Friendship through music

Yesterday was the 1st show day. Our first objective was to meet the wonderfully generous Marcus from 'Uranus Front' who had promised to lend us a backline, drum kit, and instruments. We had never actually met or even spoken to Marcus, just exchanged concise text messages. We had an address on the other side of the city and a time.
We had another long and interesting walk through Berlin parks, along the river, to a dead end and back out to meet Marcus at his gallery. Again, the route was clean and pleasant. Evidence of punk and rock in the names of the bars, the posters, graffiti, hair cuts and t-shirts. Evidence of the contradictory German discipline in the shocked looks when we crossed the road when 'Herr Ample' was red even though there were no cars in sight! If you've seen the German crosswalk figure, you'll understand the derivation of his name. Germany legalised possession of weed just recently but it's still a shady operation. We spotted the young men loitering in the park with amusement.
All that we knew about the aforementioned Marcus was the mutual connection to Joe through his old friend and colleague Grimm. My exposure to Grimm has only been through the random voice messages that he's been leaving since he learnt that the legendary Joe Mac was going to be touring Berlin. These messages are mostly incomprehensible other than the profuse swearing, maniacal laughter and assurance that he's got everything covered. Likewise, Marcus only knew of us through his grimy old punk friend Grimm! So, we were taken aback to arrive at Marcus's gallery to hear him playing mesmerising gypsy jazz with a friend. He was equally surprised to meet 2 gentle, sober grey hairs! He truly was a legend, presenting us with better gear than we're used to.... Joe's Les Paul goldtop guitar was allegedly one of Slash's when he toured Berlin. The headstock had been repaired by Marcus's luthier friend who normally sells the guitars at great expense after the tour. ... but not the damaged ones. Marcus then drove us across town to set up for the gig.
The next issue was that our drummer Stephen had not materialised off his flight. No problem, we soon had 2 drummers ready to play. As it turns out, both extremely talented and both exceptional human beings. The drummer of Uranus Front (Alex) and Emil, the friend of our home exchange host. Music is such a gift. We would not have connected with these wonderful souls any other way. The club was welcoming and the sound man professional and enthusiastic. A fabulous gig even if the audience could be counted on 1 hand. The 2 drummers switched out every couple of songs and much fun was had while innovative music was made.
The day's food diary was as unimpressive as my photo taking for the day; a boring pretzel for breakfast, an apple in the park for lunch and boring spaghetti, with olive and peppers for dinner at midnight. I'm happy to be cooking sardine curry for dinner today!Read more