euro debriefing - PART TWO

03 OCT - Bonn, KUNST!GARTEN
 This was an outdoor event by a  lovely lake. Clare Moore and I did a set to open proceedings. It was a  German national holiday. Was a wrench for me to get out of the French speaking world as I was enjoying the challenge so much. We travelled in two cars, well - our van and Olivers sedan . Oliver organized the German dates , including a  picnic hamper which we ate in a German petrol station drive.

BERLIN
04 OCT - KAFFEE BURGER w/ Dimlocator

Dim Locator were a trio led by Phil Shoenfelt and included Australian expatriate Chris Hughes on drums. This was our first Berlin date. A rock show. 

Berlin was putting on a show for us though.

We went driving and walking with James Cruikshank. he took us to the memorial for the Russian war dead. 

 This is a giant figure with a  sword standing on a  crushed swastika. There are 1000's of people buried in this area.

05 OCT - VALENTIN STURBEL 
This was a duo show for myself and Clare Moore in a  little bar I had heard about from Ned Collette. James Cruikshank who was once (and still is occasionally) in the Cruel  Sea, lent me an acoustic guitar and we played a set for a handful of people, one of whom had travelled from Chicago to see this show.I ate some disgusting Bavarian white sausage. 

People were complaining that they'd given up booze but its more expensive to be teetotal than to drink booze in Berlin. 
I was enjoying driving in the city, though finding a  park at night was impossible, the city is full.(Though it doesn't feel half as densely packed as London or Paris. Very liveable place)
We spent the days walking and enjoying the feel of the city, like this underground station.

06 OCT - SOFA SALON  2x duo's Graney/Moore + Howard/Preston
A wonderful night in an arts centre run by some Berlin people. Australian and American. We played without amplification, a situation which harry dreaded but excelled in. We always love doing this sort of a set. Lovely people. Sam Wareing who is touring Australia at present as "Wasp Summer". 

07 OCT - URBAN SPREE w/ Dimlocator.
A real old school Berlin joint. If you get what I mean. Kind of industrial and located in what seemed to be wasteland with lots of rats scurrying about.

We had spent the day at the disused Templehof airport. Right in the middle of Berlin, a huge area. There was apparently some talk of building apartments on it but people objected-  SO IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!  Now its there for the populace to wander over and has some markets and mini golf...

08 OCT - WHITE TRASH, NDE final Berlin show. Like playing in a big restaurant.
Clare was impressed with the 26" bass drum at this gig. 

 
CZEK
09 OCT - Prague w/ Dimlocator and the Wild Tides. This was a great gig. Didn't see much of Prague. Insurance for rental cars is expensive so we had to leave our van in a  roadside bay in Germany and get into another van to go into CZEK. The driver was a member of THE PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE! We arrived at night in Prague and left early. The Wild Tides were a very impressive Czec band.

 
AUSTRIA
10 OCT - KINO, Ebensee w/ Dimlocator

A lovely drive to the area where the film WHERE EAGLES DARE was filmed. An amazing venue and a great turnout of people to the gig.

 
11 OCT - FLUC. Vienna w/ Dimlocator

There was an actual in-store at a shop in Vienna. We played some songs, as did Dim Locator. 

The venue was right near the Ferris Wheel that was in THE THIRD MAN.
At the gig, a black man in dreads pointed and shouted at me that I was "the funk master". I felt great, of course.
The day of the show was an Austrian national day. Glad I was told, otherwise I would've thought they dressed like this all the time.

So we had a long last , lingering drive through beautiful Vienna after saying adieu to Dim Locator...

to be continued ........

November 25th Dave Graney reading and talk at the Prahran Library

Wed 3rd Dec - Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Thur 4th Dec - Camelot Lounge - Marrickville-Sydney
Fri 5th Dec - Gearin Hotel Katoomba
Sat 6th Dec - Royal Exchange Newcastle
Sun 7th Dec - Royal Exchange - Newcastle - matinee show - 2pm start

Dec 14th - The DAMES playing the Post Office Hotel Sydney rd Coburg

Dec 15th "an afternoon with dave graney" at Chapel Off Chapel 12 Little Chapel St
Prahran, Melbourne

Friday Feb 5th and Saturday 6th dave graney solo at the Junk Bar in Brisbane

ok - Euro debriefing I guess - PART ONE

Apologies for the scarcity of posts here and elsewhere. At one point I was putting out a lot more. Throwing words and opinions out carelessly into the wind. A few things have affected the flow. Firstly it was a lot of time over the last few years trying to write a longer piece of fiction. That may go on for years! Sometimes it reads great - other times...... And I like an easy flow with writing. When it gets down to doing mechanical or engineering type things, I lose my place. And I'm the one WITH the place and IN the place. Actually that's exactly what I've been writing about.
 Also, been very busy being a musician. This, of course, involves 95% of your time involved in admin. ADMIN. Balls to that.
And then there's the inherently fragile nature of being an Australian musician. The best I can say to younger musicians who come up to me and start to sing their blues is "get used to the undignified situations- and get to like them!"
Of course it was great being in Europe again. People like music there. I'd forgotten.
We flew out of Melbourne on China Southern and sat in cramped seats for 12 or so hours watching the most terrible movies on screens about a foot away from our faces. My favourite - in it's awfulness- was "Olympus has fallen", where the North Koreans take over the Pentagon and kidnap THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
We stopped in Guangzhou for a few hours and then hopped back on board for another dozen or more hours and then fell out of the plane in London and then caught a flight to Paris. I love Paris.

 (I wore this jacket for 5 weeks and tossed it in a  bin upon returning. It had lots of accessible pockets)

We hired a 10 seater van which I drove gingerly out of the airport and into Montmarte on a Saturday night. Madness, but we were dumb lucky and survived.

FRANCE. 24 SEPT - Binic, LE CHALON QUI PASSE
This joint was cute- like a Jacques Tati film set. I kept trying out my bad French on the villagers.

25 SEPT - Lorient, LE GALLION
 This was beautiful in a different way. A post war , re-built city.

 Here there was a working port and lots of stray cats.

The venue was quite beautiful.We stayed at the promoters apartment. They all loved Jeffrey lee Pierce here in Brittany.

26 SEPT - Renne, LE MONDO BIZARRO 
This was the city where Beats Records, who released Harrys album PRETTY, on vinyl is located. Seb drove us to the record shop which is located in a 12th century building. All crooked and lopsided but still occupied and living! We gawped like hicks. The hospitality, generosity  and warmth of the Bretons was outstanding.

30 SEPT - dave graney and clare moore at LA Cantine, Belleville - "Synchrony + Opium Dream Estate

This was a date at a tiny underground club in Paris. Paris is not a  real rock town and , like other big cities such as New York and London , is very difficult to get around. Still, it's fucking Paris. The other acts were very nice young people and the venue was a claustrophobic cavern underneath a nice big restaurant. Music must be locked away here, as elsewhere, for fear of the noise upsetting people.
It was daft when people started to smoke down there, though.

Paris was a real trip to be in. Staying in an apartment in the 18th. Very African/Parisian ambience. I loved it. These are tourist shots.

That's Jims grave- next door to Mme Gambier!

That'sa false ass you can get with your wig...



 01 OCT - Paris, FELINE – w/ Dave Graney+Clare Moore as support
This was a real rock'n'roll joint.  And we rocked it.Looks lovely without people though....

02 OCT - Lille, LA DIABOLIQUE
 This was a show with a  French player by the name of Dominique Sonic. Great food and venue.

 inside the club were many cultural signs...

that's "Msr 100,000 charmes vs Msr 100,000 volts" ! Sasha Distel is one of them ...

In France, they sell tobacco in bulk...cans of it...

to be continued....

Come to  a show!

Dave Graney - solo show - 3pm at the Republic Bar Hobart November 23rd

November 25th Dave Graney reading and talk at the Prahran Library

Wed 3rd Dec - Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Thur 4th Dec - Camelot Lounge - Marrickville-Sydney
Fri 5th Dec - Gearin Hotel Katoomba
Sat 6th Dec - Royal Exchange Newcastle
Sun 7th Dec - Royal Exchange - Newcastle - matinee show - 2pm start

Dec 14th - The DAMES playing the Post Office Hotel Sydney rd Coburg

Dec 15th "an afternoon with dave graney" at Chapel Off Chapel 12 Little Chapel St
Prahran, Melbourne

Friday Feb 5th and Saturday 6th dave graney solo at the Junk Bar in Brisbane