Alans tour blog [Wednesday 3rd April]: Apologies for my state of unblogness over the last two days....Suffice to say, the last two gigsve been very nice….both the one in the Harmonie in Bonn and the Tante Ju in Dresden. The latter involved a five and a half hour drive which made for quite a long day but the spring has arrived which makes everything…even a long drive…more bearable….were driving to Hamburg and theres no wind…just a sort of low haze…all that pollen… and the sun and road. One forgets just how big Germany is and just how much bigger it became when the East was re-united with the West. The reconstruction of the East goes on at a furious pace…..the roads especially….and long gone are the days when some of them were even cobbled….I kid you not……and from one of them I saw a man tilling a field with a horse and plough…..the air smelled of two stroke because nearly every car was a Trabant…..the only alternative being an executive Wartburg….unless you had connections and or were super rich…..then one could afford a Mercedes…now there are windfarms in abundance….solar arrays……fast modern cars and factories…….still has a slightly different feel tho… It reminded me of so many trips there…from the Berlin Political Song Fest…… Uschi and Katrin Eder, who was our chaperone, Stefan and Paulo? who drove our PA around in a big grey truck and whom we met again at the very first Rudolstadt Festival …..luminaries like Peter Ullman and his wife Christine, still in charge of Rudolstadt…Manfred Wagenbreth, who entertained us often in Leipzig and his singing of I didnt hear nobody pray and cigareets and whiskey and wild wild women…..Jo and Gabi Meyer and the great band Jams….Katrin Pfeiffer and Mickel….. Ulli and Sigi Doberenz…..the Damage Sisters…so many generous people…. Then there was Jorg, another tour manager, whose Trabbie died whilst on tour…so we bought him another in which he promptly decamped with most of our money………. the Andy White band and their shenanigans with groupies….the time we took a trip down to Klingental because wed negotiated part of our fee in musical instruments….cos thats where they were all made……we got two superb Weltmeister accordions and a cheap melodeon which, it has to be said, we couldnt sell for love nor money when we got home…….going thro Checkpoint Charlie from East to West to do a concert with Michelle Shocked in Quartier Latin….and then going back to East Berlin to finish our tour…..making the mishmash of a CD called Little Rock to Leipzig……..ah yes….the good old, bad old days……more later... [Thursday night] Weve just finished playing in Knust in Hamburg. What a terrific audience…..they lifted us and we had a great time…..nice to see again special friends Harry and Suzanne…and Monika… Ulli….Andreas….and many others….much talking and drinking which continued back at the Hotel Commodore till late……. [Friday 4th April] Woke up to traffic in the rain….breakfast not really worth a special mention and the coffee…. that industrial palate weakener that only Germans seem to be able to make…. Were leaving the hotel at noon for Bochum….its not far…just a couple of hours…….peace be with you all….A x
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:50:25 +0000
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