‘80s chart-topper’s ode to Birmingham - celebrating city culture and history

Check out the latest track dedicated to Birmingham featuring iconic 80s footage
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

A former member of one of the most influential bands of all time has written a song about Birmingham.

Named after the city, the track has been penned by German musician Wolfgang Flür, who spent 15 years in Kraftwerk during their most productive period.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The track ‘Birmingham’ features on Flür’s new album, ‘Magazine and finds him exploring the history and heritage of the city aided by New Order and Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook, vocalist Claudia Brücken (Propaganda), and Peter Duggal - who produced and co-wrote the album. The video features some iconic 80s footage around the city centre.

80s chart-topper pens an ode to Birmingham80s chart-topper pens an ode to Birmingham
80s chart-topper pens an ode to Birmingham

Why has Wolfgang Flür written a song about Birmingham?

Asked why Birmingham, Flür said: "It’s a city on my map - the people are so friendly and I was always welcomed wherever I was; I’ve already played there often - like The Flapper, and Blue Orange Theatre and in Moseley."

‘Birmingham’ was the first track Flür and Duggal worked on together after Duggal - who was born and raised in Handsworth - met Flür at an arts festival in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (where Duggal now lives) in 2015.

"If I had not met Peter the track would not exist," Flür tells BirminghamWorld over a stuttering Zoom call from is Düsseldorf home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Recalling their initial meeting, Flür went on to check out his newfound friend’s Soundcloud page, where he stumbled an instrumental demo labelled ‘Birmingham‘.

"I asked him, should we not do something with this? Let’s make a pop song! So I wrote some lyrics made a melody," explains Flür.

German musician Wolfgang Flür, who spent 15 years in Kraftwerk German musician Wolfgang Flür, who spent 15 years in Kraftwerk
German musician Wolfgang Flür, who spent 15 years in Kraftwerk

What has the music producer said about the new track dedicated to Birmingham?

Dialling in from his Yorkshire studio, Duggal (who previously released seminal acid/ dance tunes as Doggy and Demonik, and worked with Apache Indian) says: "Very early on Wolfgang said that something captivated him about the bare-bones of this track.

“We built it up, worked on it for a period of time, throwing ideas back and forth - a lot of it was done over the internet.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“By this stage we’d done a few shows in Birmingham, so it became a central theme for what we were doing - I was from Birmingham and there was this track called Birmingham, and it developed and developed.

“Wolfgang really dug into the culture of the city and the history of the city, and he wrote the words, he was inspired.”

Music producer Peter DuggalMusic producer Peter Duggal
Music producer Peter Duggal

Why aren’t there more songs about Birmingham?

Magazine 1’ stand-out, the pulsating tracks begins with Claudia singing: Composers and inventors, no place for pretenders … meet me in the West Midlands ...

Discussing how there are too few songs about the city, Duggal believes Brum is too often unfairly derided.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Birmingham’s got such a rich history, it’s such an interesting place, with so much going on,” he stresses.

"Wolfgang really learnt that from me, we’ve spent so much time there - my family are from there and Wolfgang spent some time with them, and these things just led to it becoming a really fascinating subject for the song."

"I had to learn, I had to read up; I learnt so much about the inventors there, reading books and articles,” says Flür, stepping in.

“The most interesting thing I learnt was that Heavy Metal was developed there, not in America, because of all the steel factories which where there in this area - the industry is always loud and steel is very loud, and that fits!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"And that was new to me - I thought Heavy Metal was an American thing, I was completely wrong!" he laughs.

Kraftwerk at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) museum in Berlin on January 6, 2015Kraftwerk at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) museum in Berlin on January 6, 2015
Kraftwerk at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) museum in Berlin on January 6, 2015

What were Kraftwerk’s biggest successes?

Joining Kraftwerk in 1973, Flür appeared on the Top 10 albums ‘Autobahn’ and ‘The Man-Machine’, a double-A side single ‘The Model/ Computer Love’, a No.1 in 1982.

Pioneering the use of electronic sounds, Kraftwerk’s mix of strong melodies and metronomic beats had a huge impact on popular music, re-shaping pop, and providing the foundations for hip hop and electronic dance music.

Any musician with a synthesizer or drum pad owes a debt to Flür and Kraftwerk, among them New Order, David Bowie, OMD, Afrika Bambaataa, Duran Duran, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Jay Z and Coldplay – who’ve all cited the German band.

Can you tell us more about the new album featuring the Birmingham track?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Released in March 2022, ‘Magazine 1 ‘ is Flür’s second solo album, and boasts such guests as DJ/producers Carl Cox and Juan Atkins, Midge Ure, and Maps.

"Magazine 1 is a concept album," says Flür.

"Magazines are illustrated booklets. They can come in any number of different formats and cover a range of different specialist topics, both informative and entertaining: cars, crime, food, geography, home decorating, hi-fi, IT, literature, politics, sex. The list is endless.

“My album is very much in the same vein, where each page, or track, tells a different story."

Birmingham skylineBirmingham skyline
Birmingham skyline

Do Flür and Duggal plan to return to Birmingham for a visit?

While Flür and Duggal’s initial plans to return to Birmingham have (due to the pandemic) been put on hold, the duo are very much looking forward to performing the track in the city.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Maybe after the summer," teases Flür, before adding new material is already taking shape.

"We are already working on ‘Magazine 2 ‘ - for next year, hopefully March 2023, that’s my hope - because the tracks are already wonderful, the same style but different stories, wonderful! And with some new collaborators," he says.

Adds Duggal: "We’re very good friends first and foremost. We work so well together, and I’ve learnt so much from Wolfgang, working together over the last few years, about all aspects of music. It just works. So we’ll carry on for a bit!"

"Yes!" confirms his German counterpart with a playful grin, "I agree! We will carry on for a bit!"

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

* Wolfgang Flür’s Magazine 1 is out now via Cherry Red Records.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep the conversation going.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.