documentary
Pyro, techno and confetti: scooters in the cinema
Hans Peter Geerdes as Scooter frontman HP Baxxter in a scene from the film “Fck 2020 – Two and a Half Years with Scooter”. photo
© -/DCM/dpa
Scooter have been shaping the music world for almost 30 years. Now there is a movie about the cult band around frontman HP Baxxter. It shows surprising details from the life of the musician.
A man with peroxide blonde hair applies makeup to his eyebrows. Excited people are waiting for him and calling his name. He has to be on stage in a few seconds – the show begins. He grabs the microphone and calls out to 80,000 fans in a distinctive smoker’s voice: “I hope this shit will be over soon”. It’s HP Baxxter, Scooter frontman and for many a techno legend.
However, HP Baxxter and his bandmates Sebastian Schilde and Michael Simon are not in a packed arena, but in an empty hall in front of a few cameramen and sound engineers. It’s a streaming concert, in the middle of lockdown. “I thought the whole documentary was broken because we didn’t come on stage anymore,” HP Baxxter told the German Press Agency at his film premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival. “FCK 2020 – Two and a half years with Scooter” tells the success story of the music group.
HP Baxxter in focus
Scooter is accompanied as they release their 20th album despite the pandemic and keep finding ways to perform. “Due to Corona, we suddenly needed a completely different shooting concept. We actually started to accompany the scooter tour,” said director Cordula Kablitz-Post. Kablitz-Post, who had previously made a similar documentary about rock band Die Toten Hosen, wanted to take a look behind the scenes. That convinced HP Baxxter, who had previously rejected every home story. “I thought straight away, cool, that fits. I also had such confidence that it would be good.”
The focus of the film is the 58-year-old frontman, whose real name is Hans Peter Geerdes and who grew up in the East Frisian town of Leer (Lower Saxony). “You forget the cameras completely at some point,” said Geerdes. Moviegoers get an intimate insight into the life of the musician. Among other things, it shows how the musician lives in Hamburg-Duvenstedt – according to his own statements like an “English landlord”. There are vintage cars in the garage, antique paintings hang on the dark green walls, the chairs have golden armrests and animal skins lie on the floor. “It’s kind of an ideal world. When people are weird again, I have a haven of peace at home.”
Filmmaker Kablitz-Post was blown away by the superstar’s outspokenness. “It’s something very special when an artist lets you get so close to them.” By the end of the shoot, they would have had nearly 150 hours of footage. Photographs from Geerdes’ childhood and youth are also shown – the young HP Baxxter with longer hair, eye-catching jewelry and heavy make-up. “Probably a lot of people don’t even recognize me,” said the 58-year-old. He was primarily concerned with fashion, but also with provocation. “I walked across the schoolyard in the small town with all my makeup on. Everyone looked, I always thought it was good.”
But the film does not only show an ideal world. Among other things, you can see Geerde’s girlfriend Lysann, from whom he separated after five years of relationship during the shooting. And even if there is a fight in the band, the camera is there. HP Baxxter doesn’t seem like an easy character – both in front of and behind the camera. “It was sometimes quite exhausting to work together,” said Kablitz-Post. It quickly becomes clear: the East Frisian has clear ideas about his shows. After the performances, for example, tea, incense sticks, ice and – very importantly – a 0.3 liter glass must be ready.
After the performance there is “Barzwang”
Afterwards, the “bar requirement” applies, as HP Baxxter calls it. All band and crew members are obliged to join in the partying. Anyone who pulls the mood down gets kicked out. At the end of last year, both band members Schilde and Simon are said to have left the music group. But that’s typical Scooter. Personnel changes are part of the concept – with the exception of the frontman, of course.
With over 30 million records sold and countless awards, the band is one of the most successful German acts. Scooter’s music, often referred to disparagingly as “funfair techno”, wasn’t always considered cool. In the meantime, however, the band with songs like “Hyper, Hyper” or “How Much is the Fish?” achieved cult status – both at home and abroad.
You can think they are crazy. You can smile at them. You can adore them. But one thing is undisputed: Scooter have long since become titans in the pop business.
– FCK 2020 – Two and a half years with Scooter, Germany 2023, 113 minutes, FSK from 12, by Cordula Kablitz-Post.
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