ANALOGY, today one of Germany’s best-known bands in the field of melodic progressive rock, formed, as such, in the spring of 1972.

Martin Thurn (born 1950) had taught himself the first chords on the guitar. In early 1968 he started a band called No. Six in his hometown Bonn. After having moved, in the autumn of the same year, to Varese in northern Italy to attend an international school, he immediately formed a new band called Sons of Giove, together with a classmate and compatriot, Wolfgang Schoene (born 1950),  guitar and vocals, Roger Schmitt on bass and Jean-Claude Sibel from Belgium on drums. Bass player Thomas Schmidt (later head of Pell Mell) was also a temporary member of this outfit. Jutta Nienhaus (born 1953), Martin’s girlfriend, was a permanent companion of this band of students, playing many gigs as a singer in what was called “Jutta & Martin”.

Sons of Giove disbanded in late 1969 after some gigs including a show with “I Cuccioli”, but a new band, The Joice, was formed immediately afterwards in early 1970. The line-up consisted of Martin Thurn (guitar), Jutta Nienhaus (vocals), her brother Hermann-Jürgen “Mops” Nienhaus (born 1952) on drums, and the only Italian in an otherwise German band, Mauro Rattaggi (born 1952), formerly with the Riverboys, on bass.

They were fortunate enough to land a management contract immediately, which lead to numerous gigs in northern Italy and southern Switzerland and enabled them to buy a proper P.A. and new instruments. In September of the same year, Wolfgang Schoene joined again on rhythm guitar.

During a gig in a Milan suburb around Easter 1971, Antonio Cagnola, a businessman from Monza, who had just founded the small Dischi Produzioni 28 label, approached the band. His family owned, and still owns, the Microwatt record-printing factory in Vimercate near Monza and therefore had good connections to many Italian music businesses, including the probably largest distribution company, Messagerie Musicali (later to be taken over by CBS).

In early May, the band recorded two tracks as a demo, “God’s own land” and “Hey Joe”, in a Milan studio, but the quality was so bad that nothing came of it. Shortly afterwards, Jutta recorded a single with a singer named Ice (of a band called Alta Società), which was released mainly to serve the juke-box circuit.