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The Charles Wilp Archive is a new play loud! series dedicated to reissuing the music and audio work of German artist Charles Wilp.

Charles Paul Wilp (Witten 1932 – Düsseldorf 2005) was a German advertising designer, artist, photographer and filmmaker. Wilp developed some of the most important campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, among his clients he had Pirelli, Volkswagen and Afri-Cola.


THE MONKS, CHARLES WILP & AFRI-COLA

In 1996 filmmakers Lucía Palacios and Dietmar Post, who were based in New York at that time, contacted with Charles Wilp to ask him about his collaboration with The Monks. Wilp confirmed that he wanted the band to record the music for his Afri-Cola ad campaign in 1967. In 1996 he couldn’t find anything in his archive that proofed the band having been at his studio. After four years of waiting, in 2000 Wilp called the filmmakers enthusiastically: he had found thirty six black-and-white photographs taken during the 1967 session.

Originally, Charles Wilp hired German-based American avant-garde band The Monks to record a jingle. He thought their experimental sound and blasphemous image would be a perfect fit for the controversial advertising campaign. Unfortunately, his plan didn’t work out. “The musicologists and the CEO couldn’t agree with me and the whole thing failed,” Charles Wilp explained in the 2008 documentary “Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback” (pl-04 DVD/VOD).

In 2006 the filmmakers released “Silver Monk Time – A Tribute to The Monks”. Gary Burger (Monks singer and guitar player) and Dave Day (Monks banjo player) updated the old Charles Wilp Afri-Cola tune by adding voices (shouting, screaming, whispering), wild guitar feedback and an astonishing electrified banjo. The Wire mentioned “Silver Monk Time” among the best compilation records of the year 2007.

play loud! is releasing the entire recordings of the Manchester post-punk band Gods Gift (1979-1985), some for the first time ever. In heavy rotation at the BBC in the early 80s. Mark E. Smith was a fan too. Gods Gift guitar player Steve Murphy compiled 11 songs for what will be their first LP ever. Includes DVD (NTSC, region-free) with a live show in Rotterdam and extensive liner notes and lyrics plus a postcard.

"Gods Gift were around when lots of Manchester groups were gaining fame and fortune. Manchester spawned a bleak soundtrack for the music loving youth of the time. The Gothic catacombs were the breeding place of much anger and consternation. Some groups wanted to be amusing, some wanted to be arty, some wanted to be doom-laden, but most wanted to be famous. Gods Gift wanted to shout their rage and hatred at a world that wasn't listening to anything as irrelevant as people...The songs on this new album were a long time in the making. They are angry songs and anti- everything. The entire back catalog of Gods Gift songs are now available as digital downloads. They are priceless jewels from a group that cared and mattered. Buy them, listen to them as loud as you can and go out and demand to be heard!" --Steve Murphy, June 2023

play loud! started the LIMPE FUCHS ARCHIVE in 2010. We would like to thank all our supporters over the last ten years. A very personal thank you goes to Limpe Fuchs, Ursula Anders, Zoro Babel, Tammy Mitzi, Tobias Frindt, Holger Adam, Stefan Bremer, Thomas Kanehl, Margaret Raspé, Richard Fontenoy and Joerg Fukking.

We are unearthing more and more newly rediscovered Anima-Sound recordings which we would love to release. We count on the support of fans and music lovers, and would like to revert to our well-established- pre-ordering system to be able to release certain records digitally as well as on vinyl and CD.

Since the LIMPE FUCHS ARCHIVE is completely self-financed by play loud!, people are also asked to donate money. Fans also can make their own sugges- tions regarding possible releases. Please contact us at info@playloud.org with the subject line LIMPE FUCHS ARCHIVE