Category: Gigs Abroad

Gigs from Abroad Part 3 – Amsterdam

When I initially set up this blog around two years ago, I had no real concept as to how many articles I may derive from all the gigs I have attended. Thus, to my mild surprise I have managed to reach my centenary 100th article and throughout that period so many people have been supportive and encouraging of my endeavours.    

To celebrate this landmark, I have carefully considered the constitution of this week’s blog. It was a natural step to include Mogwai who I have now seen live 33 times and I thought it would then be appropriate to link that up with the one time I have seen them in a European setting.    

The gang of four, John and Tony Dewhurst, Uncle George and I had for a sustained period yearned to undertake a trip abroad to see the Glasgow post-rock masters. In 2003, we discovered they were on an extensive tour, so I drew up a virtual Venn diagram of the dates matching that against the cost and availability of corresponding flights which pointed to Amsterdam being the most viable option.

This all resulted in us travelling over to Liverpool John Lennon Airport (above us only sky!) on the morning of Thursday 29/05/2003 for the short hop over to Schipol Airport. On arrival at Amsterdam train station we traversed over the road to our nearby hotel.

In the reception, there were a group of lads there with suitcases who had clearly pushed the envelope whilst visiting and were a shadow of their former selves! Let’s just say also the digs we had were not Ritz Hotel quality, with no working light in our bathroom as one of many minus points but at the end of the day it was a bed for the two nights!

Amsterdam is such a vibrant city and covers all criterion with the history, the canals and other more nightly pursuits if that is your predilection! Our frailty was solely in the alcohol beverage domain and there were plenty of options at which to slake our thirst in that regard.

See the source image
Amsterdam Night Time. Image Credit martijnKort-Photography.com

The concert was at the famous venue Amsterdam Melkweg. I scrutinised the map and adopted my traditional sherpa role to find some backstreet bars en route, so much so I was asked for directions even though I had only spent an hour in the city myself!

The Melkweg (Dutch translation is ‘Milky Way’) is located on Lijnbaansgracht, which is a vibrant area at night. It is quantified as a music and cultural centre and was previously a sugar refinery and a milk company before opening in its current format in 1970 as a commendable non-profit organisation. There is a cinema, restaurant, exhibition space alongside the main concert venue we were in named the Max, with a capacity of 1500. It was a terrific atmospheric venue.     

Basing our venue entry time of 9pm on British set times, we discovered quickly that even the support act Part Chimp had not yet landed on stage. They are a five-piece formed in Camberwell, London in 2000 and are on Mogwai’s Rock Action label. They had a chunky sound and were crunchingly loud in parts and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance observing from the upstairs gantry.

See the source image
Amsterdam Melkweg. Image Credit djoybeat.com

We moved down to the pit prior to Mogwai appearing about 11pm and they ran through a stellar set with many of my fave tracks including ‘Hunted by a Freak’, ‘Ex-Cowboy’, ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 2’, ‘Ithica 27-9’ and an epic ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. They curtailed their pre-encore set with a colossal ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’, where I closed my eyes for a blissed out 9 minutes 32 seconds. It was an outstanding sound quality throughout and remains one of my favourite ever live Mogwai performances.

We headed back to the hotel but were woken later by a group of lads arriving back who sounded like a herd of Wildebeests!

On the Friday we jumped on a train to a local town which name currently escapes me and landed back in the city in the evening. I recall a novel form of transport in one bar where a couple after paying the bill literally stepped into their boat and headed home. After a few jars the canal bridges began to merge, and we eventually bumbled back to the hotel about 4am.

We thought we might be the last residents to arrive back but no, the Slipknot roadies came thundering in an hour later! The following morning, we gathered in reception resembling the lads who were stood in that very spot 48 hours later. It brought instantly to mind the plot of the Terry Gilliam movie 12 Monkeys where everything is permanently on a time loop!   

We trudged our way off to the train station and safe to say I had a very early night that evening but what a glorious weekend we had! 

Gigs from Abroad Part 2 – Bremen

I have been fortunate to have a group of like-minded pals who for around 15 years as a group have had a weekend jaunt to different European cities. I have attended ten of these shindigs and they are a combination of a splash of culture and a large dollop of beer! They have thus far been mainly based in Germany, but we have also visited Holland, Belgium and Portugal.

My first trip was to the scenic city of Cologne with its gothic cathredral where we also visited the old capital of Bonn. My second sojourn was in January 2010 to Bremen in the North west of Germany. On arrival on the Thursday it was a short tram ride from the airport to our hotel opposite the Hauptbahnhof.     

That evening we headed out for a good sally to the bars in the University end of the City and found a terrific bar where they had a rarely sighted posted of Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ and they also had a band advertised for the following evening, so plans were hatched for a return visit. Bremen also being the home of Becks beer, a brew that I find a bit metallic tasting at home was transformed in its home town environment. There were many variants, Haake Becks being my favourite.

Image result for becks haake pictures
The rather fine Haake Becks. Image Credit canmusuem.com

It has become a tradition on these trips to partake a train trip on Day 2 to a nearby town and on this occasion, Bremerhaven was chosen, the location being a port city on the North Sea coast. The weather that weekend was biting and to arrive by the waters edge took this to a new glacial level, resulting in being possibly the coldest place I have ever visited. Tony Dewhurst pottered off to the local zoo where he said even the polar bear was trembling!  

We walked around shivering and after spying the rare sight of a C&A next to a Woolworths on the main shopping drag and visiting the submarine museum we went searching for an aperitif. This proved tricky as there was a dearth of bars, but we eventually located one near the station. The mein host was a tad miserable but we stacked the jukebox and had a couple of brews prior to heading back into Bremen.

Whilst heading to the gig that evening, we saw a poster advertising that the indefatigable UK Subs had played in a local venue the night before which we unaware of until that point in time!

I am not altogether sure what it called so it shall be known as The Eisen Bar. It was infinitely busier than the previous night and was packed to the rafters. The headline band were a local group called International Removals who were of the post-punk variety singing in English and produced a thoroughly enjoyable set. A google search informs me they are still in operation which gladdened me to see, and their recent output sounded good.   

Image result for bremen eisen bar pictures
The Eisen Bar with the Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ poster in the foreground. Image Credit Facebook

A central gathering point in German cities is the main Train station with trains running until very late. It is also a hub for food outlets, and we devoured some unwholesome snacks about 2am.

We were heading back to the hotel when one chap in the crew highlighted that he had seen an indie nighclub called ShagAll on the far side of the square, so we foolishly headed over to investigate. What an absolute gem of a place where the DJ playing a blinder and more Becks were supped, I recall Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ being aired. This quality musical output resulting landing back at the digs at 4.50am!

5.5 hours later I was awoken by my roommate Dave Keane informing me we had to vacate the room by 11am. He was in fact incorrect as it was noon, thereby losing one hour of absolute golden slumber! Outside the hotel Bayern Munich fans were streaming past on their way to their Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, who are coincidentally but unsurprisingly sponsored by Becks Brewery.

We mulched around town for a bit with stifling hangovers before heading to Paddys Pit, a subterranean Irish bar near the hotel. The reason for this alcoholic masochism was to watch PNE in a FA Cup tie v Chelsea.     

The first pint equated to the hair of a very vicious Rottweiler but worryingly I soon started to come around. We subsequently lost the match 2-0 and had some good-natured banter with locals who were in residence for the Bremen v Munich match immediately following our game.   

From there, we grabbed a taxi to the airport for the short flight back to Liverpool. We had pre-booked a taxi from a firm who turned out to be charlatans as they had not even departed from Preston by the time we had landed. When they eventually arrived, we remain convinced the driver had impaired version as he only very nearly avoided an incident at Switch Island!  

On arrival back in Preston we grabbed a sit-down curry in the Royal Piri Piri restaurant on East View on Deepdale Road, near the old Hollywood Bar and Stephenson Arms, before finally heading home for some desperately needed sleep!