Spliff

About

Spliff were a German band founded in 1980 as a "follow-up" project from the Nina Hagen Band after Nina Hagen left the group during the recording sessions for their second album finally entitled "Unbehagen" (a wordplay with her last name also meaning "discomfort" or "uneasiness"). Their first own album "The Spliff Radio Show" was a concept-album in the form of a parody of a radio broadcast about the music industry and the risks of stardom with commercials and all lyrics completely in English. From their second album onwards – when they started using German lyrics – they combined rock music with other styles like synth-pop, heavy rock and funk, thus creating a unique sound and reflecting in a certain way the special atmosphere of the cold war era in 1980s West Berlin, where the band resided. For a few years they were quite successful in Germany, charting with a couple of albums and singles. Their greatest hit was "Carbonara", which features on many 80s compilations. In 1985, after the success of the "Schwarz Auf Weiss" album remained beyond the expectations of the Spliff members, the group disbanded. Its short lived successor was Froon (a follow up project already without Herwig Mitteregger although he contributed one track).