Hamburg, Hörsaal

We set off for Hamburg at 12 affording me a very respectful 7 hours of sleep. The journey seems quick at jusr 3hrs.

We arrive in Hamburg and check into, 'Kogge' the Rock'n'roll hotel we've stayed there almost every time we've played Hamburg and were the first band to stay there on its opening night. The bar is decorated with records and posters, the mens toilet has a painting of Joe Strummer and the ladies have Amy Winehouse. Each room has a theme and tonight we shall be sleeping in the sailor room. The sex museum is next door we are invited in by a kind mumbling man, we decline.

Tonights venue is on the Reeperbahn. Through a long chain of mis-communication and an unfortunate venue closure, we find ourselves in a nice venue with nice promoters but painfully inadequate sound equipment, particularly the tiny mixing desk, fortunately for us the sound engineer, 'Ölaf' is bloody good, some how we workout a way to make it happen but on paper it still didn't look like it was going to work.

We return to the venue after a quick freshen up. The first thing I notice is the audience are a little thin on the ground so coupled with the sound issues I'm feeling a little uneasy about the gig.

When we get on stage Shirley explains, "we will do the show in two halves, 'a week away' album in full in the second half" Big cheer from the audience, hmm promising! Shirley continues, "but first we will play some songs from the Shirley Lee album we released this year" no reaction, so I cheer, and that gets a hearty chuckle. From then on in I know it's going to be fine.

The Shirley Lee set goes down well a good response and very measured playing. When we hit 'a week away' the assembled members of the audience stepped-up their participation and we gladly follow suit. Shirley getting down from the stage whenever he could, dancing with the punters who we had now adopted as our new best friends. If they jumped up and down so did we. The keyboards were blasting out of the huge speaker stacks behind our heads with clarity and gusto, the bass and drums rumbling along like a beast, everyone smiling, its not a gig anymore its a party and everyone is invited.

After the show we bow just like normal only this time for the first time the audience bow back incredible!

Thank you for having us Germany, you were wonderful.
JiM xXx