Dead Wax Records DW039 (2023)

On April 27, 1985 the German Post Punk / Goth Rock band JAYHAWKS recorded their first demo with the four songs ‘My Mirror’, ‘Happy Weekend’, ‘Sense of Humour’ and ‘Feel the Pain’ at the Studio Sachsenstrae in Bremen. Friends Benno, Mathe, Udo and Monika had just formed JAYHAWKS some months earlier in January, with Tom Lipinski joining them as lead guitarist in May, only days after the recording. As a five-piece, later in November they went into the Sound Service studios run by Jrg Siemer, who would produce new renditions of the demo tracks and additional songs with the band. The first one was the new recording of ‘My Mirror’, which was featured in the ‘Bremen-Deutschland’ sampler, published in December 1985. More visits to the studio and by the fall of 1986 ten songs had been finished, then Tom left the band and was replaced by Hardy Pelka. The spring of 1987 saw the release of the 12” ‘The Joy of Love’, containing the songs ‘Black Lover’, ‘Little Lover’, ‘Sense of Humour’ and ‘The Suitable Walk’. Apart from these four and ‘My Mirror’ on the mentioned ‘Bremen-Deutschland’ sampler, the rest of the songs of those early sessions remained unpublished and forgotten… until now.