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The “50 Years of BAP” posters have been hanging in the Rhineland since early autumn. A ceramic leopard as an optic marks the “finish line”. Possibly an insider reference to an album cover by Wolfgang Niedecken from 1995. A long sold-out concert on July 10, 2026 in the football stadium in Cologne-Müngersdorf – in the middle of the Football World Cup on the North American continent.
At the same time, the Südstadt rocker is celebrating his 75th birthday. It wasn’t until March 30th, but he has already made a statement to the German Press Agency (dpa). He doesn’t want to “do Jopie Heesters”.
The Dutch endless entertainer was still on stage with over 100 people. He doesn’t even want to keep up with the live vigor of his UK heroes the Rolling Stones, all of whom are over 80 years old.
Exit strategy with the family
The BAP singer has agreed on a kind of exit strategy with his family: If he no longer notices that it is no longer possible, his wife Tina and their two adult daughters will raise the alarm.
“My three ladies will let me know,” says Niedecken, who is apparently less concerned with nostalgic retrospectives (this was already available for the 70th) than with a cardinal question that many artists of his stature often ignore for long enough: When is the right moment to stop?
The fact that Niedecken doesn’t just tackle the subject theoretically fits the man in the jeans look, who publicly and artistically reassembled himself after his stroke in 2011. Since then, a quiet realism has resonated in many of his interviews, characterized not by resignation but by unpretentious clarity.
No boredom in sight
He doesn’t think about fishing or a beautiful, colorful aquarium. He emphasizes that standing still is not an option for him. He doesn’t know boredom. If the live stage is no longer available at some point, he wants to read, think and write. It will never completely disappear. The season ticket at 1. FC Köln alone keeps him present.
After the stadium concert in July, the big anniversary tour will take place from November 2026. Here too it is: “finish straight”. BAP plays in 19 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. One of the band’s most extensive tours in years – at the same time a conscious signal. The master calls the title “a wave of the fence post.”
Officially it is not a farewell tour. Unofficially, the message resonates: If you want to experience BAP again in a big way, you shouldn’t wait too long.
Focus instead of retreat
Although Niedecken says that he feels “like 50-plus,” he also admits that he often thinks about how much time he has left. This is not pathos, but an attitude that suits an artist who has always derived his greatest successes from observation and self-doubt.
So no retreat, more of a focus. Reducing to the Max is what it’s called in optimization German. New musical ideas should also be in circulation, but without any pressure to publish. “He doesn’t do anything anymore just because it’s expected of him,” is what people from the band’s proverbial circle say.