SINDELFINGEN - 'Odgipig (Background HBG 122/10) UK 1973 CD
CD, inlay, booklet in NM (mint-) | probably unplayed | Psychedelic Rock, Avantgarde, Prog Rock

My name is Richard Manktelow

and I was the founder and musical composer of Sindelfingen, a progressive rock band that existed from 1969 to 1974. The band was not a full-time professional touring outfit, played only locally (and rarely!) and never had a record deal, nor achieved any sort of fame.

One might imagine that any public interest in an unknown band from nearly forty years ago would end right there. However, as a result of a limited edition, privately recorded album called “’odgipig”, which the band recorded at the end of 1972 and released in 1973, and which has subsequently become ultra-collectable, Sindelfingen has posthumously garnered a following out of all proportion to its impact at the time.

The album has become so sought-after (at one point having a book value of around £1000) that there have been a number of re-issues on vinyl and on CD. Most of these have been legitimate releases but there are now companies in other countries selling unlicensed copies and downloads, so I find myself today in the unlikely position of being bootlegged, despite never having been even remotely

Sindelfingen began at a jam session at a local youth club. From this inauspicious acorn a typical rock trio grew, consisting of myself, bass-player John Currie and drummer Bill Basden. I think Bill, like me, was about 18 while John was a year or so younger and still at school. I regret I have no idea what became of Bill, who left after about a year. He was briefly replaced by Alan Parry before we recruited Roger Thorn, who is the drummer on the album. Roger was a young but already experienced drummer, a Ginger Baker devotee who possessed a vast twin kick-drum set-up; he also brought with him a glockenspiel which he had liberated from his children, perhaps not unsurprisingly.