Westwood

Saturday, 29th June, 6.05pm, Innenhofbühne

In 1975, Dave German, German Vogt, and Wolfgang Köhler formed the band Dave’s Triad. Dave, who had played lead guitar for Sonny and Cher, Glenn Campbell, and Freddy Cannon in the 60’s, had been playing folk music with German for over a year. Dave had always wanted to play only original songs with three part harmonies, which is rather hard to do with only two voices, so the search for a third band member begun. It was decided that a singer who could play some guitar was needed. A tip from a mutual friend led them to Wolfgang, who could play a lot of guitar but didn’t sing much. Always liking a good challenge, Dave and German decided to add Wolfgang to the band and the group Dave’s Triad was born.

The band decided to change the name from Dave’s Triad to Westwood shortly after that, because Dave’s Triad sounded too much like a washing machine detergent.
In the summer of 1975 the band went to Mannheim to hear the group Poco, and Dave’s old friend Rusty Young gave him a nickel-plated Dobro as a good-luck piece. After six months of rehearsals Dave, German, and Wolfgang went into the studio and produced their first LP Dave’s Triad, along with several good friends, featuring the Dobro on several songs.

The following years found Westwood becoming more and more popular all over Germany, and in 1978 the band went to Kaiserslautern to compete in the “Marlboro Country & Western Festival”, which they won first place. In 1980 a record producer signed Westwood to a recording contract with Intercord Records, and the second LP Winner Takes All was released in the Spring of 1980. In May Winner Takes All was at # 9 in the National and German Language List of the Best hit parade. Winner Takes All resulted in various radio and television appearances.

In 1982, the LP Comin’ Home was released, but by this time Westwood was starting to show signs of burn-out. The band had played well over a thousand concerts since 1975, and they were tired. Also, being together for such a long time was like being married to each other, along with all the ups and downs of a marriage, and in 1984 Westwood decided to take a “little break”. Dave went back to Colorado in 1986, and Westwood ceased to exist, or so they thought.

In February of 1997, Dave, German, and Wolfgang decided to have a Westwood reunion in September in Germany, and play a couple of concerts, just for fun and a few old friends. They had not played together for fourteen years, the “little break”, so there was virtually no advertising for the reunion; the advertising was “word-of-mouth”. What started out as a small “jam session” quickly grew to nine concerts in three weeks, the word had gotten out in Germany. Six of the nine concerts were sold out by March of 1997.

One of the last concerts in 1997 resulted in Westwood getting a record contract with Blue Rose Records, in Abstatt, and the first recording of Westwood in sixteen years will be released in August of 1998, followed by several Westwood concerts in September of 1998. The CD is called “Spirits in the Wind”, which is also the title song. Because the record contract was totally unexpected, along with the success of the reunion “jam session”, Westwood only had time to put together four new songs, written by Dave. The remaining fourteen songs are cuts from the previous three LPs.

Westwood is now twenty-three years old, and the band dedicates “Spirits in the Wind” to all the friends and fans who did not forget them.

• Band
• Dave German – Vocals, Guitars, Banjo
• German Vogt – Vocals, Bass
• Wolfgang Köhler – Vocals, Guitars

Video