I took only the Flying V, my record box, and another small hand luggage style bag. This stuff was not as heavy as I thought, and I managed to cram all my clothes and live set equipment in with the V.

On the train I wanted to go to sleep, but I couldn't because the sour woman opposite me was chatting to her mate about how hardcore they were getting an early flight.

Annoying woman

I managed to sneak this shot of her!! Personally I reckon anyone getting a 5am train is the ultimate in hardcore.

At the airport my bullet-belt caused alot of problems. I tried to explain it was just a fashion accessory, but the evil supervisor at the x-ray machine made me check the belt in as a seperate item of hold luggage. At the other end it came out on the conveyor belt all alone. I was able to carry my guitar through to the plane and look after it properly.

The flight was pretty sucky as I couldn't get a window seat ;-< But I was sat next to a totally cool Polish girl who was going home for a couple of days before going on to China. We chatted pretty much most of the flight after the meal. Before the food I finished writing one of the songs I was going to perform. Actually I could have done it before the flight, but I thought that it would be more rock'n'roll to do it on the flight, and maybe when you read this you will think I am the coolest guy ;-> ;->

On the way to her gaff I walked through a 'ghetto style' area. To be honest it was more of kids playground - however there was this basketball hoop:

Authentic ghetto style playground with basketball hoop, trees and grass!

There was also this phat ass giant fish playhouse! Kids get all the best stuff - its so unfair. I wish my flat was in the shape of a giant fish ;-/

Giant fish kiddies play house

Manou was in good spirits and took me to a fine cafe for breakfast. I had a spinach and cheese 'thing', which was good, but I had no appetite. Soon Mikael from 'Copenhagen Brains' showed up, and we shared some BerlinerWeiss with Waldmeister syrup. The BerlinerWeiss was way sweet and very sour too. But the Waldmeister syrup made it very nice to drink. Actually I had really hyped up how good this drink would be in my head, and it was totally different to what I thought - but Franziskaner is still my number 1!!

Manou chills out on the roof

Copenhagen Brains smiles because he is so fricadelic ;->

Manou had to shoot off and do things, so Mikael took me on a graphitti tour of Berlin - unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me, or I would have snapped lots of cool tags. Mikael is highly knowledgable about graphitti, having been heavily into the scene when he was younger. We also got batteries for my live performance the next day.

By this time it was actually pretty late, so Mikael and I went for dinner at a local cafe before the nights activities - the opening night of the new WMF club. Luckily the cafe owner shared my taste in beer, and it was Franziskaner all round. After dinner we took a taxi to the club, where Manou was helping to set up.

Until my DJ set I thought I would try out some famous German drinks. I had 'sekt' which is a very trashy low budget champagne copy. After that mindblowing experience I stuck to the equally famous German drink 'wasser'.

There were two rooms - a kind of lounge and the main room. The main room stuck to techno all night, where as the lounge had a much more wide ranging selection, and thats where we played.

Rolemodel attended the WMF opening also - and it was really good to see him. I was pleased to chat to him after such along time since our last meeting at the MicroFestival in London.

Manou was totally professional and used a laptop and the software 'Traxtor' to DJ for hours. It was fascinating to watch - I think that tools like this are really the future of DJing - record boxes are so limited and heavy. The only thing is scratching on a PC is still not possible, and probably never will be.

For my set I used old fashioned vinyl. The WMF crowd was totally informed about music and were easy to work with. There were only a couple of songs I played that did not go down well. It was the most fun DJ set I've played in a while, I really enjoyed myself.

I forget the name of the next DJ, but she played some up to date hip-hop and techno. I found her deck skillz to be excellent and you could hardly hear the mixes. The music really suited the atmosphere of the lounge. She was very friendly, unlike wanky english DJs, and it would be nice to properly g33k out with her about music.

I felt a bit sleepy at around 3 o'clock, but then I started to get more with it and spent the next 2 or 3 hours raving in the main room. Here things were done my way! The party went on until 7am, and everyone was really going for it. The sound system was really good quality and loud. Even the techno was not too sucky. I found a new tune to track down - it sounded like a Gigolo records number and the vocals were singing something like 'I am my most favourite DJ'.... it was a baaaaad tune!!! E-mail me if you know what it is.

3 home keyboards, including a Casio VL-Tone

Buum-lick Casio home keyboard. It sounds amazing!

This orangey red keyboard dates from the 70s and is really lovable.

The only g33ky equipment shot in this diary (the others were very tasteful)

As it was so late we had a lunch/dinner at one of Berlin's many Turkish restaurants. The food was excellent value - but only above average in terms of taste. On the way to the restaurant we passed some interesting looking record shops and several trams.

Falafel and homous (selected by gwem)

Chicken with loads of pickled chillis!! (selected by c_brains)

While we waited for our food to be served Copenhagen Brains took this picture of me:

Me looking like an alien!

After eating we checked out some of the record shops in the area. I managed to find loads of cheesy looking euro-dance records - all looking like Westbam releases. But only one of them was good ;-< On the other hand they only cost 1 Euro each ;-> I after that I wanted to do more shopping! This time for guitar stuff. Because this would bore Manou and Mikael totally I decided to go on my own, using a sketch map drawn by Manou.

On the journey I found this GDR style car:

This trabant is coloured with matt grey paint!

I also saw loads of other wicked cars including a series C Porsche 356 and an old-skool Alfa Spider.

The guitar shop had only new guitars, which I'm not so into unless they are really cheap, but despite this it had some pretty cool stuff, including some Epiphones which are not available in the UK.

Once I'd overdosed on guitars I couldn't afford I went the scenic route back. I passed by an ice-cream parlour selling great flavours, including 'blau' 'waldmeister' and some other wicked flavour I can't remember the german name of - but it was 'elderflower' in english. Of course I had to have a scoop of each! The blau was totally space age in taste - very artificial, I didn't like it so much. The elderflower ice was delicious, rich and fruity. The waldmeister was more subtle than the other flavours, and it was my favourite. We need more waldmeister products in the UK!

I took this snap when I was down to the waldmeister scoop.

Also on the way back was this imposing church:

Church

I had to sort out my guitar in time for the gig.... For each live set I play I change the strings, clean the fret board and polish everything else. This is so that it plays and looks good. I'm also paranoid about snapping a string, which would put an end to my set, as I can't afford a back up guitar. This time though as I was changing the top E the new string snapped!!!! I had to replace the old string, but this was not an easy matter as it was all twisted up. Luckily Copenhagen Brains managed it by using some parcel tape to straighten the ends. I had also left my black shirt at home! But Copenhagen Brains again came to the rescue by lending me his. Because of all this we were late to the venue of the gig - the Automaten Bar! But these were the only items of Friday the 13th bad luck I had.

I'd been to the Automaten Bar just after I arrived in Berlin, but the guys there had really made an effort transforming it for the gig. They also managed to sort out all the extra connectors and leads I needed, and were helpful and friendly. I was lent a guitar amplifier for my set - I just routed the whole of my mix through it, but even doing this really helped my guitar sound.... I got some phatt ass long sustain and could get feedback effects much more easily than my earlier gig at 93 Feet East. I guess dedicated guitar amplifiers are designed to couple properly with a guitar, but whatever the technical reason I was really happy with the sound!!

Before I played DJ Benji DJed some Italo Disco stuff. I found his skillz to be more than competant, despite the awkward positioning of his decks. He managed to rock the crowd very easily and was even a nice guy.

Again I has not 100% happy with my performance - but the crowd seemed into it and didn't notice all my mistakes and errors. I got some laughs for my Paranoid cover version, and even singing along in my Frank Sinatra cover. It was hard to setup a mix and perform at the same time. A proper sound check would have helped, but I think I got a good balance of sound by the end of the second song. I was really surprised by a new track I wrote for the night, called 'Hardcore Music' - it went down an absolute beauty, when actually I thought it was a throw away number. For the next gig I will do an extra day practise and also make another cover version of something. Then maybe I will be content!

Throughout the night Mikael from Copenhagen Brains sat at his laptop and video mixer to provide visuals for DJ Benji and I. He showed me how his setup worked - everything is small enough too fit in a suitcase, but in the hands of an expert you can get some powerful stuff out of it. Visuals were projected on the the back wall of the bar, and also on to about half of the many TV screens around the room. Unlike many VJs I thought Mikaels stuff was in tune with the night, rather than just showing some irrelevant stuff on VHS.

After the set we danced the night away to Italo Disco, and had an impromptu jam session with Manou much later... It had its moments, but I think we were too drunk to make it work properly.

The TV Tower dominates Berlin's skyline... but not in this picture

Alas it was soon time for my flight home ;-< I was sad to go and I wish that I could have stayed longer. My flight was delayed by about half an hour, and all the security girls and guys at the airport wanted to try on the bullet belt - they thought it was way hilarious! At last I walked the catwalk to my plane:

Buzz Air gets the full catwalk treatment at Berlin airport.

The taxi drivers in London were most oppertunist, and absolute cunts to me. In the end I walked half way home with all my bags before I got a black cab, who charged a sensible rate. The traffic was mayhem, and I hated being back in town. My flatmate, Kate, cheered me up somewhat and then I went to bed after a rock'n'roll few days.

I had a great time in Berlin - it was everything I thought it would be, and more. I would like to thank Manou for organising everything, and Copenhagen Brains for saving my ass on many ocassions! I hope I will return soon.

(c)gwem 2002
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