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Old 14 Feb 2008, 14:01   #1
wii
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Join Date: 07 Nov 2000
Location: Denmark
Posts: 13,695
7 Party in Berlin (Germany), Dec 1996

It all started in 1984. I was 15 years old (well, young). One day I sat in a room in my school. It was where we used to listen to music. I heard 3 songs that I especially loved. But I didn´t know who the artist was. I thought that they were from three different artists, but they weren´t. The songs I listened to were: “Forever Young”, “Big in Japan” and “Sounds like a melody”. I was caught by surprise. I fell for them immediately. Since that day I´ve listened to Alphaville´s music all the time. Their music really lasts forever.

The years went by. I was waiting for them to go on a tour, and finally when I stopped hoping a friend called me up and told me the incredible news: Alphaville would be playing in Sweden. I was so exited. They would play in Gothenborg, not so far from my hometown, and I called the club where the event would take place. They told me that the tickets would be released the next day. But I asked them if it was Ok for me to pick up the tickets right away. It was OK. I surely wouldn´t miss getting a ticket. Maybe it would be sold out the next day. And yes, the tickets were sold out in a few days, so the club had to arrange another, bigger place for the concert. It was an untrue experience, after 12 years of waiting, to finally see them live. When they entered the stage I wasn´t able to hold back my tears. It was so emotional. The summer of 96´ passed and the autumn blew all over Sweden. I was inside, surfing Alpahville on the Internet and came to the AlphaXpress. I looked for the “tour dates” and saw that there should be a “end-of-tour-party” in Berlin on the 22nd of December. The thought gnawed at my brain the following weeks and finally in the beginning of December, I contacted Monika Timm. She was so helpful and arranged a place for me to stay in Berlin and she made me feel welcome to the party (thanx Monika).

On the 21st of December at noon my flight landed at Berlin-Tempelhof and I had 4 hours to kill before meeting David and Willy from Denmark at Zoogarten-trainstation. We were going to meet Monika and Suz and hitchhike with them to Lübben. The last official concert would take place there.

We got to Lübben a couple of hours before the show and turing the soundcheck we had time to speak with some AV friends from Italy and Germany. After the show we went backstage and had a talk with Marian, KP and the liveband. After that we said goodbye and left fro Berlin. The day with the big D had come! Willy, David and myself woke up at noon and took the subway to Kudamm in the centre of Berlin. It was very cold and we just went around not knowing what to do, just waiting for the adventure of the evening.

Finally it was 6 pm and we had a beer at Café Eisenwaren with Suz, Tobi, Andrea Fengler and finally Monika arrived. At 8 pm we took off for the party. All the people from the day before were there and many more who I´d never seen before. We were at a barwith “ordinary” people, waiting to be showed to the Q-club, deep down below (Seeds). A discussion whether or not Ricky and Bernd would come was in the air. And finally someone saw Ricky at the bar, and wasn´t that Bernd too? Yes it was! After about 30 minutes it was OK for us to go down to the club. It was a cosy basement room with walls of brick. And lots and lots of candles who lit up the room. It was a very friendly atmosphere and everybody talked to one another. The time just passed, talking with everybody and exchanging addresses for the future.

Suddenly the people moved forward to the small stage. And I wasn´t too late to do the same. Marian entered the stage and said to the audience: “OK. We are going to play a few songs, we didn´t work them out very much you know, so this is completely live, completely improvized”. The audience got mad! Then Marian started to sing only accompanied by a piano. This wasn´t happening! It was so great. Whe the audience sang along with him in the chorus of “Forever Young”, we all noticed that Marian was deeply touched.

The time went by and suddenly it was time to go. I said goodbye to everybody. I was really sorry that the evening was over, but very glad that it had been that great. It was very nice to get in touch with so many wonderful people, sharing the same interest. It was the most incredible X-mas gift I´ve ever had. Best wishes to all AV friends worldwide.

Photogallery:

http://www.alphaville.org/gallery/browseimages.php?c=20

(Previously published in AlphaXpress, No 1, 1997)

Review by Joachim Hollander
Last edited by wii; 15 Feb 2008 at 07:21.
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Old 22 Jun 2017, 22:41   #2
humanracer
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Join Date: 26 Jun 2008
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Video of the show on 21.12 day before the party (missing encore)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxvx8BBW-dI
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