Carol of Harvest were a folk band founded in the Middle Franconian town of Fürth in 1976. Consisting of Axel Schmierer on guitars, Jürgen Kolb on keyboards, Robert Högn on drums, organ builder Heinz Reinschlüssel on bass, and Beate Krause on vocals.
She replaced another singer, also called Beate, who had only performed at one single gig in the Fürth municipal park. Helmut Reinschlüssel, who is Heinz' elder brother and also an organ builder, operated the P.A. Axel Schmierer admired After Curfew, a band founded at his school, with a very good guitarist. He learned to play the guitar himself because he wanted to join that band. He applied when they were looking for a new man on rhythm guitar, then was, however, rejected. He thus founded his own band, Carol of Harvest. The band name was inspired by Walt Whitman's poem, "A Carol of Harvest" from 1867, Axel was very impressed by. Their rehearsal room was situated in Nuremberg. With 65 sq. m it was rather spacious. All songs, both music and lyrics, were written by Axel Schmierer. He preferred the English language for his compositions as he considered it to be more expressive than German for their kind of music. He wanted to convey his own feelings and ideas as well as topics relevant and known to everyone.
After about two years the quality of their interplay and musical mastery had developed to such an extent that they could consider recording their own LP. Luckily for them, Jürgen Kolb was acquainted with a certain Peter "Klex" Klimek who ran a small record label called Brutkasten in the neighbouring town, Nuremberg. In April and May 1978 they recorded five pieces, written by Axel Schmierer, on a four-track tape machine in Peter Klimek's recording studio, situated in Uhlandstreet. They were immediately mixed there as well. The band members bore the expenses themselves. For Peter Klimek it was thus a paid commission, which is why the artists do still own the rights. The record didn't have a title and was released in 1978 as a small edition of only 200 copies, due to the band's tight financial means. The records were sold to friends and at gigs. The cover photos were taken by a certain Manuel in the Munich Nymphenburg palace garden, near the home of Rita Diersch, Axel's girlfriend of that time. The big photograph on the cover back side, as well as the small picture in the right top corner, show Axel Schmierer. The style of the tasteful songs on the album is reminiscent rather of the early 1970s than 1978. Brutkasten owner Peter Klimek regards the LP as the best record on his label.
When the record was sold out that very same year of 1978, they briefly thought about repressing another 200 copies. As they didn't receive enough reservations, they eventually decided to abandon the plan, the more so as the band was at that time already about to split. Heinz Reinschlüssel, Axel Schmierer, his then girlfriend Rita Diersch, as well as another friend had lived together in a shared flat since 1978. There was also a Carol of Harvest concert poster back then. It showed a green plant printed on blue paper. The group split at the end of 1978 when Beate Krause quit the band and Jürgen Kolb had to move to Rottweil for professional reasons. He was replaced on keyboards by Rudi Linhard for a short time, and Beate Krause by the new singer, Iris Meyer. But soon after their band history was over. There were no more than an overall seven gigs by Carol of Harvest. One of them at a band contest in Würzburg they had won together with another band, called Blitzlicht. And there was another contest in the Middle Franconian town of Ansbach, where they qualified for the next round in Nuremberg. That's, however, where their successful participation in the contest ended. From: https://www.last.fm/music/Carol+of+Harvest/+wiki
