Marl’s 1975 saw Thomas MIEBS, Rainer DELOW (bassist replaced later by Udo FUELLHAAS), Gerd GITZA, and Rudiger FREITAG form a band called TORAGERU. Gerd GITZA, a long-time friend and colleague of FUELLHAAS, died in a car accident. The band was left with a significant loss. Herbert KLINGER would take over his position as guitarist. The band was renamed SURGERY after these events. Soon, Udo CUSTODIS, a sax player from the group JOIN IN, joined them. They participated in a Vest-Rock contest three times. The contest saw them representing their juridiscal Marl. There, they were judged alongside symphonic bands such as ROSSEAU and TRILOGY. This resulted in their first place in the 1978 contest. In 1980, their first LP was printed in 500 copies. This was sold to friends and at gigs as well as a few local record shops. However, this didn’t help SURGERY gain any more fame than their local reputation (and of the 50 live performances they gave in their seven-year existence, 29 were in their home Marl). After the release of LP, the band went through several line-up changes until 1982 when Herbert KLINGER switched to pure jazz and decided to leave behind all things rock and jazz-rock. They couldn’t go on without him, so they disbanded the group in May 1982. In July 1982, they performed one last farewell gig at Wulfen festivan. The LP was recently re-released along with live performances. This album is recommended to fans of german jazz rock, which touches the border of krautrock in similar ways as bands like MUNJU and JOIN IN. bio by historian9
