Wolfgang Niedecken
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Niedecken is a German singer, musician and visual artist. He founded the Kölsch speaking rock group BAP
BAP (German band)
Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....

 at the end of the 1970s. He soon became famous with BAP all over Germany. He is the lead singer and only remaining founding member of BAP.

Life

Niedecken attended boarding school in Rheinbach
Rheinbach
Rheinbach is a town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis district , in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It belongs to the administrative district of Cologne .-Geography:...

 from 1961 to 1970. From 1966 onwards he played in the school band The Convikts and The Troop. He studied Art at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences
Cologne University of Applied Sciences
Cologne University of Applied Sciences is a higher education institution in Cologne, Germany, established in 1971. It was created from a merger of numerous smaller colleges, the oldest of which was the Royal Provincial Trade School, founded in 1833, and renamed Trade College of the City of Cologne...

, graduating in 1974 after a short-term exchange in New York with Howard Kanovitz
Howard Kanovitz
Howard Kanovitz was a pioneering painter in the Photorealist and Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movement. - Life :...

 and Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...

. He remains an active painter who both designs most of the covers of the BAP albums and holds exhibitions of his work.

He was diagnosed a severe neurological disorder as of November 3rd 2011 prompting him to cancel all concerts.

Political Activism

Wolfgang Niedecken is an avid campaigner for political and social causes. He was one of the initiators of the 1992 event Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander (literally: Get your arse up and open your mouth), an open-air concert in Cologne against racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

. In 2002 he campaigned for a continuation of the red-green (SPD and The Greens) coalition in the German parliament. He was also "goodwill ambassador" of the aid organisation Gemeinsam für Afrika (literally: Together for Africa) from 2004 to 2005.

Co-Operations with other Artists

Wolfgang Niedecken played a live concert with the band Bläck Fööss
Bläck Fööss
The Bläck Fööss are a music group from Cologne, Germany, started in 1970.- Name of the band :The band's name in Kölsch, a local dialect of Ripuarian, in which the group predominantly sings, means barefoot.It is pronounced ....

 in the Millowitsch-Theater in Cologne. This concert was released on the double CD Bläck Fööss & Fründe (literally: Bläck Fööss and friends). Niedecken and Leopardefell were also the backing musicians on Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

's hit Hungry Heart
Hungry Heart
"Hungry Heart" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen on his fifth album, The River. It was released as the album's first single in 1980 and became Springsteen's first big hit of his own on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-History:...

 when it was re-released in 1995 and featured in the video which was shot in a bar in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...


Solo albums

  • 1987: Schlagzeiten (A word game on the German of Headlines with the lines part being replaced by the German for times)
  • 1995: Leopardefell (literally: Leopard fur)
  • 2004: NiedeckenKöln together with the Big Band of the WDR (a German TV station)

Awards

Wolfgang Niedecken received the Frankfurter Musikpreis (literally: Music award of Frankfurt) in 1996

External links

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