“beyond expectations”

It’s rather weird writing about things a day after they happen, but there is so little time free, so I’ll be back-blipping from some time to come yet.

Last night’s gig (friday) turned into a bit of a party.  John has been coming to this part of Germany with various bands, or on his own, for over 20 years but has never played in this particular venue.  He’s never even seen it before, so it’s all a bit unknown. 

We’re in a small pub out in the countryside a few miles from Bielefeld.  The landlady - a cheerful, robust woman called Rita - who incidentally ran away from home aged 18 to live in Goole for 10 years (we don’t know why) greets us enthusiastically, picks up the PA under both arms and leads us into a freezing cold room at the back.  I keep my parka on and prepare to do an Oasis impression.

Rita lights a fire and then brings us drinks and a plate of food.  I eventually take my coat off.

The place fills up with chatter and clatter while we set up.  It’s still full of chatter while we play.  It’s going to be a noisy pub gig.  

A few people near the front sit quietly and listen, while a big crowd at the back talk, shout and clink glasses.  But - they stop at the end of each song and cheer.  And that’s the way it goes till gone past 11.00 - we play, they talk then cheer.  At the end, they demand an encore.  We do some Beatles and Rolling Stones numbers and they go wild.

Finally, when we run out of steam, they move into another room to carry on drinking.  And smoking.  It appears that pubs only close when people go home.  

As we pack up, Rita brings in a large tray of schnapps for ‘the band’.  It’s rude to refuse. 

All the gear is in the car, the room is finally clear and as we put on our coats and pick up our instruments, Rita comes back, drags a chair across the floor, sits down and asks if we know anything by Lindisfarne.  We rack our collective memories, gather round her and manage a spirited rendition of ‘meet me on the corner.’  At this all the drinkers and smokers come back into the room for another song, but we manage to getaway.  Rita is delighted with the evening and asks us to comeback again.

As we leave a woman comes up and says that is it was “beyond expectations”.  We take it as compliment, but then begin to wonder what her expectations were to begin with.

It’s after 2.00am by the time we get home.  

So now it’s saturday and at 9.30am we’re expected for breakfast at the cafe in the forest that hosted our supper on tuesday and our gig on thursday.  It’s packed when we arrive; every saturday people come out for a sumptuous buffet breakfast.  Then at 11.00am we have a photo shoot with a local pro photographer. 

She is a textbook example of how to photograph people.  She smiles, engages with us, makes jokes and puts us at our ease so that when she asks us to walk down the steps of the cafe and then stop and do a ‘cool turn’, we not only know what to do, but are quite happy to do it.  With a crowd of people watching - and photographing us on their phones. 

She takes group shots and individual shots, always talking to us, demonstrating the poses she wants. 

You have to understand the context to get the significance of this; we are a group of old men, whose only experience of cool is forgetting to turn the heating on in the evenings.  The cafe owner, Ulrika, wanders among us with a tray of drinks and just for a moment we are rock stars.  

Every night since we’ve been here, I’ve had a heart arrhythmia around 3.00 in the morning and have needed the pills.  But I don’t care; the therapeutic value of sitting down with a group of musicians and making people clap and cheer is priceless.  And my voice is getting stronger with each gig - beyond expectations.

Main photo; John being cool.  Extras; Neil being cool and Ulrika being herself.

ps.  Sorry for the lack of comments, but the wifi is only on for half an hour a day.