Wolf Conrad "Conny" Veit (born 5 June 1949) was a German musician, singer, composer and painter, best known for his appearances in Gila and

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Q ...

. His main instrument was the guitar. His name was misspelled "Conny Veidt" in Gila's first album.

Biography and career

Little is known about Conny's life. In 1969 he founded Gila and, in 1971, recorded their first album, Free Electric Sound. In 1972 he joined

for a short period. According to Conny, ''as for myself, in 1972, aged 21, I decided to move to Munich, because Popol Vuh’s

Florian Fricke Florian Fricke (23 February 1944 – 29 December 2001) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music using the Moog synthesizer within the krautrock group Popol Vuh. His music and that of the band however soon e ...

had invited me to collaborate on his new LP

Hosianna Mantra ''Hosianna Mantra'' is the third album by German band Popol Vuh. It was originally released in 1972 on the German record label Pilz. The album saw the band blend elements of Western classical music, Asian music, and space rock. For the release, ...

. I had accepted the offer, yet I didn't want to leave Gila because Popol Vuh was a pure studio project. Anyway for me, it was not until I took that step that my life as a professional musician began''. In 1973 he released the second Gila album,

Bury my heart at wounded knee ''Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West'' is a 1970 non-fiction book by American writer Dee Brown that covers the history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century. The book expres ...

, with a new line-up featuring

Daniel Fichelscher Daniel "Danny" Secundus Fichelscher, (born 3 July 1953 in Berlin), is a German multi-instrumentalist who played a pivotal role in Krautrock band Popol Vuh, was a member of the German group Gila and is currently Amon Düül II's drummer. Fichelsch ...

, Conny and his girlfriend Sabine Merbach. The second Gila iteration didn't have much of a lifespan either. Seemingly uninterested in touring, the band's focus splinted with Fichelscher and Fricke returning to Popol Vuh. For his part, Veit began working with

Amon Düül II Amon Düül II (or Amon Düül 2, PronunciationAmon Düül is a German rock band. The group is generally considered to be one of the pioneers of the West German krautrock scene. Their 1970 album ''Yeti (album), Yeti'' was described by British ma ...

, before briefly hooking up with

Guru Guru Guru Guru is a German krautrock band formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by Mani Neumeier (drums), Uli Trepte (bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar), later replaced by the American Jim Kennedy. After Kennedy collapsed on stage due to a serious ill ...

. He later turned his attention to painting. Suffering from alcoholism, Merbach died from liver failure.

once stated that ''Conny was my best friend, I will never forget how we played 8 days a week''. After the intensive work for

Conny Veit toured in France with Amon Düül II during the winter of 1973-1974 with Chis Karrer, John Weinzierl, Peter Leopold, Nick Woodland, Andy Vix and

Jutta Weinhold Jutta Weinhold (born 19 October 1947) is a German rock singer. Biography Jutta Weinhold was born in Mainz. In the late 1960s, she sang in amateur bands. In 1969, she was engaged in the role of "Sheila" in the musical ''Hair'', followed by enga ...

. During 1985 and 1986 he was member of a band called Coney Island, under the name of Coney Fight. In August 1999, Conny wrote to Wolf-Reinhart Kotzsch (owner of Second Battle recording company), stating that he had found suitable musicians for a new line-up of Gila, with whom he wanted to overdub some tracks recorded in their rehearsal studio in the eighties, which ''had not been released at that point in time''. In Conny's view, the tapes ''were very interesting, because they offered a view about the possible development of the group at that period, if that should ever have materialized. In

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

I found some motivated musicians with close contacts to Berlin to bring Gila back to life again. There are some valuable tapes, although the material is not known to the public''. Unfortunately, Second Battle couldn't get the project off the ground, because the label had to endure a lot of problems, like the insolvencies of business partners and the bootleg pirates, who have flooded the market of Progressive Rock for years and also destroyed more than one fellow company. Walter Nowicki released Gila's second album officially, so Conny had the chance to beat the bloodsucking "rip-off-managers" for once, just before his sad and untimely death. In 2008, Second Battle released the album

Free Electric Rock Sessions Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procure ...

, live in Koln 1972.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veit, Conny Progressive rock guitarists German male musicians Krautrock 1949 births Living people