Epitaph were one of the finest of the Anglo-German hard-rock bands — a Dortmund group, fronted by the British singer and guitarist Cliff Jackson, who played a melodic, twin-guitar hard-prog in English rather than German. Across four albums in the 1970s, they built a loyal following with their blend of heavy riffs, harmony guitars and the occasional Mellotron, even as a run of bad luck kept the wider success they deserved just out of reach.

The short version

Founded in Dortmund in 1969 and named after a King Crimson song, Epitaph were one of several German bands of the era to feature British vocalists and sing in English. Their early albums — the Uriah-Heep-tinged “Epitaph” (1971) and “Stop Look and Listen” (1972) — offered melodic, twin-guitar hard-prog, before “Outside the Law” (1974) pushed toward a harder, more polished sound. Tough, tuneful and unlucky in business, they remain a cult favourite of the German scene.

Dortmund: a British band in Germany

Epitaph came together in Dortmund in late 1969, originally as Fagin’s Epitaph, around the British singer-guitarist Cliff Jackson, the Scottish drummer Jim McGillivray and the German bassist Bernd Kolbe; they took their name from a song on the first King Crimson album. Dortmund was then a hub of the German rock scene, and as the house band of its famous Fantasio club — practising in the cellars while Black Sabbath, Yes and others played upstairs — Epitaph quickly sharpened their craft. With second guitarist Klaus Walz aboard, giving them the twin-guitar attack that became their signature, they signed to Polydor and, singing always in English, set out to make their mark.

Twin-guitar hard-prog

Epitaph played a melodic, muscular hard-prog rooted in the British heavy rock of the day — the early Uriah Heep above all, but also the harmony guitars of Wishbone Ash and the weight of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Their early albums favoured long, ambitious tracks, woven through with twin-guitar harmonies and softened by washes of Mellotron, before the band turned toward a tighter, harder rock sound in the mid-1970s. For all that they were a German band, they always looked across the Channel — closer in spirit to British hard rock than to the experimental krautrock around them, and singing, always, in English.

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From Epitaph to Return to Reality

The self-titled debut, “Epitaph” (1971), recorded between London and Hamburg, was a strong slab of early-Uriah-Heep-style heavy prog, all long tracks and Mellotron; “Stop Look and Listen” (1972) refined the formula and cemented their twin-guitar trademark. For their third album, “Outside the Law” (1974), the band aimed high — becoming the first German rock group to record in America, at a Chicago studio, with a more polished, straight-ahead hard rock sound. But disaster struck: their American label went bankrupt during an expensive US tour, leaving the band to sell their gear simply to get home, and Epitaph broke up in 1975. They soon regrouped, and after a near-complete change of personnel, returned with the boogie-and-metal-flavoured “Return to Reality” (1979), made after a major tour supporting the Hungarian band Omega.

Album by album

Four albums of melodic, English-sung German hard-prog. Tap any title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

Epitaph’s classic early line-up was Cliff Jackson, Bernd Kolbe, Klaus Walz and Jim McGillivray, with Jackson the one constant across every version of the band. Their story was one of real talent dogged by bad luck — bankrupt labels, stolen gear, and the breakthrough that never quite came — yet they never gave up. Through endless line-up changes, splinter bands and long pauses, Jackson kept Epitaph going, and after a reunion in 2000 — encouraged, as it happens, by the Scorpions’ Rudolf Schenker — the band returned to the stage and the studio, where they remain active to this day. Few German bands have shown such staying power.

Where to start

Begin with “Stop Look and Listen” (1972) — the album where their twin-guitar hard-prog came fully into focus, and a fine introduction to the early band. From there, the debut “Epitaph” (1971) offers their most Uriah-Heep-flavoured prog, while “Outside the Law” (1974) shows the harder, more polished sound of their American adventure. Together they capture a band who deserved far more than fortune allowed.

Why they still matter

Epitaph matter as one of the best and most likeable of the Anglo-German hard-rock bands — proof that the heavy, harmony-guitar sound of early-1970s Britain found able practitioners in Germany too. Their early albums remain prized by collectors of melodic hard-prog, and their decades of perseverance against the odds have earned them a place of real affection in the German scene. For anyone who loves their hard rock tuneful, twin-guitar and sung in English, they are well worth seeking out.

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