The following was translated from German by Dirk Kastens.  Thanks
to Dirk for the hard work, and to John Ewan for finding a tape of
the broadcast!  This was from last year some time, 1994.

   ----
   From dkastens@titan.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE Mon Jun 12 02:44:12 1995
   From: dkastens@titan.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Dirk Kastens)

   Here's the first part of the translated Rupert Hine interview.
   As I said, the retranslation is sometimes different from what 
   Hine originally said.
   ----

Rupert Hine is a man who is better known and more successful as a producer 
than as a musician. His solo albums have rather been something for insider 
circles; his pop project Thinkman became rather popular, a few years ago, 
but he gained the most success with his work as a producer for Saga, Chris 
de Burgh or Tina Turner among others. Isn't it annoying that his own music 
is only running far behind among the also-rans?

RH: "It's often asked of me, actually. It's one of the things, that faithful 
fans are writing in upset letters, that this or that song should have 
become a hit and if it didn't annoy me. But it doesn't matter to me; not 
because I got used to not getting somewhere where I want to be. I think 
it's not so. I'm happy with other reactions to my music, that are more 
important than the charts. These are letters from fans or personal contacts 
to people who are dealing with music and who know very well what kind of 
music I did so far. Maybe they know some songs inside out, songs that 
played an important part in their life at a certain time. That really is 
success. That really does make you feel that you are communicating with 
people."

In addition to this comes the financial success with his more than 100 
different productions todate. Mr. Hine tells those who wonder, why his 
working lists contain amongst some specialties such a  good plain cooking  
like Chris de Burgh, that Chris has first been a real challenge, 10 years 
ago, because he wanted to distance himself  from his smooth pasture folk. 
But Chris didn t keep it up very long.

RH:  Chris has this habit of writing the same songs over and over again. 
I noticed this 10 years after I made the last album with him. Actually, 
I didn t feel like producing his music once more. I wouldn't have been good 
for him nor for me. These 10 years later we met each other again and he 
asked me if I didn t think that enough water has run down the Rhine to give 
it another try. I asked him, if he really wanted to change his music that 
much and he seemed to agree. But during the real work he hasn't been 
open-minded to any changes, he was so ingraned in his style, that it was 
as if I heard the same songs again, really, with slightly different words. 
It became very frustrating. 

Rupert Hine says about himself and his latest album, that a collection of 
songs arose during the last years that resulted from the living with and the 
separation from his girlfriend and lyrics writer, Jeannette Obstoj.

RH: "It's a singer-songwriter's album in the sense that Jeannette and I
didn't plan to make it a concept album, like the six albums before where 
one song led into the other. The new songs are snapshots, feelings from a 
day, a month, or a year. The songs reflect what was going on between 
Jeannette and me. Sometimes I try to describe musically what was going on 
in her, when she was really frustrated and depressed in her relationships. 
Then my songs were good for her to shake up and understand her own feelings. 
But sometimes the songs are messeges from her to me, and this was something 
I'd never done before and I felt...I was even wondering whether some of the 
songs were too personal."

But the new songs aren't. They are 14 very good pop songs and some of them 
might become a hit. But that's not the main point for Rupert Hine. There's 
something special in each song for him, for example in "You Can't Be Chased 
(Until You Run Away)." 

RH: "Especially "You Can't Be Chased" is a special song for me, also 
concerning the vocals. I like the feeling in it, and how it sounds 
intentionally restrained most of the time until the very last 30 seconds 
when it's allowed to express itself."

 [music: Bob Geldof - "I Don't Mind at All"]

Of course, this is not from Chris de Burgh, but you might say from the exact
opposite of him, from the man Rupert Hine has liked best collaborating with.

RH: "Bob Geldof, because Bob is truely larger than life, publically and 
privately. And he has a remarkable memory like an encyclopedia and a 
craving for information and knowledge.  He's able to quote the most unusual 
figures and facts that would be unimaginable for you; for example, from the 
latest annual report of the International Monetary Fund. He tells you 
immediately the profit and loss of any country on Earth, only to estimate 
how much it would be able to contribute to one of his projects. He learned
this during his two year work with Live Aid, but he never forgot his 
knowledge, and this is only a little example. And unbelievable how he can 
bring people to do things without letting them have doubts about it. It is 
his perfect Irish charm that is so powerful that he can reach everything he 
wants, in my opinion. And I saw him arguing with the world biggest pigheads 
and win. He's held in respect because he has a remarkably open mind and is 
a very intelligent person. This doesn't mean that he didn't have his 
confused sides, because if you are aware of what's going on, it's even more 
hard to make any sense of any of it."

Frank Hellbert was talking to Rupert Hine.