Jayhawks formed in Bremen, Germany in January 1985 by former members of ‘The Shadocks’ Benno Blittersdorf (guitar), Matthias ‘Mathe’ Dreßen (bass) and Udo Albrecht (vocals) with Monika Kommnick (drums) previously with ‘Mimmis’. On April 27th, 1985 they recorded their first demo with the four songs ‘My Mirror’, ‘Happy Weekend’, ‘Sense of Humour’ and ‘Feel the Pain’ at the Studio Sachsenstraße in Bremen. A few days later, in May, Jayhawks becomes a 5-piece when Thomas ‘Tom’ Lipinski (lead guitar) joins the band.
They began playing live and in November 1985 they went into the Sound Service studios to record further material, which would include new renditions of the songs mentioned above. The new recording of ‘My Mirror’ was featured in the ‘Bremen-Deutschland’ sampler, published only weeks later in December. Jayhawks combined several live gigs with the studio visits until the autumn of 1986. Ten songs were finished, then Tom left the band and was replaced by Hardy Pelka for the live performances. Finally, the spring of 1987 saw the release of the 12” ‘The Joy of Love’, containing the songs ‘Black Lover’, ‘Little Lover’, ‘Sense of Humour’ and ‘The Suitable Walk’. Apart from these four and ‘My Mirror’ on the mentioned ‘Bremen-Deutschland’ sampler, the rest of the recordings remained unpublished and forgotten.
More live gigs, followed by the departure of Hardy who was replaced with Udo Kuhlmann and in September 1987 the band went into the Sound Service studios one final time to record what would become their second and last 12” release ‘The Truth’, released in February 1988. A couple of live gigs more, a final photoshoot in the Bremen woods and by the summer of 1988 the band decided to call it a day.
