30 years ago this summer Flucht Nach Vorn worked hard in the mountains near Cologne with our great mentor Conny Plank on two songs - "Heavy Cancer" & "Excessive"- that were to be our big breakthrough. It´a a story with a sad ending, because this mountainous effort never came to bear fruit. In fact the desaster this effort turned into effectively broke up the band. the idea was that we would put out our album "Talking Is Over" via indie label Vielklang while major CBS would simultaneously launch our mainstream success with "Heavy Cancer" in the wake of that album´s release. The first mix was turned down by CBS, the A&R went on record saying that he could do a better snare drum sound than Conny Plank, the man who was the singular genius behind careers such as Kraftwerk´s or the Eurythmics. Sadly, the historically bitter and funny letter Conny wrote to CBS in response is lost. Anyway we went back to Conny´s to work another week or two on "Heavy Cancer". Conny was not going to be defeated by any label. The fact that we- the band - chose to side with the producer did not sit well with CBS and they decided to pay Conny but never released the song. Rumor has it that you could have bought a nice sports car with that money. Such was the start of our affairs with major money labels back in the day. 30 mighty summers ago. 2 years later, 1987, Conny, who had become a father figure to almost everyone not only in our band, died of cancer. 

Flucht Nach Vorn/Heavy Cancer

nikko weidemann

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