I, Friedhelm ‘Fidi’ Saathoff, was born in Warsingsfehn (Leer district) in East Frisia in 1957. At the age of 13, I had my first contact with what was then known as ‘beat music’.
My mother, who was actually well off financially thanks to my father, became bored and looked for something to do in addition to the housework. She started cleaning at a nearby discotheque in the neighbouring village of Veenhusen. One day, she came home with two discarded singles. The owner of the shop, who was also the DJ, gave her these records, saying they no longer worked and were too good to throw away. As it turned out later, that was the beginning of all the ‘trouble’ and a very great passion.
I still remember exactly which vinyl singles they were: ‘Matthew And Son,’ the first single by Cat Stevens from 1966, and ‘Rain and Tears’ by Aphrodite’s Child from 1968. Both artists would later become very famous.
In the immediate neighbourhood of my parents‘ house, there was a boy of the same age who collected vinyl singles. We became close friends and exchanged records regularly. At that time, there was a mail order company where you could order vinyl singles for very little money. Not all vinyl singles came in their original sleeves, but were delivered in white hole covers. That didn’t bother us, though, because we could then design the covers ourselves. I still have many of these copies today.
In the meantime, another boy, with whom I would go to school for many years, had joined us, and we were a trio full of musical emotions and enthusiasm.
We thought about how we could get hold of more vinyl singles and came up with the following idea: there were lots of small villages in the area around where we lived, and they all had a village pub. Each of these pubs had a jukebox, and we found out that every three months or so, some of the older vinyl singles were exchanged for new ones.
We were always able to persuade various family members, such as my father, my friends‘ fathers, and one or two brothers who already had driving licences, to drive us around these pubs on Sunday mornings. We also knew that almost all of the vinyl singles that were exchanged became the property of the pub owner and ended up in a box. This allowed us to regularly pick up newer music and pay 2 marks for 10 vinyl singles back then.
If there were vinyl singles that were very scratched from being played so much, they didn’t end up in the trash, but went to a neighbour who loved to use them for his mobile in his party basement.
For me personally, my love of music grew more and more intense. Groundbreaking TV shows such as ‘Beat-Club’, followed by “Musikladen” and the first music programmes on the radio, such as ‘Musik für junge Leute nach der Schule’ on NDR, did the rest.
The pirate radio stations we had listened to before were no longer around.
I discovered a very interesting programme on Saarländischer Rundfunk, a hit parade for international new releases, presented by Manfred Sexauer, who had been hosting the programme ‘Hallo Twen’ on Europawelle since 1965 and appeared alongside Uschi Nerke on ‘Musikladen’ from 1972 onwards. Unfortunately, this chart show was always broadcast late at night, so I had no choice but to listen to it under the covers with a small portable radio.
Then, at the age of 18, I got my driving licence and my first car, a blue R 4. I was finally able to check out the first discos, as the legal age was lowered to 18 at the beginning of 1975.
It didn’t take long before a couple I knew who owned a pub in my hometown wanted to open a small disco called ‘Flash’ in Westerstede in early 1978. That’s how I got my first DJ job. It was all very improvised. The lighting system consisted of clean tin cans fitted with sockets for coloured light bulbs. These were then hung upside down from the ceiling. With a little sound equipment, two turntables and my own LPs, I was ready to go. Not to forget a decent cassette deck, because back then we still had a lot of cassettes.
After a year, I moved on as a DJ to Marx near Friedeburg to the discotheque ‘Zum Brauen Hirschen’ – later “Tunis”. I stayed here for a year before moving to the ‘Altes Fehnhaus’ in Ostgroßefehn. From 1982, I worked at the Old Inn in Aurich before returning to my birthplace in 1983 to work at the Milljöh. In 1986, I received an enquiry from Papenburg. A new discotheque called Apex was opening there. I accepted because I found the opportunity to play new rock music very appealing. At the end of the 1980s, I moved to the ‘Neue Heimat’ in Thülsfelde, before temporarily giving up my DJing when the club closed, as I was offered a job in the field for an Oldenburg-based company in the Cologne area, working in sales for a record label.
Professionally, I then worked for various companies in sales and still do so after more than 30 years.
My musical comeback as a DJ came in 2010, when I received the first requests asking if I would like to DJ at one or two revival parties for former clubs.
From 2013 until the start of the pandemic, I DJed every first Thursday of the month at the ‘Kantine’ in Quakenbrück during the ‘After Work’ event. Due to the pandemic, the radio station ‘Radio Artland’ was launched and I became part of the team of presenters. In the meantime, I had built up a solid foundation in funk and soul alongside my rock repertoire. This led to the creation of the ‘Funk & Soul’ show on Radio Artland.
Family ties drew me to Quakenbrück in 1998, where I have lived with my wife and two daughters ever since. My daughters have now left home and I have reached retirement age, but I am still working and still on the road as a DJ. You can hear me at public events, including at the Zollhaus in Leer, the Pumpwerk in Wilhelmshaven, at several revivals and at private events.
