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(R.I.P.) 12 September 1964 - 16 October 2016
It
all started in 1975 for me, Karsten - born in 1964 in Kassel. I
heard a song on the radio called "A Glass of
Champagne". It sounded like no other song I've heard before.
I liked it very much from the first moment. Luckily the speaker
told the name of 
the band: SAILOR! Hmm, must be a new band. The next
time I taped the song from the radio, and heard it over and over
again. Weeks later I saw the band in television for the first
time; What a funny outfit they had, and this instrument, looking
like a "cupboard" or something, Totally unique!
Then the next single "Girls, Girls, Girls" came out;
Now I was completely hooked on this music. I remember, when I was
a little boy, I began to imitate the band like this: I bought a
red bulb, used my mothers hairdryer stand as a microphone,
"plugged in" a skipping rope as a mike, and took my 
grandma's scarf. Now I sang playback, with a little
guitar, the hits of my favourite band.
I got the LP's "Trouble" and "The Third Step" as presents from my parents. All these different sounds and songs, it was beautiful to listen to. Even my father liked SAILOR from the very beginning. I remember that, after "The Third Step" was released , radio-DJ, Werner Reincke from HR3 played the first 3 songs from that LP in a row, because he liked them so much. Now I started to search for the first SAILOR LP. It was not easy to find here, because SAILOR's success in Germany started with the second LP. But I found a copy at last, a bad pressing, but better than nothing.
In
1977 I was shocked to hear that Phil Pickett had left the band,
but anyway I ran to the record store and bought the new
"Checkpoint" album. To my surprise, it sounded very
good, and I liked the whole stuff. SAILOR had their first
"Disco hit" with "Down by the Docks". The
Maxi-single with that song has the CBS number 1, it must be the
very first CBS maxi-single ever!
...1978-Hooray all the 4 SAILOR guys were back with a great new
album: "Hideaway". But I saw in TV that there was no
real SAILOR-image. Without their unique Nickelodeon, I was afraid
of how people would react to this. I saw the 4 SAILOR guys in
leather jackets performing "Give me Shakespeare". A
great song, but there were so many other "normal"
rock/pop bands out there. Then it was out, seemed like forever, I
was very sad.
Months later, we saw Georg again in German TV, performing the
song "Fallout" with his new band: "DATA"
(with Henry on keyboards). But as I heard it, I have to admit
that this had nothing more to do with the old SAILOR sound. I
didn't buy this LP at that time.
In 1980 - A new SAILOR record showed up in the record stores. Henry and Phil with new members. There were good songs on it: "Danger on the Titanic" and "Hat Check Girl" were very good alternative SAILOR songs. Not far from that release, I had another surprise: I got a little sister, after all these "solo" years.
Years later, in 1990 came a very special day. I remember that my girlfriend woke me up with the words: "Hey, there's this band in the radio, you have told me so much about, with a new song"! I remember: I got up as fast as I could, ran to the radio - and...yes...the...voices...the sound...this must be SAILOR! They sang about a secretary. The same day during lunch hour, I went to a CD-shop in the City, and... there it was: the Maxi-CD. What a great restart! After that I bought the album and the other Maxi's. It got on my sisters nerves every time I talked about SAILOR. She liked Mr. Big at that time!
In
1992 another great new album came out: "Street Lamp".
This contains my favourite song until now: "Street
Lamp". Sister Katrin once came back from vacation, and she
had new favourite songs from a band called... SAILOR! I couldn't
believe it. One of her 
favourite tracks was "Knock Knock". Now it
is "Precious Form". We wrote to the club in England...
nothing happened. We wrote again, and surprise-surprise, Mr.
Henry Marsh himself wrote back to us, asking us to meet him at
the next gig! We heard of an "Oldie night" in Dortmund
at the end of December 1993, featuring SAILOR, Smokie, Shakin'
Stevens (who had a backup singer at that occasion called Peter
Lincoln) and many others. Katrin made a poster saying: "Here
we are Katrin and Karsten Wagner in order to meet SAILOR". I
said: "This will never work"; How wrong could I get.
After the first song, Henry gave his greetings to us over the
mike, and after the gig, he brought us backstage to the others.
This was a very special evening for us! On the following gigs, we
met SAILOR again. We showed them record covers they had never
seen before, and we talked about many other things. Later I often
videotaped the band.
Nearly all the gigs in 1994-95 were Oldie nights. We saw the last
gig with Georg on 25 November 1995 in Bielefeld. We did not know
it in advance, but all the fans had a strange feeling that night.
Katrin, Cilia, Michaela and I were very lucky, because we came on
stage during "La Cumbia" (Thanks to Ursula for filming
us)!
Then
luckily Pete arrived, we heard that he learned from our concert
videos with Georg, how to perform with SAILOR. A spirit told us
to drive to Esbjerg in Denmark on June 1st 1996, which was the
first gig with Pete. I remember that Phil asked Katrin for
make-up for Pete.
We met SAILOR several times, even at "Gottschalk's House
Party" in Munich (see The SAILOR Story). But from now on
they had more to do in Denmark, because their new record company,
CMC, was located there. I had weeks of SAILOR spare time during
this time, so I made my very first "SAILOR photo
session" with our cousin Silvia. For many years she had
nicknamed me 'Kaki', and I have called her 'Viva'. SAILOR signed
one of the pictures at a gig for Viva. Henry wrote: "To Viva
you are a bloody sight better looking than Karsten, love
Henry", Thanks again, Hen! This happened on October 4 1997.
Then, I had
another SAILOR-photo-session with Monika, and shortly after that,
my sister Katrin gave me a unique Birthday-present: The
Sailormodels-Website. Just for fun at the beginning - but since
that time, more + more Models came up on this site, see: (Website offline since
Karsten's death).
I remember one nice comment on one of these photos, it was from
Pete to Monika: "What a marvellous blue guitar you have! All
the best P.L,"
Sadly there are
no new SAILOR album out in the shops, so they still play on Oldie
nights. - More Oldie nights, more sessions in Kassel, one with a
girl from Mülheim an der Ruhr called Inka. A very close friend
to us. She was a Smokie-fan at first, then also a Troggs and
SAILOR fan. She came to Kassel for a photo session with "The
Kassel crew". 
This photo session happened in 1998. Then we all saw
SAILOR on their little tour with the other "Oldie
bands" at some gig's, playing SAILOR stuff, "Pop
Muzik", "Cotton eye Joe" and a new encore.
In 1999, Henry
left the band under strange circumstances (sadly). For a while,
Anthony England came in, wearing a suit like Henry. And he did it
well! In 2001, Anthony had no more the time to perform with
SAILOR, then - not Hen - but a very talented young musician
joined the band-line-up: Rob Alderton (for the first time, a band
member of SAILOR was younger than me! Oops!) :-o ~ And in 2001, I
started my very own radio-show, at the 'Free-Radio-Kassel",
named HANDMADE. See: (Website offline since Karszen's death) ~ Today, I have several shows *g* ;-)
No brand-new SAILOR-album out since "Street Lamp" with
Georg, but at least in 2003 they made a Live DVD, which is a nice
thing! Recorded in November 2002, near London (High Wycombe).
Even Katrin and me were there, plus Uli and Manu, our
SAILOR-friends from Gifhorn. In 2003 we were very close to make a
SAILOR-Solo-Gig happen in our hometown Kassel, but sadly the
concert-promoter beamed up in space or something like that a
short time before the gig, so we couldn't have SAILOR live in
Kassel again yet (but we will!).
So, hopefully,
SAILOR will have another hit and album (somebody has to write
songs (GK, where are you?) and they need a music video these days
:-o)
I hope, we all can hear and see the best band in the world for
years...still.... (I would like to hear good news from Georg and
Henry too)! What about the SAILOR-musical? ~ ;-)
In the meantime, (still) I made much promotion for the greatest
band in the world (Georg's crew), so I hope we all have the
unique SAILOR-sound for the years to come...
I want to thank:
Henry, Grant, Georg, Phil, Peter, Anthony, Rob, Michelle, Sista
K., Inka, 'Naylorman', Norbert, Glenn, Viva, Helen, Katja L.,
Sabine R., Christel, Sabine K., Cilia, Tim, Tom, Andrea, Ollie,
Heinz Günter Heygen, Werner Reincke, Marina, Melanie, Carlo von
Tiedemann, Mike Leckebusch, Uwe Bahn, Thomas Gottschalk, Manuela
B., Horst, Claudia, Andreas B., Irina, Ursula, Ute B., Christina
Lux, KUASTA, Frank Weißenborn, Andreas W. Gerner, Dieter Kindl,
Ann-Marie, Antje L., Yumi, Jenny Drubig, Suntje, Katja W. from
HH, 'Chily', Helen (for the first Hotel-modelsession) *g*,
Kathleen, Svetlana (1000 Kisses!), (lovely) Anne, Mark Bayliss,
Tina, Katha, Nadja, Marcia, Anna+Birgit und auch allen anderen
von 'Schandmaul', Nat, Ute L., Ingrid, all the Sailormodels, the
whole F-R-K-Crew, all the lovely SAILOR-fans and -friends, Wilma
and all the other great guys on board! It's great to have contact
to all of you, hopefully we can enjoy the unique SAILOR-sound
together for years!
Greetings from Karsten Wagner / Cap K
...Cap
K together with the SAILOR members 1974 - 2006...
The
following article about Karsten and his own SAILOR story has been
published in a local magazine in his hometown Kassel in December
1997:
Courtesy of Xcentric (Ralph Otto)!
A complete possessed fan of a half forgotten band
Karsten Wagner
works in the registrar´s office of the
"Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen". Documents! Documents!
Documents! And always think of the copy machine. - But in his
real life he is a music fan - even a very special one who's
liking is not shared by millions of people.
No Elvis, no Jimi, no Stones - he fell for SAILOR.
--- The freshwater
Sailor ---
And that - meanwhile - with not so
much hair on the upperdeck. His maritime treasury shines with
five organizers, half-hundred SAILOR-vinyl + silvers (CDs) -
including with bootlegs and rarities plus three dozen videos. The
wardrobe is full of the right outfits, and naturally Karsten,
like Georg Kajanus, sometimes has an anchor on his cheek.
However, the 33 year old man has never really had spray of waters
on his moustache and he has never seen a real harbour-tavern from
the inside. The experiences of that man from Kassel are limited
to the "Zissel", a water party in Kassel. But he
remembers that in 1976, HR-3 moderator Werner Reincke played 3
songs in a row from the SAILOR-album "The Third Step".
"Unforgettable!"
Nowadays unbelievable.
Our freshwater SAILOR got much more seasick when SAILOR - at the
beginning of the 90s - after several shipwrecks and mutinies,
came on board again in the original line-up. Very soon our
superfan likes to hire, he'll have his equatorbabtise-ceremony,
and for sure he can join the captains cabin and bridge. He can
lay hand on the famous Nickelodeon. One fine day, Karsten and his
sister Katrin have been invited to a special meeting by SAILOR-
member Henry Marsh. This has happened on 30 December 1993 at one
of these nostalgic-grotesque Oldie Nights in the backstage area
of the "Westfalenhalle" in Dortmund, Germany.
The beginning of an accumulating friendship. Sometimes they would
meet after the gigs in order to talk about new information or to
help Grant Serpell's son to find his father. A symbiotic
relationship. Matelot Wagner was once asked to do the official
SAILOR fanclub. "But I had neither the time nor a computer.
That is why a Kajanus-friend from Berlin finally did the job.
Nothing works since he left the band. Now they all write letters
to me." All? - Even more seasick people? Fact is that a list
from 29 February 1996 includes not only fans in Alfeld,
Duderstadt, Groningen, Malmö and Aberdeen but also a fellow from
Redwood City, L.A..
Sailing is obviously a must. Karsten Wagner works very hard on a
SAILOR comeback. "One hour a day is okay." Some
successes have already come along.
He wrote to "Gottschalks Haus-Party" in order to
persuade him to invite them to their show, the
"Musikexpress" published his letter about SAILOR. He is
also investigating in order to discover new unauthorised CDs.
"I have discovered one of these here in Kassel."
And on more and more occasions Karsten Wagner is greeted with
"Ahoy!" during his CD shop-visits during the lunch
hour.
SAILOR
The British band around Georg Kajanus, son of a Russian prince,
was formed out of a house combo of a nightclub in Paris. Their
sound was created by the self-invented Nickelodeon, a monster
that is played by two persons - a mixture of fairground-organ, a
pub-piano and a synthesizer. Optically and musically they widened
the image of the lonely sailor in the redlight quater of the
harbour pubs. Their climax had been reached in the middle of the
70s with the hits "A Glass Of Champagne" and
"Girls Girls Girls". After the break of the band,
Kajanus manufactured three Technoid albums under the name
"DATA" in the 80s. Meanwhile Phil Pickett became a
co-writer of "Karma Chameleon" in Culture Club. The
surprising comeback of the original line-up happened in 1989 with
"The Secretary" and "La Cumbia", and soon
they were back in the single charts. In 1995, Kajanus left the
ship once again and Peter Lincoln came. A new CD was released
only in Denmark until now.
The text next to
the photo of Karsten and SAILOR says:
19 November 1994, Hotel Mövenpick, Kassel: What a shame. You
appear in your special SAILOR dress and the band comes in private
outfits.
The "Free Radio Kassel"
is available in and around Kassel (in the middle of Germany).
In July 2000 I decided to ask the Free Radio Kassel for the
possibility to do a SAILOR special. Meanwhile there were two 1
hour SAILOR specials with Katrin me, and I have got a regular
radio show "Handmade" there.
The SAILOR radio specials included telephone interviews with Phil
Pickett and Grant Serpell and also an eMail-interview with Georg
Kajanus.
In May and June 2001 we also did two SAILOR specials with our self-filmed concert videos for the TV channel "Offener Kanal Kassel" which you can see in and around our hometown Kassel.
Karsten at the Free Radio Kassel
Here are some examples of Cap K's photo session pictures with "Girls Girls Girls":
Cap K's models - including: Monika. Stephanie, Helen, Petra,
Antje, Irina, Simone, Suntje, Ann-Marie, Pirate Jenny, Madeleine,
Sabine
Last updated: 29 February 2004
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