JEBO German Gig Blog

Greyhound Pier 1 – Duesseldorf, Germany

Friday December 5^th 2008
 

Well, here we are, it’s December, it’s freezing and we’re in Germany, must be another European JEBO gig!

I write to you from the location of tonight’s show where JEBO are due to play. They’re billed with German act The Path of Genesis who are  kinda like The Musical Box but with a sense of humour (can I say that, I guess I just did, oh well, shoot me)!

Let’s first of all backtrack to Friday morning, having flown out from Stansted at the crack of sparrow’s fart, I meet up with John Burns and Nick O Neill at Dusseldorf airport. Burnsy is producing the eagerly awaited second album from the boys and is here for moral support.  

Our convivial host and King of Neuss, Peter Iserloh meets us gives the three of us a lift to the nearest schnitzel house where we proceed to consume three tonnes of schnitzel and enough fries to sink a small country, some beers and a free glass of schnapps and it’s aahh, much better. En route to our now spiritual home The Furtherhof in Neuss where most of us are staying, we make a pit stop at Saturday’s venue where we’re due to meet the rest of the band who are currently driving down through Europe in the tour bus, they arrive a short while later, there’s much merry making and general larking about, both of which go hand in hand with a JEBO gig.
 

Greyhound Pier 1, Saturday’s venue is located in the industrial heart of Duesseldorf right on the water and is quite a site. We load in, meet the other band and take a look around the venue, this time we have a nice large backstage area (when I say, backstage, it was located at the back of the venue, up some stairs) but still very nice. There’s talk of catering, one of my favourite words.

Myself and the band get to know the green room, not that it was green, I think it may have been orange actually. Anyway, a little later the band setup, the soundcheck isn’t due until tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon so we’re pretty much free for the rest of the day.

We drive across to the Furtherhof, en route, Pete notices that a certain Mr Lawrie Jones has his headlights turned off (he’s in his car behind us). We stop at some traffic lights, Pete gets out of his van, points to Lawrie and shouts ‘turn on your lights, you F***!’, on go Lawrie’s headlights and a human disaster is averted. We turn up at the Furtherhof and are greeted by the lovely Kerstin and Nicole, owner and bar manager respectively, having stayed here twice before for previous German gigs, we get a warm reception.

It’s getting late so we decide to turn in, big gig tomorrow, the boys must meet their German public.

Saturday December 6^th

We wake early at Peter’s and meet the boys at Denis’ Bakery for a hearty German breakfast. We then do an awful lot of faffing around deciding where to go and what to do. If you don’t mind I shall jump forward to later in the day, that’s more interesting. It’s around 3pm and the venue is busy with lighting folks, there’s the crew and band of The Path of Genesis, the caterers, sound people, merchandisers and a man peering into a laptop trying out various projections on a large screen that’s hung behind the stage.

JEBO sound check a little while later and a few of us decide to go off and have a look around the old part of town and grab a beer. We check out the local Christmas market, with Gluehwein (that’s mulled wine to you and I), some very odd and quite scary Christmas market stands and enormously large sausages that seem to take Lawrie’s fancy, that boy never stops eating!  We find a great little bar around the corner and have a couple of beers, as we leave we invite the pretty blonde bar lady to the gig (she never showed, what a surprise!).

We head back to the venue where there is even more activity, things are hotting up. The merch stand is putting out some JEBO CD’s and flyers and there’s an excellent poster of the band for the gig. There’s the odd journalist milling around and we start setting up a movie-cam on the balcony to film the show, always useful. Cameras are being snapped at the stage, the lights are being tested and a friend of the band Matt who has been charged with JEBO lighting duties for the night, is asked by The Path of Genesis to do their lighting too (it’s okay matey, they only play for two and a half hours!). The band gather on the stage for a few quick shots for a local newspaper, in the background, there are various JEBO logos flashing on the large screen, this is all rather impressive!

What’s also impressive is the newly packaged debut album for the German market, it looks excellent. As a side note here, the band landed a German distribution deal earlier this year so pretty soon, the German public will have access to ‘Sinking Without You’. Pete has to be thanked for this, he’s a huge supporter of the band and our man in Europe. As our promoter for the evening, with the help of the distributors he has set this whole gig up and has been in charge of ticket sales, there was certainly no shortage of promotional posters in and around town.  

We head up to the backstage area where there is an abundance of food layed out, Johnny’s chatting with various fans and friends and signs a few Genesis album covers. Some of us hit the buffet, I’ll spare you the detail as this is not a bloody catering diary (I know, could have fooled me!) but there was a fantastic chocolate fountain, this I have to mention. The chap doing the projections on the backscreen sits down with Lawrie and together they run through the set so they can coordinate, I gotta say, this is one of the funniest things I’ve seen for a long time. Lawrie: ‘Well, this one’s kinda slow then fast and then a bit faster and then it goes slow again, like this, la la la’,  priceless, thanks mate.  

Almost exactly an hour and a quarter later the band leave the stage to an excellent audience response, they loved it. We all adjourn backstage where we talk about the show, the band are whisked around to various people, some journalists, others just interested parties and we all congratulate them on an excellent performance. Naturally, more food is consumed and I make a beeline for the chocolate fountain, only to find James with this head almost stuck in it! It’s alright mate, I’m coming in after you.

Looks like we’ve sold some CD’s, the band sign various copies for fans and Pete Johnny and I have a chat with Christian from the distribution company who we’d also like to thank for his help in making things happen here.

We stay at the venue till late, sadly there’s no more beer, we eventually load the van and head back to the Furtherhof for a late night libation (that’s a drink to you and I). We get there just in time before it closes (it closes, this I didn’t know). We don’t hang around too long, it’s late and we’re all tired, time to travel back to blighty tomorrow, damn shame!

So that’s it, pretty much, we all say our goodbyes on the Sunday morning, the band takes off in the tour bus and we all part ways, for the while.

And so the JEBO story continues, who knows where (well, here probably) and who knows when (well, at some point during 2009 I imagine)

Check back soon and thanks for reading fellow JEBOANS!