RIP Frank Beard (ZZ TOP)

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Sad news today that ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard has passed away. He died on Monday at a hospice in Richmond, Texas. Beard’s last appearance in Bonn was at Kunstrasen in July 2024 (see picture). Beard stepped away from the band in March 2025 because of unspecified health issues after being their drummer since the band’s formation alongside bassist Dusty Hill who died in 2021 and Billy Gibbons. It was a formation that lasted for over half a century and brought many hits, most famously ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Gimme All Your Loving’ from the mega-selling Eliminator album.

It will always be the ultimate conundrum that whilst Hill and Gibbons sported trademark long beards, Beard himself never did. But that was a part of the band’s success – a mix of visual gimmickery (remember those plush covered revolving guitars) that fitted perfectly with MTV in its heyday and great Pop/Rock songs that were unmistakably ZZ and no-one else.

When Dusty Hill passed away in 2021 the band pulled in long-time road crew member Elwood Francis as replacement. Whether the band will continue with just Billy Gibbons as original member? Gibbons had this to say:


“Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator, and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas,” Gibbons said. His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished”

His (Beard’s) signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished”

reUNited and Melchi at Stadtgarten

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May 7 2017 was a special evening at Bonn Folk Club. For one, the TV cameras of WDR came down to introduce the show to a wider audience. The other reason didn’t seem so important at the time, but proved to be – it was the appearance by a young man who had been drawing big crowds playing on the streets of Bonn. His name Melchi Vepouyoum. My REVIEW at the time said “Melchi is someone you might see playing on a street corner whilst the Justin Biebers of this world play to arenas. Is there any justice in this world? No there is not”. Well he still isn’t playing stadiums, but Melchi in 2026 has played Bonn Harmonie with his own band and at Stadtgarten this evening showed that early promise was no fluke. Together with the United Nations house-band reUNited this was an evening of familiar faces and once again proof that the streets of Bonn are paved, if not currently with gold, at least with excellent musicians.

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celebrating Beethoven Unveiled

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“When the statue was unveiled, it unfortunately had its back turned to us.” So wrote Queen Victoria in her diary after the unveiling of Beethoven’s statue in Bonn Münsterplatz on 12 August 1845. A certain Hector Berlioz was also annoyed by the event and reported that, due to the vast crowds packed into the square, it was impossible to reach the Münster.

The ‘crowd’ was somewhat smaller on Wednesday for the 181st anniversary of the statues unveiling. The baritone voice of Falko Hönisch carried across the square in the humid Summer air, accompanied by Martin Wiemer’s piano. at least the dignitaries present in 2026 from Bürger für Beethoven, were seated facing Hähnel’s celebrated statue this time.

Beethoven himself died in March 1827 but it took some time, and important celebrities too, including Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, to organize a monument. The City of Bonn itself wasn’t interested, so the ‘Verein für Beethoven’s Monument’ was created whose work continues today as ‘Bürger für Beethoven’.

As there was controversy recently over Markus Lüpertz’ ‘Hommage to Beethoven’ at Stadtgarten, so there was controversy too over the statue that was erected in 1845. Many wanted a more heroic, Godlike pose as was popular then. The final choice was for Beethoven to look like Beethoven. As Victoria noted – it is accurate right down to its moody temperament.

BÜRGER FÜR BEETHOVEN WEBSITE

Stadtgarten 2026 underway with a powerful start

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The Stadtgarten concerts at Bonn’s Alten Zoll made their welcome return on Friday. There will be lots of free music to enjoy each Friday and Saturday evening in August but it certainly started very promisingly with a colourful and energetic start from Punk Ska-rockers Roskapankki and what the second band of the evening MandelKokainSchnaps describe as Pinker Pop-Punk. Let’s get front of stage before the crowds arrive with their picnic blankets…

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The Rhythm Section – Magic Unter Der Zeder

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If you went to Unter der Zeder on Monday thinking ‘The Rhythm Section’?  Hmm… sounds like an evening of safe if unremarkable instrumentals” you would have been WAY, Way wrong.   The singers actually outnumbered the musicians.  Ten musicians and singers in total.  A recipe for confusion and ego-clashing?  It turned out to instead be  a recipe for spontaneity and shared enjoyment that had the audience on their feet and clapping along well before evening’s end. 

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RIP Konrad Beikircher

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PHOTO: 2021 Plittersdorf

Saddened to hear today that Konrad Beikircher has passed away aged 80. Even as a resident of Düsseldorf many years ago I was aware of this multi-talent who seemed to represent all that was good humoured about the Rhineland area. He was a comedian, musician, writer, presenter, Moderator…

Beikircher developed his own unique style.  One that managed to laugh with, rather than at, the foibles of his subjects (more often than not Rhinelanders). If you wanted a fresh view of anything – Konrad Beikircher was your man.  I offer as proof a book I’m currently reading, his witty analysis of Beethoven ‘Der Ludwig – Jetzt mal so gesehen’ 

Despite being from South Tyrol, Beikircher lived most of his life near the Rhine and has become synonymous with Bonn in the way that Wolfgang Niedecken has with Cologne, and indeed his first professional appearance was on the stage at Jazzgalerie in 1978. He announced an end to touring last year and this year was ironically due to see the last appearances of Konrad Beikircher onstage.

But offstage too Konrad Beikircher has enriched the Cultural landscape of Bonn.  His home at Katharinenhof with third wife artist Anne Siering-Beikircher in Schweinheim has long been an insider tip for locals with its off-beat courtyard and fields where walking round any corner could bring you in contact with giant insects made from spare parts, life-size painted wooden people or even a stainless-steel Cardinal Woelki.   It’s also been a place for numerous concerts and events in an intimate and friendly atmosphere. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine and slice of home-made plum cake.   

I never did make it to one of Beikircher’s own cabaret evenings which I regret.  I guess it was a case of that old error we’ve all made, saying ‘Maybe next year’…

So, with that regret in mind, I will remember him best as a man enjoying being our host on a sunny Summer evening at Katherinenhof,  pouring out generous glasses of wine for the visitors with a happy smile. 

Visitors to Konrad Beikircher’s website this morning will find only one page.  It shows a heavenly sky with Frederico Fellini’s words:

“There is no end.
There is no beginning.
There is only the infinite passion of life.”