S5 Ep6: Mark Reeder on "Heroes" Part 1

Recorded live in Hansa Studios in Berlin, this is the first of a three-part episode in which Mark Reeder and I delve into the rough, ripped fabric of 1978’s Berlin meisterwerk, “Heroes” 

Manchester-born Berliner Mark Reeder has been obsessed with music ever since hearing Telstar at the age of 4. This passion led him to working in Manchester’s Virgin Records in the early to mid 1970s – then the coolest record shop in the city - where he immersed himself in Krautrock and embraced punk, in between trying to wean Tony Wilson off his beloved Bruce Springsteen albums, recommending records to future Joy Division/New Order manager Rob Gretton, befriending a pre-Joy Division Ian Curtis and playing bass in Mick Hucknall’s punk band The Frantic Elevators. But as punk began to eat itself and Virgin prepared to relaunch as a Megastore, Mark began hitch hiking to Germany, exploring the record shops of Dusseldorf, Munich and Hamburg before finally pitching up in a dark, grey, bomb-scarred Berlin in 1978, arriving around two weeks after another wandering Englishman had left, having recently completed his “Heroes” album.

In this episode, we wander gently towards a chat about “Heroes” with Mark taking us back to 1970s Manchester and his place at the heart of the city’s punk scene and how he found his way to Germany, settling in Berlin in 1978 where he became the German representative for Joy Division and Factory Records from 1978-1983 and a member of synthpop bands Die Unbekannten and Shark Vegas.

Die Unbekannten performed the first illegal and highly secretive gigs in the Communist East (Czechoslovakia & Hungary) for their underground scenes, and they released Dangerous Moonlight, the first record ever to feature a Roland 606 Drum Machine.

During the early 80s Mark Reeder managed the all-girl avant-garde group Malaria! and organised the first secret underground punk concerts in Budapest and Prague for Die Unbekannten and Die Toten Hosen for which he was classified as a subversiv-dekadent by the Stasi. 

In December 1990, he founded the first independent electronic music label MFS
(Masterminded For Success) in post-Wall East-Berlin. In 2015 he produced the score for the acclaimed documentary film “B-Movie (Lust & Sound in West-Berlin)" about Reeder’s life in 80’s West Berlin avant-garde music scene.

Mark is also an established DJ and remixer, for artists such as New Order,
Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, Blank & Jones, John Foxx, Anne Clark, Yello or Die Toten Hosen which can be found on his remix albums ReOrdered (SO80s), Collaborator (Factory Benelux) Five Point One (Kennen/MFS), Mauerstadt, or Subversiv-Dekadent (MFS).

Stream "B-Movie" here

Thanks to Thilo Schmidt of Berlin Music Tours for organising our visit to Hansa Studios

 With thanks to Leah Kardos for intro and outro music