kraftwerk's concerts that made the music so exciting to me. A big part of this was manually played percussion. In the 70s, in 1981 and from 1990 to 1992 they had live percussion on many tracks and it created an exciting, slightly irregular rhyhtm to the music that was missing in later concerts. The 2nd big change came in 2002. The feel of the music changed drastically when they abandoned hardware synths. Now every note is set in stone with perfect computerised precision, and let's be honest, it is boring. I understand why they do it, it made playing concerts much easier to no longer have to carry their huge Kling Klang Studio around with them. But musically it's a downgrade in many ways. Listening to earlier concerts I find myself hooked to the rhythms in a way that is no longer possible with the laptops.
Saw these guys in Sydney 1981, next 2003 at Big Day Out Concert in Sydney, again 2013 Sydney Opera House 3D concert, looking forward to seeing these guys in Brisbane this year, looooooove their music
@@_ifstcuvifugig Since Kraftwerk influenced Africa Bambatta with the haunting, futuristic apocalyptic rhythms and break dancers in the US danced to Kraftwerk at the time, Kraftwerk was considered to be part of the instrumental hip hop genre like this song - ruclips.net/video/oXPpng1dQag/видео.html.
i have to disagree mate, rap payed homage to kraftwerk in its early days, and it evolved and morphed as every genre does. admittedly i’m a bigger fan of kraftwerk than i am of rap but things change and that’s cool! kraftwerk were and always will be the godfathers of modern music.
1 Numbers
2 Computer World
3 Pocket Calculator
4 The Robots
5 Home Computer
Anyone who witnessed these shows in person was fucking blessed.
Fucking true!
I did!!
Florian impersonating the calculator sounds while looking at the camera had me laughing..
RIP Florian
In general, seemed like they had fun playing Pocket Calculator, especially with how Florian and Ralf let the up-close audience have a quick turn at playing their instruments.
Plus Karl is smiling quite a bit too, but I think it could be because he's seen the camera on stage and either can't keep in character knowing he's going to have his dancing seen by people on TV or because he was just having so much fun.
I read in Karl's book that Florian came up with the idea for Pocket Calculator when he brought a bag of toy instruments to the studio one day.
It's the one song where he was clearly having fun in concerts. Seems he had a nice sense of humour. I can think of a couple of videos where Florian was goofing around.
His mad scientist smile on BBC's Tomorrow's World in 1975. He gave bunny ears to the moderator at Discoring in 1981. He did silly air guitar poses during Pocket Calculator in New York in 1998. The audience loved it. He slowed down the robovox during Autobahn in Paris 2002 until Fritz next to him started laughing...
Florian's Silverstar Club 1988 interview is also entertaining. He demonstrated the TI Language Translator he used in 1981 to do the computer voices on Numbers etc.
He was cool and unique. It's inspiring.
RIP Florian
@@Fuchsfein Kraftwerk just feels weird without him
@@joshwizinsky1979 I feel so too, it's not the same without Florian
The sound of the concerts changed too after he left
It's time for a good Kraftwerk documentary
I don't think Ralf would allow it
@@todd_sinescan you give more context? Why he wouldn’t allow it?
ARTE (german/french channel) did a pretty good one a few years ago
1982 i was 5 and as a child love kratwerk sound! i remember "space lab" maked me so fear !
Such a shame they abandoned this fantastic setup for laptops and hiding behind consoles that show nothing. When the curtains opened the audience gasped. And rightly so.
While I agree with you, it's understandable really; one of the synths they used back in the day (the EMS Synthi-A) runs around $21,000 at a minimum today and most of the stuff they used on this tour isn't cheap either, whereas digital is slightly less of a pain in the ass to deal with in some cases, so it's either pack up a bunch of synths that cost insane amounts of money and hope they don't get broken, stolen, or die onstage, or upgrade with the times out of pragmatism.
I understand too, but I feel that going digital lost us the Kraftwerk I loved. Bartos describes it well in his book.
@@RampinUp46 not that they actually fiddled with the equipment in old
Kling Klang while on stage. Only very few times, and in the dark, with little torches. Much of the equipment seemed to be there just for show, like the EMS vocoder 5000. And the big sequencer on the left behind Hütter was only functioning during The Robots.
I feel there were certain rhythmic irregularities in Kraftwerk's concerts that made the music so exciting to me.
A big part of this was manually played percussion. In the 70s, in 1981 and from 1990 to 1992 they had live percussion on many tracks and it created an exciting, slightly irregular rhyhtm to the music that was missing in later concerts.
The 2nd big change came in 2002. The feel of the music changed drastically when they abandoned hardware synths. Now every note is set in stone with perfect computerised precision, and let's be honest, it is boring.
I understand why they do it, it made playing concerts much easier to no longer have to carry their huge Kling Klang Studio around with them.
But musically it's a downgrade in many ways. Listening to earlier concerts I find myself hooked to the rhythms in a way that is no longer possible with the laptops.
Their 1991 setup was a great compromise. They still had gear onstage but it wasn’t the expensive vintage stuff.
This is one of the best Kraftwerk live videos on RUclips, thanks for sharing! Saw them on their most recent Kraftwerk 3D tour, amazing
Especially impressive considering how early this is in the video recording era, even before MTV.
Music from the future.
What a badass way to leave the stage
Yeah, and New Order took notice.
Man, The Robots was so epic, it needed both the human-robots and the robot-robots to perform it.
Kraftwerk are the perfect band ❤️🖤
0:20 - Numbers
1:32 - Computer World
2:35 - Pocket Calculator
5:13 - Der Roboter (The Robots)
7:53 - Home Computer
Went to see them at Glasgow Apollo in the early 80s. The nearest I’ve came to a spiritual experience.
Still impressive what they did back in the times.
Saw these guys in Sydney 1981, next 2003 at Big Day Out Concert in Sydney, again 2013 Sydney Opera House 3D concert, looking forward to seeing these guys in Brisbane this year, looooooove their music
They're coming to Brisbane? When? I'd love to see them.
Greatest fucking band of all time
"Musique non-stop!"
You can hear the funk influence in The Robots
This absolutely amazing!@
Wonderful, thanks!
10:27 When you see that's a REAL live ^^
The black community in the US was blastin this back in the 80's.
It's interesting that when people are talking about black music, electro and Detroit techno in the 80's completely fly under the radar.
@@_ifstcuvifugig Since Kraftwerk influenced Africa Bambatta with the haunting, futuristic apocalyptic rhythms and break dancers in the US danced to Kraftwerk at the time, Kraftwerk was considered to be part of the instrumental hip hop genre like this song - ruclips.net/video/oXPpng1dQag/видео.html.
I really don't understand why they did that. There were several black musicians who was inspired by the Kraftwerk's music.
Late 70’s was when they discovered “Numbers”, you just 2000, and LATE, SON!
Kraftwerk inspired the creation of hip hop and house in Detroit
Minimoog, Polymoog, Roland MC-8, Syndrum Quad. Can you identify any more?
I know that Florian played a Prophet 5 in 1981.
It can be seen during Numbers at 00:00:46 in the video.
@@Fuchsfein Yes, Prophet-5 was used all over the Computer World album.
Thanks!
They also dance!
5:12
M a s t e r p i e c e
Yes
This is fucking amazing
Magnificent!!!
Who actually produced this show? It looks like it was shot on film, so a full restoration is a possibility.
If it's Austrian TV then maybe it was produced by ORF.
thanks
GENIUSES !!!
NOW THIS IS HOW ELECTRONIC MUSIC SHOULD EB PERFORMED LIVE
Super
Yes
THIS IS FUCKIN' AMAZING. THANKS.
Sick
Los reyes de la electrónica ningun djsito que necesita samplear música de otro los va a superar
🖤
graat technopop is kraftwerk😮😮😮
Now we must do the Sprockets dance!
Looks like they were in a hurry when performing Numbers!
Ich bin so aufgeregt!!! (aber, ich bin Englisch)
I like the part where it goes boop
Can anyone identify the keyboard that Karl is using.
Could be custom made. I don't see any brand-distinctive marks or writing.
4:37 🤣
Anyone have a translation of what's being said at 5:10?
We call ourselves music workers
2:35
"Die Robotor" spielen sie zu langsam. Warum?
Here is the full special: ruclips.net/video/3D5ki6tSYoY/видео.html
🦾
tnere is no techno unless there iis Kraftwerk.
Too bad the rap community diluted Electronic music, ruined it actually!! This was pure genius!!!
Nonsense 🤦🏽♂️
True!!!
i have to disagree mate, rap payed homage to kraftwerk in its early days, and it evolved and morphed as every genre does. admittedly i’m a bigger fan of kraftwerk than i am of rap but things change and that’s cool! kraftwerk were and always will be the godfathers of modern music.
EDM, Hip-Hop, House, New Wave, Freestyle,... Many genres owe parts of their starts to groups like Kraftwerk, YMO and the like.
@@johnstjohn6658 from that period the track "sharevari" comes to mind. it seems that "the dirt bombes" were inspired by kraftwerk also.
All pre-recorded, the rest is smoke and mirrors, discuss ...
Horrible to hear for me
Que belleza