Tue 12 May Bamberg, Germany

Two of the culprits caught on camera!


setting up the stage, this is incredible!


Mick, why haven't we got this much gear!


WOW!



OK so it's a long post, not much else to do on the bus so I started typing and couldn't stop!
7 hour drive from Vienna, through Hungary and onto Bamberg, Germany.
Mutti woke me up early and got me to watch the tour bus outside while he went to hire another vehicle to help with our overload problem. He came back with a car, it’s all he could get, oh well, better than nothing. Luckily the Vienna hire company had a German car so it was no problem for us to drop it off in Germany.
Everyone else surfaced and after some rearrangement of luggage (we were still concerned with the weight of the van) we set off on our 7 hour drive to Bamberg, Germany, I was driving the bus and had Dan, Scruff and Monk on board, Mutti was driving the car with the others in it. We followed them for a good 4 hours, we had one quick stop for soup and then carried on,
Later a green and white van appeared along side us with Zoll written on it, it then pulled in front of us, I then tried to overtake it and it pulled in front of us again. Then a red sign lit up in the back and after lots of German words we didn’t understand it switched to English and said FOLLOW ME!
We followed the van off the autobahn and along small roads for about 10 mins, it then pulled up at a building and told us to drive in which I did, once we were in the doors were shut and we were told to stay in the Bus. It was weird one minute driving happily up the road, the next minute in an industrial unit surrounded by pistol carrying customs officers.
The chief took our passports and disappeared, we were a little concerned; the van was still very heavily loaded. After a few minutes he reappeared and asked questions where have we been/going all the usual stuff, got any drugs, booze or cigarettes on board?
We hadn’t got a thing, not even a bottle of beer, they looked disappointed, I joked that we were a good band we didn’t smoke, drink or do drugs!
Another officer said nicely oh what do you do then do you like girls? Yeh, I said we all do except him (pointing at Dan), he likes boys, they all cracked up laughing! Sorry Danny boy!
Then they drug tested each of us and as each of us passed they would hand back the passport for that person.
We set off glad to be out of that place, we were now half an hour behind the others and had no one to follow, we switched on the sat nav but it spoke German, help!
Dan was a great help, he taught the sat nav to speak English by pressing loads of buttons on it, then he read the map and we got sorted, Phew!
We arrived at the venue, it was a bloody great 8000 capacity stadium, wow!
Tonight is a first for me with the Adicts, they are not headlining but supporting a huge German band called Die Toten Hosen, one of the biggest band in Germany, apparently the singer is Germanys equivalent of Bono, oh no!
We only have to do a short set tonight so should be quite easy for me which is good as I have driven the bus for 7 hours and am tired, I didn’t help unload, went for a walk and had a drink. They had a huge crew at the venue that soon got all the gear in. We set up and sound checked.
I had to adjust my thinking, when you are supporting there are advantages and disadvantages ref. Setting up the stage, either way there is a critical time period which is the 20mins between bands, If your supporting you have to get all your guitars, drums and amps etc. off the stage as fast as is humanly possible, when your headlining you wait for the support band to get off and then have to get your guitars etc. setup, It is a manic time that requires forward planning and organisation, the Die Toten Hosen crew are highly pro and have been friendly and really helpful, we are working well together. The guys in the band are nice and friendly too, the drummer Vom is English and is also the drummer of the English band ‘The Boys’ and TV Smith. I had a long chat with him but didn’t mention the fact that Suspect Device have recently been covering their song Brickfield nights.
The gig was sold out, so many people, I walked out on the stage for a final check before the band went on, so many people in the audience it was an amazing sight!
The band played well and I like the shortened set, the audience really enjoyed it but it was different to a normal Adicts audience, naturally most were here to see Die Toten Hosen, and I guess a lot were not familiar with the Adicts music.
Inspite of this the band went down well.
At the back of the venue where we load in was a German man with a key of beer and some plastic glasses, he was drinking a beer from a glass, the colour of the beer got my attention, it was not lager! I went and chatted to him but he didn’t speak English but his friend walked up and translated for me, “that beer looks nice, can I have a glass please”
The interpreter explained that this guy brewed the beer himself and was very proud of it, he had brought a keg to share with his friends, they gave me a little to taste, it was fantastic! He poured me a full pint and I thanked him and went inside to watch Die Toten Hosen, soon the beer was empty but he kindly gave me another one, lovely man! We watched most of Die Toten Hosen set and they are really good, more rock than punk rock I would say. After the show we went back to the hotel which was incredibly posh and beautiful. I had a shower and then the phone went, Monk, Pete, Kid and Hoggy were off to the bar, I was too tired and decided to call it a night.
Went for breakfast in the morning and one of the Die Toten Hosen guitarists said to me “is it true the Adicts were in the bar last night wearing nothing except the white dressing gowns from the rooms”
I laughed, that sounds about right, that’ll be them!