The “Kölsch-dialect”-Band BAP
BAP, the Kölsch-rock band led by singer-songwriter Wolfgang Niedecken, has been one of Germany’s most successful musical acts for decades. Although all their songs are performed in the local dialect, the band enjoys immense popularity far beyond the boundaries of the Kölsch-speaking region, filling concert halls across Germany and boasting loyal fanbases elsewhere in the world. The album “aff un zo” (now and then) was released in 2001. It features an image of a “So-da-Brücke” (a bridge built “just for the sake of it”) near Euskirchen; constructed in the 1970s but never put into service, it has stood as a bridge fragment, lost in the landscape, ever since. I think bands singing in local dialect appearing on postage stamps is a real rarity!