BIG BALLS & THE GREAT WHITE IDIOT - Art.1 Die Würde Des Menschen Ist Unantastbar 1980

Big Balls & The Great White Idiot were formed in Hamburg 1977, but its members had actually worked together to some extent since 1975 and experimented with other types of music. In 1977, however, they took the direction of playing punk, and that's when this name came about. The members of Big Balls & The Great White Idiot were three half-Icelandic brothers, Pétur Adolph G. Grund drummer, Atli Halldór Lothar Grund guitarist and Alfreð Grund bassist, the fourth member was Wolfgang Lorenz and played guitar and the brothers all sang. The band was among the first and best-known punk bands in Germany and is probably still active in some form there, although little has been heard of them in recent years. In their early years, they were considered very provocative and theit live performances were always an adventure. The Balls released about a dozen LPs and singles and were one of the first early German Punk bands and their lyrics were written in English.

Performances on stage were highly aggressive; they were known to shout at the audience to go home. "Baron Adolf" provoked the audience by wearing a Nazi uniform and a black moustache as an expression of anarchy. Punk News magazine called their sound "mean and ugly." Their reasoning was "Wir hassen alle und wollen von allen gehasst werden. Die Leute sollen durch unsere Musik zum Durchbrechen und Aufmotzen gezwungen werden, damit sie ihre Frustration merken.“ ("We hated everyone and wanted to be hated by everyone. Through our music we wanted to force people to have a break-through and feel a call to action, so that they would notice their frustration.")

Their first album was released in 1977 by Nova/Teldec, named Big Balls. Among the seventeen songs were several covers: a version of the Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K.", in this case "Anarchy In Germany," a cover of "White Light, White Heat“ by the Velvet Underground, and a cover of "Search & Destroy“ by the Stooges. In 1978 Big Balls released their second album Foolish Guys. Their next two albums, Artikel 1 and Creepy Shades, were released on their own label Balls Records, the latter bringing a change in sound away from Punk. The Eighties saw the "Balls" (with French guitarist Hervé Rozoum) more often in theaters contributing their music to various stageplays. In the 1990s, the Balls produced several albums with actor Jan Fedder as "Jan Fedder & Big Balls".

"Rock'N'Roll is not just music – it is much more." (Balls motto)

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