This Friday saw the first evening of bands hoping to make it to 11 October when the musicians most voted for will appear in the Jazz Tube Final at the Pantheon Theatre.
As ever, there was a feeling that choosing a favourite was a matter of choosing between chalk and cheese. Three very able concerts delivered with three styles that were poles apart but all great to hear.
If you missed last night’s Stadtgarten concert at Alten Zoll you missed a night of local magic.
The sun is expected again for tonight’s concert introduced by PopCamp. Live music will be provided by three upcoming bands: Floatiz, Jeremias and Planschemalöör so bring a picnic blanket and enjoy the Stadtgarten Summer Magic!
6:30 pm Floatiz
7:45 pm Jeremias
8:45 pm Planschenmalöör
Friday (23 August) will be a busy one for music lovers in Bonn.
Hauptbahnhof, Uni/Markt, and Museumsmeile tube stations will be kicking off this season’s JazzTube series. Who will be at the Grand Finale? Your votes will decide it and it all starts with a vist to the JAZZTUBE HOMEPAGE to see who’s where and then GOING THERE!
Have fun, but remember, there are free Stadtgarten concerts at Alten Zoll to enjoy as well. They start at 6.30 with WestNDand both Ijaz Ali and Gin Red will take us up to the evenings final act – the wonderful New World Afro-Pop served up by Melchi (see picture above). Don’t miss – and the weather should be good, so bring a blanket and make a picnic out of it!
Back in the late ’70s, when I was an avid Rock music fan and gig-goer, Britain was rather proud of it’s contribution to the genre. We were competing largely against American bands like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and mega artists like Springsteen. The real metal-heads though knew there was also another rather excellent source of Metal music – Germany. We really didn’t have a female equivalent to Doro Pesch, Michael Schenker was seemingly both a guitar master and madman but we loved them both – and there was a band, also with a Schenker brother in it – whose name appeared on practically every one of those denim waistcoats festooned with sewn-on patches that I saw. A band called The Scorpions.
Fast forward over forty years and here we are at the closing show of the 2019 Kunstrasen season in Bonn. There are cloth patches for sale at the merchandise table still, to show some things haven’t changed. I still giggle nervously at the thought of these unkempt and motor-oil drenched bikers sitting at home with a needle and thread working on that patched to the hilt jacket. But if the patches haven’t changed, can the Band really be live up to a legendary name from the ’70s at 70? Interested to know the answer? I was too, so let’s pick up a pair of free magenta ear-plugs from the Telekom booth and find out (where were they when I saw Sammy Hagar in 1978?!)
Wolfgang Niedecken – Cologne’s very own Duracell Bunny keeps on going (God bless him!)
A lot of great music coming to the Kunstrasen this week. Max Giesinger will have a support slot for Cynthia Nickschas – Cynthia fans get there in time, the Bonn ‘Powerfrau’ is onstage at 5.30 pm on Thursday!
Cynthia Nickschas – Bonn music at its best
Get there early too on Friday for the legendary Wolfgang Niedeckens BAP. Show starts on Friday at 6.30 pm and Mr Niedecke will be onstage from then until they forcibly drag him from the stage because it’s 10 pm. There are not many left like Niedecken, who love to play all night and not just 90 minutes.
Saturday is Classic Rock Night with Mr Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and one foot on the ground whilst playing the flute fame. Thick as a Brick you must be if you miss him, Fish and the rest of the evening’s Rockbands.
Speaking of Rock Bands. There aren’t too many from Germany who are loved in Britain, and few loved more than the closing band at Kunstrasen this year – The Scorpions. Need I say more?
Tickets available via BONN TICKET
I’m a firm believer that Brighton might well be the secret cradle of modern UK pop music. Hitchin born James Bay cut his musical teeth in the bars of that very UK seaside town at open-mikes. Now he’s heavily touted as a future Rockstar and warming up audiences for The Stones and Ed Sheeran. His appearance, along with that of this year’s Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence, made a visit to Kunstrasen on Thursday too good to resist.
Just looking at this year’s programme of events for the Rheinaue Parkrestaurant is a mind-boggling affair. From opening concert 8 July to the closing notes from local band Handmade on 30 August there is a concert virtually every evening. Straight away then kudos to Walter Schnabel for organizing such a logistical helter-skelter. That said though, the shows are some 90% cover-bands and 10% old-time Jazz, and I’m not too much a fan of cover-bands. That’s something I first admitted to Rope Schmitz some 10 years ago now. Rope, of course, is the frontman and a founding member of Bonn’s oldest Cover-band (from 1972 in fact) Sunny Skies. Tonight they are playing at the Parkrestaurant Rheinaue, and I, the cover-band hater, am once again present with a camera and a notebook. But WHY? you ask. I’ll do my best to answer that one in the next paragraphs.
