Category: Gigs Abroad

Gigs From Abroad Part 27 – Greece Part 1

The country of Greece is located in Southeast Europe and is bordered by four other countries and four different seas. It has a long illustrious history, and it is regularly cited as the birthplace of Western civilisation which incorporates eclectic elements such as philosophy, science, theatre and mathematics.  

It also has the accolade of creating the original Olympic Games, the first iteration taking place in 776 BC which then ran until AD 393, with some fantastically named contestants, one that caught my eye was Herodorus of Megara who was a ten-time trumpet champion!  The modern version was initially held in Athens in 1896, and they subsequently also hosted the event in 2004.

Herodotus of Magara in a post-Olympics black and white photo shoot. Image Credit parthenon-greekjewelry.blogspot.com

In the 4th century Greece partook in a considerable amount of pilfering by conquering much of the ancient world. They had many wars and strife in the 20th century before democracy finally took hold in 1974. They adopted the Euro in 2001 but then had a bruising debt crisis for around a decade commencing in 2008. Tourism is their main income source, and they have been recorded as the ninth most visited country in the world.

 There is a staggering proliferation of islands which number between 1200 and 6000 dependent on how you quantify your size classification. In fact, because there are so many they are organised into clusters, with seven different colour coding’s. I wonder how many people can lay claim to having visited them all. It is estimated that there are between 166 and 227 that are currently inhabited.

The one with the largest area is Crete with a population of 625k, with the second one on the list being Euboea (or Evvia), which I had never actually heard of. The latter apparently resides only 60m from the mainland over the Euripus Strait. A decent swimmer could easily cover that distance, but my 10 metre badge might result in me needing a rescue! The smallest populated island is Gavdos with a grand total of 142 punters, as a result I am sure there are no secrets on that island.

Greek music dates to way back when with mixed gender choruses performing for entertainment and spiritual reasons with archaic instruments such as the double-reed aulos (similar to a flute) which coincidentally has been recently digitally recreated as part of the wonderful sounding Lost Sounds Orchestra. There was also a twelve string instrument called a lyre or kithara, which could perhaps be lazily described as the first guitar, if so, I am eternally grateful to whoever invented it!  

A Lyre instrument. Image Credit ar.inspiredpencil.com

There have been many famous Greeks including the actors Telly Savalas and Jennifer Aniston, King Constantine II who won an Olympic sailing gold in 1960 and poet Homer (not from the Simpsons) who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey which are renowned in ancient Greek literature.

On the musical front there is Marina Diamandis, lead singer of Marina and the Diamonds, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, Dimitri Minakakis from Dillinger Escape Plan, the Foals lead singer Yannis Philippakis and Alex Kapranos who fronts Franz Ferdinand.

Gill and I’s first foray abroad was on a budget trip to Paris and the journey each way was twelve hours in total involving three trains and a hovercraft. On the next sojourn in 1990 we sensibly decided to fly and headed off to Corfu and stayed in a resort in the far north called Kassiopi. The commute involved a vertigo inducing coach transfer around the sheer drop hairpin roads, leading to my assertion that those drivers are so accomplished!

Marina Diamandis. Image Credit upload.wikimedia.org

When I first started in my current job on 28 July 1986 (my fortieth anniversary is rapidly approaching) my initial timesheet was signed off by a manager called Vera Egan. Now a couple of years later Vera relocated to live abroad, but I wasn’t aware where she had emigrated to. That question was answered when I went to report a small accommodation issue at the agent’s office near the harbour, and there was none other than Vera behind the desk!   

I recall us visiting the UNESCO world heritage list Corfu town which was a bonny atmospheric place. I am sure we must have seen some live acts whilst we there, but I have nothing recorded in my annals, thus any will be in the unquantifiable Jimmy ‘lost gigs’ list. In those days the only music I can recall being provided was through the headphones of a portable tape deck and whilst lounging in a secluded cove, my ‘burning’ memory of the song that was playing was Eternal Flame by the Bangles.  

Gigs From Abroad Part 26 – Berlin

In April 2024 we decided to have a sojourn to the intriguing vibrant city of Berlin, which arguably has a more varied yet brutal history than any other European city. Berlin was originally founded in the 12th century and over the years there was the bubonic plague, involvement in the Thirty Years War which destroyed a third of the city, a thwarted revolution and horrendous sanitary conditions in the late 19th century, all fairly standard stuff!  

Hitler was appointed the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and used the Berlin Olympic games in 1936 as a Nazi showpiece. I won’t belabour the barbaric activities in the city during World War 2 but will move onto the 36 consecutive nights of bombing undertaken by the RAF in March 1945 that dropped around 80,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. A month later Hitler committed suicide and Berlin capitulated to the Allied Forces.  

Post war it was divided into four quarters with American, British, French and Soviet sectors and that infernal wall was built in 1961 before it later fell in 1989 and a year later both sides of Berlin were finally reunited. John F Kennedy visited in 1963 and made his solidarity speech with the famous line ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ translating as ‘I am a Berliner’.

Many movies have used the city as a backdrop including ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘Bridge of Spies’. Famous Berliners are the actresses Marlene Dietrich and Nastassja Kinski, composer Andre Previn (Preview!) and Olympic ice skater Katarina Witt.

Nina Hagen. Image Credit vintag.es

On the musical spectrum it has three major opera houses, six symphony orchestras, MTV Europe’s base and ‘The Godmother of German Punk’ Nina Hagen was born there. Between 1976 and 1979 David Bowie and Iggy Pop decamped there together to seek solace and recover from their drug addictions. Iggy released his first solo record and Bowie recorded his Berlin album trilogy of ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’.

We landed there on a Wednesday evening and managed to locate our compact rented apartment in the Rosenthalerplatz suburb of the city. We spent the duration of our stay on the eastern side of the city, and I liked the grittiness and durability of those areas. On our first evening we pottered out locally and in our debut bar they only accepted cash and I admired that healthy disregard for the new order.  We found a fine Italian restaurant which had made good use of the grand old building and had grandiose lavatories. We also visited the 100 Gramm Bar near to the subway station.

Over the next two days we trogged many miles and visited all the tourist attractions including Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the remnants of the wall. The most impressive and heart wrenching was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe monument with the different size of statues to resemble the fallen. It encompasses a gigantic area of nineteen thousand square metres, and you could literally lose yourself in that vast maze!

Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe monument. Image Credit TripSavvy

We also headed into the impressive cathedral (Berliner Dom) and I surprised myself by heading up the winding stairs to the top, though couldn’t then wait to head back down as I now really struggle with heights. My vertigo affliction being such a significant sea change from the 14 year old Jimmy who trotted all the way up the Eiffel Tower without a care in the world! We sallied over to the bohemian East Kreuzberg but unfortunately did not have opportunity to visit the Ramones Museum, the area itself reminding me of Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

One of Gill’s long standing aspirations has been to actively head to a European city for a gig, therefore naturally her wish was my command. We first chose a band and then proceeded to check Jesus and Mary Chain’s roster and targeted a show at Berlin Huxleys in the Neukolln suburb of the city.

There was from the early 20th century a concert hall called Neue Welt which contained two halls, with capacities respectively of 1500 and 3000. Hitler spoke there in 1930 and in 1960 it evolved into a rock venue before closing in 1982. Acts to play there included Jimi Hendrix, Dio, Whitesnake and The Clash. It swiftly reopened as Huxleys with one singular 1600 capacity hall which has also staged boxing matches, fashion shows and tattoo festivals.

The location was thankfully only a short commute of about five metro stops from our digs, so we circled past to check the show times and then went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for some tea and a couple of pre-gig bevies.   

It was a terrific venue despite one obstreperous numpty positioned near the bar and Mary Chain were in fine form. Whilst we were scouring the city earlier that day, I was opining that it would be great if they played ‘Reverence’ and they met that wish by playing a full length version in the encore. It was the 10th time I had witnessed them and was one of my favourite performances of theirs and was also Gill and I’s 400th gig together.   

Huxleys. Image Credit neuwelt-berlin.de

The following evening, we visited the busy Berlin Hackescher Market where we saw a local performer called Jurgen and also Berlin Hackescher Parist where we viewed an act called Bonnie and Clyde. We flew home on Saturday lunchtime, which was also Grand National day, and managed to finally obtain a signal to lay a bet near to the airport. We watched the race on the train home from Manchester airport and straight after wished that the bets had been prevented by the European restrictions!