It’s true. As Joe says in his recent blog I can fill in some ‘cultural’ details about our visit to Hamburg, since I spent a little more time than he, sightseeing. Specifically there were not one but two nights spent indoctrinating our youngest team member, merchandiser Simon, into the wonders of Hamburg’s Reperbahn district. I took my mentoring skills very seriously watching his look of disbelief as we were continuously accosted by ladies of the night after he insisted on visiting (yet again) the infamous Herbertstrasse, where the prostitutes sit demurely (did I say that?) in the shop windows beckoning clients. This is a must see. As one of our party said, “It’s better to make love, not war,” or words to that effect.

Actually, on two nights we visited the famous Anchor Bar just at the end of the street, as well as various other bars, where one featured great live music supplied by a trio. There was the bar made famous by one of the St. Pauli district's most famous residents the actor and singer, Hans Albers. My guides were Heike and Jack from the island of Juist in the North Sea. I was amazed to visit the Anchor once more having first been there as a lad not much older than Simon, some 40 years ago. It has not changed one bit. We listened to some old German Schlager (folk songs) songs on the ancient juke box including of course, Lily Marlene by Marlene Dietrich. As a point of interest our stalwart German tour manager Holger Brandes, had also worked as a young bouncer in the clubs around this area where he received one of the best educations in human nature. Sandra Wienberg from our German concert agency, also joined us for the evening.

The next day before our show, saw a return there for a visit to the Beatlemania museum - 5 floors dedicated to the career of the four mop tops who, as everyone knows, played the Star Club back in the early 6o’s where they cut their musical teeth, so to speak. I really enjoyed this and even learned some things I didn’t know. On a previous Ash tour, I’d met the club’s famous manager, Horst Fascher in Worpswede near Bremen, where he’d shown us an amazing photo album full of early Beatles photos. It was therefore fascinating to see him on camera in the museum, recounting his experiences with the Beatles. Also, on film was Klaus Voorman, designer of the Revolver album cover and Germany’s most famous session musician. He’d played with the Beatles individually on many recordings. I’d met and played music with him as well, back in the early 70’s.

Later, with Heike, I took a walk through the frozen Hamburg docks, stopping for a Lebanese lunch on the way, after which, we said goodbye and I made my way back to the band’s hotel, the Renaissance, where they serve the best selection of teas I’ve had anywhere. The show that night at Fabrik was excellent. As others have said, this is a great venue for rock and the crowd was the biggest of the tour. The clothing code for the band was tartan (or as the Canadians call it; plaid) - it was veritable ‘plaid attack’ if you will.

The next day we headed up to Flensburg on the Danish border, to play a show and then the day after it was on to one of our favorite venues, Amager Bio, in Copenhagen. We stayed at the aptly named Phoenix Copenhagen, full of old world charm. This was to be the Jimmy Bowskill Band’s last show. The guys had made great touring buddies and bought their own special Canadian charm and humor to the proceedings. Jimmy himself, as a fresh 19 year old, did an amazing job of being a band leader. I really think that he made some converts to his music here in Europe.

Last night we played Oslo in a tiny club. The Norwegians seem to be very warm people and their hospitality and enthusiasm was something else. Food on hand in the dressing room included horse meat salami and a kind of sweet goat cheese. The next morning breakfast was ‘served’ in little bags hanging outside our rooms on the door handles. Today as I write this, we are on what promises to be possibly a 10 hour drive through the snowiest landscape of the whole tour (and that’s saying something). Our faithful multinational crew now consisting of 1 Brit, a German and a Finn, left at 6.00am after only 4 hours sleep. We have not heard anything bad has happened to them so far so we are assuming they are making it through in their vehicle, ahead of us. The strangely named Sandnes, is our destination.

Signing off ~ A.P.

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