The first downright battle of bands took place in Basel in 1964. The cosmopolitan city on the Rhine was home to the vanguard of the national rock ‘n’ roll movement with groups such as The Dynamites, The Sevens, The Red Devils, The Sheapes and The Countdowns. Now, finally drums were banging, basses hammering, and guitars wailing. Not to mention the requisite long hair and trendy, psychedelic dress of the performers. English became the compulsory language for singers, whether they liked it or not.

Often, linguistic deficiencies were compensated for with phonetic transcriptions and use of a quirky, rough “Esperanto” (”Balla Balla”). Not only was originality not solicited in these early years, it would have been deadly. Youthful audiences demanded faithful copies of the international hits from their local heroes, since the original stars rarely appeared in Switzerland and discotheques did not yet exist.

Soon the best bands were to be found in Zurich, the only Swiss city that nurtured a night life of any sort. Rock ‘n’ roll was particularly popular in live performances. At times there were over ten clubs in the city that had bands appearing night after night. Zurich also became home to first timid attempts at home-grown rock ‘n’ roll, and first major concerts with the Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard and Jimi Hendrix were also held there. Self-appointed “managers” were all over the place.

And the scene soon had its own mouthpiece with JГјrg Marquard’s “Pop” magazine. In short, Zurich had become the “London of Switzerland”. Zurich’s bands were, however, less overwhelming. Toni Vescoli and his Sauterelles dominated the scene commercially from about end of 1965 onwards. Spurred on by the unexpected success of their first single “Hongkong”, they set out to conquer the non-German-speaking parts of Switzerland as well as audiences in Germany and Austria.