Unpleasant Surprise

Named after a song of The Nits the multi instrumentalist sisters Daniela and Jeannette Schwabel founded the group in West Berlin early 1986. Jeanette played Drums, Guitar, Mandolin, Accordion - Daniela Bass, Guitar, Drums, Mandolin and both sung. Before their first live appearance the line-up was expanded with Peter Wanke (Keyboards, Vocals) and Martina Schmidbauer (Guitar, Vocals). In 1987 they self-released their first eponymous Cassette and got into street performing until late Autumn as 'Sidekick Surprise'. Peter and Martina left the group in August 1988 so they continued recording as Duo until Martin Trapp (Keyboards, Accordion, Bass) joined in April '89. With him they won the 1989 'Berlin Rock News' competition and as price valuable studio time. After nearly 10 self released cassettes in 1991 their first full length collection 'Wrong Way, Right Picture' appeared on Irre Tapes and finally in 1993 a 7" EP. Jürgen Oeser - their 'best boy', caterer and sound man from the beginning got credited as honourable member. After a few more Cassette Only releases and concerts Unpleasant Surprise ceased activities after 1996. They called their music themselves "Surprise Pop" - too poppy for the avant-garde and too experimental for the contemporary pop scene.