Guru Guru

Guru Guru is a German krautrock band formed in 1968 as "The Guru Guru Groove" by Mani Neumeier (drums), Uli Trepte (bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar), later replaced by American Jim Kennedy. After Kennedy collapsed on stage due to a serious illness, Ax Genrich replaced him to complete the classic Guru Guru line up, in time for their debut album in 1970.
Music.
Guru Guru were related to the free jazz music scene through their work with Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer and through Neumeier, who had already won several jazz prizes. The band was also influenced by psychedelic rock artists, such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Rolling Stones and early Pink Floyd.
Among the band's closest musical colleagues were Amon Düül, Can and Xhol Caravan, with whom Guru Guru played jam sessions.
Frontman Mani Neumeier (drummer and singer) has an original style of playing drums, and is known in the European jazz rock-scene. He was also involved in numerous other projects, including Tiere der Nacht, The Psychedelic Monsterjam, Damo Suzuki's Network, Globe Unity Orchestra, Harmonia, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Voodootrance & Lover 303.
Social environment.
Guru Guru's live performances in the late 1960s and early 1970s were politically left-oriented. They organized concerts together with the Socialist German Student Union, read political texts between the songs, and sporadically gave concerts in prisons. Their shows were extravagant and anarchistic, some of the musicians lived together in a commune in the German Odenwald region, experimented with hallucinogens (one of their songs is titled "The LSD March"/German: "Der LSD-Marsch"). Mani Neumeier is one of the organizers of the annual Krautrock-Festival "".
Publicity.
Guru Guru has released over 40 LPs and CDs, and has sold over 500,000 records. The band has played numerous live concerts, appeared in films, radio and television. In 1976 Guru Guru was the first German band to play live on the WDR TV show "Rockpalast".