.-: diary|
Another great place in one of my favourite towns. :-)
And Annie, our local host, was great too. Lucky weekend. Three great places, three great promoters.
More to follow. Gotta rush to a show now.
(John) | | |
Same drive than yesterday. Just the other way round. Enough time to discuss 2010 with Christof.
The Sparte 4 is a great venue. I wish there were places like that everywhere. With people like Christoph running them. It's somehow perfect for our kind of music. And I hope we can come back soon, too. Not only because of the great food. :-)
The set was great too. We started with "Barbara fades away" and then played "When we were young". It was a beautiful melancholic power set.
With some French throat infections... Someone will understand this...
:-)
We ended the night in a local bar and laughed a lot. Just great. If touring could be like this every day...
(John) | | |
Well, it was a long drive for a small quality audience, but it was worth the ride. :-)
Nice little bar, friendly people, and a promise to be back soon. We played a 40 minutes' set like we just hadn't driven 5 hours. And we had loads of fun. Annicka was there. She's working with Eric Fish and is a friend of the house.
It was great to see Dirk again and spend a couple of days with him. We started with "happy in my tree house" and ended with an improvised "fuck off / great song medley".
(John) | | |
Recording - Final day (5):
Back for the last vocals as well as bits and pieces. Marcus will do some rough mixes soon. And then we'll be off to the airport. I already start missing everyone...
It's been a special week... And the great thing about it is that we'll carry a beautiful musical memory with us. And that we can share it with you...
If I didn't have to sing soon, I'd probably lay back now and enjoy the little tear in the corner of my eye. Happy? Indeed!
In case you wann know what everyone played, here's an overview (in no particular order):
liam bradley - piano, keyboards, accordion, arranging
sean óg graham - guitar, button accordian, re-arranging
damian mckee - button accordian, ordering last drinks
eamon murray - bodhrán & shakers, acounting
niamh dunne - vocals, fiddle, charming
christof brill - guitar (Meister), vocals
eric falchero - piano, keyboards, accordion, vocals, shopping
john rech - vocals, harmonica, cooking
marcus praed - mixing, cool stuff, cleaning the studio
Soon, we'll have left the Mühle der Freundschaft and we'll all be heading home. Looking forward to hugging my kids... Missed them like hell. Jordan's slightly better today, but she really wants me to come home now. Enough dreaming... gotta be a dad now... :-)
(John) | | |
Recording - Day 4:
Last night Eric lost his key and woke up half of Bad Iburg before finding it in the computer bag he had checked 10 times before. Clever bags are dangerous... Furthermore, the hotel bar was closed so that we all escaped Damian's last drink. We feel great today... :-))))
Eric and Christof left early this morning. Jordan, my daughter's ill. She's got high temperature and a tough throat infection. I feel bad about being here... That's the toughest part about being a musician. Being far away from your kids when they need you. Ezio wrote a great song about it "ten thousand bars".
I just layed down some vocals on "hello" & "30 & confused". Working on "raggle taggle gypsy" next... I'll write more later...
Well, that's a different song now. Irish swing? Kinda... :-)
You'll be surprised... Like always in the studio, we start wondering what people will think about what we did. Especially as we all are very enthousiastic. We've all put so much energy and love into this project. I can't express my gratitude enough. Soul!!!
Before heading to dinner, we re-arranged and recorded a new version of "she knows". And turned it into a duo. Another surprising version. With a great Liam on the piano. New life!
(John) | | |
Recording - Day 3:
New lesson: Don't have a last drink with Damian.
Breakfast with a slight hangover...
We layed down "Fisherman's Blues" at noon. And then we started working on "fuck off" that got a new dress too. After demoing it, we had lunch. At 2.30 p.m. We recorded "fuck off" and started working on "hello...". With new elements from traditional Irish music.
And while I'm typing this, Christof is currently adding a guitar line on "3o & confused". And we'll call it a day as soon as he's done. And then have a last drink with Damian...
We all had Chilli an hour ago. Most of the time we're cooking on our own and that's just great, too. I really love this studio. I can't imagine doing a record somewhere else.
Christof's done now. His last bits and pieces in this session. Eric and him are heading back home tomorrow. The rest of us stay until Friday night at least. Then our Irish half is flying home,
6 tracks done so far. :-)
The second sonic comic will offer more music...
I just wished Andy could have come to the studio but he's struggling with all his work and he's fighting with the last knight, too....
Slainthe.
(John) | | |
Recording - Day 2:
After a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast, we headed to the studio around 10.30 a.m. "Don't go" was the first song we worked on and since we somehow ended in quite a long version, it did take a while to get all the different parts inside our heads, but it's become a great version. I suspect Sean's gonna throw a lot of the songs upside down. He's adding bits and pieces everywhere. Cool.
On the second day, it feels like we've been playing together for ages. It's a great feeling. I'm still surprised about what's happening in the big room. We're all sitting in a cricle to work out the songs and then Eamon and I are sent to our aquariums. And we just record the tune. A couple of versions and then we move on. The concentration during a performance is amazing and every run is very intense.
The second song of the day's "Fisherman's Blues". At the Kastellaun soundcheck I had the idea of doing a slow and melancholic version. Possibly mixed up with the original tempo at the end. We ended up with a complete new version. Almost a new song. Some melody hooks can be recognized, the lyrics remained the same. But everything else changed. And it fits the "fisherman's story" in the book even better. We just recorded a demo version and decided to have a sunset barbecue.
It was beautiful. Marcus' wife joined us and we had loads of food and even more wine and beer. Christof messed up Eric's vegetable dishes. But played decent guitar during the day. I saw him in shorts in the morning. I suspect he wants us to think that he went for a run... :-)))
This is the best recording session I ever had. I'm so happy in my tree house. :-)))))
(John) | | |
Recording - Day 1:
Picked up Beoga at Düsseldorf Airport this morning. After yesterday's long journey to Bad Iburg, another 400 km in the van. Considering Beoga's early wake up calls to make it to the airport, we should all have been really exhausted. Add to this a step into unknown territory for all the musicians involved and it should have been a very trembling start into the sessions...
No way!
It was a great start. And it all got into place very quickly. From a human and musical point of view. The first song we started to work on was "30 & confused". We then re-arranged "Barbara fades away" and recorded a beautiful version of it. With Niamh sharing vocals with me. It sounds really great. Like the song's has finally arrived at its right destination. And as it's my favourite song, you can imagine how happy I am.
Everyone does such a great job. And it's so much fun. We posted a couple of pix on facebook for those of you who wanna know what it all looks like.
P.S. I forgot to mention that Eamon is great at shakers. :-)
(John) | | |
With Eric Fish & friends
Having landed in Luxembourg after a short holiday in Spain just a couple of hours before, I was happy to see Christof and Eric back. As well as our Fish friends... During soundcheck I thought about doing a slow version of Fisherman's Blues... I think I'll take that idea to the studio...
The setting was absolutely beautiful. A nice castle in a very good state... If you're anwhere near, drop by. It's worth a visit and a dinner...
Not too many people though, but again a great audience. After our holidays, we weren't quite in sync at the beginning but we got there and we're back in the music world now. :-)
To drive home at night wasn't that great though. I'd loved to stay there, but family duties called... And they're calling louder after family holidays...
(John) | | |
Despite having missed a great aftershow party after the Mamer gig, we arrived quite tired in Contern. And very early in the day. Having had quite a lot of rehearsals during the week and having played a great and tough show the night before, we were quite exhausted. And the we had to set up our own little p.a. before playing... And pack it at the end of the day...
We played 4 sets of more or less 15 minutes during the day. One of them during the authors' lunch. Which made me meet the great Albert Weinberg as well as some of the other fantastic authors. But Mr Weinberg was a monument. And he enjoyed our set. I offered him our sonic comic and got a signed Dan Cooper in return. :-))))
As we played as a trio (with Christof and Eric), it was quite the contrary of the previous night (70 people on stage). But we had loads of fun. It was tough though. And the next day even tougher. I can't really remember what we played on the 2nd day. Only that I hardly found time to eat something. Adding to this the very bad state of my grandmother who was laying in hospital and you can easily imagine through what kinds of emotional storms I was sayling all these days were
Andy was quite busy too. As he was drawing in the sports hall, I was running around all day: from our little tent stage to the hall and back. But I really enjoyed it too. And everyone from the organizing team was so nice to us. Looking forward to going back next year. Maybe with a little technical help...
Sitting next to Lucien and Roger (the author and illustrator created by Superjhemp :-)), was great fun too. They're a hit. Promised Lucien to record him a full album of old tracks. He really loves that. Me, too. It's like bringing them back to life. Sometimes even creating something completely new. Weird how it's quite common in jazz and classical music, but not so normal in rock and pop. Is this maybe due to the cheap and uncreative dance versions? Anyway, it's fun and that's exactly what we're gonna do for the next sonic comic and we have a great plan... It'll be fun. If it works... :-)
(John) | | |
With Eric Fish & friends
No need to tell you that we were even more exhausted when we arrived at the lake in Nohfelden. And the poor (talking about quantity not quality) audience wasn't to build one up. But the warm welcoming of our friends as well as the great audience made us have a great time. And we somehow managed to find new strength.
We had arrived shortly before walking on stage and it all felt like a huge 24 hours gig... Furthermore the pope had broken his arm...
I was too tired to remember much of our performance but I remember the audience very well and that was fun. As was the jam at the end of Eric Fish's set. A unique entertainer by the way. Thanx so much for having us.
(John) | | |
Well, there's quite a lot be said about this great night. First of all, we had a great time. I think we all had a great time. Ad we worked hard to get that far. A lot of rehearsals for one gig... at least for us. :-)
The Harmonie Gemeng Mamer did a great job and Marco Battistella's idea was great. We also got very interesting arrangements. And we twisted 'em just a little bit... Joël, Christof and Eric shifted places on stage at least 4 times to leave the rest of the band (around 60 people) some space too. Merle & Martine were beautiful and talented guest singers. Claude made his debut on bass, Andy drew like hell, Pats kept the shop up and running and Boris did a great job fighting the elements on his mixing desk.
For us, it was tough to wear that dress, but we all got there in the end and I think we still were quite spontaneous ("Alors, c'était très bien, c'était même très très bien...", sorry couldn't resist this one... my dad would have loved it).
We played "deng Hand" for the first time in ages. Here's the complete setlist, as for one night (only), we had one... :-)
30 & confused (duo)
Fisherman’s Blues (band)
------------
Sunny Days
She dances
Wonderful Life
Happy In My Tree House
Au Flamingo Rose
Déjeuner en paix
------------
Would You? (trio)
------------
Deng Hand
When We Were Young
Verluer
Kitty
Fuck off
------------
Great Song Of Indifference (band)
The audience was great too. Despite a chilly summer night, but it didn't rain. On the previous night, it was so hot that we melted on stage. Strange summer weather...
Anyway, we'll keep this one among our most exceptionnal nights...
(John) | | |
A special order from a client, the Raiffeisen Bank. We simulated the recording of "sunny days" to 400 kids and their parents. And had them be part of it. Something quite different from the usual gigs, but we had a lot of fun. I also noticed that I was surrounded by all kinds of different teachers in this band. We played 2 more songs to round it up.
(John) | | |
It's been a while since we last played festivals in our country. At least, it feels like it... The ood For Your Senses Festival has a great reputation among young people and is known for its great local line-ups. Most of the bands are very rocky and full of energy. So are we, at least that's what we like to think. And they have buckets full of guitar decibels. And loads of bass... And, eh, that's not quite what we are known for. Furthermore, as I said at the end of the gig, one might get the impression that we have to get back to the seniors' club by 10 p.m. the latest as we raised the age level quite a lot.
But hey, that's not how we felt when we hit the stage and we even thought that we had a very young and relaxed summer sound. The audience seemed to enjoy our set and I think we did very well in this rock arena. :-)
We had fun. Despite some technical problems. Which changed our ever changign setlist even more. Rësch was around and we love having him there. He makes us look younger too. :-)))
Looking forward to coming back. Hope they'll have us...
(John) | | |
As strange as it might sound, the release party that we tried to treat like a normal gig, in order to show what we'd just done on tour and what we felt like, was far more intense and tiring than expected.
Nights like that, even when treated in a relax way, are just meant to be intense and energy sucking. :-)
Anyway, Andy drew like hell, we played as normal as we could, and tried to talk to everyone as much as possible, which is just impossible.
At some point, I just sat down next to Andy and spoke to everyone who came to me. I was completely exhausted. But it was fun and thanx to everyone who came. We got lovely comments and encouragements on the new project.
Our friend and sponsor Jean-Marie was there too. As well as many people who'd worked on the project. We loved it. Pascal unfortunately missed the gig, but not the last couple of beers. And we stayed till the ship was close to sinking... :-)
I wonder if Andy's still drawing? Did we pack him up at the end of the night? Hmmm...
Speak to you soon.
(John) | | |
The long drive was actually quite cool. No traffic jams, no trucks, no rain. As we had breakfast at 8 and left shortly after 9, we were back in Dudelange around 2 p.m., just in time to finish the rest of our neighbour 's lunch... :-) And then I played with the kids and showed them all the presents I'd bought. Too many like always... guilty dads... aaarrrrghhhhh...
We built up in a hurry, sound checked and played. To play events like these always arises mixed feelings, but we know it in advance and we try to concentrate on the people who want to listen.
As Andy had come down from Brussels, we also spent a lot of time laughing and signing our sonic comics.
Our t-shirts prove to be a hit. :-)
Our rubber ducks are sold out too. And I guess I need to print new ones.
It felt great to watch NCIS on the couch later that night. Back home...
We drove to the CID at 4.30 p.m.
(John) | | |
It was supposed to be a big party! To thank all the fans, friends and sponsors who supported the Songtage in Gera. At 8.30 p.m. we were very close to packing our stuff and drive home. Immediately. But the a couple of people showed up and we decided (like always) that everyone who showed up at one of our gigs, deserved a fair show. Once Rësch's set was over, we walked on stage to perform to 12 people. And enjoyed the gig. It was completely different, a little more intimate, but very enjoyable. :-)
We were back at the pension quite early and I felt that 5 2-hours-and-more gigs in a row is quite tough. I wasn't looking forward to the long drive of the next day.
(John) | | |
As Richard put it correctly: it's a bit like coming home...
After the Dresden gig, we'd driven through the night just to enjoy a maximum of time with our friends in Magdeburg. After a very early soundcheck (11 a.m.), we drove to the center to do some family shopping. We also met the new members of Jan & Kristina's as well as Carmen's families :-)
We had a late afternoon barbecue before getting back to the hotel and gathering all our forces for a passionate set in the evening. Rësch felt so at home that he extended his gig by a couple of songs which was fine.
When we entered the stage, we started with the usual "I lost my rainbow tonight" followed by "Maybe", which seemed to us the appropriate songs to follow Rësch's set. After "I kissed a girl" and "30 & confused", Burkhard joined us for his last songs with us. Eric had driven all the way up to Magdeburg to play the last 4 gigs with us. With his accordion. :-)
"Would you?" was very inspired and we also slightly changed "When we were young" adding Rësch and reworking the guitar sound. I love this song and I'm always surprised at the people's reaction. Ah!
The Magdeburg concerts are always very intense and special. And so it was this time too. Up to complete exhaustion. In order not to jeopardize the next concerts, I walked back straight to the hotel after the gig and missed the usual Blue Note Party with Martini Rësch.
A good decision as it proved the next day, because I slept 10 full hours and felt tired but recovered the next morning. A big hug to all our friends in Magdeburg.
(John) | | |
We expected a great book show and were suspicious about how many people would show up. We found a great book shop and a first quality audience. And opened the open air season as the gig took place in the backyard of the bookstore.
We enjoyed every singl moment. The "Ost TriBüne" supported us too. Hope that'll trigger something for our return. I also liked Christof's jazz version of "sunny days". I still wonder who or what he was thinking of... :-)
Loved the dedicated "would you?" version!
And "Fisherman's Blues" has risen to new strength in the setlist...
I really enjoyed this one and I hope Stü will hav us back. I bought too many books. Guess that's what they call a trap for musicians... :-)
Drove to Magdeburg throught the night, had a shower and now will enjoy the endless wideness of my huge bed.
(John) | | |
The usual car break down just accured. It's Richard's turn this time. After Christof and me were the victims of this game at the end of our last tour.
While their car is being fixed at the local Audi-VW garage, Christof and me drove to Apolda to set the gear up. We were warmly welcomed by Fisch & Petra and Christof is now rehearsing while I'm feeding you with stories. But enough for now. I'll do some reading now and then prepare for the show. I'll let you know later what happened in Apolda. And if Fisch's wine is still as great... :-)
Well, the gig's over and I'm in my bed. Though Petra's & Fisch's hosting was great, we're slightly disappointed as the number of guests stayed underneath our expectattions. After last year's performance, we'd expected that it would trigger some more people... Didn't work...
On the sunny side, Rësch's involvement has increased and he's playing more than a couple of songs with us. Goodnght...
(John) | | |
It's me ! ;-)))
I'm just sitting in my rehearsal room, and when I'm reading these lines, I'm just looking forward to joining you honeys!
Enjoy it!
C U soon
(eric) | | |
6 hours on the road. Stop. Get-in and set-up. Stop. Soundcheck. Stop. Dinner. Stop. Check-in at the B&B. Stop. Back to the venue. Stop.
20.15. We enter a sold out Moist Corner with a certain apprehension. What will we do this time? Last time was fabulous. We can't top that performance. So we send Richard on stage first. To see how it'll be. He's f... great. And a great entertainer, too. He writes and performs beautiful sadness pearls. I love him. In a brother like way...
And then we walk on stage and all we can think of is: let's give these marvellous people from Suhl the best show we can. Because they deserve it. Because Suhl was so important to me last time. Suhl is the place I resigned from Ezio management, or where we split after a common decision.
It's also the place where I decided that as a musician I'd take no shit from nobody no more (that got nothing to do with the Ezio business - just making sure that noone gets this wrong). I love music and I'm not gonna let it be f... up by some incompetent idiot. And Suhl is the place where I reached the furtherst point of missing my kids.
Suhl was also one of the best shows I'd ever played.
So it was a tough game and a huge pleasure and priviledge getting back there. Especially as we shared the tiny space on stage with Burkhard and Richard. And Dad & Junior. :-) Almost 6 on 3 square meters.
And considering the after show critics, I think we delivered a great show. And much more. We gave them all we had.
We played "when we were young" for the first time live. In an acoustic version. Meanwhile Richard is joining us on a couple of tracks and I can't imagine going on tour in the future without him. :-)
We dedicated happy in my treehouse and big picture to Suhl. Btw, as Richard said: Alles cool in Suhl!
Thank God Suhl is not on the Neisse...
Anyway, thanx again for having us. I can't remember all we said and we did that night, but it was sure fun. And unbelievable. Let's watch it on YouTube soon.
Love you all you Suhlzies...
(John) | | |
- day off -
First part of the day spent in bed, reading, mailing, writing the diary. My tooth hurts again, The after-concert adrenalin dropped down. Shit...
We'll go out for a walk soon. I'm holding the sonic comic in my hands and it looks just great. I really love this project. Hope you'll like it too.
So we met up with Bond, our friend, agent... who showed us around and took us to great dimly lit places. We drank good coffee, spoke a lot and went for dinner (Steak House to accomodate everyone's taste - I would have prefered a local cuisine like the day before) and then headed to a bar for a little beer. Oh yeah, we also wanted to see a great painting earlier in the day, but we didn't get tickets as it was sold out for that day.
At the end of the evening we headed to the venue we played the day before to see if some of our new friends would show up. Peter and Patricia did, Magda and Justine didn't. Richard had gone back to the hotel as he was still fucked up after his encounter with Polish Wodka the previous night. And no, it wasn't the coffee at the end of the night...
Our encounter with the local delicatesse was much more controlled (only 2 glasses) and so we had the priviledge to enjoy it, i.e. no headache the next day... :-)
As we walked back to the hotel, we thought that we'd love to come back pretty soon.
(John) | | |
Well, when we entered the Café Niebo (means "heaven" in Polish), the very loud music made us rather feel like arriving at the outskirts of hell: Iron Maiden, etc...
Our friend Bond, who'd booked the gig, explained to us that this was a great place to play on Sunday nights and very uncomplicated when it comes to booking it. Hmmm... well, we set up our p.a. and started the soundcheck.
After a nice dinner at a Jewish restaurant, we walked back to the venue and were still a little pessimistic about the walk-up. There weren't many guests in the Pub when Rësch started his set. He's really great and talented. Whenever I see him play his songs, I can't get rid of the impression that he's a rough diamond. I wish someone important would notice too.
We then joined him on stage to perform a couple of songs together and then went on as a duo before Burkhard joined us on stage. It was quite a good tour start and we felt great after a couple of songs... When the first st ended, I felt like that, maybe, we weren't misplaced at all. People had moved to the front and mad us feel welcome.
The second set, much to Burkhard's paniced reaction, didn't follow the printed setlist at all and we ended in a big party with students dancing all over the place. :-)))
After we'd finished and packed, we sat down with some newly met friends, and spend a nice evening discovering the town and Poland through discussions.
Thanx a lot for making us feel great on our first gig in Poland. Hope to see you soon back here.
(John) | | |
Hi,
Christof, Richard and me drove to Gera today (which was actually quite a pleasant ride through springhill Germany) and met up with Burkhard, who'll play the piano on a couple of gigs. Until Eric joins us in Magdeburg.
It ent ok and we're looking forward to the first gig. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep all night along due to a tooth infection. Some drugs from the pharmacy and sleep in the car should help me get through the first days...
() | | |
Very often, when you enter a new place, you instantly know that you're at the right (or wrong) place. The Kaffeehaus has such an aura. One of the right places...
Only problem, the walkaways in front the door, but I'll get to that part later.
Christof and me rehearsed at his house before dreiving to Ommersheim and though we hadn't played for a long time, It felt right and comfortable. We did remember the songs.
Once set up at the Kaffeehaus, we started the first set with "Barbara fades away" and then into "I kissed a girl". It was great to see some known faces and we didn't feel to lost... The first set was more like an introduction to what might happen later. Especially as Christof had to recover from his very ambitious concert planning of the last days... :-)
At this point of the writing process, we didn't dare to present a new song yet, but we might in Magdeburg in December. I'm really looking forward to seeing your reaction... Especially "would you?" does it for me.
The second set saw us back in duo modus. We were in travelling mood and the "I don't know what will happen next" strategy had taken over. And that led of course to an over 2 hours' performance. I think, hope that everyone there enjoyed it and will come back next time, cause we definitely are gonna come back. :-)
That is, if I don't hit the border of the walkaway again... because, when time came to leave, I found out that I had a flat tire that could not be fixed. The prospect of changing a tire in the middle of the night did collide with the up from the performance. And it was f... cold.
It was only then that I discovered that Volkswagen had swapped the fith tire for a filter... which lead to a 2 hours' wait for the ACL to arrive and pick me up... Great!!!! By then it was freezing. 2 jackets, 1 pullover, 1 cover were not helping that much. I got home at 4.30 a.m. And the fee payed for the "extra" transport... Btw, if your car is on a truck, you don't need to close the doors with your remote control. The alarm might go off with every hole the truck will get... I've learned a wee bit about cars that night...
But I really enjoyed the gig before...
(John) | | |
First rehearsal with almost the full band. Remo is quite busy these days and we'll only rehearse a couple of times with everyone around before the very important show in Mondorf. We worked on 3 new songs: C'est si bon / Maria / J'en ai marre. We're getting somewhere. Bit by bit. It's strange to get back to the full band after a duo tour. Though both have their own charm, I miss Christofs complicity as well as the delicate arrangements of the songs. Back to rock'n'pop adventures now. :-)
Hope to see you there. Mondorf on May the 3rd. We'll need your support there.
(John) | | |
Damn, I'm tired today. Owen woke me after only 2 hours of sleep. Rock'n'Roll, yeah sure. We're supposed to play a short set at my accountant's birthday party. Over 200 guests. Maybe 300. He deserves it, though I usually hate this kind of shows. But he's been so helpful over the years, plus he's a good friend, that he deserves a special treatment. Right now, I'm watching German football, while trying not to fall asleep and finish the diary. Football seems to be a million miles away from my world today. And Bielefeld-Karlsruhe is not quite the greatest game of all times, though Miller just had made a great safe. Sankt Pauli's playing Freiburg tomorrow, hope they're gonna score some points or I'll have to start worrying... More later.
Later: I shouldn't have promised more later. Let's keep it polite:
I love Elio. I hope they all had fun. While we drove home.
Had a drink with my friend Pascal on my way home. New plans in my head...
(John) | | |
Back on the run after a 2 days off. We're playing close to Christof's place, but it seems I know more people in Homburg than him. Someone told me earlier today that I must be mad to drive up to Homburg and back in less than 24 hours... well, it's Homburg, honey, it's not Hamburg. But nevertheless, I was quite tired after the gig and it was a tough 90 minutes' drive into the night.
After Magdeburg, this was only the 2nd gig with familiar faces, Sascha, Nicole, Elke, Markus... The venue was divided in 2 camps (Christof's description was quite accurate). Those who wanted to listen to our performance and those who didn't give a shit about anyone playing live music, unless we'd turn into a jukebox. Chistof is good enough to do this, me, on the other side, I'm really shit at it, so we decided to be ourselves, tough enough job if you ask me.
The back-round noise made it very difficult to play the quieter songs and I have to admit that I was close to losing patience somewhere in the middle of our second set. But the faces smiling at me (and Christof) helped me stay on track. Tough though. Especially if you try to do your own thing. The performance was quite good even if we had to drop a couple of slow numbers (Verluer, L. Song...) due to Mr Beer and his friends. Like most promoters (that doesn't include the people in Leipzig) on our tour, Chris, our host, was very welcoming. Don't miss T. Basco next week at the same place. I think they'll play it on Thursday.
(John) | | |
Sometimes... yes, back on the sunny side this time. The "Feuchte Ecke" in Suhl is a place where people love music. It's a place where you feel welcome. It's a place we'd love to go back to. And it's probably also the place with the best performance on this tour. It was a great and very funny night. With my favorite boyband guitarist at his best. As he knows all the songs by now, I love to put the setlist upside down, which leads us to playing 2 different songs at the same time. Great. I'll call him tomorrow to see if he has the fisherman's blues... :-)
The gig and the audience were just... great. We enjoyed every single minute of music and comedy. I'd hardly laughed so much on stage before. We played l.song which underlines our love for the audience.
The place was nicely packed and we started as complete strangers and ended best friends. The sleeping rooms were definitely not a "feuchte Ecke" unlike those in Leipzig and we left the next days with big smiles on our faces. As announced on the website, due to a private as well as professional reason, we had to cancel the gigs in Bamberg and Weimar.
(John) | | |
Sometimes, when you enter a place, you know you're f...
It's tough not to become personal when you're so angry, but everything about the the "noch besser leben" (how wrong can you be) looks to me wrong. Our briefing surely wasn't the best, but I rarely had a colder and more unpersonal welcome. To offer a drink after 80 minutes after a couple of unhelpful and uninterested phonr calls is one thing, but the "artist rooms" that were offered to us this night were surely a total lack of respect. Just imagine an empty room, really empty, not even wallpaper, no electricity, no lights, a double bed with a single cover and a field bed that reaches down to the ground, no offer of breakfast and a boiled deep frozen pizza for dinner and you have the ultimate artist package. I'm a promoter, too. So I know how to do this. And I can tell you: it's all wrong. Should the people from the venue read this: don't do gigs if you don't want to. Treat musicians like human people. And if you don't have a place to welcome artists, don't do gigs. Or invite local artists. And if you don't care and this is really your professional opinion, here's mine: fuck you. And when it comes to paying bands, here's another thing, I wish you'd be payed the way we were...
The summary of the gig would be: we played to 11 people, who seemed to enjoy it, we got 7€ and sold no album. We didn't let them down, I felt different about their "payment of the artist's performance".
We tremendously thank Jan, Anke and Kristina for welcoming us in Magdeburg in the middle of the night and for all the warmth on a very cold night and experience. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Did I mention that I'll never go back to the "noch besser leben". I'd rather live slightly worse...
P.S. Since it was a shit night, on our trip to Magdeburg, we ended up behind a special convoy that made sure that we needed twice as long to arrive at our destination.
(John) | | |
Just back from the Tivoli 1. And the newly created "Gera Songtage". And our 1st impression would be: it's a different festival. There's a different vibe, it's more varied. Up to everyone to discover both. They're both quite interesting and definitely worth a trip.
We arrived sometime around 5, set up, soundchecked and had a good dinner. Again, we met nice people. Not so many of them this time, but very attentive. 3 sets this time. And a very intimate atmosphere. More stories about babies. And horses. And about music and where it's at.
We must have played 2 hours and 20 minutes or so. Or maybe even longer. But those who came and payed deserved the best possible show. Just like the people who trust and invite us.
Hi to Daniel and Anne. And to her 7 years old daughter. Hope she didn't put the flat on fire. :-)
(John) | | |
Sometimes, when you enter a place, you know you're right. It's got nothing to do do with luxury or big p.a.'s and loads of people waiting for you. It's just THE place. And the Liwei in Apolda is definitely one of these places. A couple of weeks earlier, I had not even heard about Apolda. That's when I looked it up on the internet. It didn't say much more to me.
We drove to Apolda quite early in order to discover this place. We went for a walk and had an ice-cream. Chrtistof is a real professional. He knows where to sit to avoid the wind to blow his hait into the ice-cream. I was quite impressed.
When we arrived at the venue, I was pleased to meet another guy named Fis(c)h. That's usually a good sign. The Liwei is a great palce. We knew it instantly. We set up our stuff in a former barn. And played the highest stage ever. Around 2 m above the ground, but still beautiful. Everything got into place and after a pizza around the corner we had a good glass of white wine at the Litteratur Weinstube (aka Liwei). Though not many came, it was a quality audience and I guess a quality performance. The songs and their new arrangements having sunk in, now float into new spheres and we start enjoing our performances more and more. No one would believe we'd hardly play together for one week.
The night ended in a jam session and a great Spanish red wine. I can't wait to go back. And I keep these wonderful people that shared this night with us in high esteem.
(John) | | |
wow, it's been quite a while since I wrote something down. 2007 was a tough year and I felt relieved to play a short series of gigs sometime in the summer. I mostly remember the Melusina gig where we had to face the audience's back since someone had set up the chairs that way... thanks to lovely people, we could correct this... well... eh... un-concerty concept. Then my thoughts would wander to the Why Not and a very noisy gig. And me leaving in time... some not... Trier was great, but unfortunately not one of our best gigs. Serge did shot some funny pics though. We looked good, I guess... :-) And then all I can remember is far too much work and not enough time to breathe... I guess some more memories will pop up during this tour. Flashbacks...
Anyway, we (Christof - the new guy - and me) are in Magdeburg now. We're staying at Jan's and Kristina's place and we just had a great dinner. just like last night when we arrived. 700 km seemed a heavy tribute on a first show day, so we arrived a day early and took the opportunity to rehearse one more time. That'd make it 2 rehearsals then. Thank god, Christof's a great guitarist... :-)
Somehow I managed to write down a setlist and felt like it had a lot to do with babies. I wonder why. After soundcheck I bought a new jacket as I managed to forget mine at home... Yeah, I know, someone told me not to forget it, but I was far too busy getting all the gear in the car and kissing my family. Especially the kids. Damn, I miss them even more this time. You'd think you'd get used to it by now.
Yesterday, Owen, my son, didn't really believe that I'd go away on tour, but, after suspecting it last night, he found out for sure this morning...
He told me to come back now to kiss him goodnight. Funny, how this little creature can make you feel bad about doing what you love most... apart from playing with your kids of course.
Well, we're gonna head off for the show soon, and I'll let you know how it was sometime later. Hope to see some of you at the shows. It'd damn feel less empty...
Well back at Jan's place. 2 or 3 a.m. A long chat into the night. A happy grin to help fall into sleep. The show, the 1st one together, was quite good. A couple of jazz moments, but not many seemed to notice. And the spirit was fine. I had the impression we all enjoyed it. Great audience. The Layla proved to be a nice place, too. Better than some of these rock clubs we played in the past. "big picture" is online at the songtage myplace website. And Nilz' live pictures are on www.songtage.de (he's just great).
We played two sets and the couple of surprises in the set did put some smiles on the faces. We played for over 2 hours... The Songtage are definitely a great place for singer-songwriters. Jan's created something very special. Well, off to sleep now... goodnight.
(John) | | |
Hi all,
as we're just about to finish 2006 and hit our big cultural year 2007, I feel quite weird about what happened over the last 12 or 13 months.
After a record, that we enjoyed writing and doing, and that we put so much effort in, we hit Germany, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg with a lot of optimism. Especially as we'd been so often in Germany. And to expect 60 to 100 people to show up for our gigs didn't seem to be such a huge expectation. It should've been though... When everything sums up to blow straight in your face, you'd better hide or fight the elements. We did fight. As well as we could, or should I rather say as much as we could. Because for the very first time in ages, I had the impression of having let down the boys. I had started the tour quite exhausted and never recovered, despite a quite "healthy" approach. As we got better as a band, my energy levels dropped lower and lower. I gave all I had every single night, but by the end of the tour (with the beautiful exception of Krefeld), there was nothing left to give. And honesty didn't really pay out too well, too. At the Rockhal, I really felt like I had let down the boys.
Looking back at it now, I think that this tough trip really made us become a band. And made us stronger. I also think that we'd been so lucky over the last couple of years, that we had to face a strike back at some point. Thank God, it's done. Add to it the tough start of our new single "sunny days", that finally went down very well and a never ending dispute (and disappointment) around the final T42 DVD (blame it on those guys who don't keep promises) and we had quite a fucked up year in that sense. Oh yeah, did I mention the wrong print of our album? Or the video that was never filmed. 2006 bears a couple of human disappointments.
Anyway, that's passé now...
We hit the summer festivals with a certain rage and thougth that we were on the up again after opening for Sting. A great night. One to remember.
But then we went to Echternach and never got to play. Too late. And then we couldn't do the full Ezio tour... No need to tell you how I felt. We played the 2 opening shows, again with a certain rage, and with the certainty that we'd never played so well. Worms was a curious and ideal final show. In and out in no time at all with hardly any time to be on stage. But with the strange feeling of having done a good job, which sums up most of what had happened in 2006.
As we declared 2007 a very quiet dream catcher year, mostly due to my professional activities (Together with my colleagues, I'll try to deliver you a nice programme for the Century Celebration of my hometown Dudelange (L).), I'm sure we'll break this promise pretty soon. There are too many ideas flying around and we've already started writing new songs.
So, like always at this time of year, let's quote the Counting Crows: It's been a long December and there's reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last...
Happy New Year and may 2007 be a happy and peaceful one.
(John) | | |
It was a year with highs and lows, but I think it's quite normal when you play a lot of concerts !
The start in spring 2006 was not so good at all, our small German-Czech-Lux Tour in April was not always successful amd quite hard.
Beside the fact that our support band "Stories to tell" simply made the best out of it and had a wonderful time together, the dream catchers were all very disappointed.
The highlight of 2006 surely was our chance to open up for Sting. It was such a great experience to play in front of 15000 people. I think we did a great show, it was fun...
An unexpected trip to New York was another highlight which will stay in our memories for a long time, it was absolutely fantastic, awesome, we guys rocked...
Although, there's no gig scheduled so far, I'm sure we will have a wonderful year 2007.
All the best to you and your family.
(eric) | | |
Osnabrück
The show was in a huge and impressive room as the small room was already booked. And sold out. Before going on stage I got the impression that Marcus' family isn't as big as I thought... and that his friends are either limited or have a better taste... Anyway, we played our hearts out to make it a special show to the people that came and it was a fine show indeed. By the end of the show, Christian broke his neck (I think) and we had to rebuilt him and drag him on stage for the encores.
Tom, one of Marcus' friends, and a journalist, wrote a nice piece of paper about the show and he laid out some intresting facts as well. No one's really waiting for Luxembourg to conquer the world... :-)
I was very pleased to see Deko again, but I missed the part where we should've gone to that one bar. Sorry.
A late Kebab and a little argument ended the night. Life on the road is great.
Krefeld
As we drove with an average 90 km/h to Krefeld, we all felt even weaker than the day before. I think we all payed tribute to the mighty Late Kebab. We should know better by now.
Then we arrived to Krefeld and we were attracted by the Kentucky Fried Chicken sign which proved to be another mistake. (I'm on fruit and vegetables as soon as we get back.)
Have you ever stayed at the Garden Hotel? Really weird. Nice people, but you gotta take an elevator (where max. only 2 people fit) to get to the reception and then take another elevator to go down to your room. Check in and check out time turn into expeditions...
The bar that we played this night was just the kind of place we should have played the whole tour. The welcome was just tremendous and we all felt instantly great. And delivered the tour's best performance. I litterally ran out of energy that night but I'd do it again any time.
Micheal (from the KuFa) and his friends made it an unforgettable night. And I hope we did, too. Just brilliant.
Esch-Alzette
As we drove home, we were all quite exhausted, but all looking forward to hug the loved ones.
The show had sold pretty well and the new Rockhal is a tremendous place. Where lots of friends work. And everything worked fine and smooth.
While the Stories did pretty well (commercially, too), I mostly fucked up. I had nothing left in me to give and was fighting cramps in my legs from the 3rd song onwards. The band played well and apparently the singingn was fine, too, but my energy level (and announcement) were quite low... and I felt completely disconnected. Which happens very rarely.
A couple of people told me that I had been too honest about how I felt. And they're probably right, but that's the way I am... I can share the great moments with you, but I felt like I had to share the tough ones too... Maybe it was too much, but at least it was honest...
As I'm driving home, all I can think is: I'm so exhausted... so fed up... but hey, apparently the sunny days are straight ahead...
(John) | | |
Magdeburg
After a 350 km journey, which is once against quite tough, we arrive for a days break in Magdeburg... While Marcus and Boris drove home, we spend most of the time sleeping and recovering. The sun who finally showed up, helping a little, too... Good food, some promenades, not so much talking for me and I start feeling better, though I’m still feelinga quite weak. I hope that I’ll be able to perform the last 4 shows, before having a huge break.
The show went very well, but I felt exhausted at the end. I wonder whether I’ll be able to play all of the last 4 shows. I’m eating vitamines by the bucket, avoid alcool and get as much sleep as I can. I think tonight was one of the best shows of the tour if not the best. The Stories played very well, too. I think they’ve improved a lot by now and their friends and fans will be more than surprised.
Our set was quite emotional, maybe due to the very emotional set thjat our friends from T.Basco played... Or maybe because there’s some history here.... I don’t know, I enjoyed it, despite the fact that I lost my legs after a jump and landed on my bottom... ;-)
We ended with a beautiful version of brand new toy. Au Flamingo Rose starts working well, too. In Sunny Days, the loop broke down and we played it without the help of modern technology... The good thing about our songs is that that’s how they are written and technology is just a help or an additional factor, not a main actor.
Osnabrück
We left Magdeburg in the sunshine and for a brief moment we had the impression that everything was going uphill again... while we would get back home pretty soon (and fast). Sure... especially as things went on this tour... The turbo of my Multivan broke down after 3 km and after a couple of stops and phone calls, we knew that we wouldn’t get home as fast as we thought... 100 km/h is quite slow... but less stressful... especially as I’m not driving anymore... ? I’m still quite weak and I keep all my energy for the shows. I’m dispensed of any hard work from now on...
(John) | | |
Bonn
The first day of a tour is always quite special and mostly very stressful. Well, not this time. At least not once we finally left as I’d been rushing myself through thousands of papers and festivals until the very last minute, packing only a couple of minutes before rushing to the bus. While Owen kinda noticed that something might be wrong, Jordan gave me that „ how can you dare leaving me alone look“... And I knew instantly that this short tour would be very difficult for me... which would prove more than right only a couple of days later... For some obscure reason, the first gig went very smooth... I thought we played quite well and so did the Stories. Had we had a bigger audience (though the one present was a great one) and had St Pauli beaten Bayern Munich, it could have been a memorable night. Just to make it a little easier for Joël to get in the dream catcher tour rhythm, we kinda stuck to the setlist...
Hamburg
After a far too long ride (including a spaghetti with garlick break at Marcus’ place), we arrived quite exhausted in Hamburg. Easter traffic and storms made it a very tough one and those were 2 elements that would ally against us for the next couple of days. The club proved to be quite nice and small, and the opposite of the Harmonie in Bonn. Boris, our sound engineer, got pretty busy while we discovered what most of the clubs and promoters would be on this tour. Completely different from what we were used with Ezio. Before the tour, we had agreed to have a local opening act that poved to be quite... hmmm.... let’s say distant and with a lack of experience. Though there’s some talent in it, they could have shown a little more respect to Boris who’d helped them quite a lot. When we hit the stage, we didn’t know what to think, but we caught the audience’s attention and never lost it. Joël’s setlist was a waste of time as we changed it completeley while playing. Welcome to our world... ? We ended quite late and earned our huge fee... 75,-€ & dinner. Ain’t rock’n’pop great? Thank god we’re not in it for the money... But that’s just to give you an idea of what’s happening on this tour.
Berlin
The Goethe 87 is a great hotel. One of my favourite. And I wish we could spend a day off there, but the Prague gig stole that day off. Anyway, I’m surprised at how empty Berlin is and I get a suspiscion that we might have a problem tonight... Indeed, an Easter tour was definitely not the best choice... 7 or 8 tickets sold for a maximum audience of 20 by the end of the night, including some very strange birds (who caught Gianni’s attention) and our moral is slidinga little lower...
Prague
As we’re driving to Prague, we somehow notice a bigger drop on the energy scale... the ride is long and the 10 km after the borderline is packed with another range of strange birds. As Richard would point it later a couple of times, and we’d repeat it even more often, we didn’t see much of Prague and what we saw, we only saw it through the window of out bus, but Prague is a beautiful city and we sure would like to come back... What we saw though, were the problems with getting the gear to the venue, as it can’t be reached with our long van and we have to carry it up a hill (100m or so), loading the heavir stuff in my multivan. What makes it slightly more complicated is the fact that you have to park to vans in front of the American Ambassy and explain the whole process to 2 nervous policemen who can’t speak a word of English. Why should they? They’re only standing in front of the American Ambassy (which btw is close to Luxembourg’s ambassy)... The small audience includes a couple of Ezio fans and Barbora with her new boyfriend which leads to an emotional version of BarbOra fades away... As the room’s too big, especially for the sound, we choose a more melancholic approach, which kinda fits our mood, too. Our fee almost covers our dinner and we’re quite happy (until we see the hotel, but hey, it’s Easter, and everything’s booked).
Frankfurt
After another very though ride, we arrive completely exhausted in Frankfurt and I don’t feel too well. Actually, I feel completely exhausted and the technical problems at the start of our gig kinda fuck up the first half of the gig, though we try hard to perform as well as we can. The second half works better btu we are disconnected and we surely don’t play at our best. The sound and exhaustian being the main causes. We hardly enjoy the presence of a couple of friends and I feel bad about it. I hate not performing at our best and it drags ne down. The fact that Jordan, my daughter, has decided not to speak to me anymore not helping to boost my moral (yes, she’s done it again). I miss my kids and I wanna go home. From an emotional point of view, this is my hardest tour ever and I really feel shit. He good part of it is that I can let this energy flow into the gigs and some songs sound as true as never before...
Dortmund
My personal low point... I feel so weak and can hardly walk up the 5 floors to my hotel room (as the elevator is broken, isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?). Despite some sleep, I’m trashed. During soundcheck Iit gets worse and a plate of very nice spaghetti doesn’t help either. The tour is in jeopardy and to sing tonight and in Schwabmuenchen the next day might finish the tour completely. After terrible hours of discussing it with the chaps and worrying we decide to cancel the 2 gigs and have a break. My throat is infected and my legs are shaking. And I feel even worse after the decision. I can only apologize to the people who intended to come to the show and to the promoters for the short notice, but as I said before, we’re not in it for the money and as I feel terrible and not able to deliver a fair performance, I don’t wanna put my health at stake for 1 or 2 performances. I finally got ware that I desperately need some holiday. It’s been to long since I had a break and I’ve invested far too much energy in my work over the last couple of years...
Magdeburg
After a 350 km journey, which is once against quite tough, we arrive for a days break in Magdeburg... While Marcus and Boris drove home, we spend most of the time sleeping and recovering. The sun who finally showed up, helping a little, too... Good food, some promenades, not so much talking for me and I start feeling better, though I’m still feelinga quite weak. I hope that I’ll be able to perform the last 4 shows, before having a huge break.
(john) | | |
There's nothing more to tell you than this: we had a soundcheck and went back to the hotel. The concert in Schwabmünchen is cancelled too. John got ill, his voice needs a rest for a couple of days.
(eric) | | |
Well it wasn't a good day for us, we had a very long journey, so everybody was quite tired. When we started our gig, we had a lot of technical problems on stage (inEar monitoring wasn't working any more, John's microphone cable broke, ...) so we were not feeling very well on stage, although the Bett Club is a very nice venue.
Special thanks to Silke, Nicole, Analena, Cosima, Raoul, Marc and the nice friendly man in the front row for joining us.
After the show we had a very long drink in Frankfurt Sachsenhausen, a very long drink, .... yoohoo !
(eric) | | |
Yes, we were in Prague, and yes, it is a very beautiful city not only "if you look at it through the window of a bus". But there was no time for sightseeing.
Anyway, we played in a very old ball room in a restaurant somewhere up a hill, where we couldn't get to with our vans. So we had to stop in front of the US ambassy to unload our van (being watched by policemen) and carry the whole stuff up a small lane. After a long journey, this wasn't the thing we were looking forward to.
At the end we had to carry everything down the hill again, .....
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check the pics in our gallery
(eric) | | |
"Karfreitag" isn't the best day to play a concert in Germany. Beside the fact that it is completely forbidden by law to have a "Tanz- und Singveranstaltung"on such a day, almost nobody turns up ... at none of the concerts that day.
But we played our set with a lot of energy. Thanks a lot to Basti and his staff for the nice welcome.
(eric) | | |
What a wonderful tiny venue, the pony bar, very friendly staff, cool people. We were supposed to play from 10 to 11, we started at 11.30pm till 1.00am, so at the end we were all very tired and thirsty, it was f**** hot on stage. So no after-show-fiesta on the Reeperbahn, a few more beers at the Pony Bar showed us the way to our beds in our hotel, which was "something inbetween a youth hostel and a prison" (Marcus' opinion).
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check the pics in our gallery
(eric) | | |
The wonderful venue (Harmonie) was just a little bit to large for two unknown Luxemburgish bands, so it was quite empty when the "stories" started their first gig in Germany, Richard was very excited about the fact he had to speak German on stage. With the support of four Lëtz' fans, who came to Bonn to support us, they did a very good job.
Well at the end Bonn was quite good, it was a very relax athmosphere, everybody was sitting, having drinks and listening (!), which is quite unusual nowadays. I think, we had a very good start and I'm looking forward to the next concerts.
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check the pics in our gallery
(eric) | | |
Yesterday "stories to tell" and "dream catcher" had a common rehearsal at the "rockhal" in Esch/Alzette. We checked everything and it worked quite fine, so we're ready to take off. (Thanks a lot to the rockhal staff !)
Hope to meet you soon at one of our concerts.
(eric) | | |
Yesterday, John and me had a very funny recording session with more than 70 children (6-9 year old). We recorded the chorus of our new song "sunny days". Thanks to all children for their patience and performance.
(eric) | | |
Leiden (NL), Oct. 19th
We were all looking forward to the Dutch dates as last time had been like a new start in this country. And Leiden was our first station… We met Hans, the promoter, at the venue and found out that Holland was definitely not like Germany. The P.A. arrived with us and we became aware of the fact that things would go a little smoother from now on. Hans is a great guy, very enthusiastic and, together with his crew, made us have a great time.
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) 1000 years
4) Waiting for too long
5) Everybody forgets sometimes
6) Deeper
7) 59 yards
8) Angel song
9) Saxon Street
10) 10.000 bars
11) Now that you’ve gone away
12) Moonburn
13) Commercial break
14) The further we stretch
15) Mandolin song
16) Mermaid song
17) Go
18) One more walk round the dance floor
Amsterdam (NL), Oct. 20th
Well, Amsterdam was supposed to be an absolute highlight on this tour… and in some ways, it was… from the musical point of view… and the audience was great, too… Ezio and Booga played very well. Ezio’s voice was at its best… and the angriness from what had happened before surely gave a boost of the energy level. The Paradiso had sold the small room twice, i.e. booked two different bands, selling twice tickets. The booker had also forgotten about our Dutch opening act and the whole time schedule was a mess. Furthermore, the local production manager tried to avoid us the whole evening, so that I ended up reorganizing the night… The worst was probably the fact that the ticket mess up had led to the fact that the gig was declared sold out although there was enough place for another 80 fans. Which also led to us losing money. The Paradiso seems to milk the cow at all ends. If we are to play it again, we’ll surely fix different rules… Anyway, we met Mathijn (it’s surely written differently, but I don’t know better) and all his friends, who ran in by accident, and Marco (who helped us in Holland) and many more friends… The funny moment of the evening (that was really really very funny) was Ezio joking everyone and himself to a point where he wasn’t able to play the Mandolin song anymore… Later, we didn’t go wild, as everyone would expect us to do in Amsterdam, we went to a Blues Bar and had a big laugh… and a great night…
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Everybody forgets sometimes
4) Deeper
5) Angel song
6) 10.000 bars
7) Alex
8) Mermaid song
9) 59 yards
10) Freedom
11) Steal away
12) Mandolin song
13) Waiting for too long
14) Commercial break
15) Wild side
16) Saxon Street
17) Cancel today
18) Sometimes I wish
19) Go
20) One more walk round the dance floor
Jordan called me today. I’m happy…
Amsterdam (NL), Oct. 21st
Shopping, restaurant, paperwork… Not quite exciting, but that’s basically what we did. Met a friend of Marcus’, went to an Indonasian Restaurant. Then Ezio and me went to a party at the Van Gogh Museum, where our new friend, Mathijn (I’m still spelling it wrong) held an auction… He’s great. We asked a girl if this was Amsterdam’s young artist scene and she answered: “I just gave birth”. We escaped to an Irish Bar not too far away, had a drink or two, and went to bed. The artists’ world is too complicated for us…
Jordan called twice… ?
Verviers (B), Oct. 22nd
Last gig for me… I’m driving home. I bought loads of presents for the kids… can’t wait to hug them. Radio interview in the afternoon
I’ve just become aware how quick time flew by these last couple of days… I really enjoyed this tour… I owe you some descriptions about sound and monitor engineers, promoters, musicians, tour managers (they usually are the worst…) and most of all record companies (they usually suck and can’t remember why they’re in the job…). In general, if you get the impression that we think the music business sucks, you’re right! Why are we in it? Because we love music and performing to you… And unfortunately, the business goes with it… And there’s no way around… Quit or fight!
But before leaving you, I think I should lose a couple of words about our very personal humour… Sometimes people get offended because of what I or the boys write… it’s not meant to… at least not always… To go out on stage and “entertain” you night after night, far away from the loved ones and the little joys and tragedies back home, is, despite the great time we’re having, a big challenge and sometimes a big burden… Ezio describes it so well in “10.000 bars”… If you’ve been on tour before, you know exactly what he’s referring to… In order to make this long trip a successful one, we can count on our friendship and mutual respect… and on focusing on an enemy… our humour being the weapon…
About Verviers: a great and special gig to end “my” tour. As I told you before, I’m leaving Ezio, Booga and Marcus tonight to fly to Jordan, Owen and Antonia. Like usually, when you expect the worst, it turns out to be a very enjoyable night… And maybe, with Francis, we now have an ally in Belgium…
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side / Moon
4) Everybody forgets sometimes
5) 59 yards
6) Agony
7) Now that you’ve gone away
8) Deeper
9) Circus
10) Waiting for too long
11) Moonstruck
12) Just to talk to you again
13) Alex
14) Commercial break
15) Angel song
16) Darkness / Tuesday night
17) Steal away
18) Maybe sometimes
19) Mandolin song
20) Go
21) Sometimes I wish
22) Saxon Street
23) One more walk round the dance floor
So, bye for now, there are a lot of Ezio plans and ideas waiting for me… but most of all a little girl and her brother that I want to hug for 24 hours… at least ...
(john) | | |
Magdeburg (D), Oct. 13th
Nothing special to tell you about last night’s dinner. Too expensive, too heavy, too much wine… No football, since the only game that was shown was Germany vs China and we didn’t particularly feel attracted by it. France got through, so Ezio’s slightly nervous about the World Cup. Italy’s last encounter with France didn’t go too well at the European Cup 5 years ago…
We’re in Magedburg today. And Carmen, an old and close friend of ours cooked some Goulash for us. Great! I think we’re sick of restaurant food. Ezios feels better, too. He had another vitamin injection this morning and is very careful about his health.
The gig was fine. Cinderella said hi. Ezio broke a string during “Darkness”.
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side / Moon
4) Go
5) Everybody forgets sometimes
6) Waiting for too long
7) Saxon Street
8) Now that you’ve gone away
9) Alex
10) Mermaid song
11) 59 yards
12) 40 & confused (the 40th birthday version)
13) Darkness
14) Cancel today
15) Cinderella
16) Commercial break
17) Moonburn
18) One more walk round the dance floor
19) Deeper
20) The further we stretch
We met Ezio’s manager and we’ve decided to have a meeting in the morning. About the future… Managers are an interesting subject to start our presentation of the Ezio world…
Generally, I think Managers talk too much and mostly about the things that can’t be done. They like to use the word “single” to explain why you’re not played on the radio. But they become good once the ball is rolling. However that might have happened. On the other hand, I’ve rarely met a manager that was great at building up the career of talented musicians. Managers are always very busy, too. And rarely have time for their artist, except in public. They like to show whose artist it is. In Ezio’s case, a manager rather tries to hide once his artist has a go at the new chancellor or the old Prime Minister. What else could I tell you about managers? Hmmm, they’ve got big cars, 3 houses, great holidays, a couple of horses, a boat or two, a wife or two, and they don’t have much money. Honestly, they can’t invest in their artists, because the last tour din’t make that much money and the last album didn’t sell that much, and then there are taxes, and… blablabla…
Concerning Ezio’s management, I will just tell you that there’s been a slow down in activity over the last couple of years and that there’s gonna be a new departurw with the new album that we start recording after Christmas… We’d love the record company to release it by the end of the summer. We all feel that we need to find the right partners for Ezio’s music. And that will definitely not be the company that puts the most money on the table, but rather the people that love his music and are ready to represent it… A record company representing its artists??? Wow, I read about it in books… Apparently, there are people out there in the music business that still like music… ?
Oh, I almost forgot, on Oct. 14th, in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel in Magdeburg, I was promoted to co-manager… I told you “Managers suck”…
I’ll try to help the band as much as I can… I think my first task will be to find a decent manager… ?
Ezio thinks I’ve changed and I suspect he likes me less now that I’m a co-manager… I’m thinking about resigning…
PS: Today, Jordan, my two years old daughter, told me to come back home...
Lüneburg (D), Oct. 14th
In Lüneburg, the promoter has managed to build up the band and there were almost than 350 people in the Kulturforum. There were some “Dummschwätzer”, who did disturb the two as well as the audience (who finally took care of it), but it still was a highlight on this tour…
In the afternoon, we met some nice people that could possibly become interesting associates in the Ezio world… More about this later… But it seems like the “Ezio franchise” could soon sail on to new horizons…
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side
4) Waiting for too long
5) Oranges
6) Steal away
7) C’mon little girl
8) Mermaid song
9) 59 yards
10) Deeper
11) Everybody forgets sometimes
12) Now that you’ve gone away
13) Angel song
14) 30 & confused
15) 10.000 bars
16) Alex
17) Commercial break
18) Moonburn
19) Cancel today
20) Sometimes I wish
21) Mandolin song
22) Go
23) One more walk round the dance floor
24) The further we stretch
PS: Jordan has decided not to talk to me anymore...
Sondershausen (D), Oct. 15th
Well… hmmm… let’s put it this way… great, marvellous setting… unique (I’m sure about it) venue… but an awful sound… that made Ezio and Booga feel like they betrayed their audience… who didn’t seem to have the same opinion, though the acoustic conditions were desperate… This influenced the setlist enormously and there were far more slow songs than usually to be heard… Thanx to Meik (website), “Moonstruck” was played (well, more or less) for the first time in ages…
Shouled I mention the worst lunch in Ezio’s touring history… We wondered what you could do wrong with Steak and Salad… Well the answer is, not use neither Steak nor Salad… and drown whatever Ersatz in Oil…
1) Everybody forgets sometimes
2) Darknss
3) Agony
4) All I really want is you
5) 1000 years
6) Moon
7) Waiting for too long
8) Now that you’ve gone away
9) 59 yards
10) Steal away
11) Mermaid song
12) Deeper
13) Moonstruck
14) Angel song
15) Cancel today
16) Mandolin song
17) The further we stretch
18) Moonburn
19) Go
20) One more walk round the dance floor
PS:Jordan doesn't talk to me anymore and runs away when her mother tells her that I'm on the phone...
Schöneiche (D), Oct. 16th
The only reason why we play the B1 is the warm welcome of many friends in Schöneiche. Peter, the “Bürgermeister” and all our friends make this day a privileged one and we feel like having a day off if it wasn’t for the show in the evening. After a very untypical dinner for a sports centre (it’s Bavarian week), we played Bowling and managed to beat Robert, the son of the owner of the Bowling Centre… ?
Ezio’s still fighting with his health, but the performances, though different, got to a new level. Somehow deeper… The interpretation has changed and it’s like rediscovering the essence of it…
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) 30 & confused
4) Mermaid song
5) Jockey full of Bourbon (Tom Waits cover)
6) Now that you’ve gone away
7) Wild side
8) Waiting for too long
9) Everybody forgets sometimes
10) Deeper
11) Moonburn
12) Alex
13) Saxon Street
14) 10.000 bars
15) Commercial break
16) The further we stretch
17) Cancel today
18) Go
19) 59 yards
PS: Jordan told me wih great pride that she used the "Potti" today, then reminded
herself that she actually didn't wanna talk to me anymore and threw the phone on the ground...
Hannover (D), Oct. 17th
What a great idea! What a stupid waste of time! What a bad result!
I’m sure that the people who initiated this event were driven by a good idea, but they should have taken the time to plan it thoroughly. “Iwwert de Knéi briechen” is what they say in Luxembourg… 10 people on a huge square… plus 10 local crew… a mayor that gave a shit about who was playing and a couple of members of the press who gave a shit about who was playing… Ezio and Booga played for the people who came to see them… All 5… They played “hotel motel”, “saxon street”, “when all I really want is you”, “now that you’ve gone away”, “the further we stretch” & “everybody forgets sometimes”… while I was watching a double bass passing by on a bicycle, Ezio praying for rain, an female journalist checking the position of her scarf’s ponpons, a speaker eager to take over the microphone, Ezio’s melancholy (They booked me a gig and no one’s coming), the grey sky not ready to deliver its tears…
At the arrival of 15 cycling helpers and the the speakers’ thanx, we packed our stuff as quickly as possible and flew to the airport…
PS: Jordan says "no"... when asked whether she wants to talk to me or not...
Bad Iburg (D), Oct. 18th, day off
Ezio and Booga are in Cambridge, Marcus and me in Bad Iburg at Marcus’ place. After carrying a truck full of wood, and a good lunch (pasta with tuna), we drove to the studio and wrote a new song called “huel mech”. I guess it’ll be on the forthcoming dream catcher Ep. Champion’s League tonight and another good meal to make it a perfect day off.
Let’s talk about light technicians… If you wanna see a good light technician at work, you can go to the KuFa in Krefeld. Michael’s doing a wonderful job for Ezio every time we show up at the KuFa. But he’s an exception… Most of his colleagues wanna have a digital light orgasm and are blind… to the musician’s needs… They care about what it looks like, but rarely whether it fits… Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not gonna criticize every single position in the music business, but it’s like in every job, you have different leagues of people and only few are up to the responsibilities of their task. Thank God, most of them are nice people and we manage to get to the point… The worst technicians are very often those employed by a town’s cultural service… Frustrated ex-musicians, they know what’s best for the musician you’re touring with, despite their (our) orders… By the way, this counts for sound technicians as well… What light technicians like to do as well is put up too strong lights too low… like a Par64 at 2.50m… In Ezio’s case, he likes to see the audience, because they strongly influence the show… But then, you’ve got to explain that he should not be blinded… just as the audience should not be blinded… That seems to be quite difficult… 1 out of 3 times, it’s a disaster and his complaint are not heard since the lightning guy is focused on the mix of colours… If you think we should have told the engineer before the show, you’re right… that’s why we tell him before the show… But some light technicians are great, like recently in Bochum, as I was told… Lots of lights… all serving the MUSIC.
Another aspect that could be explained and that is quite important especially these days are the lights’ influence on the body… This enormous source of heat makes you perform in an environment that is far above the high temperatures that the audience has to endure… When you’re ill, the lights become an enemy… they literally burn all your energy… and a simple light can become a burning spear…
Here a couple of memories: In Frankfurt, the light technician was a drummer… That couldn’t be overseen… In Offenburg, the light technician knew it all and probably thought he was Bon Jovi’s light designer… In Aschaffenburg, he was a local musician hero and didn’t accept any commentary, especially when I discovered him at the bar during one gig… after Ezio was complaining for 15 minutes… In some other towns, the local sound guy does the lights as the promoter wants to save some money, which generally isn’t worse, sometimes even better… Sound technicians are often used to listening… but not always… Sometimes, Marcus or me end up being light technicians... and the secret is very simple… listen to what the musician tells you… dim a little bit… and don’t beam the band into a disco… Well, we don’t give up the hope that most lightning colleagues will see the light one day… ?
Now we’re gonna watch Bayern Munich vs Juventus Turin. Prost and Goodnight!
P.S. Annette, Marcus’ wife just asked me to tell you how beautiful, clever, hard working, strong and so on she is… She’s absolutely right… as long as I get another glass of red wine… She’s a great rapper as well… Now, could I please get another glass of wine?
PS: Jordan's boykott is still on... My aunt who took her to gymnastics couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the reaction...
(john) | | |
Just got back from the doctor. Ezio’s feeling slightly better, but we wanted to be on the safe side… He got an injection that should help. Next appointment tomorrow morning. No show’s in danger. The doctor (very nice, helpful and expensive) had treated Joe Cocker in the past… I wonder how Ezio’s fingers will move at tomorrow’s show…
We’re resting now, well, I’m finishing the diary first… and we’ll watch the football games tonight… Will France qualify? Italy’s through, so Ezio is relaxed, and Germany doesn’t have to qualify (thank God for them). Spain’s not out of danger… Looking forward to it…
I thought, over the next couple of days, I might describe some people we regularly meet on tours… Like the local sound engineer, light technician, promoter, agent, manager… Would you like that?
(john) | | |
Ezio’s sweating a lot and his coughing has become worse. Intensive care has started and we ship him back to the hotel straight after the show. We’re considering a visit to the doctor in Bonn. After a very uninspiring breakfast at the Maingau Hotel (how can you put up so many things without having anything interesting on the buffet), we left for Bonn. The journey was quite short but long enough to notice that my mobile phone had slipped out of my pocket at the entrance hall of the Frankfurt Hotel. Damn… Negotiations to have it sent to Bonn cost 9 phone calls (DHL’s computer having broken down and the Hotel’s reception crew not being the most helpful in the world) ended at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile we had arrived at the venue and every light that was directed at Ezio felt like an arrow to him… Do you remember “Ohne Filter”, he asked me… Panic in my eyes… Oh no… tomorrow, we’ll see a doctor…
Anyway, Ezio’s become very reasonable over the last years and knows exactly how to protect himself the best. Drinking a lot of water helps… Sleep, too… And eating the right food. You can’t imagine how much these little things can help…
I loved the show and admired Ezio’s fight to perform the best he could… And he did play a great show. He gave all his energy for an over 2 hours’ show… Great audience, too. I loved Ezio’s comment about imitating Bruce Springsteen during “59 yards”… why should I? I sound like him anyway… J
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side
4) Everybody forgets sometimes
5) Back on your own again
6) 10.000 bars
7) Alex
8) Saxon Street
9) Deeper
10) Now that you’ve gone away
11) Freedom
12) Mermaid song
13) 59 yards
14) Monnburn
15) Waiting for too long
16) Go
17) Mandolin song
18) Cancel today
19) Sometimes I wish
20) One more walk round the dance floor
() | | |
I’m back. This time, I found it extremely difficult to part from my family and Jordan’s “papa heem” (= papa home) at the phone don’t really help…
Ezio’s woken up with fever and a coughing. I’m worried. Remembers me of last time when we all got sick at some point… Booga had imported the virus. This time, too, it seems like he’s brought it in…
The Sinkkasten gig proved to be one of the best so far. After 10 years of coming to Germany, Ezio learned his 20th word of German, which he unfortunately uses a lot since then: “Verpiss dich”.
Great audience. A lot better than last time. And more, on a Monday night. Cool.
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side / Moon
4) Back on your own again
5) Steal away
6) Alex
7) Darkness
8) Waiting for too long
9) Mermaid song
10) Deeper
11) Everybody forgets sometimes
12) 59 yards
13) 10.000 bars
14) 1.000 years
15) Commercial break
16) Go
17) One more walk round the dance floor
18) The further we stretch
19) Cancel today
20) Sometimes I wish
(john) | | |
Since I was at home for the big election weekend in Luxembourg, I can’t tell you anything about these gigs. All I heard from the boys is that the show in Bochum was great and that it’s absolutely stupid to have a hotel in Essen when you play in Bochum, especially since we had a hotel in Bochum last time we played in Essen…
Btw, for me, the elections went really well. My hometown’s political team has been confirmed and harvested the fruits of their hard work. Furthermore, it’s very good for the town’s cultural life, too.
(john) | | |
**** for the cook. She’s the best so far… The club has changed and we enjoyed it more this time. Unfortunately, it was one of the most chatting audiences of the tour and some people seem not to understand that it’s sometimes funny to talk to the band while they are on stage but it becomes very disturbing for them and the audience when it doesn’t stop. The lightning guy on the other hand didn’t understand any English. Par64 lights are a killer on small stages… I drove home straight after the show… Election weekend in my hometown and a chance to hug my family…
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side
4) Back on your own again
5) Perfect
6) Angel song
7) Now that you’ve gone away
8) Deeper
9) Circus
10) Waiting for too long
11) 10.000 bars
12) Alex
13) Mermaid song
14) Steal away
15) Everybody forgets sometimes
16) 59 yards
17) Commercial break
18) Cinderella
19) 30 & confused
20) Go
21) One more walk round the dance floor
22) The further we stretch
(john) | | |
Mick, our agent, did a great job on the routing. The distances are quite ok and we are enjoying some time off during the day. After 2 and a half hours spent on German highways, we arrived in the beautiful little town of Ansbach. What a contrast to Frankenthal. We had a great meal together and then either fell asleep or went for a walk. Last time we played here, we had a small but fine audience and our fears had been proven wrong by the quality of the audience. This time, our expectations (and the promoter’s) were to be a little disappointed. Less people, though still a very good and attentive audience.
Ezio broke his first string of the tour (during 59 yards) and used his number 3 guitar for the first time. Number 3 is the regular name, even if we carry only 2 guitars for him on this tour. Thus resulting in him playing “Cancel today” and “Sometimes I wish”. Other surprise guests on the setlist were “Oranges” and “Freedom”.
(john) | | |
It’s late, it’s raining, it’s Tuesday night… I was so surprised when Ezio played it, but it couldn’t have fit better. I hope I’m not gonna hurt anybody’s feelings here, but Frankenthal is such an ugly place… Autumn weather doesn’t really help. When we arrived at the Club, preparations weren’t running according to schedule, and we had to spend more time there than intended. With time passing, things got better, and the concert was fine, too. Here’s the setlist (feat. “Meet me in the gods” & “Tueday night”, yes):
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side / Moon
4) Perfect
5) Everybody forgets sometimes
6) Agony
7) 59 yards
8) Saxon street
9) Tuesday night
10) Now that you’ve gone away
11) Alex
12) One more walk round the dance floor
13) Deeper
14) Angel song
15) Mandolin song
Break! Some people had to move their car. Otherwise they’d have to walk home…
16) Waiting for too long
17) Oranges
18) 10.000 bars
19) C’mon little girl
20) Go
21) Meet me in the gods
22) Steal away
23) The further we stretch
(john) | | |
It’s 2 p.m. and we’re trying hard not to do anything… Since, we’re quite successful at it, I’ll stop writing for now… See ya later…
Having a day off on a national holiday sucks. Everything’s closed and you can’t go shopping. Even the museums are closed. Movies synchronized in German are not really great for our little English travelling party, so all we could do is go for a walk. Which we all did. Ezio and Marcus even went for a run. At least 5 km, Ezio said… Hmmm… Anyway, while Ezio was preparing for the New York Marathon, I was having a great Panini and a cup of hot chocolate at Conny’s favourite bar… Great.
In the evening, Christiane (a long time friend of ours) and Felicia picked us up for dinner. We had a great time, especially when I spilled my beer over the only dj in Germany who did still play Ezio music. Well-done, John. While Felicia was discovering dream catcher (i-pods for ever), we were trying to get an order or smile (in no particular order) from the waitress. Was she in a bad mood. Then we ha Michael Schumacher’s little brother as a taxi driver… No need to tell you that though we didn’t crash, we only arrived 3rd…
(john) | | |
So here we are once more… Back home… As Ezio put it during the gig. Karlsruhe is like Freiburg or Cologne… We love these places and we are always looking forward to playing there. This time, we’ll even have a day off there. Brilliant, except for the fact that it’s a national holiday, which means: No laundry, no shopping! Since the drive was really pleasant and short, we had loads of time off in the afternoon and we all watched “Team America” on tv. Brilliant movie. I just laughed so much. We met at the venue (5 minutes walk from the hotel) at 5.30 p.m. and were done by 6.30 p.m. I love the duo version and since I had time to organize the merchandising before leaving, it hardly takes us an hour to be ready, given the local p.a. & light people have done their preparations properly, which is usually the case.
For me, the duo tour means a lot less work and actually some time off. Which also means that I’m up-to-date with the diary. Pleasant, too. Though I couldn’t have done it during the spring tour, I almost felt like I had let you done last time. But it was just impossible to write. The amount of work was huge and I used the tiny moments of spare time before the show to concentrate on the fact that I was gonna play, too…
When we entered the hotel we faced a huge crowd of people. A convention was held there and we were afraid that the day off might not be as quiet as expected. Upon second look, we noticed that the people attending the convention were all handicapped (legs and arms). Later, a lot later, sometime during the night, we were sitting at the bar and somebody sat down at our table by accident… but somehow stayed there for the rest of the night. He was handicapped and at some point asked us whether we were shocked by them. We weren’t and during the conversation I noticed that all of us had thought about it (as if preparing to have to answer this question at sometime – maybe we even asked ourselves). We’d spent a lot of time in the hotel that day and nothing had been shocking to us, except for the music in the bar. And the drunken people singing “Viva Colonia”. Bad taste is all around… Anyway, since I’ve played a couple of times at the Special Olympics, I have to admit that I’m always overwhelmed by their welcome and their joy. And I’m often impressed by the performances of these young athletes. And thankful for the innocence they still have while practicing their sport. Winning becomes not that important anymore…
Wow, now I’ve drifted away from the Ezio world… I’d better give you a setlist then…
22) Hotel Motel
23) All I really want is you
24) Everybody forgets sometimes
25) Waiting for too long
26) Wild side / Moon
27) Steal away
28) Now that you’ve gone away
29) Alex
30) Karlsruhe Citizen Application (Impro)
31) 10.000 bars
32) 59 yards
33) Mandolin song
34) Angel song
35) Deeper
36) Mermaid song
37) 30 & confused
38) Freedom
39) Perfect
40) Saxon street
41) Go
42) Moonburn
43) Day off blues (Impro)
44) Maybe sometimes
45) The further we stretch
No need to say, that the gig at the Jubez was great. So were the people. And it was a pleasure to see Manfred again. Maybe, there was a little less melancholy in this gig… Still a lot, but maybe a litlle more “wild side”…
(john) | | |
3rd day, 3rd country. It almost feels like a world tour… ? The journey was quite tough because of the rain… The venue was in a castle and proved to be a winner. When you’re on tour and you’re booked into a venue you don’t know in a small town or village you’ve never been, you’re slightly nervous… The welcome was warm and the people promoting the gig really nice. We enjoyed every single minute and we’re already looking forward to the next time. But back to the gig… Since I’ve told you before that I wouldn’t write down the setlists, it’s my pleasure and privilege to break this promise… I can’t tell you why, but when Ezio and Booga started playing, I felt like I should write down the song list because I had the impression that it would be an exceptional night with songs I hadn’t heard for a while. It was a great night indeed and the audience was just as surprising as the gig.
1) Hotel Motel
2) All I really want is you
3) Wild side
4) Back on your own again
5) Perfect
6) Everybody forgets sometimes
7) Now that you’ve gone away
8) Alex
9) Agony
10) 59 yards
11) Brackenheim Pumpkins (impro)
12) Mandolin song
13) Deeper
14) One more walk round the dance floor
15) Go
16) Mermaid song
17) 30 & confused
18) Angel song
19) Circus
20) 10.000 bars
21) Just to talk to you again
The Brackenheim Pumpkins song was one of the best improvisations that I have ever witnessed. I had a big laugh…
After the gig, we had a late night meal with the local promoters (hi and thanx to Joachim & co.) and some friends. Sandra (a friend of ours) unintentionally said one of the funniest things ever (but it might just be funny to us, so I’ll keep it locked – for the personal archives: it was about lemons and grapefruits…). On the funny side, after listening to a compilation of acoustic music, Ezio had a great quote today: “Acoustic music is fucking rubbish!” I think we’ll put it on a shirt.
(john) | | |
Switzerland can’t be described as “Ezio conquered territory” and the last experience in Bern didn’t recall the best memories… I wonder what I wrote into the diary about this gig… I think I’ll look it up, but with distance, I don’t think I liked it… The promoter was kinda weird and didn’t give us a beer after packing… The audience was quite reserved… But as Peter, today’s promoter and a nice guy, told me, the Swiss won’t sing that much but clap a lot harder… Well, it made sense tonight… I really enjoyed it and thought it was Ezio’s best appearance in Switzerland so far… Despite the late hour… We also had a local opening act (a duo) that played cover versions of songs by Garth Brooks, U2… in a very acoustic Bon Jovi style… Quite good, I gotta admit. But they didn’t attract the expected additional audience…
2 new songs to open the night and the atmosphere was set. “Hotel Motel” and “All I really want is you”. There’s a strong melancholy in the new songs and the Mandolin song is definitely my favourite new track… To my surprise, they played “The further we stretch” tonight. I don’t know why, but I had the impression this classic Ezio track needed a holiday on this tour… For the second consecutive night, Ezio and Booga ended the night with “One more walk round the dance floor” which is a great way (if not the best) to end the gigs on this tour… It leaves you with a mixture of melancholy and desire…
(john) | | |
What a night!!! I don’t think we ever had a better tour start. The “Salle des Fêtes” suits Ezio’s music perfectly. And the fact that Ezio and Booga had arrived a day earlier, actually helped us preparing everything in a very relaxed mood… Followed by a great lunch at my place at noon… Jordan helped me pack the merchandise… ?
I’m not quite sure what I should write about on this tour, but I’m definitely not gonna write down the setlists… Or maybe later… By the way, give me some feedback on what you would like to read about in the diary…
I really enjoyed our set with dream catcher. Different and deeper. Apart from a little mistake during “maybe”, I felt like doing exactly the right thing… And the songs seemed to get a new life. We started with “la plume” and “brand new toy” and it seemed like we did surprise the people. I really loved the new versions of “happy in my tree house”, “kitty” and “déjeuner en paix”. But I think “A long December” was just great. A nice way to end our 1-day-tour as Christian put it… “The last gig of a tour makes you always become so sentimental”…
Ezio had felt great about the room as soon as he had seen it. Me, too… But I had been dreaming about having them play it for ages… Anyway, it really is a great place to see Ezio… I’m sure it won’t be the last time, unless the architect of the future “Centre Culturel” decides to kick somebody’s ass and finish the building sometime soon…
This tour will bring you several new songs which I really love… Especially the slow ones… But I’ll write more about these songs in a couple of days…
(john) | | |
Diekirch (L), June 25th
After the T42 highlight in May, and the end of an era for me, I was really looking forward to playing with dream catcher again. Lee had written a song for us (don’t fall down) and we started rehearsing it in June. As well as going through the tour set list and adding other dream catcher songs to the setlist… like “wonderful life”… which became the opener of the summer tour… When we rehearsed “maybe” we all felt like flying… wow… Marcus joined us for a final rehearsal the day before the Diekirch gig…
Thought we were quite disappointed about the lack of audience at the venue, we did our best and felt sorry for Paul, the promoter and T42’s, well, ex-drummer, who spent a lot of energy setting this show up. We had fun nevertheless and surely had the perfect warm-up show for the next day. We also played “don’t fall down” for the first time and only fucked up a little bit…
Niedercorn (L), June 26th
The Lëtz Rock Festival is one of the biggest festivals around here and headlined Nena & Söhne Mannheims this year. Considering the early time, we had to hit stage, I didn’t expect many people to see and hear us, but I was proven wrong… And the response was great, too. Thank you so much. We sold quite a few cds and had the impression of having played one of our best gigs. When people in Luxembourg ask me the difference between T42 and dream catcher, I can hardly say it’s the singer, but those who saw us at the Lëtz Rock must have found out… it’s “rockier” and I like to think that it’s deeper…
Luxembourg-City (L), July 3rd
The Rock um Knuedler is still the number 1 event for Luxembourg’s bands… and always a huge pleasure to play… And Roby is just Luxembourg’s best and nicest promoter… anyone who doesn’t want to back up this statement can f… off… He’s just a great human being… like you don’t know many… I love Roby and wished he was my brother… just to be able to show off with him…
Dream catcher and Ezio played a common gig, i.e. with no break. At some point we started to play “the further we stretch” and they took over… In the beginning I thought it was a great idea, but I’m not that sure anymore… Maybe the early time didn’t help the effect… Anyway, I thought it was quite good though and it might have won us both new fans… We’ll see… While introducing “Kitty”, I remembered that she (Kiki, the girl that inspired this song and many more and that I was so much in love with many years ago) got married the same weekend…We’re all getting older, don’t we...?
Heidelberg (D), July 28th
The Schwimmbad is another traditional Ezio venue. And though it’s really very weird with its centre wall dividing the room into two, fans seem to like it and we always end up playing there. But I think, it only makes sense to play it as a duo. For the whole band, it’s quite a pain in the a… For Ezio fans, this gig was something of a holiday special as he played a lot of new songs and perhaps showed his more sentimental side. Just for a change and to allow people to have a drink in these tropic environment, the set was divided into two as well… wonder if that’s the spirit of the place… to divide everything into two… Here’s the setlist…
Saxon street
all I want is you
30
now that you've gone away
deeper
hotel motel
cinderella
darkness - it's my song, I can do with it whatever I want
alex
1000 years
59
everybody forgets sometimes
c'mon... c'mon... little girl
it doesn't have a clue
cancel today
friends again
angel song
waiting for too long
mermaid song
sometimes I wish
10.000 bars
the further we stretch
Paderborn (D), July 29th
In Paderborn, I witnessed the 1st Ezio rehearsal ever… as the band hadn’t heard Ezio’s new stuff yet, he introduced it to them during soundcheck which lasted a lot longer than usual… but I think everyone enjoyed it… Might not be the last rehearsal… I really love “now that you’ve gone away” and the harmonica version of “all I really want is you”. If you wonder whether these will be the final titles of the songs, I gotta tell you that I wonder, too… I just like to give them a name that people who came to the gig might recognize… Well the gig was quite rocking and the band played very well despite the tiredness due to a very long journey… The Libori Fest might have won them a couple of new fans in that area, that’s not so great for us… “Go” and the rain concluded the night…
Saxon street
59 yards
deeper
now that you've gone away
all I really want is you
hotel motel
angel song
waiting for too long
sometimes I wish
cancel today
wild side
sweet thing
the further we stretch
everybody forgets sometimes
30 & confused
alex
go
Dudelange (L), August 23rd
Well, we’re August 23rd today and I’m sitting on my couch with my laptop on my knees… finishing 2005’s dream catcher & Ezio diary… it took me 2 days to write it down… due to the fact that I had to dive back into the spring and summer events… and due to a little girl who wants to capture her daddy’s attention… while he’s at home… Owen hasn’t arrived yet and when I look outside it already feels like autumn… By the way, I broke my word… In a month or so, I’ll embark on another tour with Ezio and Booga and Marcus. Couldn’t resist… and since my Cultural Centre won’t be ready before 2007… Eric and I have started writing new songs… The August break has opened the door for feelings and new ideas… Marcus has finished mixing the sound for the T42 DVD and it should arrive at my place tomorrow or so… Then, we’ll start looking for the bonus material… I’ve also started booking next year’s festivals… Barbara has definitely faded away… Meanwhile, we’re all waiting for Owen…
(John) | | |
I like playing on the knuedler and I was looking forward to meeting the Ezio boys again. But at the end, I was very tired and I went home early.
Anyway it had been a good experience, great thanks to Roby !
(eric) | | |
what a weekend ! we were all looking forward to our rehearsal on friday, our first meeting since our tour in march. instead of starting playing the instruments, we had a wonderful chat while having an even more wonderful barbecue. but at the end we managed to have a rehearsal, and some more drinks ;-)
saturday started with a barbecue (yep once again) at john's. during the afternoon we were doing some recordings in my homestudio, which is quite a warm location during the summer months. after watching the not so interesting football game (brasil-germany) we drove to diekirch for our concert that night. it was good being on stage again with marcus and quentin although the venue was very empty, nobody was really enjoying being indoor, while the outside temperature was quite more comfortable at that time.
being home we had some more beers and a "mettwurscht" before going to bed. it was a funny day.
on sunday, before driving to niedercorn, we visited schwampf's studio (former t42 guitar player). in niedercorn we enjoyed the backstage area while waiting for our soundcheck. just before we started our gig, it started raining. it had not been raining for weeks, why then ? in fact most of the audience was enjoying the rain, it was quite refreshing experience.
we had a hugh success, we never sold so many cd's after a festival show. it was astonishing how people reacted when they recognised our luxembourgish song "verluer" which is still in the top20 in rtl's chartshow "hitmaschinn". thanks to all who were there and supported us.
as we played quite early that afternoon, the after show became a very long one, at the end I was not thirsty anymore, but thirty and very confused ;-)
(eric) | | |
yes, I know, this is dream catcher's website, but I'd like to write down my impressions about our last t42 gig, friday night at the wonderful kulturfabrik in esch.
first of all, it was a hot day, a very hot one. with my head full of thoughts about the gig, it was very hard concentrating on my job during the whole day. but afterall, I was happy to arrive at the venue at about 5pm, ... sweating like a waterfall.
it was quite a relax atmosphere and I felt very comfortable, although there were a lot of technicians around. in fact, we recorded the whole show with 9 cameras, may be we will produce a live dvd, later this year ... who knows ...
a lot of people arrived, far more than I expected, more than 500 ! thanks to all, especially to our friends from Germany. you were a great audience.
many thanks for giving a warm welcome to „stories to tell“, who did an excellent job! (they were not only supporting us in a musical way, during our show we always had cold beer on stage, thanks to gianni and resch !)
on stage I felt very very comfortable, I think it was on of the best shows I‘ve ever played with t42, I enjoyed it so much, although the infernal heat ! it was great fun.
after all, the humidity made it from my outside to my inside ;-) it became a very long, big, wonderful night !
many thanks to the kufa staff (rené, gilles, maurice, maria, lightmen, ... !
many thanks to stories to tell !
many thanks to my fellow musicians !
many thanks to the dok team ! (I saw some pictures, they‘re great !)
many thanks to marcus and jürgen!
many many thanks to you !
check out black's wonderful pictures
(eric) | | |
T42, Kufa, May 27th
The end of T42 as we know it… and I feel fine…
Well, I really do, though the last gig was above all my expectations. Despite the heated rehearsals and the pressure of the last weeks… Though there had been a big campaign around T42’s last cd (from school band to nowhere – least worst of) and last gig, I didn’t expect so many people to show up… And it surely was a good idea to capture it with 9 cameras… For those of you who couldn’t come to the show, you’ll be able to relive this very special night on DVD, sometime in autumn. The Dok-team who filmed it did a great job and when we looked at the first pictures later that night, we were blown away by the quality of the footage… Philippe and his team did great and we are looking forward to the final product. Marcus did the sound recording and is currently mixing it twice, 5.1 dolby surround and stereo.
Back to the show… We were so happy to welcome so many known faces and it really felt like people wanted to thank us for those 15 years of T42 and we really wanted to thank them… for the same reason… When asked what was my favourite gig I always had to talk about many gigs and couldn’t just pick one… I can now. This night was just special. The band played at their best, we were concentrated but still had a lot of fun… a middle line that we often crossed in the past… neglecting one of both aspects… Fun mostly won…
“Stories to tell” opened the night for us and I thought they were brilliant. I love this band and we’re gonna help producing their first record. Richard, the lead singer and guitarist, is Eric’s brother and is very gifted. I love their songs and their special humour.
We hit the stage with “don’t change”, our first school days hit, that we hadn’t played for ages… more than 10 years or so… and it was fun to see people getting instantly younger by 15 years… This song was all we needed to adjust on stage and forget the cameras… from then on, we felt great and took off… Personally, I loved “prayers for love”, “the rain”, “oceans”, “brand new toy” (dedicated to Portobello’s Jaeng who’s left us a couple of days earlier)… The set gave people a great overview of T42’s different creative stages… And the band was at their best… Definitely my favourite T42 concert of all times…
I gotta thank everyone at the Kufa for making this night a very special one… the KuFa crew… Marcus and Jürgen Toelkes for the best sound we ever had… the audience for making us feel special… the Cabaret Geoghelli for the special input… the Dok-team for capturing it live… the partners and press for making this a special event… Thank you so much… See you on DVD…
P.S. The cramp I announced when leaving stage was not a fake or a joke… I really hardly could move my leg anymore… I gave it all for you… We all did…
(John) | | |
Last time we played Mannheim, we were meant to shoot a DVD, well at least, Ezio was meant to. And since we decided to record that show with T42, we upgraded the recording material to 5.1 surround. We were very disappointed that the camera team didn’t have enough tapes… but nevertheless, we later released the T42 live album “crew deluxe”. Unfortunately, the video material wasn’t good enough to convince Ezio to release this show on DVD. What a shame, because the show was great. Anyway, coming back to the Feuerwache woke up a lot of great memories. Though, I thought we all played very well, we were a little disappointed about less tickets sold this time… But a Monday night, battling against a fellow gig next door (at the Capitol), plus no announcement about the recording of a DVD might explain a lot…
On a more personal note, Barbara faded away… once again… Lee and Alex felt ill… tour bug…
Well, Mainz wasn’t a long drive, but some people felt quite weak when we arrived and it seemed some flue bug had found its way into the van. Ezio felt a little weak. Playing Mainz was kinda fun, because the last I’d been with Ezio in Mainz was to open up for Nigel Kennedy. Weird, but true… And since Ezio has a lot of fans in Mainz, it feels very strange not to play this town every tour… We’re always close-by, but not in town… The gig was fine and I recall a newspaper guy who asked for a free cd at our shop but kinda slacked us down in his review, writing that the people liked us and that we wrote nice little pop songs, but who needs more? Well, apparently a room full of people… We don’t pretend to be the next BIG THING… we never did… and never will… we just enjoy playing our nice little pop songs to people… and we love it even more, when the audience seems to like it… we are thankful for every opportunity to play live and we love touring with Ezio. That’s all! Nothing more, nothing less. But it means a lot to us. Like I told Christian. The world needs average bands, too… like they need average and local press people.
Erfurt. Museumskeller. Not the Gewerkschaftshaus. We’re not that popular in this area. And I kept wondering how we would set up the whole band in this venue. We managed to do it. The food eaten before the show proved to be not the best choice of the tour. We all felt like shit. The show was fun, though not the best. More fun than usually and the feeling that not everyone in the audience understands Ezio’s humour.
The danger of local liquors was not completely avoided… but it was less destroying than last time…
After a long journey to Koblenz, during which we lost contact, thus resulting in a van arriving a long time after us, we were all looking forward to a quiet night off, especially as the flue bug found a new victim: Booga. Jordan and Antonia visited me and to hug my little girl just brought up the conflict taking place in myself about touring and staying at home. I love both and I can’t imagine to abandon touring, though I’ve announced it… We’ll see.
The show at the new and wonderful Café Hahn is good, but not great. A part of the audience (the ones at the bar) are chatting a lot and you wonder whether those people came to a gig or just to the local bar. If that’s the case, they should f… off. The new Café Hahn just increases the noise and makes it almost unbearable on stage. If you think that I might exaggerate, well, I gotta tell you that we recorded both shows (dream catcher & Ezio) and it sounds more like Camden Market than like a gig. Great place, but only people that come to the show should be admitted. Not the local pub clients and friends who furthermore seemed to get in for free… Other than that, the welcome was warm and we felt great. Except for my wife who became the new victim of our tour bug, thus resulting in me making a detour to Luxembourg to drive her and Jordan back home.
Despite the 300 km detour, I only arrived 10 minutes later than the rest of the band in Offenburg. They got stuck in a traffic jam. As funny as it might sound, I felt like I had abandoned them and I worked even harder after I arrived. The local crew had great machines and systems at their disposal, but it seemed that they just didn’t get the idea that we knew Ezio best and that they should follow our instructions. Marcus and me tried hard not to lose our control and kinda stay nice, but Ezio got more and more angry as they just didn’t follow his instructions. The guy doing monitoring was too inexperienced and just didn’t get it all, while the light engineer seemed to be more interested in doing his thing (showing off?), than into serving the music and the artist of the night. Which is basically what he’s supposed to do… At least, that’s my opinion. And that’s what the best crews usually do… Anyway, the show went downhill and Ezio didn’t get a great review in the local paper. The show left us quite unhappy, too… Eric left us as a 4 piece as he had to mutate back into a teacher. Strange, too…
And then we drove off to München, just to get back the next day. Fuck! And when we arrived at the completely unknown Monofaktur, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes… And the gear didn’t look that… eh… convincing… Furthermore, nothing had been set up and I wondered if we would get the show ready in time… We did. Mostly thanks Marcus. And despite all the stress, this show became one of the best of the tour. Crazy! Jochen, the local promoter, also made his contribution to this incredible night and the people who came to the show, lifted Ezio to his best. Just weird…
As I said, back to Offenburg and slightly further to Freiburg and even though I might repeat myself, one of our favourite places in Germany… We love almost everything down there: the venue, the crew, the many friends (hi to Mirjam, Lars, Sara with an h…), the weather (always sunny), the hotel… And playing the Jazzhaus is better than playing at home… Quentin was out due to the bug. His wife and boy who visited him were scheduled to follow soon. Both shows were great and we all headed for a small party after the show… Just a couple of drinks…
On our day off, we all went for shopping and later for a sushi meal and some more drinks. I felt quite weak and decided to head back to the hotel earlier than planned but someone convinced me to drink another beer and I stayed… Bad choice. I felt like shit the next day and knew instantly that I was next on the bug’s list.
I just seemed to have enough energy to put up the production in Erlangen because as I walked on stage for the dream catcher set, I felt already like collapsing… and I almost did. I reduced the set to a minimum and almost fell into the arms of the girl that took care of us this day (sorry, but I can’t remember your name, but many thanx). She drove me back to the hotel where I went straight to sleep.
I woke up many hours and gallons of sweat later with just the minimum energy for the journey and the show. It’s really tough to be ill on tour… You feel awful… and like you’ve let down your companions… and just like a lump… When we arrived in Plauen I tried to get some more sleep before going out for a walk. The show was fine and we felt like Plauen could become a traditional town on the Ezio tour map.
Sometime later during the night, I wondered whether Christian would be affected by the bug or not… It looked like he had found the best way to fight it, but I won’t tell you his secret… I think you can guess it…
I don’t know why, but Krefeld seems to be a longer drive every time (600 km this time), but we were all looking forward to this show, so it made the journey a little less annoying. Another major venue on our journey. Everything’s so cool at the Kufa and it seems like they’re looking forward to having us, too. The lightning guy is terrific and the show was absolutely great. The party next door gave us an opportunity to test Christian’s method to fight the bug… It doesn’t seem to work for everyone… Eric joined us for the weekend and we were back to normal… He had to experience the difficulty of someone dropping in and out of a tour… I always hate that and leaving the touring company and its very special atmosphere, even only for a couple of days, is a strange thing and when you get back, you almost feel like an outcast. It takes at least a day or two to readjust…
While driving to Isernhagen, I wondered when I would finally have time to write the tour diary and came to the conclusion that I’d probably do it after the tour, as this trip just proved to be very demanding for me. As I’m writing these comments now, many months later, trying to recollect my thoughts, I’m surprised that I finally got to write it down. The year has been very tough and I can’t complain about the amount of work. That it’s been quite successful compensates for the energy and time invested… Anyway, back to our trip to Isernhagen, where I also wondered what I would write this time. Every tour, I try to find another approach to share this moments with you. This time, I seem to spend more time with my personal feelings and less with the shows. Due to the amount of work, I also can’t write down the setlists… Maybe, I’ll do this the next time… The previous time I played Isernhagen’s Blues Garage, I fell off stage, being exhausted and ill. So I had a goal for this time: stay on top… The name of the venue says it all and it shouldn’t be a surprise that we all chose to play more rock numbers than ballads. I’m still not quite sure about playing this kind of venue, but it proves to be good fun… On the other hand, I’d rather see Ezio’s feelings lead us through the night, than the venue’s crowd imposing a certain style. But since it’s always quite full, the concessions to make are quite evident… Hotel Motel…
A day off in Hamburg was up next. And we all tried to recover from the bug that had left its traces in everyone’s body. Some shopping, quite a bad dinner with Ezio’s Manager (some Asian restaurant near the hotel – big shit hole) and a drink in a weird bar (we seemed to be surrounded by them) made the day pass like hell. Had a great time and loads of laughs with Carmen and Esther. Thank you. Oh yeah, I remember running around like hell to find a connection for my laptop. Or a decent internet café. Without any success. I definitely will write this diary after the tour. I also rehearsed with our new bass player…
The Hamburg show was recorded for the radio and we all made this night the best in Hamburg ever. I really enjoyed the gig. Dream catcher presented their new bass player, a very young and fine lady from Bournemouth (England) as Christian had head back to his bank in Dudelange (Luxembourg). And Lydia gave us a complete different sound. She’s great!!! I love Christian, too (I have to write this since he’s gonna read it and I don’t want him to think that I… blablabla…). Anyway, we recorded the show, too. The ASS (= agent) squad was there, too. And I had to secure the beer and sandwiches. Agents and record companies usually empty your fridge faster than you would know… without asking… I locked them out. My boys (& girl) deserve their food and drinks after the show. We don’t mind offering a drink to them, but that’s all…
Driving from Hamburg to Berlin, or the other way round, is a classic journey, boring, too. The hotel proved to be absolutely fantastic and to be back at the Quasimodo called for smiles on our faces. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I personally never feel quite at ease at the Quasimodo. I can’t explain why and I always wondered whether it was me or my attachment to the band… I think it’s me and the misunderstanding with the local P.A. guy (who proved to be the manager’s boyfriend) didn’t help to break the ice… My announcement, after having almost my ears blown off, kinda made it worse. But the fact remained that our monitoring system had been perfect before the show and that the performance afterwards became a nightmare due to unacceptable conditions on stage… Who am I to complain? The tour manager worrying about the main act and the singer of the opening act that really felt awful on stage. The misunderstanding came from a request made on stage to please get a better sound and that was considered as an insult. It wasn’t… but the manager got quite angry… I worked it out with the sound guy later and it made clear to me that I would never have my wife work in the same business than me… I had experienced similar situations when I went out with the girl singing in T42… bad idea… I left the venue with a bitter taste (which I thought was a shame as I really love it – we gotta work it some day) and Ezio with reduced energy since the bug had found him, too… He never really got ill, but the virus was present now and then…
Ahaus proved to be a complete waste of time, energy and money… I’d rather have played a small bar to please the promoter (who celebrated his last night at the venue, fulfilling his dream booking… Ezio), than this venue stuffed with local VIP who gave a shit about who was playing and also made it an unsatisfying experience for the Ezio fans present. I don’t know about candle decorations In Ahaus, but my local fire brigade chief would have lost more than his temper if I had decorated my venue with 300 lit candles, just an inch away from the curtains… All I wanna remember from this gig are the great dancer (that caused the biggest laugh since the Koblenz miracle a couple of years earlier), Ezio’s partisan song (that no one except for him, Lidia & me recognized), my friends and their future baby (if it’s a boy, they might call him John, I hope so, what a great compliment) and the drive out of town…
And then there was Cologne… The last show, the last arising, the last recording and probably the show we were most looking forward to… Great presale figures, the knowledge that we were gonna record it and the fact that Cologne is always a highlight made it special… And we took so much more time to set everything up and make it perfect… Martin (Marcus’ friend and partner at the great Mühle der Freundschaft – recording studio) came once more to do the recording and there was something special in the air… Christian and Eric had joined us for the final performance and we probably played one of our best shows… I thought “Verluer” sounded great that night as we all sank into a longer middle part… “Fuck off” saw the visit of Booga, Lee and Alex and caused tears of laughing while announcing that the end of the tour was near… One last “déjeuner en paix” and dream catcher had done their bit… I sincerely hope that you liked it. This new beginning was very special to us and I felt like this was the best line-up I ever played with. Quentin just brought the right feeling to it and Christian mutated into the bass player and musician I always expected him to be. Most of all, their playing matches perfectly. Quentin is also such a nice person to have around. Eric continued his journey to less but better playing and has become so important in dream catcher. Right now, I can’t imagine dream catcher without him. His touch is an important part of the sound. And Marcus is just a great guitarist. His presence raises everyone to a better level. And his guitar playing fulfils my wishes… Though we surely still have to improve, I think we’ve done quite well and I’m already looking forward to the summer dates…
And then we all took off for a different planet… Planet Ezio… The band played until complete exhaustion and the look on their faces when they stumbled off stage for the first time told me that no big party would conclude this tour as they were putting all their energy into this final show, a great show indeed. I hope this recording will be available in some way, because I loved every moment of it.
As I said, there was no big party, just a small one as we all were completely exhausted… but happy. The Köln show was the best way to end a tour and, the next day, we were all heading home with a big smile on our faces…
(John) | | |
Hi there, long time fans and friends of Ezio wondered why I hadn’t written a diary on this tour. The answer is quite simple… I just didn’t have any time to do it… If this tour gave you Ezio (the band and artist) at their best, it surely was the toughest I have done so far. Long drives, not the best itinerary in tour history and a bigger production (i.e. Lee had more gear) kept me quite busy… Time off was when I hit stage with dream catcher… and a couple of hours on 2 days off…
Anyway, today, 2 weeks after finishing the tour, I finally find some time to write down a couple of memories…
Bitburg started with the usual “first day of tour stress”. The good news: all the gear arrived. The bad news: We’re short of one musician. Lidia missed the plane. English traffic… The promoter dispatches someone to pick her up at the airport and she makes it to the venue in time for the gig… Tired, but happy… The show’s quite good for a first day of tour… I get a suspicion: the band’s better than last time I saw them… About dream catcher: we just played our first gig and I think it was quite ok… there’s life after T42… and it looks promising…
End of night: Packing the van in the middle of the night looks like fun, too… I already hate it…
Over the years, Kaiserslautern has grown to one of our favourite places. Though some people might think that Angelika and Richard are quite special, we think they’re quite fantastic and we love playing the Kammgarn. The reasons? A warm welcome, a great venue, long time friends… and a great audience. While setting up, I wonder that the crew and production already work pretty well and we’re only the 2nd day of the tour. Cool. Quentin, dream catcher’s drummer, our common driver and Ezio’s drum tech wondered yesterday why the band just thought the gig was good, while he thought they were great. I told him the band’s very demanding, also towards their own performance and he would find out soon… The Kammgarn gig is quite a good answer… The band’s in a great mood and the tiredness from yesterday’s long journey is gone… They rock… Hotel Motel… About dream catcher… Wow, I’m surprised… the new songs go down very well, despite the many languages… the T42 classics sound different, too… I feel reborn… I’m happy… in my tree house…
While driving to Tübingen in the snow, I remember the last time we played the Sudhaus and as I turn around and see the faces of everyone else in the bus, I have the impression that we all share the same sweet memory… A promising gig is just ahead of us… And the expectations are not deceived… What a great night… Once again… A night to fly…A night to rock… A night to fall in love… A night to take off and never land… did you say neverland? We’re all Peter Pan… we’re all in a dream… Ezio’s new songs work well… I love them… Oh yeah, I’ve read on the internet that you guys don’t know the names of the new songs, so I thought I should tell you: “hotel motel”, “keep the light on”, “friends again”, “I'd still want you” & “what I came here for”. Up to you to find out which title belongs to which song.
(John) | | |
what a night ! juhu ! double juhu ! at the end we were all very thirsty and confused !
(eric) | | |
the "blues garage" is such a cool and funny place to be, it looks like an old american bar and henry, the owner, is a very cool person. there's no fridge in our backstage, we're free to take whatever we want from the bar, juhuu !
at the end we were all very tired, and we got back to the hotel quite early.
today's a "day off": marcus, lee and quentin went to bad iburg (studio), christian and me got back to luxembourg, while the rest of the team drove to hamburg.
(eric) | | |
yesterday, after work, I was driving to krefeld to join the "team". after several traffic jams, I finally managed to arrive in krefeld without any delay, ouff ...
once again krefeld was such a great show. the location looks very similar to the kulturfabrik in esch/alzette (L), so I felt like being home ... thanks to everybody at the kulturfabrik for a great evening and a long night !
(eric) | | |
I'm very sad, because I had to leave the tour today. I'm back in Luxembourg, because I have to work tomorrow ....
the team's playing in munich tonight ...
(eric) | | |
after a very short night we were heading off for offenburg. the weather conditions were very bad, a lot of snow and rain, furthermore there were a lot of traffic jams. we had no time for a rest at the hotel and everybody was very tired. quentin got ill very badly (high temperature), he hardly managed to play the concert.
we had a lot of problems with our sound on stage, so nobody was feeling well.
up to now this was the hardest day of this tour. at the end everybody was happy, when we left the venue and went for our beds.
(eric) | | |
what a night ! lot's of people, very hot, crazy show. we tried to record the whole set, but john's guitar just fucked off, while we were playing, guess what, ... "fuck off", so we had to stop and start again, after a very funny discussion between john an me.
I'd like to thank bertie and his friendly staff at the café hahn, it's such a great venue !
the night was a long one ... juhu !
(eric) | | |
we've had two very funny, estupifying days with christian, who invented a new word "to estupify some one". in fact nobody knows what it means, but everybody understands. if you have any idea, please write it down in our guestbook.
yesterday we drove back from erfurt to koblenz, at the end john was the happiest man on earth, after a long week away from home, he finally met his wife and their little girl jordan.
we went to koblenz (old town) and ate very good tapas in a cosy little bar, just wonderful. our day ended in the renovated café hahn, where we're playing tonight. by the way the show's sold out.
(eric) | | |
this was just a lazy, boring day. more than waiting for something didn‘t happen. the venue was a small pub downstairs in a museum „museumskeller“. it was so tiny, they didn‘t even have enough room for a toilet. but at the end it was very cosy athmosphere in there and we enjoyed our play very much.
(eric) | | |
I was looking for edi, berti & co, but I could not find any of the „mainzelmännchen“.
we played in a very „chic“ venue, which looked more than a large conference room than a concert hall. the light technician was just so creative, at the beginning he switched on the lights, after ezio‘s show he switched them off. wow !
anyway, it became a great concert. john just started to play „big picture“ which wasn‘t on our setlist at all, but we managed to play it till the end, in fact everybody ended at the same bar ;-)
(eric) | | |
in 2003 we recorded the album „crew deluxe“ at the „alte feuerwache“, so I remembered the venue very well. when entering the hall I was thinking a lot about the last tour and my fellow musicians of t42 (wolli, schwampf, paul). although it was quite different this time, we had great fun on stage, maybe a little to much fun, some songs seemed quite chaotic to me. anyhow, the public appreciated our gig.
(eric) | | |
playing at the sudhaus is just so wonderful. it‘s quite a good experience if the crowd welcomes a support band so warmly, thanks a lot. it‘s a pity we‘re not allowed to play more than 8 songs, especially if the public‘s asking for a „zugabe“.
because of our mixture of languages (german, luxembourgish, french and english) we confused the soundengineer quite a lot, sorry mate ;-)
we had our frist day off in tübingen, which is a very lovely city, just visit the old town, eat some „spätzle“ and taste the local wine, marvellous.
(eric) | | |
not enough sleep, working the whole day, driving to kaiserslautern (thanks richard), setting up, soundchecking, ... lot of work, lot of beer, long day, but great gig. it was the fourth time I played at the „kammgarn“, and I always enjoyed it, it‘s such a great location, looking forward to our next gig later this year. big thank you, Angelika & co.
(eric) | | |
the first concert of a tour is always a little bit stressy, but everything was set up quickly. it was funny meeting ezio, booga, alex, lee and lydia again.
our concert was quite good, although no one could really remember all the arrangements, we‘d changed. in fact we had just one rehearsal last saturday.
apart from the lasagna, the only negative part was the nightly drive home. christian and me had to work on friday, ....
(eric) | |
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