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Adventures in Germany. Views: 5928
It barely seems possible that the Germany adventure is already over! A week of merriment and mayhem where so much happened the blog would be pages long if I wrote it all down. Some highlights are in order I think!
We arrived in Aachen after a day of driving from our respective homes in Hants and set up base at the camp site right in the middle of the town. It is a really beautiful place, lots of history and a really ornate cathedral. We were 6 in all as Simon and Blackie's ladies, Cathie and Judy were with us. The first gig was in Walheim in a community centre/venue which really echoed. It was great for completely acoustic singing, the reverb in the room really lifted the sound and swelled the capacity of the music to reach further into the space, with a PA and all of us playing it took a while to get the reverb to a level that it wasn't knocking us off our feet every time we made a noise! We managed it ok though and the audience were, not having had a great idea of what to expect, somewhat blown away I think. We had a support act in Aachen from two lovely local lasses who performed traditional German folk songs vocal and classical style guitar. It provided a lovely backdrop to our music, just the right amount of contrast. Beautiful.
On the Sunday, having recovered somewhat from the drive and the first gig we went to a jazz jam at a local pub. It started off with some smooth jazz, there were no local vocalists and it seemed to be a leap up and throw yourself into the melee of musicans if you wanted to join in. Cathie was the first one to brave it getting in there and singing a lovely version of Girl from Ipanema, then Andy decided to join in, then I went up and sang Night and Day followed by Summertime (which was real easy to sing in that heat!) then, last but not least Blackie got up and bashed the hell out of the drums helping turn the 'smooth' somewhat boring jazz style into a more modern upbeat funky style.
The next gig was at a local social centre style cafe for people with mental health issues in the city. It was a really intimate gig about 30 or so audience squeezed into a room which got hotter and hotter by the minute. I was not very ladylike in the sweating department I can tell you! It was an absolutely fantastic gig, they were a wonderful audience to play for, the language barrier hardly seemed to matter - how music can transcend the mere uselessness of words. We were playing through one amp as the space was so small, so almost acoustic 
the sound was great. I so enjoyed it, being my sort of thing anyway having a mental health slant to it, I was almost beside myself with delight!
So the next day, we took a long long drive up to Neu Tramm which is quite near Hamburg. The temperature went up to 35°C whilst we were driving, ooh la la! The venue was called Raum 2 and what a place. A sort of artistic collective venue with everything in it, a full on venue, a smaller disco downstairs, a restaurant, an exhibition space, lots of artists studios and loads of space for overnighting roaming musical types such as ourselves. All this in the surroundings of the beautiful countryside miles away from cities and hustle and bustle. They were incredibly welcoming and the gig was a wonder to behold. i found it hard work being so tired from travelling so far but persevered. I didn't help matters by bashing my head significantly hard on a low doorway during the sound check. I was dazed and odd for some time after, no change there many would say! Overall the gig was good and we had a look round the gallery afterwards. It was especially lovely for me to catch up with old friends who I hadn't seen for years!
Well, i could go on but this is long enough already. Suffice to say Germany was very kind to us, our music was very well received and we are already working on next years tour which will be a longer affair with more stops between venues to save the drivers from being pooped before playing! although Blackie can only come if he ditches the blue shorts 
Tschüss! xxx
