Wolfgang Flur: The Old Courts, Wigan

Wolfgang Flur

Wolfgang Flur conducted an enthusiastic crowd of Kraftwerk aficionados, Getintothis’ Jamie Bowman among them.

It’s hard not to feel a little sorry for Wolfgang Flur, percussionist with German electronic legends Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987.

While former band mate Ralf Hutter continues to traverse the world’s arenas and festivals with Kraftwerk’s spectacular 3D live show, Flur’s latest set of tour dates sees him visit such glamorous settings as Newcastle’s Cluny, Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree and this slightly incongruous date in Wigan.

In truth there’s always been a touch of the Pete Bests about the 72-year-old drummer.

In his wonderfully entertaining autobiography, I Was a Robot, he describes how he was frozen out of the band through a combination of coldness and a reluctance to join in with Hutter and Florian Schneider’s cycling obsession (“Ralf and Florian never returned my calls and made no attempt to contact me. They didn’t even answer my letters. What had happened? What had made them stay so silent?”).

He quickly found his name dropped from album credits and a drum machine of his own invention being patented by his bandmates. What followed was an acrimonious war of words that was ultimately waged in the Hamburg land court.

Given all this it’s hard to begrudge the likeable Flur his moment in the sun and judging by the reaction when he walks on stage at The Old Courts, there are plenty of Kraftwerk fans in the building willing to give him his due.

Strangely, despite its billing, this is not what you would call a conventional live show. Instead Flur positions himself behind a bank of technology and proceeds to present a DJ set full of the kind of punishing techno beats that his former band pioneered.

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Conducting the crowd, Flur seems to be having a whale of a time, far-removed from the motionless, robotic stance of his 70s heyday and the up-for-it Wiganers follow suit with some energetic moves since the glory days of the nearby Casino.

Coupled with the music are some fantastic visuals in the form of a succession of still photographs, archive footage and ephemera from Kraftwerk’s career. It’s hard not to observe how Flur always looked something of an outsider compared to the studious looking Hutter and Schneider with his succession of groovy jackets and longer hair.

More modern clips show Flur in front of various world landmarks goosestepping and wearing a Kaiser Wilhelm hat.

Naturally it’s when he plays remixed versions of Kraftwerk classics like Neon Lights, It’s More Fun To Compute and Pocket Calculator that the acclaim and shape throwing reaches its heights.

#wolfgangflur #wigan pic.twitter.com/8ZqiR2Dje9

— The White Man's Yobo (@natherden) March 1, 2020

A strange night then but the Old Courts is a fine venue and the sheer enthusiasm radiated by both crowd and artist was hard to dispute.

A word to for support artist Peter Duggal whose excellent set of acid house-influence electro provided the ideal warm up. Vorsprung durch technik as they say in Wigan.

Images by Getintothis’ Keith Ainsworth