St. Pauli goes Liverpool

By PETER-PHILIPP SCHMITT

Photo: dpa

May 9, 2023 · Germany can Song Contest: That's what the Hamburg-based band Lord of the Lost wants to prove on Saturday. A visit to her neighborhood.

At ten o'clock in the morning, even in St. Pauli, the world is still in order. Between Herbertstraße and Davidwache, the asphalt may be a bit stickier and peppered with more broken glass from the night before than elsewhere, and some people may get a "Vodka Lemon to go" in the pub on the corner at this time of day, for 2.50 euros. But on the side streets in the neighbourhood of the supposedly lost, it is just as quiet and almost tranquil on this sunny April day as in the rest of Hamburg. But Lord of the Lost are certainly not "Lost". This is their neighborhood, this is where they feel at home, where they have a shared apartment, a meeting place to work. But because it's so beautiful outside today, we first go out and over to Hans-Albers-Platz. First stop: "The Blue Angel". Not because it's the five musicians' favourite pub, but because the photographer wants it that way. "Don't even look at the camera," he says. "Just deal with yourself."

"Blood & Glitter" by Lord of the Lost Video: Youtube

This has recently been difficult for those chosen by Germany. Since the rock band from Hamburg won the German preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) on March 3rd, and by a large margin, there has been hardly any time for shared and, above all, private moments. Their calendar was already full of dates: The band is almost fully booked until the end of 2024, and the first inquiries for 2025 have already been received. At the end of April, the Lords even had to go on a long-planned tour of Central and South America, where they performed in eight days in five cities in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. As soon as we got back, we went straight on to Liverpool, to the ESC. Nevertheless, it is an event for the rockers that they take very seriously.

"We were driven by curiosity because we've all known the ESC since childhood and it's not just about music, it's also about the show."

Chris Harms, singer of the band

Niklas Kahl, drummer of Lord Of The Lost Photo: dpa

Lord of the Lost have wanted to represent Germany at the ESC for a long time. They applied for several years. "But we didn't fit into the pop concept of NDR," says the band's singer, Chris Harms. He is "The Lord", frontman of the formation he founded in the late noughties, which was initially only called Lord, but did not want to be confused with the Finnish ESC winners Lordi or the German sixties band The Lords and therefore changed its name. " We were driven by curiosity because we've all known the ESC since childhood and it's not just about music, it's also about the show." That's exactly what she's all about: the big production, preferably on a big stage.


"Last year, we were still on the shortlist until shortly before the preliminary round on television, but then it didn't work out again." Allegedly, they were not suitable enough for radio, which should not have been a criterion for participation in the ESC for many years. But this year should finally be her year. Also because the NDR had previously announced after all the failures of the past years that more musical diversity should be used in the selection of songs. For "Our Song for Liverpool", the five Lords did not bend, remained true to themselves and their music, but still chose a song with which, they believe, they can score points at the ESC. "In Hamburg, people would say: It fits like an ass on a bucket," says Chris Harms.

The band in Hamburg: Germany's ESC hope is the glam rock band Lord of the Lost. It consists of Gerrit Heinemann, Klaas Helmecke, Chris Harms, Niklas Kalh and Pi Stoffers. Photo: Niklas Grapatin

Lord of the Lost competes with glam rock, with a song they dedicated to an entire era in the seventies and eighties: "Blood & Glitter". The title is borrowed from Mick Rock's photo book of the same name, which was published a good 20 years ago. The Briton, who died a year and a half ago, accompanied David Bowie at his concerts for many years, but also Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, Blondie, the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Stooges and Queen. "No one has photographed David Bowie more often than Mick Rock, everyone knows his pictures," says Harms. Bowie also wrote the foreword to the elaborately designed illustrated book.

Born in Hamburg, Harms wanted to take up the attitude to life of the time again in the song he co-wrote. "We thought the title of the book was a great name for a song or an album." And because they needed a song for the ESC in Liverpool around which they could knit a show, "Blood & Glitter" was born. Already at the preliminary round, the stage and the outfits were bathed in red and gold. In the video, the musicians stand like children in a rain of blood. That's exactly what the band wanted for Liverpool. For the grand finale this Saturday, everything was just scaled up, as Harms says. The vinyl and leather costumes, designed by Munich-based designer Corinna Mikschl and her label Handmade With Blood, show even more skin, Harms stands on even higher platform shoes, and her choreographer Marvin Dietmann, who helped Conchita Wurst win the ESC in 2014 with his "Rise Like A Phoenix" production, ignites a bombastic fire show and, of course, lets pyro blood rain down from the ceiling of the Liverpool Arena.

Retreat in St. Pauli: The five musicians have an apartment in the neighbourhood that is also a meeting place to work. After all, not everyone lives in Hamburg. Photo: Niklas Grapatin

"Blood is something very important, it is our lifeblood that connects us all. We are all of the same blood, that's the message."

Chris Harms, singer of the band

But "Blood & Glitter" is not just a show with bang effects. The song also has a message that some might misunderstand in light of the war in Ukraine. The Song Contest was supposed to take place there this year, because last year the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won in Turin with their song "Stefania". "Blood is something very important, it is our lifeblood that connects us all," says Harms. "We are all of the same blood, that's the message." It fits perfectly with this year's motto of the ESC: "United by Music". This can also be understood as a political message, especially this year. Precisely because the ESC does not take place in a war-torn country, but in the home of Sam Ryder, who came second last year with the title "Space Man": the United Kingdom.

Lord of the Lost is more than just a Hamburg band. The five musicians have been touring the world successfully for a long time, performing at 18 concerts last year as a support act for Iron Maiden, and they have been booked again for this summer by the British cult band. Their tenth studio album "Blood & Glitter" was already number one in the German album charts in January, even before it was even clear that the Hamburg-based band would take part in the German ESC preliminaries.


Most of the band members are not real Hamburgers, even from St. Pauli. Klaas Helmecke, known as "Class Grenayde" (because of his green eyes), comes from Fredenbeck in the district of Stade. The forty-one-year-old plays bass and lives near the neighborhood. "I've known Chris for a good 20 years," says Helmecke. At that time he was working in a music store in Hamburg. He has been with the company since 2009, the official year it was founded. "The bass came to me when I was 15." After that, he had two years of bass lessons and played in a number of punk and metal bands.

The band "Lord of the Lost" in their band apartment on St. Pauli in Hamburg, on 06.04.2023. In the middle, singer and frontman Chris Harms. Photo: Niklas Grapatin

Niklas "Nik" Kahl is also from Lower Saxony. The drummer with the long full beard comes from Osterrode – and he still lives there today. He came to music at an early age. "My parents are music teachers at the district music school in the district of Göttingen," says Kahl. He could have studied drums, but in the end he decided to study social pedagogy. Today he is a freelance musician and has been a permanent member of Lord of the Lost since 2017. In any case, he has a reason to celebrate today: his 34th birthday. Gerrit Heinemann chose his stage name "Gared Dirge" out of a booze mood. The English word "dirge" for lament simply fascinated him. Born in Hanover and coming to Hamburg to study, he is a multi-instrumentalist. He has been playing the piano, drums and vibraphone since early childhood, has successfully participated in the Germany-wide competition "Jugend musiziert" and is also proficient in the guitar. From 2008 to 2010 he studied sound engineering at the SAE (originally School of Audio Engineering) in Hamburg. One of his fellow students was Chris Harms. The 36-year-old Heinemann has been on stage with Lord of the Lost since 2010 and mainly plays keyboards.

Pi Stoffers is the youngest. Pi, as he officially calls himself, is 29 and originally comes from Speyer, but spent his childhood and youth in Flensburg. He also studied audio engineering at SAE and met Chris Harms there, but as his lecturer. In 2015 he started working as a guitar tech for the band, as a crew member he was not only responsible for the guitars, but also for construction and sound check. In 2017, he became the guitarist of Lord of the Lost.

The band's only Hamburger, Chris Harms, whose real name is Christian Simon Krogmann. But he liked his mother's maiden name better. Harms is trained as a classical cellist and has been playing the instrument since he was five. At his first concert he was at 14, Roxette. "I've been wearing nail polish ever since," says Harms. And he loves tattoos. "I got the first one when I was 18, in the oldest tattoo parlour in Germany." They have existed in St. Pauli since 1946. He had his first Roxette concert immortalized as well as his enthusiasm for Iron Maiden: On the edge of his left hand are the letters "TNOTB" for "The Number Of The Beast", the third studio album of the heavy metal band. In the meantime, his wife Anja is responsible for his tattoos as a tattoo artist.

The King is thrilled: Charles III will also meet Lord of the Lost during his state visit to Germany at the end of March. Photo: Getty

"Charles loved our red and gold stage outfit."

Gerrit Heinemann as Gared Dirge, keyboardist of the band

The hustle and bustle that befell her after the preliminary round surprised her, as Harms recounts. At first, they did not expect a victory. "We thought Ikke hip gold would win." They also found him and his "song with good lyrics" really good. But internationally, the humor for such a party hit is missing. "At most, our neighbours in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands still have that." King Charles III and his wife Camilla were taken with the Lords, at least that's how it seemed during their state visit at the end of March, which took them to Hamburg. "Charles loved our red and gold stage outfit," says Gerrit Heinemann.

It takes almost an hour for the five musicians to get ready for a performance. Unlike Lordi or the hard rock band Kiss, they don't have fixed costumes. They have also been available as a kind of "Rock Me Amadeus" with powder wigs or in grey-black as a zombie quintet. Depending on what they are playing: The repertoire is large and ranges from brute, martial and melodyless to almost gentle heartbreak ballads. They are regularly accompanied by their own camera team, more than 540 episodes of "TV Of The Lost" have been created.


Parents of the Lost Video: Lord of the Lost

Chris Harms shows new music videos to his parents and shoots reaction videos that he posts on YouTube. The two of them sit in the dignified living room and watch "The Gospel Of Judas", for example. The father adds: "They used to be so nice, the boys." So now Liverpool. The way there led via St. Pauli. The last stop on this April day: Salon Harry. In the shop of the neighborhood hairdresser diagonally opposite Hamburg's most famous police station, the Davidwache, the Beatles are said to have had their mushroom heads cut. Nowhere else have the four musicians from Liverpool, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, given more concerts than in Hamburg: 281. That was before they became world famous. "It's a strange coincidence," says Harms. "Even if we finish last, we'll bring a bit of rock 'n' roll back to Liverpool."

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