Ashra and Cluster were at Metz with Phil Dick in 1977!

Every Dick-Head worth his salt knows the story of Philip K. Dick's trip to Metz, France in 1977. You've probably even seen the video of PKD's famous (or infamous) speech which combined some wild 2-3-74 speculation with some translation problems, creating some of the first public speculation about PKD's sanity. 

What very few of you knew is that the legendary Krautrock bands Ashra and Cluster performed at the very same convention. My guess is that PKD didn't see either band (I am in the midst of working to confirm this). But that doesn't mean it's not cool as hell. 

I mean Metz in 1977 would be a pretty good time travel destination. You could see Phil Dick and Harlan Ellison's clash of egos which Phil's guest at the convention, Joan Simpson, characterized perfectly for Larry Sutin in the Divine Invasions biography:

“Phil was very antithetical to Harlan. Harlan is very cocky, glib, cool, and here is Phil going clunk clunk clunk. Phil was not a very debonair or self-assured man. Snuff falling out of his nose, ninety-two spots on his tie--you know. And Harlan thought Phil treated people very badly because he wandered away, got lost, had people support him rather than be master of his own ship. Anyway, they got into this huge debate. Phil does very well in those kinds of situations. Here is Harlan banging his chest, and Phil was more a philosopher. Phil was just great--more dynamic and sexy than I'd ever seen him be.”

I would pay Star Trek's Q, quite a bit of money to take me to see that. 

And the fest was a who's who of science fiction greats. Check out this picture! 

(click to embiggen): Can you find: Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, John Brunner, Roger Zelazny, Christopher Priest, Robert Scheckley, Stephan Wul, Théodore Sturgeon, P.J. Farmer, Richard Matheson, Ian Watson, Norman Spinrad, Thomas Disch, Robert Silverberg?

I found that picture as part of a larger slideshow about the Metz convention here. Do yourself a favor and run through the rest of the pics. 

You can listen to at least part of Ashra's performance here: 

Wikipedia describes Ashra as... "a musical ensemble founded by Manuel Göttsching in 1976, initially to facilitate his solo career although other members were included later on. The band's name is an abbreviation of the name of Göttsching's previous band, Ash Ra Tempel. The name was changed as Göttsching's music became less psychedelic and more oriented towards electronica." 

Here's at least part of Cluster's show: 

Wikipedia describes Cluster as... "a German musical duo consisting of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, formed in 1971 and associated with West Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scenes.[2] Originating from the earlier Berlin-based group Kluster, the duo relocated in 1971 to the countryside village of Forst, Lower Saxony, where they built a studio and collaborated with musicians such as Conny Plank, Brian Eno, and Michael Rother. With Rother, they formed the influential side project Harmonia. Cluster disbanded in 1981 but reunited twice, from 1989 to 1997 and again from 2007 to 2010"

For those unfamiliar with Krautrock I encourage you to read about the genre in the wikipedia article linked above. For a long time I have wanted to write a piece of PKD canon about the members of the Krautrock band CAN in the parallel universe where the Axis powers won the war..