           As you can see we have been having a right old time in Berlin. When we arrived the weather was blazing hot and we took advantage of it by throwing ourselves into the Badeschiff in Kreuzberg, which is a pool built out in the Spree (river). They have sand all over the shore and a bar and it is pretty close to paradise. Once we were finished there we headed down to the Oststrand bar, which has a beautiful old barge moored alongside it, where you can sit and pass the time with a quiet bevy, listening to the waves gently lapping on the shore..aah. On the 9th of July we headed off to the historic town of Hamburg, where we played at www.balconytv.de/. This was above the Reeperbahn and you should check it out because the woman who interviewed us couldn't understand us... She seemed to think that a Glaswegian accent was something akin to Ewok or something. Despite her nervous laughter it all turned out okay and we were in fine spirits when we played the Mobile Blues Club that night. It is an old converted Gypsy caravan and has a lot of atmosphere. It was packed and we played a good show so were in fine spirits later when we hit the karaoke bars in the redlight district. We are proud to say we both won professional status. After that we went and found the monument to The Beatles. One of the funniest things we saw in Hamburg was the van that was advertising "The Hamburg Old Whore Tour". We kid you not. One for the lonely people who've been lonely a long time. Ahem... Back in Berlin we played at a ramshackle old bookstore (twice in the one night) and made enough money to fund our bicycle-hiring habit, which is our preferred mode of getting around Berlin...as you can see in the photos. We have also been recording a whole bunch and have a few pearlers in the bag. All in all we have probably ten great songs you haven't heard, so for the next two weeks we will be finalising the tunes we are going to put on our first ep, so that you can finally get a record off us..yah! Tonight we are playing at a place called Oxident on Frankfurter Allee and have just moved into a new apartment in Prenzlauerberg, so it is all go for our last three weeks. Tomorrow we will be setting up the mics and equipment here and getting on with recording... We will be off to Leipzig in a few weeks so that should be fun, by then we will have rehearsed all the new songs for live and can start extending the set a little bit. Until next time, take care of yourselves. |
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     Here is a copy of the set we've been playing for the last few gigs, having Stuart on keys for these gigs really made them special. Both of the gigs last Sunday were really good. Spectrum fest is a great event showcasing lots of acoustic acts as well as full bands. We were really grateful to be a part of it. Paul and Simon (the guys who run www.acousticedinburgh.com) have offered us another gig in May as part of Acoustic Edinburgh which will be a great one to do. The gig at the Goat was also really good, as a lot of our friends turned out to see us. We're sounding really good as a three piece now, we even played Wrong Directions for the first time live. Scott Keenan, a local singer/songwriter organised the gig at The Goat for us, what a great guy! We played to a crowd of about 60 people and they were all listening so intently you could hear a pin drop. We agree with Ray LaMontagne on this point, respect and communication makes for better gigs! Everything is moving along quite nicely, thank you very much. |
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          So we arrived in Berlin and made our way straight to Friedrichshain, which is in East Berlin. It is a pretty cool place. There is graffiti all over every surface and everywhere you look people are putting up markets, opening bars and making art. We went for cocktails at the CSA bar on Frankfurter Allee, which is in the top ten bars in the world book. We did our country proud...and that's all we're going to say about that. The concert on Monday night was really cool. However, the PA system was a total relic of Uncle Joe Stalin's era and we had to borrow a friend's studio set up to put on the gig, so it turned out really well, with studio quality sound. Big thanks to everyone who came and especially to Katharina who took the beautiful photos. You can check them out on the site. On the Tuesday night we went out with our friend Paul to a bar in Kreuzberg, where a guy was making squiggly noises on a Roland groovebox, while a sax player from New York played his instrument like a goose. Call us stupid, but both of us are sure it was either totally beyond our comprehension or not so hot. However, we also both agree that you can say this about a lot of art. That's all we're saying about that. While in Berlin, we pioneered a couple of new model looks, one of which is the 'bedroom eyes', of which James is the sensei master. I discovered that my talent lies in the 'he looks away into the distance' pose. Which is a favourite of the Shaolin monks, or so we've heard. We also took some shots in a very old graveyard, all respect to the people lying there. The locals maintain a very tidy resting place. I discovered the pockets of my new jacket from kreuzberg were too small to put my hands in. We also rode on the famous U2 line on the u-bahn, which was nice, as we felt an affinity for our Irish compadres. On Thursday we made a little film of three of our songs, which will be up on the site soon. Big thanks to Kai and Sven, who gave us their expertise so kindly (and free!). It is hard to beat free. Kai is also cutting up a video, so we can't wait to see that. Go see Kai's work here! www.neueweltfilm.de/produktion.htm Check out the photos here of the gig and all the other stuff we got up to. Cheers! ps. we raced to the airport after the shooting of the film and we missed our plane by three minutes. After being mocked by the counter staff we felt a little jaded. Then we went out to the legendary White Trash and did our nation proud...to drown our sorrows...and that's all we are going to say about that. |
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