In the 1960s people danced in the Star-Palast in Kiel. The concept was new back then, live music every night. Above all, the performance by guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is unforgettable to this day.
by Stefanie Döscher
The glasses and ashtrays rattle on the tables, the sounds of "Hey Joe" boom out of the black speaker towers. Nobody stays in the red cocktail chairs anymore, everyone is mesmerized by the man on the stage. He wears his black hair as an Afro on his head, his pants are colorfully striped and, above all, he plays the guitar like hardly anyone else before or after him:On May 27, 1967, the world star Jimi Hendrix performed in the Star Palace in the Gaarden district of Kiel. east up. "He played 'Hey Joe' for over half an hour and then he made such a show out of it, always went to the loudspeaker and tried to create feedback," recalls Inge Hansen. "That was so impressive for me. I had goosebumps," says Henrik Maass, who was also making music at the time.
Kiel Club based on the Hamburg model
Inge Hansen should actually be doing her homework, but she secretly listens to the radio.Back then, music came from vinyl records. The Beat Club is shown on television once a month. And then there is Radio Luxembourg. Inge Hansen also sits in front of the receiver in the evening. "My father always wondered why I did my homework for so long," she says. When the Star-Palast opened in Kiel in 1964, it was a complete novelty in the region. "With the Star-Palast, club founder Manfred Woitalla had a monopoly. There was nothing like that in Kiel, that live groups from all over the world performed there," Maass recalls. Most groups come from England, but bands from Indonesia, Scotland, Ireland and the USA also play on the legendary stage. The Star Palace is open every day. A band plays every evening.
But the idea is not new:in Hamburg, the local Star Club has been causing a sensation since 1962, when the Beatles played when it opened. And that's no coincidence, because Manfred Weissleder, the founder of the Star Club, and Manfred Woitalla know each other. Before that, they had founded an interest group that tracked down young and hopeful bands in the north. However, when Woitalla decides to found a club based on a concept similar to the one from Hamburg, a legal dispute ensues, which the native of Kiel wins.
Admission:One mark
The club at Karlstal 42, of which there are only a few photos, becomes a crowd puller. There is black light and a disco ball hovers over the dance floor. "Three pieces were played back then and then you could talk," remembers Inge Hansen. The dancers can sit down at small kidney-shaped tables between the pieces and have a drink. Admission usually costs one mark - unless the great Jimi Hendrix is on the stage. "It cost five marks back then," remembers Inge Hansen.
Club instead of in the big stadium
Henrik Maass also makes music himself - but with Hendrix he was a fan.Eric Clapton's band Cream also plays on the Star Palace stage. "Actually, we just wanted to go dancing. But when the band started playing, we gathered around the stage. Ginger Baker, who was considered the best drummer in the world at the time, pounded on his drum kit for an hour and got faster and faster. We could we didn't have to dance, we had to watch," recalls Inge Hansen. "The music of the time was concentrated in the Star-Palast. And on a level that doesn't exist among local bands. And all of that in a club atmosphere. These are big stadiums today," says Hendrik Maass.
The Who from Kiel
Henrik Maass himself plays on the Star-Palast stage. The first time as part of a big band competition in 1964, which the band lost. Back then, Henry and his band members were already minor celebrities in and around Kiel because they caused a sensation at a band competition in the Ostseehalle.
Sir Henrik and the Dukes played in the Star-Palast in Kiel in the 1960s.The drummer had stepped out of the resonance field of his drum kit and the singer had knocked over the microphone stand. The performance was vaguely reminiscent of The Who, who were famous for destroying their guitars. "Of course we couldn't afford that," reports Maass and laughs. After the performance, Henry and the Dukes are local celebrities. "Every organizer then booked us and hoped that we would break something and of course that didn't work," says Maass.
The Dukes are only on stage in Woitalla's club when there is a need. "Normally only English bands performed there. They were then booked for a month," recalls Maass.
Hendrix comes back to SH one more time
In the Star-Palast, Maass is primarily a fan who seeks inspiration. "I always stood close to the stage, then I could see what the musicians were playing, then I would go home and play it there." Only the Jimi Hendrix gig throws him completely off balance:"Four weeks after the gig I couldn't touch an instrument, neither bass nor guitar. The way he played the guitar, I've never seen anything like it before - with his teeth, behind the back." During the break, between Hendrix's performances, Henry even gets the world star's autograph - he signs on a piece of wallpaper that a friend of Maaß is tearing off the wall.
Jimi Hendrix returns to Schleswig-Holstein again - in 1970 to the Fehmarn Festival. A short time later he dies. The era of the Star Palace ends at the turn of the year 1968/69. Live music is no longer popular. People prefer to listen to music from the record in the disco.