How I discovered Cosa Rosa.
Back in the 1980's, I was a bit disillusioned with the UK pop scene. Being a Progressive Rock fan (I still am) most of the chart music was not to my taste, and so I was looking further afield. Being a SW and FM radio listener, I used to tune into Deutsche Welle (As opposed to Neue Deutsche Welle!) on 6140 kHz in the 49 metre band, where, among other shows, I'd often hear the European top 40. Other stations also played music you didn't hear in the UK. It was a common misconception that the UK had the best radio and music, BUT in much of Europe, stations played UK, US and European music, whereas here it was just UK & US. Record shops reflected this. There were exceptions, Adrian's of Wickford sold almost every record in the world, but it was mail order from 200 miles away!
Also, on Manchester's Piccadilly radio, Timmy Mallett (Yeah, I know! But in fairness, he did play a lot of music no-one else did, AND he went to interview many of the musicians at such events as Montreux) you got to hear European top 40 rundowns and releases. So it was that I often heard much that was not available elsewhere. While some European music did hit our charts such as Alphaville, a-Ha, Jennifer Rush (American, but based in Germany), Cock Robin (Anglo America, but more popular in Europe than anywhere, though they did manage a number 28 hit here with "The Promise You Made") I heard many more that never charted here. Sandra, for example, had a big hit with "(I'll never be) Maria Magdalena" in every other country in Europe, but didn't even make number 75 here.
There are other examples, but in 1984, Nena bucked the trend with a worldwide hit, "99 Luftballons" which even charted in America at number 1, though here in the UK, we needed an English translation (by Kevin McAlea, Barclay James Harvest session keyboard player at the time) giving us "99 Red Balloons". I never particularly liked this track, but I did see a hurriedly arranged concert at Aston University which was aired here on BBC TV. I liked all the other songs, bought the UK album, and went to see them at Manchester Apollo on 1st May, 1984. As a result, I bought the 2 German albums which that UK album was a selection of, and, when it came out, the 3rd German album, in both its "Feuer Und Flamme" (German) form, and, when it came out, the English version called "It's All In The Game."
Then, one day in October 1986, I was in London on business. With a couple of hours to kill, I made my way to the music fans “Mecca”, the Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street. In the main part of the shop, it was, as so often the case, simply dozens of copies of records and CD's you could buy in any store in the UK. BUT, downstairs was what made it different! (Well, in 1986 anyway, a year of 2 later, it was cleared and a CD pressing plant installed behind sheet glass. You could watch the discs being made. I have one made there, the initial pressing of Steve Hackett's "Voyage Of The Acolyte" I believe the pressing plant has now gone).
Anyway, what made the basement different in 1986 was that it was the import section, with discs from all over the world. After much browsing, I had discovered only one disc that interested me. A name I had seen credited on backing vocals on Nena's third album, and produced by one of Nena's producers, Reinhold Heil. I knew nothing more about it, but having come all this way, it seemed silly to leave without buying even one album! It was the first thing I ever bought with a credit card. "Kein Zufall" was an album released the previous year, and I had to wait until I got home, 200 miles away, before I would discover if I had wasted my money.
Over 20 years later, I still find the album fresh and interesting, uplifting and original. It is a true masterpiece, one of the few discs that would be in my top ten, and I guess I'm not alone in feeling that way!
