Commander Cody already gained cult status with his band The Lost Planet Airmen by 1980 when he was invited to play the Rockpalast. His music wandered between the genres blues, country rock, boogie, rockabilly and Tex-Mex spiked with his very own wit and humour. The audience witnessed a colourful, high energy concert evening in the WDR Studio A in Cologne. In his known manner, Commander Cody was rocking through the setlist, always with a tongue-in-cheek. That evening he was accompanied by Steve Mackay (saxophone, vocals), Tona Johnson (drums, vocals), Bill Kirchen (guitar, vocals), Doug Killmer (bass, vocals) and Peter Sigel (pedal steel guitar, guitar).
Himself (archive footage) (as Commander Cody)
John Sinclair first emerged out of his small-town Michigan background to forge a legendary course through the 1960s as a cultural activist, manager of the MC5, and Chairman of the White Panther Party. An early victim of the War on Drugs who faced 20 years to life in prison for giving two joints to an undercover policewoman, Sinclair served 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence before his legal victory on appeal changed the law for good. The long campaign waged by Sinclair culminated in a massive John Sinclair Freedom Rally headlined by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Phil Ochs, Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Seale that resulted in Sinclair's release from prison on December 13, 1971-just three days after the event (Clint Weiler)
