We managed to get to the hotel without seeing too many naked people and got to the gig on time due to the highly efficient German crew. The gig was great, playing in a small venue again with the crowd about 6 inches away from you reminded me of the time that we played the Windmill in Brixton and got Phoenix Phil and Tamla Tim up to wave their “Shake” and “Shimmy” signs. In Hamburg there were no signs, but there was a crowd who were very much up for having a good time. So good in fact that when I started the now traditional clapping in the middle of “Lips Are Unhappy” the crowd thought, ‘bollocks to your tempo’ and sped up to such a degree that we played it like the Chipmunks on heat. Perhaps not the greatest rendition of lips, but at least the people liked it.

Which brings me neatly back to touring, meeting people and why they make it special. After the show we were obviously on the look out for some beer, but with 9/10ths of the band happily in relationships, we were after beer but no boobs. So we came across a bar. It was run by a guy called Peter. The bar was called Peter’s Place. It had bottles of Becks for 2 Euro. It was great, and what’s more the people in it were great, telling us about all the best places in town to go (Luciano’s for Bock Wurst, the fish market on the Harbour) and introducing us to a new drink. The Mexicana. Or as we dubbed it The Maxi-Caner. The Mexicana is essentially a Bloody Mary, but it is only the size of a shot. From what we could gather it was a shot of vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco, and other mystery ingredients in a shot glass which you downed. 3 of those and you were reconsidering the other options that the Reeperbahn had to offer.

I’ll end this blog with 2 further points.

1. Peter’s Place is so famous that Peter has his own fan club, and not only that fan club membership cards. Of course, Lucky Soul are now fully paid up members:

2. After a large amount of Mexicanas some of LS did go onto sample the delights of the Reeperbahn. The question is who…? Answers to the usual address

We’re back on the road for the European Tour today, so I’m sure you can expect more Blogs from the rest of the band including the ever elusive Mr. Atkins

Over and out

Ivor