In 1981, Kraftwerk were at the height of their powers. Their long-awaited album, Computer World was the capstone of a five record run that included Autobahn, Radioactivity, Trans Europe Express and Man-Machine – one of the most incredible streaks of any band in the world. The wait between Man-Machine and Computer World was a long one by Kraftwerk’s standards (to that point, at least). Some of the time spent in the studio during the composition of Computer World was to ensure that the group could easily tour the album.

The result was a worldwide jaunt that took in numerous countries, both known and unknown. India was one of them. It was a gig that came together almost by happenstance. Promoter Vikram Singh had gone to London, looking to book musicians for gigs in India. He found a former Beatles manager, John Sherry, who guided him through the ins-and-outs of the business. Once Singh got back to India, he received another call from Sherry, with some news about this group from Germany that wanted to put on a gig in India. Singh had no idea who they were. But “Sherry convinced me to try it since they were coming with everything, the airfare, the equipment, the technicians...” Why not, thought Singh?

It would be nice to say what happened next changed everything in India. But that’s not exactly the case. Electronic music in India by 1981 was rare, sure. But it wasn’t completely unheard of. Indeed, the Germans were known throughout Mumbai by sound, if not by name. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Ashim Ahluwalia first heard Kraftwerk on India’s national television channel Doordarshan. Being “government TV in a socialist country, in the pre-cable era, there were no ads,” he says, so a hand-painted slide asked viewers to wait for the next broadcast, typically kids programs like Magic Lamp (English), Kilbil (Marathi) and Santakukdi (Gujarati). The music that accompanied the frame for the ten second break? Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights.”