Thomas Janotta

LIFE WITHOUT PAIN - Inofficial Frumpy Page

The four musicians who formed Frumpy were allmembers of Irishman O'Brian-Docker's folkband The City Preachers, whichhe founded in Hamburg in 1965. The City Preachers played an excellentblend of american and british folk music and had, sometimes, over adozen people on stage.

Discontent with singer Dagmar Krause, drummer Carsten Bohn left the City Preachers in November 1969 and took singer Inga Rumpf, french keyboarder Jean-Jaques Kravetz and guitarist Karl-Heinz Schottwith him to form Frumpy. In spring of 1970, Frumpy started a successfultour of France. The same year, they went on a 50 concert tour withSpooky Tooth, and played with Yes, Humble Pie and Renaissance.

Inautumn of 1970, Frumpy released the first album "All will be changed"which contained only own material with the exception of a Richie Havenscover.

The following year guitarist Rainer Baumann joined Frumpy and played on the bands second LP "Frumpy 2", which was rapped in a round plastic bag.

In Germany, the album was well received and proved that rock music from Germany could live up to international standard.

Inga Rumpf: "Our music combines jazz, soul and eastern elements, with the keyboards as the most important instrument."

Frumpy topped the MUSIC EXPRESS poll as the most popular German rock group of the year and the newspaper FAZ assist singer Inga Rumpfto be the "country's biggest individual talent", but a tour of Englandwith Mott The Hoople failed to attrack popularity in Britain.

Musical differences with keyboarder Kravetz caused him to leave Frumpy, in spring 1972, to record a solo LP with Inga Rumpf singing one song. But he returned for the recording seesions of Frumpy's third LP "By the way".

ButFrumpy disbanded after a farewell concert on June 26, 1972. The Germanmusic press published an obituary notice: "After three LPs,two singles and countless gigs at home and abroad Germany's favouritegroup child Frumpy has ceased to exist at the age of almost threeyears, in August 1972."

Inga Rumpf, Jean-Jaques Kravetz and Karl-Heinz Schott formed Atlantis. The year 1990 saw a Frumpy reunion and a new LP "Now!".

Taken from Rock Musik Lexikon - Christian Graf/Uli Markquardt - Taurus Press Hamburg.

Discography