Good news for lovers of Germany’s famed ‘Fifth Season’ – Carneval has not been completely cancelled. Despite Corona, BonnLive is set to bring a bit of ‘Jeck’ to Cologne and Bonn in the coming weeks. From 29 January to 16 February a strong line-up of popular musicians will be just a car-ride away. Concerts will be held on the parking lot of the popular Südstadion in Cologne and on the old Miesen grounds in Dottendorf, featured bands include KASALLA, BRINGS, BLÄCK FÖÖSS and HÖHNER.
Fotis Anagnostou, bass player since 2016 with the Julian Sas Band, has passed away. Julian said on his Facebook site shortly before Christmas that Anagnostou had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and that he was being flown back to his home in Athens.
Congratulations to Voyager IV for placing first in the ‘Deutschen Rock & Pop Preis’ (German Rock & Pop Awards) 2020 as Germany’s best Rockband.
The band’s interpretation of Mussorgsky’s masterwork ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ really is jaw-dropping.
Given the current state of our Citycentres, the video here (by Johannes Kuchta) is also more topical than ever.
Well done and deserved Marcus Schinkel (keys), Wim de Vries (drums), Johannes Kuchta (vocals, Percussion), Fritz Roppel (bass)
Edinburgh Festival magazine praised Simon Kempston thus:
“Brilliant and quite unique guitar skills, Dundee has undoubtedly produced one of Scotland’s most poetic and expressive musicians”
Simon’s December appearances at Bonn Folk Club have become a much-loved Christmas tradition for folk music fans in the City for some years now. How did the mercurial Scot come to be such a popular visitor? and how did a man who has played concerts in 35 different countries come to describe our City as having ‘The best folk club outside of Edinburgh’? All this and more was answered when the current enforced break from touring through Covid19 restrictions meant Simon was in one place for long enough to answer my questions.
Amazingly it’s been seven years since Katie Melua last hypnotized us with her voice and excellent songs. A good reason then to hope that concert life will be back to normal next year, as she has just been added to the line-up for next years KunstRasen Season in Bonn. 13 August is the date you need to add to your diary.
The Georgian singer divorced from motorcycle racer James Toseland earlier this year and put her experiences of the break on ‘Remind me to forget‘ which is the last track on her latest release simply titled ‘Album No. 8’. The album itself is an intelligently written (by Melua) light jazz affair, that features the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra and is well worth getting hold of. Hopefully, you will then be able to sing along in August. All fingers and toes firmly crossed that this show takes place, ideally without the seating which I felt put a distance between performer and audience last time around. But let’s not get lost in details – first let’s hope that the show is possible!
See below for the latest plan for Kunst!Rasen (and other planned Bonn musical highlights) in 2021.
It happens every year in Bonn at Christmas. No, not the Rhine freezing over, or a rail strike, I mean of course the Festive concerts of Scottish Folk supremo Simon Kempston at Bonn Folk Club.
Legend has it that John Harrison made a deal at the Crossroads (somewhere near Grauerheindorf) that there would always be a stage for Simon – as long as Simon brought with him a new CD. And so the deal was set in 2010 over a flagon of whiskey (Scotch of course). Simon isn’t letting a little bug like Covid 19 stop him. If you can’t come to him then Simon is coming to you via Facebook: DIAL IN DETAILS HERE
On Sunday 13 December from 8.00 pm to 9.30 pm CET (7.00 pm to 8.30 pm UK time) you can catch a whole concert for the Folk Club statutory fee of nothing – but hopefully you will want to reward Simon in what has been a calamitous year for someone who makes his living from travelling the World and playing music. Paypal donations will be gratefully accepted.
