I first heard about them on the "Mit Sonnerschirmen fangen wir den Blütenzauber" compilation on the Frischluft label, which represented the "sound of young Germany" in the early nineties.
the prominent element of the Merricks sound is the trumpet, sometimes supported by a Saxophone and even a clarinet. This and the singing of Guenther Gottschling, one of Germany's best pop-voices, made up their uniqueness.
From Munich, they released two records on the local Sub-Up records in 89 and 90. The EP "In Amerika" had English lyrics but it was the "In unserer Stadt" LP (all in German) which brought them to my attention. It has the should-have-been-top-ten hit "Ich kann nichts dafuer" as well as a couple of other great songs such as "Larry Chesky".
The title track of the 7" EP "Der schoenste Tag im Jahr" on Blam-A-Bit was another hit, but this EP also was the start of the more dancey Merricks. The b-side song "Cheer Up" was a dance-floor filler, unfortunately in three clubs only.
I saw them live a couple of times in the early nintees and they always did great shows.
the second full length "In Schwierigkeiten" didn't make it on my turntable very often, the trumpet was gone and there were a lot more keyboards. The same is true for the mini-LP "Merricks in club 2", still good songs but somehow it wasn't really my cup of tea at that time. I never heard any of their newer stuff, so someone else may help out here.
there are a couple of side-projects to the Merricks: Mission Impossible, Schade Schokolade, Friend Ahoi, most of them unfortunately appeared on compilations only.
Peter Hahndorf for the Shalala mailing-list in November 1998
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