Wise Guys and PayTV in Köln
January 29th 2006 - Johanneskirche, Köln, Germany - cancelled
Actually I can't write a concert report about this concert, for the concert didn't take place. Clemens was ill. But, I was in Köln anyway and had a pretty good time. And besides, I just want to tell you what happened and share my memories with you. So lets start at the beginning of this story.
In october last year I ordered my ticket for the concert in the Johanneskirche in Köln. Every year, the Wise Guys play two concerts in this church at the same day. First concert starts at 16.00, the other concert starts at 20.00. Tickets can only be bought at one specific bookshop in Köln. I know the right people to buy me a ticket. Or actually I should say: They know me. For if Steini hadn't asked me to come along, I would probably never have had the idea to visit this concert. I was talked into it very quickly, to be honest. You can read our ICQ conversation in my blog (click here if you want to read it).
Most of the time, the concerts in the Johanneskirche are being visited by people from Köln and surroundings. It's quite a small church, the concerts are sold out very quickly and because tickets can only be bought in that bookshop, there are not much people from far away who can gather a ticket. But, for today we had organised something like a reunion, there were about twenty people from the Wise Guys Forum Meeting from last summer. People from Berlin, Hamburg, München, Hannover and me from the Netherlands. A lot of people had travelled for hours, including me.
I was looking forward so much to see all these people again. I arrived at Köln at 12.50. And that's exactly where this story starts to get weird. I walked down the stairs, turned right to the hall where I would wait for some others, and I found myself walking behind Dän, Sari, Ferenc and Eddi, four of the five Wise Guys. I had to smile and the thought crossed my mind what an extraordinarily coincident this was. Travelling for hours, arriving in the city where you will visit a concert, and then the first people you see are the band members. Very weird. I walked on, shy enough not to say anything. They turned right, I walked on to the hall and started to wait for the others. After a couple of minutes, I saw Dän, Sari, Ferenc and Eddi walking right into me. I just _had_ to say something now, so I waved and said "Bis gleich" Then Dän said the concert couldn't take place, because Clemens was ill. I thought he was making a joke, but he was serious. He said "Du bist von Holland angereist gekommen, oder? Es tut mir wirklich leid..." Clemens took a taxi from the station home and the other four where now on their way to the church. The fact he recognised me as being "the one from Holland" totally amazed me, but his message had been clear. The concert was cancelled. And I was the first to know. They had just arrived from another concert (in Hamburg) and just decided they would have to cancel both concerts in the Johanneskirche today. What a dissapointment... but when one of them is ill, he's just ill. Can't help it, it's just a fact. The four walked on, leaving me pretty stunned and the only thing I could say was "Gute Besserung an Clemens!!" I couldn't believe this was happening. After hours of travelling I had arrived, already met the Wise Guys and heard the news. Boaaaa.... This day was going to be a lot different!
I had to wait for another ten minutes, then two girls walked into me and they seemed to know me, haha. They were Julia and Jana, but I didn't know them (yet). They told me Nina and lena were buying rings. I told them the concert was cancelled. Then Nina and lena joined us. Woaaa, so good to see them again!! After hugging I told them I just met four of five Wise Guys and the concert was going to be cancelled. And guess what: They just didn't believe me! They thought I was joking! Ey, you know me, don't ya? Me? Joking about something like that? At the same time, lena got a call from Flyli, telling her the Wise Guys had arrived at the church and told them the concert was being cancelled. Then, they thought Flyli and I had hatched a plot! Anyway, we got into the car and drove off to the Johanneskirche anyway. I was the only one with a map from Köln, luckily, because the navigation system didn't really gave us the correct route. We found the church, and there the girls found out I wasn't making jokes. I had almost started to believe them, feeling as if I had dreamt about meeting the Wise Guys at the station, haha.
The four Wise Guys were still at the church, talking to people who had already arrived. The crew
was breaking down the stage and other technical equipment. We met the other twenty people.
It was so good to meet everybody, but there was a lot of disappointment as well. The Wise Guys really
regretted canceling the concert, because quite a lot of people had travelled from so far away.
There were cookies and cake for free, and we stayed for an hour or so, chatting. Actually it was
very nice. The sun was shining, people were hugging, chatting and laughing. The concert had been
moved now to next Sunday, but I already decided I couldn't make it a second time to Köln. Not
only is a train ticket quite expensive, we also have other plans for next weekend, among them a
Rock4 concert...
Disappointment doesn't mean we're giving up. Probably the three most heard expresions this afternoon were *cheng cheng*, *du kannst nicht alles haben* and *was solls, hacken wir halt Holz*. (Yes, even the Bodo-virus is present.) Eddi tries to cheer us up by giving us the thumbs up.
We made a PLAN B. PLAN B was actually already part of PLAN A. PLAN A was going to the Wise Guys concert, and afterwards going to a PayTV concert in the MTC Club in the evening. Now, the Wise Guys concert didn't take place, so PLAN B was just going to the PayTV concert. We didn't come to Köln for nothing!
For those who don't know PayTV, there's this paragraph. Others can skip this part. PayTV is a band from Hamburg. I've seen them play at the Tanzbrunnen Wise Guys concert last year, where they were the Wise Guys supporting act. But, there they played as the Rockhouse Brothers. Today we were going to see them as PayTV. Shortly said: As the Rockhouse Brothers, these three men play coversongs. As PayTV they play their own songs. The bandmembers are called James Carnwath (my little brother Jamie), Wolff Reichert (the Wolfman) and Joe Carnwath (Joey the Saint)
We had plenty of time, so together with Nina, lena, Rike, Julia and Jana, I walked to the Wise Guys Office. Because Nina had never been there and she wanted to see it. You have to understand, this office is a popular touristic attraction among Wise Guys fans. Of course, we couldn't enter the office, but viewing it from outside was nice as well. Nina and lena grabbed the chance to get engaged right in front of the office. Remember they had bought rings at the station already? It was a very emotional moment ;) ;) haha.
We walked back to the Johanneskirche, Rike went home and we (lena, Nina, Julia, Jana and I) got into the car and drove to the MTC club already.
We were very early but at least we had plenty of time to find ourselves a parking place. These
streets in Köln are so full of cars, it's unbelievable. After parking, we walked into
the street and found the PayTV van standing there. It seemed to be unpacked so we guessed the
three were having an early dinner somewhere, just as we were planning to do. We walked down
the streets and suddenly found ourselves staring at Wolffs face on the other side of the window
of a restaurant. Whaaaahaha! Howling with laughter (very obvious when you've
just seen Wolff) we walked on. We found a nice place to have dinner. We ate slowly and
drank slowly, because we had soooo much time left!! We played cards and had another drink.
Outside it got darker and finally at half past seven we got outside, and walked to the MTC.
There we met Wolff and Jamie, standing outside. Had a little chat and waited for the club
to open. The supporting group was still doing their sound check, so we had to wait. Just
after eight we could enter. We were very, very happy, because it was so very cold outside.
Inside, we had to wait until after nine before the supporting group started to play. This
group is called "The Legoplastics" and their music was most of all very, very, very loud.
It was just after ten when PayTV started playing. Silke and Aroha had also arrived. The audience was small, unfortunately. But the spirits were high! I won't write a concert report about this concert. Nina will do so, because she knows this band A-Z. You can check all the details about PayTV at her website, Ninawelt. Here you can also read her concertreport from tonight. We had a really great time there. Let me show you some pictures.
After the show we bought the new album, got it signed, made pretty pictures with Wolff, Jamie and Joe, and slowly started getting to the point where we had to say goodbye to each other. Aroha was going to bring me to Serena's house, where I could sleep. A weird day had come to an end, a day with a lot of different emotions. A day at which I met friends and made new friends. A day which I will not soon forget!!
Aroha brought me to Serena. Finding her house in the middle of the night wasn't easy, but we managed. Sleepy Serena opened the door and I got in quickly. After a short chat we both went to sleep. It was a short night, at half past six we woke up. We had breakfast together at the backery closeby, and then Serena brought me to a subway center from where I travelled to the center of Köln. She had to get to work. I spent the morning walking through the city center, visiting the Dom Church, doing some shopping, visiting an internet cafe and drinking hot tea to stay warm. At the beginning of the afternoon my train left and brought me back to the Netherlands. My thoughts still running German... I love Köln, even without concerts. I love the people I've met, I love the pretty language, I hope I'll get back here again and again and ...
Links to check out:
Ninawelt, where you can find the detailed concert report from the PayTV concert (written in German) and many pictures and other reports, Rockhouse Brothers and PayTV where you can read all about Joe, Jamie and Wolff!