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Slapp Happy

English/American/German avant-pop group founded in 1972 in Hamburg. The idea of the group came from Anthony Moore, an English experimental and avant-garde artist living in Germany, when he was under contract with Polydor for 3 albums. The first two, very experimental, didn't sell well, so when Polydor received the third one ([m=2147974]) which was basically a 40 minute recording of sticks falling on the floor, they freaked, and requested an album of more conventional, commercial songs. As an answer to this request, and as a joke, Anthony Moore teamed up with his mate Peter Blegvad to compose a very poppy song, which they did in 20 minutes, and recorded in less than 2 hours. But they weren't satisfied with their singing, so they persuaded Dagmar Krause (Anthony Moore's then girlfriend) to sing it. The song was [m=3245827], and to Moore's surprise, Polydor was very happy with this recording and decided to release it immediately as a single. They also requested a full length album : [url=https://www.discogs.com/release/4495803-Slapp-Happy-Sort-Of]the first Slapp Happy LP[/url] was thus released by Polydor to fullfill Anthony Moore's contract for a 3rd album - and as a result, [m2147974] was shelved. Still in Germany, Moore, Blegvad and Krause, backed by the band [a=Faust], recorded a second album in 1973, but Polydor had no more contractual obligation and declined to release it. The band members moved to England in 1974 where they signed with [l=Virgin], who agreed to release [url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1601931-Slapp-Happy-Slapp-Happy]the second album[/url] on the condition it would be re-recorded. Through the Virgin connection, Slapp Happy met [a=Henry Cow] with whom they merged in 1975. But the merger ended soon afterwards, Dagmar Krause stayed with Henry Cow and Slapp Happy split up. There were several reunions afterwards. In 1982 the trio reunited briefly to record the [r=1601997] single. They also performed live (for the first time ever) during the "Dial M For Music" festival, held at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts on 10 September 1982. The three collaborated again in 1991 on a specially commissioned television opera "Camera", produced by After Image for Channel 4, based on an original idea by Krause, with words by Blegvad and music by Moore. The soundtrack [m=611691] wasn't released until 2000, and not under the Slapp Happy name. In 1997, Slapp Happy reunited again to record [m=37666]. Slapp Happy was popular in Japan and toured there in 2000, playing on stage without any backing musicians, and released [m=270692] to commemorate this tour. Krause, Moore and Blegvad then reformed Slapp Happy again in November 2016 to perform with Faust at the Week-End festival in Cologne, Germany. The two groups also played together on 10–11 February 2017 at Cafe Oto in London and on 24 February 2017. Slapp Happy, without Faust, performed at Mt. Rainer Hall, Shibuya in Tokyo. On 17 September 2017, Slapp Happy and Faust played at the 10th Rock in Opposition festival in Carmaux, France. On 28 September, they played as a trio in the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Art Academy) in Den Haag (The Hague). They made a final appearance in November 2017 in Brussels, Belgium.