Blog: The German Tour: part seven - the end of the road

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Our final gig was meant to be a SOLO GIG by me at Kim's Bar, which had been making me feel uncomfortable. The night before in Dresden I'd got into full-on TOUR MODE, leaving notes to myself throughout the set thinking "Hmm, tomorrow night we should make this one a bit faster" or "I'll get Frankie to join in with that bit" (YES i am nothing if not a CONSUMATE SHOWMAN) before realising, glumly, that I'd be all on my own.

On the way back to Berlin Martin had turned round to the others in the back and asked "So, are you sad not to be playing tonight?" and to my delight and slight surprise they both said "YEAH!" Beautifully Martin set to RECTIFYING the situation, and we got to Kim's on Saturday to find a mini DRUM KIT and a tiny AMP waiting for us! We were in ROCKING BUSINESS!

We did some re-arranging, had a quick soundcheck, and got going on the tradiotional German Delicacy, FREE BEER, while we entered into a "debate" about the setlist. Pretty much the ONLY time we EVER have a Big Row in The Validators is about setlists - there were nearly TEARS in Dresden about it - but we managed to work it out fairly easily this time, with me due to do eight songs and then us all doing eight. I ended up dropping quite a few though, as a) my voice was going and b) there was another DO due to start at about eleven o'clock. As it was that didn't seem to matter, but still, THIS is what we did:

The Gay Train

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

It Only Works Because You're Here

I Did A Gig In New York

Fucking Hippy

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Payday Is The Best Day

Clubbing In The Week

Billy Jones Is Dead

Never Going Back To Aldi's

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

Do The Indie Kid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Hey Hey 16K

The first five songs were done on my own and, in all honesty, I didn't really enjoy it that much. As I say, my voice was really going and my normal 6 note range was reduced to TWO. There were a couple of people stood right in front of me who seemed (to my PARANOID BRANE at least) to be SCOFFING at me and, most of all, I'd gotten used to playing in a BAND!

Things therefore picked up hugely in the second section, when Frankie and Tim came on, the people scoffing left, and OTHER people came to the fore to DANCE and, once again, SING ALONG. It was LOVELY!

We packed up and returned to the BEER - Tim was official Beer Monitor so it was his job to say "DREI BEER!" and, whenever a new member of bar staff appeared, to reassure them "No, we don't have to pay for beer." We wondered if we could get away with this GLOBALLY? We fell into discussion of many diverse subjects at this time (I don't think i've EVER laughed as much as at Frankie's suggestion that the BIG HIT for Tim's school band had been "Don't Drop Litter In The Playground (it just isn't on)". I am LARFING about it now, tho perhaps you just had to be there?

Our main topic of conversation, however, was just what a FANTASTIC time we'd had. My dears, things got a bit EMOTIONAL, there was HUGGING. There was also MUCH more beer drank until we decided, SENSIBLY, at about 1am to say our goodbyes and go, for we had planes to catch and, more urgently, an APPOINTMENT to keep.

We thanked Matti, who ran the bar and had spread the WORD all those years ago, and GRAPPLED Martin in many MANY hugs of thanks. I still can't quite understand why he did it - it was SUCH a lovely thing of him to do, to book us the gigs, organise the gear, and then drive us ALL the way to Dresden and back. SIR! If you read this: thank you VERY VERY VERY much indeed, you made three gentlemen EXTREMELY happy!

So yes, we had an appointment: with a KEBABERY! On the way down we'd passed Maximillian's kebab house. Maximillian HIMSELF had seen us and WAVED, which meant that our intent to go back their after the gig (Frankie and i had had to PROMISE Tim that we would go, sit down and have a BEER) was SEALED. So that's what we did - they had kebabs, I had falafel, we all got Complimentary Cheese Straws (apparently we don't have to pay for THOSE either) and we toasted our IMMENSE JOY with BEERS!

Back at the flat we forced down a final beer to try and finish the holiday shopping, and then went to bed. The next morning it was three very tired, but very very very happy chappies who got up and got the tube to Alexanderplatz. We said our farewells in the station (just outside the toilets, for some reason) and went our seperate ways. I had a long, very tired, rather lonely journey back home - it had been an absolutely bloody fantastic weekend. I wouldn't want to do it EVERY weekend (now seven days later I am STILL knackered) but good LORD - if there's something that can BEAT travelling around with such GRATE people playing songs and drinking free beer for sheer GOODTIME ROCK AND ROLL FUN, I would very much like to know about it!

posted 19/11/2009 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Nearly nine years later, it's still making me LARF!
posted 25/4/2018 by MJ Hibbett

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