Yes, who do you recognise on the left in the photo here? Quite right. It’s Yours Truly on stage and playing bass in a rock band, somewhere in a damp beer cellar in Munich, with the Roland Cube bass amp in the background.
Make the most of it for as far as I am aware, it’s the only photo extant of me playing bass live on stage, and you have had to wait for 40 years for this. And I wasn’t only playing bass but singing and I did the lead vocals on the old Kinks number “Lola” from 1970 or whenever it was. Shame no-one recorded it.
And not only that, Hans said that e-mail me his playlist so that I can practise at home and the other guy on stage, whose name I’ve forgotten, was very appreciative of my help on the vocals – and that’s a first by any standards.
It’s not actually in Munich to be fair – it’s in Eching which is a suburb of Munich and this is where I’m staying. The sofa was extremely comfortable and I had a good night’s sleep. In the morning we went out for breakfast to a small bakery near here where you can buy German bread rolls (German bread is the best in the world) of all kinds of varieties, helpings of strawberry jam and coffee too.
From there, Hans took me to show me a few places in the vicinity and where he worked, and then we took the metro and the tram into the city. And Brain of Britain hadn’t brought his camera, had he?
We ended up the afternoon going out to the Olympic Park and a mega-music shop nearby, and then came home. A small bio shop produced some vegan cheese which was a surprise, and so Hans made me a pizza base and toppings. That led to us all trooping around to the Pub around the corner and this is where we celebrated Hans’ birthday – three of us on the stage to a crowd (if you can call it that) that might have at one stage reached the dizzy heights of 20 people. Still, from little acorns, and all that.
So what is tomorrow going to bring I wonder?
