Welcome to Episode 12 of Cold War Conversations.
Today’s guest is someone I’ve been trying to speak to for some time as his story is a particularly fascinating one.
We’re chatting with Mark Reeder a musician and music producer who has been involved in the Berlin and international music scene since 1978, starting as Factory Records German representative from 1978-1983.
Through contacts in the GDR he put on several secret punk gigs behind the Iron Curtain and his Stasi file is described as “as thick as a phone book”. He is however, denied access to the full file as it remains in the possession of the German Federal Intelligence Service…
He is also the founder and owner of the first East German electronic dance music label Masterminded For Success “MFS” which he started in 1990, after being the only and last Westerner to make an album in communist East Germany which was “Torture” by Die Vision in 1989.
His is a very interesting and unusual account with some great stories including how he smuggled a Volksarmee uniform across the Berlin Wall and the unusual currency needed to get your phone fixed.
We join our conversation as Mark describes how he took the popular UK TV show “The Tube” around Berlin.
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Film
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin (1979-1989) – Official Trailer
Books
Music
Mark’s latest album Mauerstadt
Videos
Jessica – the East German band Mark discovered appearing on British TV
Mark’s band Shark Vegas almost causing an international incident on Glienicke Bridge
2014 Video interview with Mark
1994 video interview with Mark – Part 1 of 3