The Weekly... Volume GERMANY

GERMANY

Where to start here… well you may have figured out that this is a retrospective blog on account of me having arrived home about 2 weeks ago. But Germany – yes, I was there too at some point. Cool sort of place, and nice to see it this time around from a fairly different viewpoint (as opposed to the inside of a beer tent at Oktoberfest). In fact, on reflection, last time I was in Germany I didn’t really see much of anything. Not that I can remember with any great clarity anyway…

From Paris, it was necessary to negotiate a rather uninspiring excursion to “Orly” airport. Ah the world of cheap airlines… Well may they call it “Easyjet”, but there are many things about it that are far from convenient. Even less inspiring than Orly was the airport at the other end - Berlin Schoenefeld. Now I don’t speak French or German, but I think if you translated Orly and Shoenefeld they would probably have a fairly similar meaning – something along the lines of “Hastily erected oversized metal structure a great distance from the intended destination”. But that’s only my guess…

Berlin, once you actually get to the city itself, is a great town. Especially for music. It’s easy to see why it’s become quite the trend for musicians from around the world to head to Berlin to write and perform… although I use the word “trend” for good reason there. Because at times recently I have wondered if the fascination is as much for the city itself as for what it appears to represent. Something of a creative badge of honour in a way… I must admit that my initial decision to go there was largely to see what all the fuss was about, but I am happy to report that the “fuss” is for fairly good reason. There was a sense of freedom in Berlin that is a long way removed from what we are used to in Sydney. I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way, although let’s be honest I probably don’t mean it in a good way either.

Case in point. I met a singer one night who told me that the previous Friday, her band had walked into a bar and asked if they could use the power. Having received the OK from the manager, they then ran an extension cable out of the bar and half way across the street, plugging in on a nature strip and performing a 45min set of Rock’n’Roll to several hundred people who were drinking in that bar and the bars on either side. Remembering this was in the middle of the street. With cars passing in each direction. Awesome. Now do you think that would fly down under? A more likely scenario is the paddy wagon rolling up just as the band struck their first chord, and 5 or 6 people from each bar trying to sue the band for creating a public nuisance. It’s one example, and I haven’t done the best job of describing it, but it’s fairly indicative of the stark divide that exists between the performance environment that we are used to here at home and the corresponding situation in Berlin (and to a lesser extent, Europe in general). The only rule is that there are pretty much no rules, and if you’re half decent, people will listen. There’s a good chance they’ll even give you some cash too.

FRI 29/8 – GIG CRAWL, MAGDEBURG

This was the most random night of my tour, but without a doubt one of the highlights, if not THE highlight, of the whole trip. Lena, who had organised the night with about 2 weeks notice, had never met me before. Never even heard of me in fact. But it turns out she knew a friend from Australia, and that was good enough. Not just good enough to meet me for a beer mind you, good enough to organise 5 gigs in the one night, a poster to promote the event, an article in the local paper, and a local duo (Once upon a Rooftop) to play with. Not to mention a decent crew of people to follow us around from place to place, and a DJ to finish off the night – spinning tunes till the wee hours as I tried to figure out at what point my life took the required “twist” that would eventually lead me to a gig crawl in the German city of Magdeburg. I still have no idea, but am pretty bloody happy about it I can assure you. Madness.

The trip to Magdeburg began in Berlin of course, where I had to find the Hauptbanhoff in order to catch a train. Not a difficult proposition when it’s the biggest train station in Europe! And Europe, as you are probably aware, is blessed with its fair share of train stations… Upon seeing the Hauptbanhoff for the first time, my reaction was more or less the same as when I walked into Notre Dame in Paris. (For those of you who missed the previous blog, I think the exclamation was “F….ing Jesus!”). The station has a glass roof and it’s one of the more spectacular modern buildings you are likely to see. Even more spectacular would have been a minor incident they had when the thing was being built – that being a massive glass panel falling to the ground and being smashed to smithereens. Fortunately I didn’t have a glass panel fall on top of me when I was there – may have made the performance in Magdeburg a bit of a challenge.

90mins after boarding the train, I had reached my destination. A rather nice journey punctuated by the absolutely ridiculous trumpet “announcement” music that was played at each station along the way. Upon my arrival, I was greeted in Magdeburg by Lena – full of smiles, and enough positive energy to power a small European nation. What a legend. An early dinner of quiche was prepared by my fellow gig-crawlers “Once Upon a Rooftop”. Steffen, you outdid yourself. Almost made me want to try making quiche as well, but I’d prefer not to watch my house burn down. So I’ll leave it to the experts…

The Gig Crawl – what an idea, what a night. Lena had billed it as “Sydney meets Magdeburg – Part 2”. (Part 1 had taken place a few weeks earlier atop a Double Decker bus in the main square – featuring Brett Winterford from Peregrine, amongst others). At some point in the not too distant future, we will try to do the return leg in Sydney, so stay tuned for that! At the first 3 bars, we actually set up outside on the pavement – on account of the locals keen to make the most of the last official “summer” weekend in Germany. Each place we played, we picked up an extra few music-lovers, and by the time we left the third gig we had a fairly big crew wandering with us to Café Central – which was for mine the pick of the venues. A beautiful candlelit room, perfect for acoustic music. Pretty sure there is a photo up in the tour shots somewhere. At each new venue, Once Upon a Rooftop would open up and tell everyone what was going on and why there was a funny dude from Australia following them round. A good thing they were able to explain the situation to the general public, because my knowledge of German does not extend far beyond “Bratwurst”.

By the time we got to the last bar (the biggest of the evening), the night was well and truly in full swing, and it was great to have the final performance on a stage through a pretty good PA System. Let’s just say that by gig Number 5, the unamplified acoustic tunes would barely have stood a chance against ever-increasing din – brought on by the rapid consumption of far too many wheat beers. By this stage of course, I was beyond the point of caring about the din, on account of my own efforts to keep up with the locals in the wheat beer department. Can’t say I matched them drink for drink, but by my normal standards I certainly put in a personal best performance. Seemed to cure my allergy to dancing anyway. Where were the producers of Dancing with the Stars?! They would have signed me up for sure.

My thanks to Lena, Once Upon a Rooftop and everyone else I met in Magdeburg whilst I was there. I felt welcome from the moment I arrived till the moment you all pushed me onto the train… (That was a joke…). I was even given a short historical tour of Magdeburg the day after the gig crawl, and joined a few folks on the banks of the river for a Birthday bash the following night. When you get to a new town, so often the experience is shaped by the people you meet. And in Magdeburg Germany, I really lucked out.

If you’ve got time, check out www.myspace.com/onceuponarooftop

WED 3/9 – RICKENBACKERS MUSIC INN, BERLIN
Supporting “Me and the White Rabbits”.

I’m not too sure what the “White Rabbits” referred to exactly, but I did meet the “Me” part of the band, a girl by the names of Johanna with a superb voice who it turns out used to play in the German National Softball Team! Of course I met the rest of the band as well, but I just wanted to get that story about the softball team in there – I thought that was cool. It was actually the guitarist Hannes who had been kind enough to let me open the show after I found the band on myspace. This was basically the way I booked most of the gigs on my trip, and I was very fortunate as I worked my way round Europe to find so many other musicians who were willing to help me out. I will always try to make an effort to do the same whenever there are independent artists coming to Australia.

Rickenbacker’s was a cool sort of room – appointed in much the same way as an old Irish pub. (That’s where the people of Rickenbackers are reading this thinking “that’s because it is an old Irish pub you idiot”). There was a small crowd, but they gave me the time of day and as a touring artist that’s all you can ever really hope for. It was nice to sit back and listen to Me (and also the White Rabbits) when I finished – a great way to end my time in Germany in fact. Certainly glad I decided to extend my stay in Berlin for a few days, although to be honest after a week I was still only scratching the surface. Managed to get home by 1am, giving me roughly 4hrs sleep before having to get up and make my way to Schoenefeld airport in the morning. Easyjet or otherwise, I will be heading back to Berlin again for sure. About the same time next year if all goes to plan.

THE OTHER DAYS, BERLIN…

So you may have noticed there are a few days missing there… Well that’s because there was no gigs, and I figured I wouldn’t bore you with too many general ramblings. For those of you who are interested however, I did manage to achieve the following few things during my stay:

*A trip to the top of the Berlin Tower. Not exactly the most impressive tourist destination I have ever been to, especially when no one had bothered to clean the windows for several years. The view of Berlin through a thick layer of dust was unspectacular at best.

*Riding round and round and round (and round) Berlin on a rented bicycle. Berlin is a lot bigger than Amsterdam… Bugger me. Like, seriously, a LOT bigger.

*Playing an Open Mic night at a place called The “Artliner” Café. A short trip on the subway and many a wrong turn, but it was cool. They also sold bottled beer mixed with Grapefruit Juice. Hmm….

*Checking out the Checkpoint Charlie Museum – quite a fascinating place if you ever get the chance, and a rare opportunity to see a part of the world with such immense historical and political significance. (Although the documentary about the third Reich, despite being advertised in English, was in German with no subtitles. I tried listening for 5 minutes to see if I could understand anything, but not once did I hear the word “Bratwurst”. Bummer).

*Finding my way to “Grosse Hamburger” Street, which if you translate the first part and not the second gives it the impression of being the premier fast-food location in all of Europe. Alas, a German rival to the Whopper with Cheese was not found, but I did get to devour one hell of a Lamb Kebab. For just 2.50! (That’s Euros – still a screaming deal).

*Busking. Again, it appears this is a legitimate way to make a living. Nice not to know anyone in the town as well, therefore you don’t feel like too much of a hobo when you play a song or two and pass a hat around in front of the pub. But it works! Made enough for a few meals anyway. (Although I didn’t enjoy quite the same reception at the airport train station when I had an hour to kill on my way out of town).

FINALLY….

I must say a MASSIVE THANKYOU to Manuela, who despite not really knowing me from a bar of soap was happy to have me crash in her spare room the whole time I was in Berlin – a big big help! Respekt.

Back to London, and then on to the last week of the trip. How nice of Finnair to give me free stopovers in Helsinki and Tokyo on the way home.

Back soon with the final installment…