Well sorry folks, it's been a busy little period since the last post, much of it spent pretending I was someone I'm not... but more on that in a minute, first to where I last left you....
Kiel. Yes. As predicted, you don't just say 'Tag' for afternoon, you actually say 'Nach Mittag'. 'After midday'. 'Nach' also means 'To or towards'..... Which seems confusing, but then I remember we have 'right' in English, so what goes around comes around. Perhaps best to leave the language lessons for the time being, although I can't move on without giving you this little gem - 'Hast du den arsch offen, oder was?!', which roughly translated means - 'What's wrong with you?!', but directly translated means - 'Have you got your ass open, or what?!'. Another brilliant German idiom, brought to you by daytime television, the quality of which appears to be consistent the world over.
So after a bit of a drive from up north, Friday night we parted ways with Brett and Kent briefly to play a lovely little house concert in southern Berlin, hosted by Timo and Anke, friends of the Vondo Family who had previously hosted similar concerts in Erfurt (
which is here in case you're wondering). Very nice of them to invite me to their new home in Berlin, I hope my stomping during the performance didn't upset the people downstairs too much...! Although I'd like to think they were at least a tiny bit impressed by their new neighbours' taste in music....
We awoke Saturday morning looking forward to attending the
Melodica Festival Berlin (an event I had been fortunate enough to be a part of 3yrs ago...), and seeing Brett Winterford in action, with Kent, as a guest performer from Australia. Little did we know that overnight Brett's nagging throat situation had taken a turn for the worse, so much so that he had completely lost his voice (Laryngitis to be exact!). Not the type of situation that typically lends itself to a great performance... but Brett being Brett, he had nonetheless come up with a cunning plan to 'sidestep' what would normally have been a gig-ending affliction, that being.... getting me to be him! Now this might sound a bit crazy, and it was, especially given the height discrepancy, but armed with a good few hours before the set time, and a willing accomplice in the brother Kent Eastwood, there was a chance it could work...
As fate would have it, I already knew how to play a couple of
Brett's tunes, courtesy of my being not just a mate, but also a big fan of his songwriting.... so there we were, three Aussies in a Berlin apartment all afternoon, figuring out how to perform a Brett Winterford concert on his behalf. Not just me and Kent mind you, but Brett as well, who despite his ailments was determined to still be a part of the gig, even if it meant just standing there and playing guitar... He'd even managed to write a script for the evening entitled 'How to host a Brett Winterford concert', which in the end added to the general sense of anticipation for the audience and crew in attendance. The word had already got around that Brett had lost his voice, but it's fair to say only a true showman would have had the foresight to do what Brett did. And it must have been tough for him standing on stage with the guitar, sick as a dog, wishing like hell he could have been singing in front of a few hundred people at Melodica Berlin. But he still showed up to be a part of it, and in the end a great song is always a great song, no matter who performs it. I don't know if I did them the justice they deserved, but I do know it was a pretty amazing experience for all of us, and one we'll never forget. Brett - thanks for asking me to be you for a night, it was a pleasure singing those songs. Kent - thanks for holding it all together, as you so often do. Melodica - thanks for being the type of festival that makes this type of thing possible in the first place. Love.
That'll do me for today, I'll leave you with a pic of 'the gang' and Willy himself in Kiel... It's been great fun being on the road together this past week, sharing the stage with great mates and making new friends along the way. Another beautiful gig here in Magedburg last night (we're having a good run!), but I'll save that for tomorrow's post... I need to learn some more German idioms.
Like this one perhaps...? They're great! x
PS - Here's a link to the us playing in a Kitchen. In Hamburg. For the Kuechen Sessions. Which is Kitchen in German. Alright. And you can click any of these words and it'll work. Renny is discovering new tricks each day. Including how to talk in the third person. Cool.
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