This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Spandau Ballet in Munich, Berlin and Dusseldorf
5th, 6th and 7th March 2010
When the european dates on the Spandau tour were announced for November 2009, I pencilled a couple in a couple of the dates, I wasn't sure which ones, but as the dates were postponed, it brought a different dilema. Last September my daughter decided that she was getting married in March, it would either be the 13th or 20th, as it turned out, the 13th was to be the big day, so if I was to get to see Spandau in Europe it would have to be a weekend and either Zargreb and Belgrade or Germany. I looked into the logistics of getting to the gigs and Germany won.
It probably wasn't the brightest idea going away the week before the wedding or for my partner in crime Wendy who was getting ready to trek in the Namibian desert for Action Medical Research just 10 days after our return but we went anyway.
My journey started on the Thursday evening with a drive to Wendy's house, ready for our short trip to Heathrow for our first flight - Munich was our first destination and we arrived without a hitch. From my reseach about hotels, transport and the venue, I had worked out that the airport, the main hotels and the venue were not near each other, so I decided that it would probably be better to hire a car and stay near the airport. This would be only the second time that I had driven on the other side of the road and the first time in the dark, but I'm game for a challenge and I had Wendy as my co-pilot again.
The weather was very cold when we made our way to the venue and as it was a standing gig we needed to be there early to pick up the tickets and join the queue so we could attempt to get as close to the front as possible. It was a very cold wait until the doors opened and we could join the rush to the front.
We went into the venue, it was just a large almost aircraft hanger type place with the stage at one end, a makeshift cloakroom at the back of the hall, the bar and snacks to the right and the merchandise stall to the left. I was surprised that the venue wasn't nicer and it seemed strange that it was on an industrial estate. We found a place to the right of the stage about three rows of people back, but near enough to the stage for Tony to be able to see us. It seemed a long wait for the show to start, we couldn't even listen to other peoples conversations as the amount of German we know is quite limited. There was no Rusty Egan and his music and chewing gum, just 80s music over the loudspeakers.
But it was then time for the show to start, we knew what to expect, the silhouetted figures behind the curtain waiting for the start. The curtain dropped and it was the start of another show. The video wall and stage set up was the same as the the UK gigs, the only difference was that Man in Chains had been replaced by 'Always in the Back of my MInd'.
The time really goes quickly when I'm at a gig, but I was really pleased when Tony recognised us from the stage, he had his surprised look on his face as he wasn't expecting to see us there.
It was way too cold to wait round after the show, so we made our way back to the hotel, we also had an early start at the airport the next morning. The next morning came and we looked out the window - oh heck snow! No wonder it had been so cold the day before. It was March, surely it wasn't supposed to snow, the car I had hired didn't have winter tyres on it, but thankfully the snow was powdery and hadn't fallen on top of a layer of ice on the car. I drove gingerly to the airport, thankfully it was fairly early and there wasn't much traffic on the roads, although I seemed to be driving round and round the airport trying to find the car rental return car park. At last we got to the airport and checked in for our next flight, We went to departures and looked out the window and saw the snow continuing to fall. Our thoughts were - were we ever going to make it to Berlin or would we get stuck Munich, although we could see snow ploughs clearing the runway and the time of departure was delayed. Eventually they let us on the plane, but it would be another two hours before we actually took off, they spent most of that time de-icing the plane. Eventually we took off on our way to Berlin.
On the plane we had struck up conversation with a nice German lady who offered us a lift to the underground station, this saved us a bit of time, so thanks to the nice lady. We navigated the Berlin UBahn and got to our hotel just up the road from the venue. Thankfully it was much warmer in Berlin but there was still a cold wind. I'd pre-booked our hotel over the internet for its location, but I wasn't impressed by having to pay cash for the room or the smell of smoke when we got to the room, but it was only a base and only for one night. We asked at reception whether there was a supermarket close by and was told 2 km away, but we decided to go out for a walk, see where the venue was. It seemed to be in an area with a lot of official offices, but not much shopping. As we were going down the road to the venue we noticed a sign for Burger King! It wasn't that far away and it also had a Lidl type supermarket next door.
Evening came and it was time to queue up again, again we had to go to the box office to pick up the tickets, unfortunately the building that we thought was the venue was actually a disused part of the venue and that everyone was waiting on some steps and in front of some closed doors. We weren't sure where to wait as there were two doors with people in front of them, so Wendy waited in front of one and I waited in front of the other. When the doors eventually opened, I was at the wrong door and had to make my way through the crowds to get to the other door, which proved quite difficult.
Once into the venue, any thoughts of getting on the front row were dashed but we managed to get to second row on the side, which compared to some other venues was quite close to the centre because this venue was quite small. I was really surprised quite how smaill it was. It also had an upstairs area.
The curtain was folded in at the side and it seemed they had left half of the video wall in the truck, John's drumkit had one less step in its staging and there was hardly any space next to Dawn Josephs and I think the pathway behind John had been omitted. We still managed to get to second row and when somebody moved, Wendy managed to get to the front rail.
The set list was the same as the night before, but due to the smaller video screen the 'Round and Round' video didn't have the same impact and Tony had less room to move about the stage and I think having less steps up to John's drumkit confused him. Of course the nearly two hours goes way too quickly and it is time for the show to end. No sooner than the show is over, the crew start dismantling everything, a steward put a plastic tape across the venue and start moving everyone towards the door. We were trying to stay indoors in the warm as long as possible, As our hotel was only up the road, this gig seemed to be the best for waiting at. We managed to speak to Tony for a little while, so that made our day. As the song by Berlin 'Take my breath away' goes, well no this gig didn't take my breath away as I'm sure there were nicer venues in better parts of Berlin than this one and I didn't actually see anything of Berlin in a tourist way, but speaking to Tony and the rest of the band afterwards was nice.
Time to go back to the hotel, sleep, pack and have breakfast before getting back on the UBahn and bus back to the airport, this went fine and the bus driver didn't seem to want any money for the final leg back to the airport. Good job we had allowed plenty of time at the airport as it was hard to find the correct check in desks and departures and the check in clerk questioned that we wanted to go to Dusseldorf - of course we did, it was the final destination on our mini tour.
The flight to Dusseldorf was uneventful and we arrived on time. It was easy to navigate around Dusseldorf airport and we found the train station with a direct link to the Haupbanhof where we were staying. It was a quick train ride and we were soon at the hotel. As we were checking in, we saw some women who had been at the gig the previous night just going up to their rooms.
As it was a Sunday most of the shops around the station were closed, we wanted to get a few supplies in and found a small corner shop that was open, unfortunately the shopkeeper spoke no English, but we managed with me counting in German on my fingers. What we hadn't found was the open supermarket in the station, which would have been much easier. In the UK, bottles of still mineral water have a blue top and sparkling have a green top, this is not the case in Germany unless you buy a much more expensive branded one. This was the second night that we ended up with sparkling water - not nice if you don't like sparkling, but better than no water at all like the first night.
It was soon time to go to the venue, the advantage of this hotel was that it was an Ibis and was easy to find, the disadvantage was that we would have to find our way to the venue on the UBahn. I had studied the maps, managed to understand the ticket machine, but our first mistake was to go to the wrong platform, we got on the train, but soon realised that it was going in the opposite direction to the one we needed, so we got off and tried to get back to where we started. I finally sorted out which platform and train we should be on and we made our way to the venue. It was easy to find the venue, we just followed everyone else under the railway bridge.
We got to the venue and it was a much, much nicer venue than either of the two others, it was modern with an easy to find box office to pick the tickets up from again. We had lost some time by going the wrong way on the UBahn, so thoughts of getting to the front middle were dashed again, but we did manage to get to second row on the right, a similar place to the night before.
Everything was back to normal with the stage, a full sized curtain and video wall and more steps again. The band behind the curtain looked back to their impressive selves on the large stage. With a standing gig and having to get there early, it was a long wait until the show started, but when it did, it was worth waiting for. Tony was on top form and really enjoying the show. This was the best of the three shows we saw in Germany and of course it was over too soon. Tony rocked.
I'd decided that I'd like a tour t-shirt from the European part of the tour and whilst I was waiting to be served noticed Mandy waiting, she'd sent me a couple of texts about this gig, but for some unknown reason my phone charges me for the messages but then sends me a report that it couldn't deliver them, so she didn't get the replies I sent her. T-shirt bought and we went over for a chat and also met Sandra and Marianne from the fan club, we then got thrown out of the venue because it was closing and continued to chat outside, thankfully it was much warmer (but still cold) in Dusseldorf than in either Berlin or Munich, we then walked around to the back of the venue and saw other members of the band but not Tony. It was too early to finish the evening so Sandra, Marianne, Wendy and I went to a nearby bar to warm up and continue chatting for a while. We then made our way back to our hotels in a taxi.
Next morning it was time to go back to the airport, just a quick train ride and time to check in for the final time on this trip. After an uneventful flight, we were back to the UK and the end of our German adventure. We had a good time and probably overdosed a little with three gigs on consecutive nights, it was now time for my drive home and back to last minute things for the wedding and for Wendy to finish preparing for the trek.
Spandau Ballet are off to Australia next and although Tony is playing on my birthday there, I will not be making the trip down under, much as I would like to and look forward to seeing him at the festivals over the summer.
Denise - March 2010