Gigs Abroad Part 29 Cologne – Part 2

As Cologne was the first German city I had ever visited I always pined to make a return. That trip had also created a chain reaction of visiting many other locations in the country with the current count now at nine cities where I have stayed and with several others visited on our regular days trips when we are away. Thus, it transpired that one sunny day Gill and I were sat foe r we could fit in another cheeky weekend away. Cologne was entered into the possible destinations and was then chosen and subsequently booked.

Now, you may surmise that I manufactured the next part of the story to my advantage but that is genuinely not the case. A few days after we concreted the trip, Gill suggested in passing to check whether there happened to be any interesting gigs taking place when we were there.

My previous experience in this regard on earlier trips is that we always seem to be a week early or late for an interesting band, however that was about to dramatically change. I think I may have muttered the words ‘Ye Gods’ and nearly fell off my chair when I saw that the mighty Mogwai were playing the final date of their current European tour on our first night in the city. It was naturally a ‘Shay’ given that we had to attend and tickets were purchased forthwith.

Bez and Shaun Ryder back in the day. Image Credit etsy.com

Prior to boarding there was a star stop moment with the ubiquitous Shaun Ryder holding court in the circular bar in Terminal 3. It was the first time I had eyeballed him face to face since watching the Happy Mondays in a support slot at Camden Dingwalls in October 1987. He was being regularly approached for selfies before he pottered off for a flight to Nantes.

The only remaining challenge was our scheduled afternoon flight and arrival time on the Saturday created the potential scenario where any delay would put our attendance in doubt. We landed a smidge late and it took us a little while to locate and arrive at our digs, though they were handily placed adjacent to a S-Bahn stop.

The gig was taking place at Cologne Live Music Hall (locally known as ‘LMH’ or just ‘Live), which had a previous life as part of the Heinz Strunck & Co machine factory before morphing into a bespoke music venue in 1990. It retains elements of its industrial heritage, one feature being the use of the old cranes.  

It has a capacity of 1800 and has hosted performances in the past from Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie and Chvrches. Many have been recorded live for the music TV show Rockpalast (Rock Palace), which is a German institution and has been running since October 1974 where the featured band on their first night was ELO.

ELO. Image Credit listal.com

The venue was in the Ehrenfeld area of town and took some finding as it was buried away down a dark back street, a little reminiscent of the White Hotel location in Salford. We had not had time to eat, and the local food options were rather sparse, and we even considered the slightly desperate option of Burger King. I am glad however we did not as we finally located the Music Hall about 20.10, and we were informed that the band were hitting the stage at 20.15!

The gig gods were clearly in a benevolent mood as in the courtyard there was a beer point and a food stall that despite approaching closing time for the night proceeded to throw together a ‘bits and bob’s’ tea for us. Thankfully it was a warm night resulting in the back door of the venue being wide open. This then created the novel scenario of us grazing and imbibing on the picnic benches whilst we could clearly hear the reaction of the crowd and Stuart Braithwaite’s perennial introductory words of ‘Good Evening, we are Mogwai from Glasgow’. We listened to the first three tracks before heading indoors to actually see them as well.  

The Music Hall picnic benches. Image Credit koelntourismus.de

It remains a cash only venue which I find rather refreshing, and again fortuitously I happened to be holding a batch of euros. It was Gill’s second ever Mogwai gig and she thoroughly enjoyed them, much more so than her first one in the cramped environs of Manchester Albert Hall. It was a terrific venue and an appreciative respectful audience, and they finished the set with a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’.  Afterwards we headed back into town and sampled some Kolsch in one of the beer houses near the main train station

On the Sunday we visited the Cathedral and walked the city including the river paths. We did at one stage become trapped in an extremely busy children’s fair that seemed to go on for ever, as soon as we had navigated our way past we headed to the hostelry. On the Monday we grabbed a late Schnitzel lunch before which completed a fine trip before we headed off for our flight home.

Gigs Abroad Part 29 Cologne – Part 1

Cologne is the fourth most populous city in Germany and is located on the River Rhine and was totally rebuilt after World War 2 when 80% of the original city was destroyed by a grand total of 45k tons of bombs dropped by the Allies. It lies 14 miles in a Northwestern direction from Bonn, which was the former capital of West Germany from post war until 1990 and then remained the seat of government of the reunified Germany up to 1999, before both roles were hoovered up by Berlin.

Like many German cities, there are some fine structures including two basilica’s, the Great St Martin Church and the gothic and impressive medieval Cathedral (Kolner Dom) which is located adjacent to the Hauptbahnhof.  The Dom had the accolade of being the world’s tallest building during the 1880’s and even to this day remains the third tallest church and the tallest cathedral in the world.  It was originally built to house the Shrine of the Three Kings, alternately known as the Three Wise Men (most certainly not Uncle George, John Dewhurst and myself!) who reputedly presented their three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus.

Cologne Cathedral. Image Credit Unsplash.

It has a considerable musical heritage as the city contains over 60 music venues and has the most pubs per capita in Germany, many stocking the tasty local beer called Kolsch, which also doubles as the name of the local dialect. It is also famous for Eau de Cologne; a perfume created in the early 18th century and is still produced there to this day.

There was a huge outdoor music festival held there between 1993 and 2006 called Musicfest am Ring (Ringfest) where allegedly 2 million people attended the 1997 edition. Various famous and local German bands played including the fabulously named ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking’ and international acts such as Sparks, Cardigans and Motorhead performed.  Famous people from the city include Nico from Velvet Underground and the Krautrock pioneers Can were formed there in 1968.

The Piano Has Been Drinking. Image Credit genius.com

My first visit to the city was in 2007 and it was also my virgin lads trip and my first ever sojourn to Germany, and I instantly liked the vibe of the country. We stayed near the river, and I recall us walking past one of the fan parks that was used for the previous years World Cup that had been held in the country. One of the matches that took place at FC Koln’s stadium was England’s final group game, a 2-2 draw versus Sweden.  

We naturally visited various brahauses and I remember them lifting the kegs of Kolsch directly from the cellar to the bar area and then pulling a plethora of schooner size glasses of ale. They then maintaned an ongoing tally by notating the number on a beer mat, in one particular place there were a considerable number of lines when ‘Jimmy the Kitty’ went to settle up the bill.   

Jez Catlow took us on a tour around the vibrant pubs of the student area and later retrieved me from a fast-food joint where I was found devouring a giant bowl of chow mein! We also visited a hostelry where there were two macabre dolls whose heads rotated the full 360-degree circle and they were singing Kraftwerk’s ‘The Model’, a rather surreal sight. We met a couple of young Armenia Bielefeld fans who were in high spirits as their team has just reached the pinnacle of the Bundesliga top division.

Our day trip was out to the aforementioned Bonn where we visited a vinyl bar but unfortunately it was poorly timed as on entering I only heard the final notes of an AC/DC album. We also dove into a unique sports bar that didn’t do what it said on the tin and actually show any sports, so we had to rely on one of the chap’s phones to check the football results.   

Bonn. Image Credit dutchwannabe.com

In another bar Uncle George decided to have a dabble on the fruit machine where it was difficult to understand the mechanics but with the barman generously deciphering for him, he proceeding to fleece the machine. When the munchies finally struck we located a gastro pub with some lovely tucker and Uncle George had his now famous ‘Pan of Fish’. Many of the lads were also distracted and somewhat smitten with the statuesque blond frauleinwunder who was our host that afternoon.