I was invited to tour with my old comrades ( Mark'n'Simon ) in Germany to help celebrate their 30th Anniversary of playing together (not too many bands can boast of that). I was part of that experience for 15 of those years so there was a ton of catching up to do with old friends and ghosts. Here's a (unedited) run down of the day to day life on and off the road:

TCs travel diaries ? Europe ?09

16/7/09
Up till arriving Dubai, everything seemed familiar and uneventful (is there a correlation?)- Christchurch ? Sydney - Bangkok - all 'old cheese'!
But, Dubai is my first visit to an Arabic land, and is very different
in flavour. On a billboard: "diversity is the one thing we have in
common"- there is plenty of ethnic diversity - one of the most diverse
in the world - which is probably why so many Dubaians speak English with each other. The landscape though, is much less diverse- literally a
concrete jungle. I took a day room downtown and by 7am ! I was out on the street looking for the "creek" which is a big river which you
could apparently walk around. For ages all I saw was cars. Typical
bloody kiwi wandering around in the heat - well in the 30s (the temp).
When I found the creek everything seemed locked - private stuff like
a golf course etc. Then I found a gate slightly ajar and wound up in the garden of the Dubai courts - not far to go if I got arrested for trespassing I guess. Getting out was much harder- had to
climb over a high fence and got really dirty. A gardener looked at me
strangely.  I was thinking this town is really crap. I was extremely
sweaty too, which I like, but was thankful for the day room with
dusche and air con and swimming pool.

At the pool a middle aged man
with maybe his adult son and daughter showed up. The young woman was in full Muslim gear - covered in black cloth except for the eyes -
while the men stripped off and frolicked around in the water. I found
it difficult not be judgmental in this moment. This was around midday
and temp up to maybe 40 - somehow unjust. She seemed happy enough videoing her menfolk- and seemed to get on well with her dad. In the few hours I had I started to recognize and appreciate the variety of traditional garb the women were wearing. The guys traditional garments are more practical: all white. If I was getting used to it in a few hours then I can start to get an idea of how accustomed you would be after a few centuries.

29/7/09
Well, there's been no time for diaries, so I'll try to capture a few
details from the last 10 days before they disappear altogether. MarknSimon were at the airport waving through the glass wall all excited. Drove down to Marks house and went to local biergarten for 1st Weissbier. Thurs. and Fri. were full rehearsal days and Sat. we drove up to Rosenheim to play at a private sommerfest to celebrate a half completed film production that MnS acted in as Hitmen. The first 40 mins were screened and it was great - whacky and professional on no budget, called: my left toe.  We didn't play before 12.30am and went straight through till 3.30 ?they wouldn't let us stop. It was a great hoot and we hung out there the next day too with the filmmakers and actors.


On Monday I Sbahned up to Munich to shop but was too fascinated by the crowds to concentrate. In the evening I met with a few locals: MnS, Claudia S, Claudia Weissbier, Klaus, Flo. Great fun - Flo wants to
make the video of my Fart symphony.

In the mornings I was jogging and swimming at the Ammersee by Mark. Tuesday evening Christoph W picked me up and we went eating and then met up with Sabine at their house where I stayed over.

So now Wednesday: After a bit of clothes shopping in Hohenzollenstr (MU), met with MnS and Jay to drive out to Helmut Mikalwskis (one name is not enough for him), the ex Bosch man who had given us a ton of gigs and cheap Bosch apps.
His true love is playing his (mostly pre Programmed) keyboard and singing the old songs. I jammed with him on accordian, it was actually the most relaxing few hours I had since arriving in Germany.

Lots of laughs and beers and schnapps as was expected, sitting on his porch on a really warm evening.
Thursday: a lot of prep for Marks summer party on Friday. We built a stage from heavy concrete blocks- great manly work but I strained my back.

We were to meet up with Jim Klopf in the evening before his gig but he was on another bad bender, and was completely off his face and had to blow off his gig. It's been the same pattern ever since I've known him and he miraculously survives, still living in the same bedsit in Schwabing. I figured he'd prefer me not to see him in that condition.
I took Mark to a Jazz gig at the Unterfarht- now in an old converted ubahn station - Chris Potter (sax) Quartett - guitar and Rhodes sharing the bass functions, and drums. Very slick fusion.

Friday: prep for party starting at 3pm- many old Munich faces. I was jamming with Will (sax) standards under a canopy until buckets of rain spoilt the hours of prep and we were all forced inside Marks wee kitchen and hallway. After initial chaos it became a nice intimate atmosphere, and later a few musos sat around the table for an impromtu concert: Mark, me - accordian and tpt, Trevor M, mandolin, and Alex on his NZ made guitar- with lots of 3 part vocal harmonies. A real highlight. We finished up with Trev me and Alex free improv- to a still and appreciative audience. We were organically very high.

Saturday 25th July: Early start, long drive to gig in Alzey over near Mannheim, and very stiff back. The gig went over well but many tech problems - at least the weather held.

Sunday - another longish drive over to Bamburg - a beautiful old town with river and restored old buildings. Our concert was on a big open air stage in the middle of a swimming area. We found the magic and the Professor (me) was in full swing. We deliver a great show.

Monday, 27th July.
Train from Bamberg to Freiburg and stopping off in Stuttgart to visit Serpil, old friend from early MnS days. She is 1st gen. Turkish in Germany and remembers having to lie to her parents in order to go with Sally and Tania to our gigs - her family being very strict. She has always struggled with her identity and we had a great yarn and also met her family for the 1st time. Evi was also on the same train to Freiburg but didn't see her. I got to Grikas place around 11.30 and we yarned and drunk white wine.

Tuesday: The day was spent with Evi and Ika. We biked quite a distance to Mundenhof Animal Park where we had lunch and found 50euros! We carried on to Opfinger Lake and went swimming and resting. The evening was spent with Hanna and Urli at their place over dinner.

Wednesday:
By this time I was becoming seriously in love with Freiburg again- amazing weather and going everywhere on bike paths, the lakes, the cafes & culture... I had forgotten how beautiful it is, at least in summer.
From 10 am till 2pm a great rave with Mike Schweizer at his house exchanging lots of recordings from the last years. The afternoon Shopping! with rapid success, even enjoying it.
Early evening biking out along the Dreisam river toward Dietenbach Lake, practicing trumpet under a bridge. I found my way OK to Cordula & Andreas. After yarning a while we went walkabout thru St Georgen where I lived for 7 years and saw the old haunts: the house, the spielstrasse, the milk farm and playground.. Highly nostalgic. We yarned further back at their place until I was too tired to bike to Ikas so crashed there.

Thursday:
It was so nice hanging with them I found it hard to leave. Dragged myself away early afternoon and biked around Rieselfeld and thought it a great place for young families. Phone battery flat so didn't have Isa&M's address. Went for long swim at Dietenbach and praticed again under a bridge. A little more shopping!
Dinner with Grika then went out with Caren (Andrea) & Berndt amongst buzzing Freiburg Fussganger Zone. Ended up later at the L?we, the late night musos eatery.

Friday morning last walkabout the fascinating Freiburg inner city then lunch with Grika & Verena. V works as ergo Therapist at a clinic - she seemed in a positive place, and accompanied me to the bahnhof.
Train to deep black forest, F?rstenburg, to meet MnS for the 30th anniversary gig. A few Freiburgers came and other ghosts of the past incl. Noemi with hubby Mark and young Gabriel (Simon?s son), now a vibrant young man of 17. Around 200 people were there and after the concert lots of catching up. A local jazz group played fusion standards and I jammed trumpet with them. Then Gabriel?s band played a few of their originals as a trio ? Gabriel?s face almost identical to Simons. I jammed a bit with them too and stumbled back thru the wee village to the hotel.

Saturday: quick game of table tennis with young Kevin before the long drive. The thing I love about being in Europe is the close proximity of so many different countries and languages. Today we were in 4 countries:
We drove down to Switzerland and across to Austria, then down through the Bremmer pass to North Italy, or S?d Tirol where we played a flash gala gig in a picturesque mountain town called Naturns.
Christoph, Sabine, Sybila (Simons beau) and Klaus Lotz! showed up. As usual, I played into my birthday, but this time didn't run away during 'happy birthday'. After the gig my 50th was celebrated with strange presents - another very late night.

Sunday 2nd August: not too badly hungover we breakfasted at hotel, packed up, and drove up to Innsbruck where I took the train over to Altaussee to stay with Franz and Greta.
Picked up from Salzburg station by Franz, Greta & Sophie. They all look the same, and as soon as we got into the car Greta started whacking poor Franz as per usual. They are so funny. We walked around the altstadt and everything looks like a museum, and every 2nd thing is named after Mozart (I saw the house where he was born). Similar deal like Che Geuvara in Cuba. It's all extremely picturesque and swimming in culture- mostly of a classical Nature.
During the drive to their mountain house in Altaussee we figured out that they must have stayed at the hotel Seville in Havana at the same time as my mother and Shelley! They loved Cuba too and we swapped stories. In their house 3 other friends of theirs were staying as well: Vali, Manfred & Malis plus 2 boys, Flo and Ferdinand (Sophies bro. ) He's the spitting image of Franz now at age 18.
The next 2 days mostly spent just hanging out, as my back was quite strained again. I went to hospital on the tuesday and forgot I had my holy undies on (summer collection) as I had to expose them for the xray before the female dr. and 2 nurses. I got prescribed drugs which seemed to work.
On Monday night we watched my Cuba film on a laptop and it went down well. On Tues. night we played a board game which includes pantomime and is very competitive- Greta and Franz were screaming within 10 mins- Greta accusing Franz of cheating, which drove her murderous.

Weds. morning we went to a climbing park for the boys and we sat in a mountain restaurant (Sophie had already left for Barcelona). We just made it to the bus to Salzburg where I wanted to spend the evening (and have a break from yarning) amongst all the culture. In particular there was an outdoor filmed performance of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. All the players were youngish and mixed from Israel, Palestein and other Arabic countries-an exercise in music transcending politics and race.


It's now Thursday 6th of August and training up from Salzburg to Rosenheim, Germany, still treading cautiously with the old tender back nerve. I'm so excessively a sun man and blooming again in the sun after 2 days mountain rain. In Rosenheim, south of Munich, I'm picked up by Ivonne in an old orginal 70s 'Duck' (Ente) with the top down cruising through country lanes to the 1st of the last 4 concerts with Mark'n'Simon and the Professor. In Sollhuben we're to
play in a large hall with Slavko and co. recording to video. Slavko (director of 'my left foot nail') offered me the job of scoring the film, which I accepted on the spot. My back became miraculously better after applying some 'pferde salbe' (horse salve)- or maybe the drugs had done their job, or both. The gig went well, the lads in good form with Jay F & Ray (sax) jamming at the end. After the show, or in addition, Simon performed his world record breaking, Guiness Book of Records entering, display of how many straws can be shoved in a human gob. The record was 398 and before witnesses and television reporters, Simon managed 402! Go Si!

Incredibly, the cook, who'd been slaving all day, jumped up on request for food at 2am and came back with a huge meat platter - musicians treated like kings..ah.
Friday, after packing up, I wandered over to where 3 horses were parked and they became super aggressive, which made me think it was the copious quantity of horse salve I had applied..?
No really huge distances to cover on this leg of the tour so quite relaxed.

Today we play in Raisting in a nice outdoor setting. Barbel, from way back mid 80s days, shows up and joins us for the whole weekend. I notice how different this is from the many brief encounters I've been having, esp. at gigs where time is so limited. Hanging out over a couple of days allowed the old friendship to unfold more naturally. Also that night a Cuban/German guitarist called Orlando jammed with us - very funky - as did our old mate Byron. Both also very nice chaps.

We stayed over at Marks then next day a 2 hour drive up north of Munich to Cham, where we'd played many times before - this time though outside in a large biergarten.
This was probably my best gig - now really on top of the timing of the show - and freed up enough for plenty of improvisation. The guys were very impressed with my 'summer collection' underwear (the back end being now very exposed) the dare was on to display them onstage- the cue was something to do with a 'full moon' ... my career as a serious composer officially ended at that point.
Terry and Katherine from Nth England showed up too, and although I only understand half of what they say, I enjoyed their very authenticness over the next 3 days. Terry & I performed our ritual randomly placed version of jingle bells for 2 trumpets on 2 gigs.


Sunday, and back down to Marks for a quick swim before setting up for our last concert just down the road.
Their were a lot of the old 'faces' expected there including Annette and Rosie in their 'rollies' (wheelchairs), Vroni happily introducing her boyfriend, and the very smart and cute 6yr old daughter of Jay, among others. Having a kid has been the saving grace of a number of musicians I've noticed.

After a gig the time is far to short to devote enough time to everybody. Another very bright kid, and musically gifted I believe is Leonado, son of Will & Tania who is now looking after my digPiano.
We finished off the night back in Marks kitchen, 7 of us, enjoying our friendships and more great german beer & bread.

Monday 4 of us went swimming and then back to pack up.
Sbahn up to Munich to meet up with my old drummer mate Yogo who drove down especially from N?rnberg with his wife, pianist, Hildegard.
A very nice dinner in quiet back garden Italian place - Di Penne?- in Hohenzollen str (26?). Christoph W showed up too. Not only have I been re-connecting with old friends, they have been amongst themselves as well as a result.
We walked back up into Schwabing, where I used to play with bands in the 80s and over to Franzstr 5, a music venue called Alfonsos where I was invited to jam and listen to Byrons trio.

They played a mix of 60s &70s rock plus originals with some experimental elements- very tight and the bassist was a girl just turned 18 and already very happening.
It's always an action to go anywhere around Munich, so an hours worth of Ubahning and driving to get back to Marks.

Last day- Tuesday 11th - calls and goodbyes. Mark, Simon, Sybila and I drive over to Slavkos house for Ritas birthday (amazing pizza & cake)and to sit down and talk through their film regards music. It's unusual and fascinating and a challenge - I'll be working on it back in NZ.
The airport is the last station for this trip- time for a last pils (lager) and hang out, laugh and goos with the brothers. Hard to leave, but leaving on a high and inspired to come back to the old country again - and soon.