#nogoingbacktour3

The gig on 10th July was organised by m'lady's sister Christine at her tennis club in Deisenhofen, just south of Munich.

Her efforts on behalf of the arts (well, the work of yours truly) was well above and beyond the call of duty. It was a kind of house concert away from home, with Christine organising the venue, publicity and all else besides.

I was shown the room the night before and immediately created a reputation for myself as a <künstler>, or artist - in the sense of 'you must excuse him, he's an artist' - by immediately making a list of demands (reasonable suggestions in my eyes) regarding the layout of the room and its decoration if it were to be rendered fit for accommodating a concert. The result, I think, justified my suggestions.

In the event it was a fabulous evening. The tables were arranged around the 'stage' and decorated with candles and flowers (well done Christine, Angelika and the members of the Deisenhofen tennis club!) and the improvised lighting picked out the stage, creating the neccessary distinction between it and the 'audience zone'. The room was filled with the most attentive audience I can remember who voiced their appreciation of the music on offer and were generous in their purchasing of the wares on offer in the mobile cd and t-shirt emporium.

The tour finances strengthen gig by gig.

On the 11th, the following evening's gig, 45 minutes drive from home (Deisenhofen, in the form of m'lady's mum, the magnificant Hilde, is home for these few days), was in the Pirate bar in nearby Rosenheim.

Here I discovered a particularity of German law: you can recieve a parking ticket for parking in a legitimate parking space but facing the wrong way. Ho hum.

The crowd was sparse but enthusiastic and Petra an efficient hostess who surely knows her stuff after 28 years running the bar. Some evenings energy seems to be at a premium and this was one such. On these occasions the performer has to dig deep and I think Andee and I did what we had to do. Shortage of audience numbers (it was a wet Mittwoch during the holiday season) were compensated for by the words of enthusiasm for my work from those who stopped to talk and buy CDs. (CD sales were encouraging and hugely disproportionate to crowd numbers.) It is always welcome when fans take the time to offer encouragement. It's the audience response that is the reason for doing this, after all.

So, one more night with the Bavarian hostess with the mostest (Hilde is Austrian, really, but naturalised Bayerisch by now I think) then off north-west to Stuttgart.

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