30/5/91

So it's off we jolly well go all bright faced and starry eyed. Down to Dover and onto our favorite ferry. Into the disco we go with the usual stock of stellaand blue label vodka. Phil starts up the now customary card school and proceeds to win everyone's money, and then buys his own bottle of blue label. The crowd eventually reaches land and disembarks at Ostend. The drunken rowdy mob clears customs and sets off on the long haul to Dresden. We get as far as Hannover when we are met by a solid wall of traffic - this being very strange as it's the first traffic jam we have seen in Germany and it's 02:00am. The happy travelers fall out of the bus and onto the auto bahn. Phil having drunk his bottle of Blue label is now in a state of hallucinatory stupor and is busy banging his head on the side of the crew's van. 1 hour later after Phil has been carried back to the band wagon and poured in we set off again. We hit Dresden auto bahn at 07:00am. We have to stop for breakfast and toilets at the now widespread West German type East German services. The band and crew break into the Coca-Cola machine and raid it's entire contents. Finally we arrive in Dresden - what a town, what people, what a crap hole! (It's said that when the wall came down all the good looking people moved to the West)

31/5/91

Radebeul Sekte - Well it's like a youth club but it's not too bad - there's plenty of beer and wine and it's really sunny, only problem is that no one speaks English and our German is crap. Anyway after lots of arm waving and gesturing we are all set up and ready to go. About 200 East Germans turn up and stand and watch for the first half of the set, then they start jigging about, and at the end they are doing what can only be described as barn dancing. We think they enjoyed it, and so did we, that was until we found out hotel was a holiday camp complete with 5,000 mosquitoes per chalet.

1/6/91

Lindena Open Air - This place isn't on any maps and takes about 3 hours to find. Once there it's the same old problem, no English sprechen. So we have a game of football the international friendly game everyone understands. Unfortunately we beat them into a pulp, especially Darren who is extremely brutal with his big boots. We think it is for this reason that we are given the furthest dressing room and locked away to starve. The show goes on to about 1,000 and it's a blistering success notable for the Val Doonican sit down version of LA Rain. This time it's a hotel - wow! At breakfast which is in the bar we get bacon and eggs- cor, and we meet an East German custom which nearly had us all fighting. When old East Germans greet each other on a morning it is customary to bang very hard on the table. That's great, but not every time someone comes in - you get showered in eggs & bacon, coffee, tea, beer and anything else that happens to be on the table in front of you.

2/6/91 - 6/6/91

The Rose on holiday in Berlin - this section has been censored to avoid any red faces.

7/6/91

Magdeburg Kellertheater - It's a cellar at the university and Megdeburg is a big Russian barracks, so not many Western influences here. No English again, plus they send us to the only decent restaurant in town. Strange people here, no applause, no shouting - after a set of total silence in the audience the Rose go back stage to commit suicide, only to be stopped by the gleeful promoter (who's bar sales had been astronomical - they had never seen so many people in one place before) he tells the band they must go back on, "but they hate us" shout the band…. "no no they love you, they would go home if they didn't like you" So back on they went, twice infact, and the audience still waited after the gear had been packed…culture shock I guess.

8/6/91

Postdam Lindenpark. Nice town brilliant venue, brilliant show. Great all night party afterwards - what else can I say?

9/6/91

East Berlin Gerard Phillipe. Really good venue but no advertising, and nobody travels to East Berlin from the West, so 50 people - it's a shame because the boys are rocking - the East Berliners cried and we had a big party.

10/6/91

Leipzig Eiskeller. Again no advertising, 60 people turned up because they heard a rumour. At first they sat and watched, but one by one they got up and started dancing, by the end they were going crazy. After the show the whole audience came back stage with a note written in English saying "Please we beg you please come back to Leipzig, thank you for coming today" …. Well doesn’t that bring a tear to the eye, and they even brought everyone a drink.

11/6/91

Braunschweig Jolly Joker. After another hard night in East German student accommodation we wake to find the van has now lost both wing mirrors, but we don't care because today we are off back to the glorious efficient English speaking rider waiting when you arrive back in the West. What a massive club, we are playing the back room, it's packed and the boys rock out to the usual rapturous West German reception. Afterwards a special treat a hotel and how we love pillows, fully pillows.

12/6/91

Heiligenhaus Der Club. It's a lovely little place only one problem - the PA doesn't work. Only one thing for it Om the soundman strips it down and rebuilds it which takes 5 hours, but what else can you do with 300 people waiting outside? Anyway it works and the show goes on a little late, but it's great, if a little hot.

13/6/91

Day off - Phil, Darren, Garpe and Clench head off into the sunset to find enlightenment. That leaves Paul, Andy, Danny, Ran, Sid, Om to find amusement in Koln. So off we go to see Rausch - it’s a journey worth making as their hospitality is second to none, they even let Andy backstage. After that it's tour of the clubs with extremely sore noses.

14/6/91

Bingen Open Air - PA is fucked again, half an hour before we are due on stage there's about a 100 people, then all of a sudden 1,500 turn up - what a relief! Amazing gig, great little town, but no night clubs.

15/6/91

Reutlingen Zelle - The PA is so small we have trouble finding it. It's just too damn hot & everyone is in serious danger of collapsing.

16/6/91

Off to Ostend and back to Leeds at top speed - all totally wasted, warn out and knackered. We must never have a holiday in the middle of a tour again thats for sure!