Fritz Rau

Fritz Rau ( born March 9, 1930 in Pforzheim, Baden Republic; † August 19, 2013 in Kronberg im Taunus, Hesse ) was a German concert and tour operators.

Life

Fritz Rau was born the son of a blacksmith Itter Bacher in Pforzheim. His parents died early, which is why he was inducted in 1940 with relatives in Berlin. Later he attended the Eichendorff -Gymnasium in Ettlingen, where he was Head Boy, and then, sponsored by the Study Foundation of the German People studying law at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg. He finished his studies with the First State Exam ( at OLG Karlsruhe) and his practical training as a court clerk in Rhineland -Palatinate with his second state examination in the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland- Palatinate. He also worked briefly as a lawyer in a law firm in Neustadt on the Wine Route. Already in studies, he was involved in the jazz club Cave 54 in Heidelberg. While still a student and got married Rau with his wife, two children.

On 2 December 1955 he organized his first big concert in the Heidelberg Town Hall with Albert Mangelsdorff, which declined by 1,400 visitors far above the usual audience at German jazz clubs. The concert agent and jazz promoters Horst Lippmann was thus noticed him and hired him as " porters " for the tour series Jazz at the Philharmonic of the American impresario Norman Granz. In addition to his education, he continued to practice the second job as a tour guide. He was in charge of the German Jazz concert organizer Federation. 1963 offered him his friend Horst Lippmann cooperation and took him as a partner in his concert agency, which was now called " Lippmann Rau ". She became famous in the organization of the American Folk Blues Festival, which occurred on the date celebrated only among insiders blues greats like Willie Dixon and Howlin 'Wolf. Out job as tour manager also consisted of keeping the blues musicians of hard alcohol. Some fans who einschmuggelten whiskey, he gave ban - Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, just before she founded the Rolling Stones, and Robert Plant. From the funded with the festival blues boom rock groups like the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Cream, and many others were born in England; the tours the Rolling Stones were in 1970 organized by Rau, who became friends with Jagger. Rau 's new concert formats and hosted the first open-air rock concerts in Germany.

Together with Horst Lippmann Fritz Rau has also the record label scout and L R ( Lippmann Rau ) founded and operated. 1989 merged " Lippmann Rau " with the agency " Mama Concerts " by Marcel Avram to " Mama Concerts and Rau ". 1998 saw the spin-off to " Fritz Rau GmbH ". Since 2001, Rau worked as an independent producer and tour organizer.

Rau has worked with numerous musical greats of pop culture together, including the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez, Peter Maffay, Scorpions, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Charles Aznavour, Bob Dylan, Marlene Dietrich, Ella Fitzgerald, The Doors, The Les Humphries Singers, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Rory Gallagher, The Who, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Queen, Janis Joplin, Udo Lindenberg, Udo Jürgens, Gitte Hænning, Nana Mouskouri, Madonna, Prince, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Simon & Garfunkel, Harry Belafonte, ABBA, Sharam up to Albert Mangelsdorff. He was also a long-time organizer to 2005 by Jethro Tull and their band leader Ian Anderson close friends. Was it initially still predominantly musicians of the jazz and blues music, the tours he organized, he shifted with the advent of the hippie movement similar to the music producer Ertegun his interest to the rock and pop music. Out energetic, irascible nature earned him the nickname " Ayatollah Choleri ". His legal training him was a useful means of enforcing its interests in business conflicts.

1983 supported Rau, moved by Petra Kelly, the young Green Party in their election campaign by organizing the Green caterpillar. These were political events where green speakers gave speeches and bands who were close to the peace movement, free of charge, took care of the musical setting.

One day after the general election in 1983 Fritz Rau resigned from the Green Party. The concert organizers later took the view that " can not be the job of artists to contribute their popularity and their ability to be appropriate strange argument in the election campaign. "

As Madonna 1987 went on tour in Europe and completed their only Germany concert in Frankfurt Forest Stadium, Rau offered as an organizer in joint planning with the German Federal Railroad 20 special trains with 1000 travel sites at which the concert venue there and back drove from all over the Federal Republic. This action went under the name " Rock'n'Rail ", the train turned to in advance nationwide a full-page advertisement in the Bild newspaper. The sports field station in Frankfurt was temporarily renamed " Madonna Station ". During the trip a "Miss Lady " was held election in each train among the passengers.

Fritz Rau promoted German -language rock musicians such as Udo Lindenberg, Peter Maffay or. However, another commercially successful and controversial rock band with German lyrics, the Böhse Onkelz he refused to cooperate. " I have no desire to carry out a tour with the Böhse Onkelz, because I do not think that the Böhse Onkelz have distanced themselves from their past, which is highly questionable, since the earlier plates eight to ten years ago ," said Fritz Rau on the television program ARD Culture Report on 31 January 1993.

In his biography published in 2005, 50 years Backstage - Memories of a concert promoter, he moved in a humorous way, the balance of a rich and full life. The book is dedicated to his late wife Hildegard and his longtime partner Horst Lippmann.

Rau appeared at music colleges and universities as a guest lecturer. As of the summer semester 2007 he taught as an honorary professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. He lived in a retirement home in Kronberg im Taunus. The Lippmann Rau Foundation preserves the Lippmann Rau Music Archive in Eisenach the memory of two deserving promoter.

To mark the 50th anniversary of both the American Folk Blues Festival and the Rolling Stones in 2012, Rau met with the musician beaver Herrmann on with a program consisting of lectures and live music, which, under the title A Plea for the Blues early 2013 a double CD was released. In the same year he was inducted along with Horst Lippmann in the Blues Hall of Fame.

Rau suffered from diabetes. A heart attack in 1994 prompted him to undergo a bypass surgery. Since suffering a stroke in 1999, he suffered from a limited vision.

To the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson used a friendship Fritz Rau, Rau why his son born in 1958 named Andreas Oscar; Peterson was also the godfather of versions son.

Quotes about Fritz Rau

  • "He's like a father to me. " ( Udo Lindenberg )
  • "He is everybody's daddy. " (Al Jarreau )
  • " Fritz is one of the legendary figures of the German show business. Without him there would not have given this great hall concert tours with many artists " ( Udo Jürgens )
  • "He never sleeps. He survives on beer, chips and ring cake. " ( Joan Baez )
  • " Fritz is absolutely filling the room. Fritz has a spontaneous warm side. I have also experienced Fritz loudly. If he wanted to prevail, then you have totally noticed him. Not only argumentative. Even physically. When Fritz ran up against a wall, then wiggled the. "(Peter Maffay )
  • " Fritz Rau says:" At asparagus / Should only people refresh / have a lot of money / On a numbered account! ' " ( Quote from the lyrics of the song Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously by Frank Zappa? ).

Memberships

  • German Jazz Federation
  • Honorary Member of the Association of German Konzertdirektionen
  • Member of the advisory board of the Tabaluga Foundation, under the auspices of Peter Maffay
  • Honorary Member of the German Designer Club DDC
  • Honorary Member of the Creative Sounds Kronberg
  • Member of the Foundation Board of Trustees of Entrée Music Foundation by Jean -Jacques Kravetz
  • SPD

Awards

Writings

  • Fritz Rau: 50 years backstage. Memories of a concert promoter. Foreword by Udo Lindenberg. Palmyra, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-930378-65-5
  • Fritz Rau: Concerts and Festivals (pop, rock, jazz ), in: Hermann Rough, Christine Demmer (ed.): Cultural Management. Theory and practice of a professional art. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1997, pp. 243-253.
  • Fritz Rau: concert management in popular music, in: The New Society, 1985 ( 32 ), pp. 894-899.
  • Fritz Rau: I do not need roulette, I have my concerts, in: Albert Hoehner: The everyday madness of rock and roll. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 57-77.
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