There's an excellent German band from Hamburg called "Blumfeld", very big now in the German alternative music scene. They just released a fantastic video-clip with old German cult actor Helmut Berger (famous through his work with Luchino Visconti). They seem to be Smiths-fans, not only as their musical parallels are concerned. On their album L'etat et moi they used that famous line "If it's not love then it's the bomb" for their brilliant song "Verstärker" and translated it into German ("Wenn es nicht Liebe ist, wird es die Bombe sein"). On their new album (March 1999), called Old Nobody, Blumfeld's charismatic singer recites a highly intellectual poem. One of the lines goes: "So you understand change and you think it's essential" (of course 'stolen' from "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils").