From Cologne we made the relatively short [3hours ish] to
Osnabruck. What an incredible venue……the venue was actually a car garage, that
had a stage/office/dressing rooms/ in fact a complete home in it. I have never
played in such a fantastically unique place.
We met Heike, Wolfgang, Andreas, Katarina, Lucas…who treated us like royalty…I have never experienced better hospitality in all the years I have played music.
Please check out the photos because I really don’t know how to describe it.
Many great great musicians had played at the venue, leo Kottke among them. Wolfgang, the part owner, and doctor, cooked for all of us, and the food was spectacular.
The audience was incredible. right from the very first note, they listened and made the evening very special.
We have been booked back again in March 2010 and I am already anxious to get back there.
We decided to drive home after the show, 280km, but this is Germany, and it’s famous autobahn, with no speed limit so we were back in Hamburg in half an hour…well it felt like it after driving in Victoria [which I prefer!]
Monday 14th September Day Off
Lars and Heinz, and Heinz’s beautiful 4-year-old daughter Elia, joined me in Hamburg for a boat trip around the harbor, the sights of huge ships being unloaded and majestically ambling down the Elbe was most impressive.
We went for something to eat, and then headed off shopping.
We ended up in 2 guitar shops, tried out loads of guitars, and met Kristof, who owns a store. He is a good friend of Andy Irvine and the band planxty, and he was telling me he went to see their show in Vicar street in Dublin, as a guest of the band. Hopefully Uli and I can do a show in his store next march. We traded cd’s and headed back to Uli’s place in Finkenwerder.
Off to bed now, because we have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow..8/9 hours…..gulp
Bye for now…
Tuesday 15th Erlangen
This was the longest drive on the trip, unfortunately for us it was made three hours longer because of a truck crash on the autobahn that closed the road. We left Hamburg at 9m and found the venue at 7pm…urrgh…Mind you, we did have a little musical session on the autobahn to help pass the time.
We were scheduled to play in a record store to help promote the show but of course that never happened
We were greeted by Stefan and the crew and before long the gear was set up. The venue was, like all of the venues we played, extremely professional and well run. We were going to film and record this show, both sound and vision, but if truth be known , we were all really tired from the time spent in the van…it will be interesting to hear/see the final edit.
The show goes well, the crowd is small, but they seem to enjoy the show.
We head off to the hotel and I get to sleep at around 2am.
Wednesday 16th Sinsheim
Last band show of the tour. I am still scheduled to play 2 solo shows, but for the band that’s it. It will feel very strange not having the band with me. The 4 of us have really got on well together; I have so much optimism for the future with these guys.
The drive from Erlanngen was only a couple of hours or so, and the vibe in the van is chilled. Last nights show was difficult, but we were assured by the manager of the venue that the people of this region are not know for their exuberance, I had some lovely comments though and met some lovely people.
We went straight to the hotel in Sinsheim, and had a sleep, I felt much better after that. We then went off to the church where the concert was being held. I am constantly in awe at the wonderful reception we receive when we arrive at the venues. The Pastor, Benjamin, and two of his friends, Phillip and Jonathan, greeted us.
There is coffee and tea and snacks for us all, the atmosphere in the church is beautiful.
We have loads of time so Heinz suggests that we record some songs in the sound check. I also teach the band a new song called ,’ Not in your dreams’, this song is super special to me because I co-wrote it with my son Fintan.Its our first co-write and I really love the song.
We also record looking for Dakota..I am so lucky that the guys in the band give me all this really positive feedback about the tunes,
This is the last night of the tour with the band and to make it even more special we are joined by Julian Dawson.Uli and Julian go back a long way. Julian is a stalwart of the British folk scene and has carved out a great career for himself in Germany.He is a wonderful guy and it is instantly obvious the evening is going to be great.
Julian also has the most beautiful guitars…he has a seven string Martin that has a g doubled an octave higher..[sorry for the nerd speak]…anyway. I want one, he also told me the story of how he had had to sell an old Gibson when he was diagnosed with cancer, the guitar ended up in the hands of a German guy, who upon hearing the story of why Julian had decided to get rid of the guitar, had decided to gve it back to Julian free of charge…what a nice guy!
The concert is perhaps the most relaxed show of the tour, everyone is playing great.
Julian opens the second set with two super songs and Uli also plays with him. Julian also joins us on harmonica on Anniversary day, and plays a mean solo …twice…because the mic wasn’t turned on the first time!
We finish the show with Light The way, and the final chorus we are joined by Peter, a musician and member of the audience, he sings my song really beautifully.
The concert ends and we head back to the hotel, we make camp in Julian’s room and have a good ol chat about the business, and we listen to the sublime music of John Martyn.
Hit the sack at about 1.30am
Thursday 17th day off…
We leave the hotel at 10.30 and start the long journey back to Hamburg via Rotenburg to pick up Michael….I am in the van as I write this…more later.
