Hello!
My name is Frank Thane
I was born in 1970 and grew up in Quakenbrück (home of RadioArtland), and I have been living in Hamburg since 2001.
I worked in the music industry for over 25 years, most of that time at Rough Trade/Groove Attack. Now I enjoy life and music in the most beautiful city.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It all started at the legendary Fiz Oblon in Bippen, where I spent my youth. I thought the music and the DJs were incredibly cool, and I wanted to do that too. In the early 90s, I got my first DJ job at Fiz Oblon, where I started out playing on Wednesdays and later on Fridays and Saturdays as well. This was followed by several other DJ gigs, including at the Sputnikhalle in Münster and Toaster in Fürstenau. I had my first job while studying at a record store (ELPI) in Münster. It quickly became clear that the record store and music appealed to me more than my studies.
In the mid-90s, I started my first job in the music industry as a freelance sales representative/field sales representative at a small indie distribution company (Fire Engine), followed in 1997 by my first real job with a company car and all the trimmings at Connected Music in Hamburg, and then from 2001 as a field sales representative at Rough Trade in Herne and later in Cologne. Collecting records became a passion. I was at the source and every week the samples arrived free of charge in the mail.
A second passion was concerts. One of my favorite concert experiences was during my time at the record store in Münster, the concert of the Lemonheads / Soul Asylum in 1993 at PC69 in Bielefeld. My companion knew the tour manager of the Lemonheads, so after the concert we sat in the backstage trailer with the Lemonheads and smoked several cigarettes with the band. Evan Dando always said when things weren’t going fast enough for him: “Don’t bogart that joint.”
Other highlights include various meet and greets with Nick Cave, Garbage, Johnny Marr, Fettes Brot, Katie Melua, Alt-J, Cro, Editors, and many more.
Today, I still enjoy going to concerts, especially at Knust or Fabrik here in Hamburg, but also at the Elbphilharmonie when someone interesting is playing.
Since I’ve been in a wheelchair since 2017, it’s often challenging because most of the smaller clubs in Hamburg aren’t exactly known for their accessibility.
My second great passion is FC St. Pauli. You’ll find me at the Millerntor every other weekend, and have been since 1990.
On my show “Ball of Confusion”, I play the latest releases, a mix of off-pop / indietronica / indie rock / indie dance…
No genre is safe! … regularly new albums and songs mixed with a few old songs / classics … The show airs every Monday from 8-10 p.m. live on RadioArtland.
Peace and love, Frank
