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In early 1970 band leader Werner Breinig had to look for new musicians to join the band, and he found Peter Bely, who would replace Hubert Koop on the organ, and Eckhard Groß, who stepped in for drummer Georg Klein. Klein had already replaced Helmut Vigneron on the drums after the LP "No Destination" (LHC38) had been finished. Heinz Koop remained bass guitarist. The group tried to create an independent program and was eventually contracted to make records for BASF's sub label "Cornet". They changed their name into Blackbirds 2000, a fact that Werner Breinig comments on as follows: This was the record company's wish. Their aim was a long-term perspective, and the name Blackbirds 2000 was supposed to put this across.
In 1970 the single "Let's Do It Together"/"Preludium" (Cornet 5025) was published. The record company had "Woodstock-Sound" printed on the cover, so potential buyers would know what musical style the songs were. And indeed, "Let's Do It Together" turned out to be a psyche-delic-rock earworm that could compare with international recordings. "Preludium" on the B-side recalls Johan Sebastian Bach's opus, not just in name, but also in content, similar to "The Nice". This type of music was very popular back then. The proceeds of the single did not fulfil BASF's expectations and the contract was not extended. The band then changed their name back to the original The Blackbirds, and Werner Breinig set course for Progressive Rock. In 1971 the band recorded their 2nd LP "Touch Of Music" in the Rhenus Studio Cologne. Konrad (Conny) Plank, relatively unknown at that time, operated the mixing desk. Only Werner Breinig was left from the original band, and apart from vocals and guitar, he was now also responsible for flute and violin.
Peter Bely was still playing the organ, Wolfgang Bode the bass guitar and Charles Sikora the drums. The distinctive feature of the music was its very refined musical structure. Songwriter Werner Breinig had begun writing down the titles on sheets of music, not least since Peter Bely, although an excellent note reader, was less able to make own contributions and had to read from the sheets of music. Therefore it was up to Werner Breinig to hand in the score for "Touch Of Music", which got good reviews in contemporary reference books.
In their book "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg", Allan and Morgan Freeman make the following comments: "They had moved on to a classical spiced rock music of great invention, blending heavy and spacy styles with great finesse. Strong songs form the basis of most tracks, all of which are sufficiently long enough to give plenty of room for solos from flute, violin, guitar and keybords. Stylistically The Blackbirds here come pretty close to Italian bands of the era like New Trolls, Panna Fredda, and also had much in common with British bands like Skin Alley or Jody Grind. It's a shame that they never made a third album".
This last sentence does not require further comments.. There were no further publications worth mentioning. The 2nd album had failed to be a success. The band members were all involved in either study, job or family, and so the end of the band was to come pretty soon. In the 70ies, Werner Breinig made a short blooper into pop music and recorded a single in the so called romantic sound under the name of "Werner".
Breinig, Werner(guitar, violin, flute, vocals)
Bely, Peter(piano, organs, vocals)
Sikora, Charles(drums, vocals)
Bode, Wolfgang(bass, vocals)
Koop, Heinz(bass (7, 8))
Groß, Eckhard(drums (7,8))
Trackliste
01. Präludium 02:17
02. All You Need 08:30
03. Return From The Water 07:08
04. Give Me Freedom 05:49
05. What Is Free 04:08
06. Come Back 10:55
Bonus Tracks:
07. Let's Do It Together 02:51
08. Preludium 02:21
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Classical spiced rock music of great invention, blending heavy and spacy styles with great finesse
