Return to the Grugahalle

Fos, Jeff and Yours Truly throw a few shapes.....

One of my favourite gigs on the German circuit is the Grugahalle in Essen, and I’ve been lucky enough to perform there many times over the last 20 years. It is a venue famous for many legendary concerts. The German Rockpalast shows that made the names of ZZ Top and Mother’s Finest were staged there, and it has hosted concerts from Prince, Toto…in fact just about everyone you can think of.

8,000 crazy Germans

Deep in Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr, Essen itself is a sprawling mass of concrete and steel, but they still manage to add some Germanic old-world charm with the Christmas markets that insinuate themselves into every pedestrian thoroughfare in the centre, even shoe-horning a giant ferris wheel in between the buildings!

That's wheely big.....

We shared the stage with a number of our old mates including Showaddywaddy and Dozy, Beaky Mick and Tich, and we all played to a capacity crowd of 8,000.  The following morning, I shared breakfast with that 60’s legend Spencer Davis, who was kind enough to give me a copy of his most recent album “So Far”, which is a beautiful autobiographical account of his life, both personal and musical,  from Swansea in Wales to Catalina Island off the California coast, where he lives today.  It really is such a privilege to meet and work with these people.

The previous night we’d played in Oldenburg, about 3 hours away, and the second gig always benefits from having ‘played the songs in’.  We had a great night and met up with a group of our fans, including Tonie Griebl, whom I must thank for the stage shot.

The calm before the storm...the Grugahalle awaits

A ghostly looking stage pre-soundcheck

In the early hours of the coming morning, I will head to Alicante once again, on the way to Antwerp via Madrid and Brussels to appear at the Golden Years festival, where we first appeared 20 years ago. Full report will follow!

PS: Don’t forget – you can now download my new solo album for free by clicking on the image in the sidebar

Kev Moore