Wolfgang Niedecken


Wolfgang Niedecken is a German singer, musician, and visual artist. He founded the Kölsch speaking rock group BAP at the end of the 1970s. He soon became famous with BAP all over Germany. He is the lead singer and only remaining founding member of BAP.

Life

Niedecken attended boarding school in Rheinbach from 1961 to 1970. From 1966 onwards, he played in the school band The Convikts and The Troop. He studied Art at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, graduating in 1974 after a short-term exchange in New York with Howard Kanovitz and Larry Rivers. He remains an active painter who both designs most of the covers of the BAP albums and holds exhibitions of his work.
He suffered a stroke on 3 November 2011. As a consequence, BAP's concert dates were cancelled and the tour rescheduled, with the first performance on 3 May 2012.

Political activism

Wolfgang Niedecken is an avid campaigner for political and social causes. He was one of the initiators of the 1992 event Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander, an open-air concert in Cologne against racism. In 2002, he campaigned for a continuation of the red-green coalition in the German parliament. He was also "goodwill ambassador" of the aid organisation Gemeinsam für Afrika from 2004 to 2005.

Co-operations with other artists

Wolfgang Niedecken played a live concert with the band Bläck Fööss in the Millowitsch-Theater in Cologne. This concert was released on the double CD Bläck Fööss & Fründe. Niedecken and Leopardefell were also the backing musicians on Bruce Springsteen's hit "Hungry Heart" when it was re-released in 1995 and featured in the video which was shot in a bar in Berlin.

Discography

Solo albums

See BAP

With other artists

Wolfgang Niedecken received the Frankfurter Musikpreis in 1996