Last Friday, late afternoon I went off to Cologne, it's really so close and on weekends you get trains back home each hour so, yay for me.
Got there and inside the Prime Club I soon found fellow FOTE Amy and friend Laura. The soundcheck was just on, it was more of a longer rehearsal, very nice!
I was drooling about that cute roadie with the dreads and chatting to the people around, record company, fellow radio guys etc. The interviews were supposed start after the soundcheck. We were the second group going up into the office to speak to the man himself. The interview was Amy's baby, I was only watching it to learn, am still an interview baby compared to her gift to do marvellous interviews and innerly well - I was drooling about gorgeous Mr. Marr. What a great person he is!
He was lovely and polite, told us about the Pearl Jam tour in Australia and that this was such a cool experience and whatever you think, it wasn't my fault, I was all shy and having other things in my mind than that anyway but after a while he started talking about Neil Finn and the 7 worlds stuff. Interesting!
I remember sitting in Rotterdam and wondering how the **** Neil made all the poeple play with him. SUUURE, he's great, but it's not that easy, you know! And after all he's not like... like Bob Dylan who calls everybody together...
It was like we suspected but slightly more tricky than simply telling them to play with each other.
Seems like Johnny hardly knew Neil, they only had a 5min chat at the Linda McCartney tribute concert. So he was rather suprised when he phoned one day. Can't remember the whole thing, maybe Amy types down something of what he said, I can't quote, really, but it's my subjective memory, so you simply have to trust me in what I say It was like this, the phone rang and Neil was on. He was talking something about jamming at the beach for 5 days. "It's a place called Kare Kare. Do you know the film "The Piano? They shot the Piano there.." Johnny knew the Piano. "We'll jam at Kare Kare beach! Eddie Vedder will be there, Phil Selway, Ed O'Brian, Lisa Germano, Neil's son's band Betchadupa..." Johnny wasn't sure if he had the time, hardly knowing Neil anyway but sort of liked the beach idea... Between all the beach and jamming stuff Neil mumbled something about 5 sold out shows, a DVD and a CD - BUT JAMMING AT THE BEACH! "I'll pay you a first class ticket!" Johnny had a listen to One Nil and really liked it. The day he got there they immediately started rehearsing. "I don't know if you know his music, but in 5 days we had to learn like 30 highly complicated songs!"
He called Neil a person with an amazing intelligence, somebody who thought a lot on the whole ego stuff and left it behind. He was very empathetic as well, Johnny told us, an amazing person and the whole 7 words band got friends for a lifetime after these days. He enjoyed talking about it
So this is how Neil got to get them there "Jamming at the beach, I'll pay you 1st class ticket..." Who cares - brilliant album anyway that everybody should own!!!!
It was there where Johnny got the idea to do an own, new album. He got to New Zealand with Down on the corner as a demo version, he told us. Everybody liked it a lot and really wanted to play it every day, wanted to genuinely play it because they liked it, encouraged him to do something with it, so he started to find people to make a new band after the whole Neil thing was over.
Have you seen 24 hour party people? It is brilliant when somebody who has kind of been a part of the Manchester music scene for nearly all of his life suddenly tells you about modern history of English pop music, hell, that's just one of the most amazing things that can happen to a young musicologist, things you tell your grandchildren about. "I've sat in a tiny room with one of THE british guitar legends, Johnny Marr, the guitarist of the Smiths, and he told us about music history and the comparison of social aspects between the London music scene and the Manchester one. About how he started as musician in Manchester and why everybody around there knows each other." Fantastic, really fantastic! Yay for next years uni course on Manchester/Liverpool pop music!!
He seemed to have a good connection to Amy, they had an off micro chat about Noel Gallagher. She kind of analysed his voice in her interview a couple of days back and had a rather intimate chat and Johnny seemed very interested. He later told friends that he'd like to get to know her better and �fter the show, he came over to say Goodbye and to get her email adress. In an innocent way!
My, he's so small! And still, wow, what a charisma! Whenever I see him, I have a little crush *purr*
The concert was rather mediocre... We were standing in the front row (as usual) and had good fun because it definitely rocked and was great music for sure. Johnny asked who in the crowd had seen him with Neil Finn in Cologne 2 years ago. 2 years, ****, that long ago, it's a shame that time goes by so quickly. I've seen the band's ghosts standing on stage, me sitting on the box in front of Shon in his white hat and his "egyptian eye" T-shirt. Good times...
Well front row Wooohoo for that
Johnny's band was cute, that guy from Kula Shaker and ****ing hell, I've never been so close to something that's genetically sooo much of the Beatles. Well I thought I've met Sean Lennon in Cologne once but I wouldn't wager on it really being him... Well but this time I knew and was able to see the relation it for sure. Zack Starkey, Zack *son of a beatle* Starkey. I wanted to yell "Oi, your father is hanging on my walls everywhere!" but that would be sooo lame! Instead I stared at him. In that wide white shirt, in that hairdo and with that beard he looked so much like his father and my imagination was rather running wild.. Like.. me at a beatles show in the Prime club, John Lennon and Heorge Harrison in front of me and Paul... luckily ill so I don't have to see him... *sigh* I'm such a pathetic little baby when it comes to music. Wow, Zack Starkey, yay! Beatle genes! Never been so close! Oh you see I still get all excited, hee hee... I didn't even try to get a signature, it's silly... But as long as he was on stage I felt I had the right to admire I'm all different when there's no concert. They're just people you know...
Johnny, ah, call him god, you know what he played? "Don't sing twise it's allright! - An old Dylan fave of mine. I never wished to have a lighter so much like the moment I recognized it. I think I was the only one to recognize it between all these Britpop kiss kiss people... Well I wasn't one of these anyway. Propably more people knew but I BET these didn't. I was all happy. Great one, sir!
As Johnny thought it's silly to do encores, he played the encore voluntarily. Short set, no Smiths classics, nothing. Disappointing for ones hoping for that. I wasn't. But I was happy anyway. Met some familiar faces after the show and got to know a neighbour from Bonn. Small world! Very small indeed!
Oh hey, I should mention the marvellous support act! Thumbs up for Mellowdrone, they rocked, they were VERY good! Musically better than Johnny actually.. *cough*
Nice evening, great people, very friendly atmosphere. Thumbs up for Johnny Marr shows!

New gossip on who's coming to Germany soon, wanna know? Yippeee, her website doesn't say so, but Yay, little Silke is very happy!

Miss Lisa Germano will tour the country with an acoustic tour. THANK GOD! I didn't like her at all in the beginning, but I do like her stuff now after being more into it. She's marvellous, she's so sad but her music is so beautiful! That'll be good summer I suppose