Radwar Party 2

17. Dec. 1988 - Discotheque "La Quinta"

Highlights and Facts

This is a song from Art Commando, a Band which played at RADWAR PARTY I and II. The quality of the recording is rather poor, because it was sampled from an old BASF-Ferro-Tape. Possibly the only existing recording of this song. (Not even the bandleader had another copy.)

Partyreport - Illegal #35 - Feb. 89
Partybericht - NEWS Nr.1 - 2.Jahrgang


The Making of RADWAR II

In the late summer 1988 we thought about a new party. We had been begged by so many people who had not visited the RADWAR Party I and by a lot of more people who had. Since the Digital New was no success, Digital Marketing was looking for new spheres of activity. They were selling Public Domain software and wanted to publish cheap but good utilities for the C 64. So they tried to get in contact with good programmers. The easiest way for this was: having a party.
First of all MWS and TC talked to the owner of the disco "La Quinta" to get the location once again. Since he got quite some money out of the first party, he agreed.
When we were looking for a good date for the party, we decided not to have a copy party at all. (The German police had already raided some copy parties that year and we didn't want to become their biggest fish.) We chose the 17th December, so anybody who wanted to get some new stuff could go to the Venlo-meeting first and than visit our Party in the evening.
Than we were looking for new showacts for our party. We asked the guys from Art Commando to play once again, this time MWS managed to get the Travesty-show and after the first party he had told his hair-dresser about the huge success of the event. So MWS also persuaded his hair-dresser to make a hair-fashion-show.
TC and MWS draw some quick and dirty invitations to be spread in Venlo and at other Copy-Parties. But the most propaganda was done by all the scene-guys themself . (During that time there weren't much phone-conferences where I participated and was NOT asked about the party :-)
On 19th November the usual RADWAR bunch went to the Venlo-meeting and there was Paul Peter (a former member of the FLASH CRACKING GROUP) working as cashier. He let us in for free (I think, we never had to pay the entrance fee). Inside it was pretty boring, no new stuff anywhere. So we went outside to get some French fries at a snackbar, but we met Paul Peter again and talked for a while. Suddenly two men arrived. They said they were from the German TV-Station WDR and they were planning a new computergameshow ("Highscore"). They had heard about Venlo-meeting and here they were. We showed them around the place (they were glad to have met some Germans) and went to the snackbar together. We told them about cracking, spreading, the scene and about our upcoming party. They promised immediately to come to the party.
When the first Highscore should be broadcasted (some weeks before the party), we all went to Cologne to watch the new show, to see how TV-shows are made, to stay in contact with the TV-team. It was a pretty boring show, but afterwards, we went out with the director, editor, showmaster (showgirl?) and had a good time. A this time MWS was asked, if he would dare to join a talk-show about cracking at one of the next Highscore-shows. As You know Markus, from this moment nobody could stop him any more, he was going to be a TV-Star! His adversary in this talk-show should be the star-lawyer Günther Freiherr von Gravenreuth (Günni).

At the RADWAR Party II

On the morning of the 17th December MWS, DM and TC went to Venlo. They promoted the Party and gave some free-tickets for the Highscore-Show to good friends. They all traveled to Cologne, to see MWS talking to Gravenreuth. Günni had some problems, making his point of view clear. Because the 99% of the audience in the studio were friends of MWS (and the leaders of Europe's cracking scene :-). Whenever Gravereuth was talking, the audience got angry, whenever MWS said something, the audience chilled out. After the show, the whole bunch drove to Heinsberg. The show finished at 18:45, the party was about to begin at 19:41. So they had to be faaassst. They made it just in time.
Meanwhile DEF, BK and some guys from Digital Marketing prepared the disco for the evening. The boys from "The Art Commando" prepared their synthies, but there were mighty problems connecting their equipment to the sound system of the disco. They worked on these problems until 21:00. Then they thought, the problems were solved. At this time the disco was already crowded. Crackers, hackers, spreaders, coders, copy-slaves from all over Europe were there. Just to mention at least some of them: Ikari, DCS, Strike Force, Red Sector, Tristar, Bros, FAC, SCG, RADWAR (really?), Hotline, Fairlight, Movers ... . They drank, talked, danced (yes, some local boys and girls came, too) and waited for the performance of "The Art Commando". The music started, the singer started, but nobody could hear him! The sound system did not yet work. They tried two more times to fix the problem, but had no success. We then decide secretly to play their tape. So "The Art Commando" had a full playback performance! And nobody really noticed it!
Outside the men from the WDR arrived, to get some material for the next Highscore show. It was to dark for filming inside the disco, so they started interviewing almost everybody outside. (That's not much fun in December :-) But most people were already drunken, so they didn't get suitable interviews. In fact, the recorded material was never broadcasted in any form. The TV-team left early.
Inside the two boys (girls ?) from the travesty-show dressed up, while on stage the hair-dress-show was performed. It wasn't a success, the crowd appeared bored (what did You expect? How many crackers cared for their hair that time?). But when the travety-show started, nearly everybody started "warming up". Some guys shouted "Ausziehen, ausziehen!" (Strip it, strip it!). The result was, that the really shocked boy on the stage turned back to the dressroom and said in a warm and soft tone: "Daaas siind jaaa aaalles Baaauuern" (Those are hillybillies). As usual we had big trouble with the sound. For that reason they stoppped early with their show. (Great! The spectators were hot and the actors on strike!:-(
So MWS took one wig, a bra and a nice dress and went on the stage shaking his hips. The party people became party animals. Everyone was shouting, screaming or laughing. MWS looked sooo cuuute. (He really looked like his mother!) BK and TC also grabbed some dresses and joined MWS. They danced, did some jokes and somehow they made it back to the dressroom alive.
Everyone had a great time. At 4 o*clock in the morning, we were tired, exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. The waiters and the DJ began to pack their things together. Oh, wait, there were still at least 80 people in the disco who could not go to bed. Either it was to far away or they were to drunken to drive. And we didn't have a sleeping place for them! TC and MWS persuaded the owner of the disco, that everyone could sleep in the disco (which is not allowed by law, but it was december and pretty cold outside). Thanx, Blackie!

Aftermath of RADWAR II

The second Radwar Party was one of the most remembered meetings the history of the european cracking-scene. It was the first time that the cracking elite came together to party not to copy! We prooved that the scene was tied together by friendship and not by "who has the latest stuff". Of course, today there are bigger parties (e.g. Assembly 9X), but none of these will match the fun we had on that lousy cold december evening. If You nowadays talk to someone who took part in this, You will hear stories and legends. Believe them, it is all true...
P.S.: As you can see above, we had a democompetition announced. But we got no entries. Noone brought his discs.