Bad news for fans of Cambridge duo Ezio – their planned Autumn tour, which included a show at Bonn Harmonie on 25 October, has had to be cancelled. The cancellation is due to the illness of Mark “Booga” Fowell (left in the picture above). It’s particularly hard for the band after so many Covid related cancellations as this isn’t in any way Covid related. Tickets can be refunded from the original point of sale.

Rocker Billy Idol will be bringing hits like ‘White Wedding’ to Bonn Kunstrasen next year. His show on 24 June will be a chance for Idol to get some publicity for his first new album in almost a decade ‘Kings & Queens of the Underground’ which is released later this very month.

There is still a lot to like about the music of the 70’s Punk/Pop star as the video below proves. At the time of writing Idol is doing a stint of concerts in Las Vegas no less – a sign that he and his music are far from spent forces. Once a punk always a punk? We will see next year.

Tickets go on sale from 8 October at the usual outlets.

Here is a taster from the new disc

Folk Club Bonn Meet number 118 won’t go down in the books as the biggest, the loudest, the longest, the most visited, or even the most difficult evening that the Club has ever put on. Nor does it need to prove anything. Right now, the most important thing is maintaining that there even is a Folk Club event at all. ‘Outside and free!’ as John Harrison announces it on Social Media. It seems to become leaner, but certainly not meaner, every month – and like the best of lean mongrels scratching to make ends meet it is coming out fighting. Thankfully there are also still enough ‘good men/women and true‘ who love playing and listening to music in an environment that is free from hype and makes no promises other than to be a place to come along and enjoy being with other people. The Folk Club anthem Jock Stuart’ puts it perfectly: “Be easy and free when you’re drinking with me”

It really was like old times, seeing cheerful music and smiling faces in the shopping precinct of central Bonn on Saturday. It was One World Festival Day, and bemused shoppers stopped to hear the impromptu music, whilst laughing children stopped to watch giant bubbles blown into the air and marvel at jugglers. All the things that should make a City Centre a happy place were there together. But then, who could not smile when the Kültürklüngel Orkestar is playing in front of you and people are dancing to songs from near and far.

It’s always a pleasure to see the band CAYU performing. Their set-list seems to grow with every performance, along with their musical skills. On Saturday the band performed as part of the SDG Festival and both their stamina and repertoire were tested by two hours in the sunshine in front of ever-smiling shoppers and the never-smiling statue of Beethoven looking sternly on. Fortunately John Hay, Eva Henneken and co were more than up to the long task and received well-deserved applause from the audience, many of whom had taken up lengthy residence on one of the colored box seats in front of the band. They came, and they stayed. Always the sign of a good band in action.

Live music was back at Marktplatz too this weekend with a Festival of Classical/Jazz from The Music Schools in the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg area.

This weekend saw good weather to enjoy the “Music School Festival Bonn/Rhein-Sieg”. It’s an initiative of the Bonn Ludwig van Beethoven Music School. Sponsored by the BTHVN2020 Beethoven-Jubiläumsgesellschaft GmbH, it was also one of the last projects to take place in this “extended” Beethoven year. Symphony and salon orchestras, bands, chamber music ensembles and choirs presented a diverse program in Marktplatz and all free of charge.

Both stylistically and geographically, the “Musikschulfest Bonn/Rhein-Sieg” spanned a wide range. In addition to ensembles such as the Bonn Youth Symphony Orchestra, the salon orchestra “Le Bon Ton”, the “RMS JazzOrchestra & friends” of the Rhenish Music School Cologne and the symphonic wind orchestra “Tomburg Winds” from Rheinbach could be enjoyed. But for me, the greatest enjoyment came from all the smiling faces on the stage enjoying playing music.

Despite it being almost a whole year since Bill Baum last brought his super Bluesbenders band to Bonn, it seems almost like yesterday. Maybe that’s down to Bill wearing the same shirt as the one from last November at this week’s Harmonie gig. Then again, there haven’t been too many gigs for that black skulls and guitars shirt to get sweaty in in the preceding ten months. Judging by the effort put in on this night though it will definitely need a good wash now. The self-styled bad boy from Bad Godesberg was back, and with super support, not just from his own band, but from fellow local Bluesadours R&B Express. ‘Blues Alive – Double Explosion’ it says on the ticket. Prepare to be musically blown away.