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Hi Boys and Girls,<br><br>This has been a hard one to compose, so bring yourself on down behind me. I am looking for useless info, current whereabouts, and other verified yet highly trivial factoids about two early zappanatics in the history of zappanaticism: Urban Gwerder and Norbert Obermanns. In this email is contained all I knew, have known, now know, and did not forget about these two.<br><br>1) Urban Gwerder (born 1944) is the father of all things zappanaticistic. He is from Zurich (Niedeidorf) in Switzerland and was basically a poet/artist/anarchist/farmer. He first published articles on FZ in an underground publication called "Hotscha!" (published by Adrian Suter) in the late 60s-early 70s, a publication that was sold on the streets. Thereafter, Gwerder edited the FZ-fanzine "Hot Ratz Times," subtitled "anarch-individueller zap paphysischer Almanach" (anarch-individual zap paphysical almanac) (11 editions, 1973-75). Gwerder also organized "Poetenz," a series of multi-media spectacle events with poetry, film, music, and more.<br><br><br><br>Gwerder was quite close to FZ, traveling with him on European tours, etc. He maintained a very extensive archive of FZ-related materials, including such gems as part of a burned keyboard of the Montreux show. Gwerder must have attended the Deep-Purple-commemorated show, as FZ yells out during "Sofa" (just after 'Ich bin der Himmel' is sung): "This goes out to Urban Gwerder in the box" (see Swiss Cheese bootleg). Gwerder's collection went by the name "Zapparchive," abbreviated as ZARK. <br><br><br><br>In 1976, Gwerder published a cool fanbook, approved and with some contribution by FZ, called "Alla Zappa" (1976, 2nd edition 1979). Updated info on the Alla Zappa book will appear at: http://www.arf.ru/Biblio/alla.html#1.<br><br>In the mid-70s, Gwerder moved with his family to live in the Swiss Alps where he became a farmer and continued his poetry. Gwerder published more books and recordings and pictures and pamphlets and so on. In 1993, he went back to the city of Zurich. He does not, I believe, use the internet and deals with people in the reality of life only. Some of his poetry is read out by Nigey Lennon and Mike Kennealy on the former s CD, "Re-Inventing the Wheel."<br><br>In 1998, Gwerder published (with WOA Verlag Zürich, run by Adrian Suter) "Im Zeichen des magischen Affen" (In the Sign of the Magic Monkey), a 350-page book, in both male and female versions, a thousand copies of which included a companion CD, with some Mothers music from Zurich (1974) and Zappa interview. The book is a biographical/socio-cultural history of self and others, including text, graphics, pix, and whatnot, all done by Gwerder in collaboration with friends.<br><br><br><br>Gwerder still lives in Zurich, I assume. He continues to write poetry, CD liner notes and more, and occasionally appears in publications and on radio.<br><br><br><br>See these links on Gwerder:<br>http://home.datacomm.ch/mik/smd/g/gwerder_urban.html<br>http://home.datacomm.ch/mik/smd/presse/bund19990421.html<br>http://www.ticino.com/f.b.archive/In_the_sign.html<br><br><br>2) Norbert Obermanns (aka Nobbi) was/is from Grevenbroich, Germany. He published the "Zappalog: The First Step of Zappalogy" (1981, 1982), the second edition of which was released by Rhino, but distribution of which was soon halted by Zappa. Good and detailed information on those two editions (which were very useful before the days of the internet) is available online: http://www.arf.ru/Biblio/zaplog.html<br><br><br><br>I was in touch with Obermanns in the early 80s, around 1982, when I still lived in Belgium. There were other Belgian zappanatics, whose names I sadly forgot. Some of them met Zappa before his Brussels shows in 1982 (see show link below) and gave him presents... Perhaps the Dutch contingency can help me. <br><br>Obermanns also edited the Absolutely Free newsletter (9 issues until 1984). And I also know that Obermanns acquired the Zapparchive from Gwerder, but that's about it. A third edition of the Zappalog was announced in 1990, but I do not think it ever was published. <br><br>So, friends, if you have more info, especially on Obermanns, let's have it.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Dwarnebula<br><br>Zappa Pix Brussels<br>

hey dwarf, I can't be of any help as I've never heard of either of these guys, but your post was an enjoyable read...thanks for the info...I plan on pursuing the listed sites further.

Boy, it's been awhile since I heard Gwerder's name...<br>He apparently had a great tape collection, some copies<br>of which ended up in the collection of Lewis G. in New<br>York...  Lewis does not seem to be interested in trading<br>any longer....  What are ya gonna do ?

The match! <br><br>In the Alla Zappa book is a picture of him with part of a burned keyboard from the Montreux show.<br><br>I also got a tape recently of a radio special on his book. Sadly, it turned out to be spoken in Swiss, not German.<br><br>Sofa!<br><br>P.S. Funny that this entry is getting responses few eons after its orginal posting. <br>

The only thing I know about Norbert is: His picture was part of the WOIIFTM collage. So, he's known Frank for a loooooong time. Possibly, he was a big fan from way back...musta been if Frank saw fit to put him on the cover...or rather, on the inside.

Go to the WOIIFTM questions thread in Zappa Albums, I believe. There's a blown-up photo of the inside cover with Cal Schenkel explaining who was who....no, he was'nt here, it was from a magazine article.