Ahoy there mateys! so, eh, yeah, I went to Berlin, the formerly divided city on the Spree, where the DDR had its capital and the Bundesrepublik did not. I was kind of there for the laugh, really, but B&S were playing so I thought I'd go along. I might some B&S fans from the internet, some of whom may have links to this parish, but in the main I think they were *left-footers*. B&S were playing in some place called the Columbiahalle, which is near the Tempelhof airport into which the friendly Americans flew in loads of nosh during the Berlin airlift. These days food is in more plentiful supply in Berlin - you could even buy it in the venue. Winner. Did any of you read that Onion article a while back about how some guy spoiled a gig for everyone by enjoying himself? There were elements of that kind of things at this concert. The Berlin crowd were in general somewhat unappreciative and possessed of a worrying territoriality - I think people there do not go to the bar for drinks and then return to where they were standing, for instance, and going to the toilet and trying to push back up the front is seen as distinctly uncool. Fortunately I played my foreign idiot card and barged past people muttering "Lass mich passieren, ich bin das Schmutzpfarrer!" (German for "Out of my way, nadface"). The band themselves seemed a bit slow to start, maybe because of the overly polite nature of the crowd, but they soon picked up. So did the crowd, who gradually became a bit more up for it. My own boisterousness attracted a few fellow enjoyers to my vicinity, and we bopped away like nobody's business. At one stage some of these fellows even started moshing (to 'Get Me Away
From Here, I'm Dying', I think); that was maybe going a bit too far.
A lot of tunes from DCW were aired, reminding me again of how great it is. Near the end of the night they delighted me by going from 'Roy Walker' straight to 'Stay Loose', playing a storming version of this great tune, surely the 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' of our times. The more advanced elements of the crowd were suitably impressed. Rockist B&S fans, meanwhile, were catered for by a number of older tunes. Despite pleas, nothing by Die Puhdys or David Hasselhoff was aired, but they did cover David Bowie's 'Sound & Vision' as their nod to local culture. And they had a local waitress onstage to act out 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress'. If you are interested in that kind of thing, my notes say they played these songs: An Ennio Morricone-esque intro Expectations Step Into My Office Baby Wrapped Up In Books The Model I Fought In A War Beautiful The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner You Don't Send Me Sound & Vision Simple Things The Boy With The Arab Strap Asleep On A Sunbeam Lord Anthony Dear Catastrophe Waitress Dirty Dream # 2 The State I Am In The Wrong Girl Roy Walker Stay Loose Sleep The Clock Around Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying Me & The Major & possibly one more that I forgot to record. That's about all I've got time for now. Maybe another short note from me will discuss my recent trip to Camber Sands for the All Tomorrows Parties festival. bless you all, DV +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+