The story so far: in the late 1970s, a new four-piece band emerges, taking their name from a self-adhesive plaster with a non-stick wound pad: Hans-A-Plast. The group’s ranks are soon bolstered by a fifth Beatle — or should we say a fifth plaster — Annette, allowing drummer Bettina to focus exclusively on her drum kit. »None of the new bands can match Annette for sheer energy, she can sing you into submission,« Alfred Hilsberg announces in Sounds magazine. The band go on to win the newcomers of the year poll, as voted by the music paper’s readers. They play gigs when and where they can get them: an anti-fascist festival in Berlin, the Wuppertaler Schuppen Börse, Hamburg’s »Into The Future« festival; before long they are ready to record a baker’s dozen of songs in their home town of Hanover. It takes them less than a week, including the mix. When the music industry comes calling, Hans-A-Plast keep them at bay with outrageous demands. Released in true DIY fashion on »No Fun«, the label founded by the band for this very purpose, the eponymous debut album features cover art by cartoonist Uli Stein. A thousand sales would see them break even, but before the new decade begins, they sell ten times that amount. The 2nd No Fun Festival attracts a crowd of 2,000. Things are happening so fast. Rockpalast records a legendary gig for television broadcast in 1980. » Rockpalast a guest of Hans-A-Plast,« the young punk singer shouts into the microphone to open the show.

While tens of thousands still revel in the sound of the debut album, the 1981 sophomore disc moves on from 1-2-3-4 punk to dissonant guitars, radical rhythm shifts, and increasingly avant-garde arrangements. Hans-APlast virtually explode with urgency on »2« as Annette’s vocals alternate between a choirgirl and a caw, almost yodelling, singing enthusiastically of self-immolation or sending murder threats to (long since expired) actors. And then? A hiatus.

With the band’s activities on pause, Annette takes two A-Levels in the United Kingdom and contemplates becoming an interpreter (already paying to start a course). One day, the phone rings — it’s Hans-A-Plast on the line, asking her to head home so they can get to work on what will be the third Hans-A-Plast album. For the first time, the band enlist a new producer - Jan Němec is at the controls - and record in a new location, the Horus Sound Studio in Hanover. The tracklist includes »Monstertanz«, a song written by Annette in England and subsequently adapted by the band (the first time they create a song in this fashion). Hans-A-Plast then shoot their first (and last) music video, a DIY effort which debuts on Peter Illmann’s »Formel Eins«, a popular and pivotal television show. »Ausradiert« is released in early 1983, another demonstration of Hans-A-Plast doing what they do best: ignoring what has gone before and going off at a new tangent. Gone are the sudden breaks and nervous shivers of the second album, ceding to a more conventional song structure and sharper production.There is a more typically eighties flair to the band’s sound now, as the vocals and Bettina’s drums swirl in reverb. Renate’s bass slices like a knife and dual guitars ring out crystal clear. Lyrically, of course, nothing is off limits: Annette offers advice on how to be »Gut im Bett« (good in bed), rails against the sanctimoniousness of Christianity; cannibalism, stalking, the list goes on…

The door closes on the band’s No Fun label in the autumn of 1983. Whereas the first two albums sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, »Ausradiert« only manages 10,000. Ticket sales are down when the band hit the road in April and May (1983). This time around, Annette is pregnant, as Bettina was on the previous tour. The band begin to argue about which musical direction they should take in future. A sticking plaster doesn’t stick for ever. Echoing the name of the third LP, Hans-A-Plast find themselves ausradiert (erased). – Max »Drangsal« Gruber