The Pub is Open / Oxford Club

Newcomers, English native speakers and speakers of English welcome to the Oxford Club Bonn pub evening held in our club room  Thursday evenings from 19 – 22 hrs.

Dates: 02, 16, 23, 30 April, 07, 14, 28 May, 04, 18, 25 June,20, 27 August, 3, 10, 17, 24 September, 01, 08, 15, 22 october, 05, 12, 19, 26 November, 03, 10, 17 December at 19 hrs

Refresh your spoken English at our English Conversation Circles – new term begins every February and September. Visit website for details. www.oxford-club-bonn.de

Events in 2009:

Rhein in Flammen on board the “Primus”. € 45 on Saturday, 02 May 17.30 – 24.00

K̦lner Dom Р16 June, afternoon outing

Ireland – 7 day flight and coach trip with the Oxford Club 10 -16 Sept

Autumn Hike through the Dollendorfer Hardt Sunday 20 Sept

Embassy Tour special – Visit inside 3 former Embassies of Soviet Union, Syria and South Korea.  Meet up: 14.15 hrs Bad Godesberg. 25 Sept

James Cook and his Discoveries, Guided Tour Bundeskunsthalle, 28 Oct 17hrs.

Dinner Date with Ludwig van Beethoven, date to be confirmed Autumn 09

Goose Dinner in the Waldau Restaurant, Bonn Sat 5 Dec at 18 hrs

Birthday – Bonn Oxford Club will be 38 yrs old Tuesday 29 Dec 19 hrs.

Office open: Tuesday 9 – 12 and Friday 15 – 18 hrs

Oxford Club, Adenauerallee 7, 53113 Bonn. Tel. 0228 224583, Fax. 221787

Popularity: 12% [?]

American Protestant Church APC

AMERICAN  PROTESTANT CHURCH BONN
Kennedyallee 150, Bonn Plittersdorf
Tel: 0228/ 374 193  Fax. 0228 / 374 723

Email: office@apcbonn.de

Web: http://www.apcbonn.de

Sunday Worship 11.00 am Rev. Steven S. Gaultney, Pastor

We are an international, English language, interdenominational congregation of Christian people from over 20 nations, a microcosm of the worldwide body of Christ. A fellowship where Christians of every denomination can find encouragement, support and mutual understanding through the worship an other ministries of the church. The purpose of our ministry is to love one another, invite others to join us, to keep God at the centre of all that we do, to help others and to teach and equip each other for life. The congregation meets in the Stimson Memorial Chapel, Bonn-Plittersdorf .

Popularity: 21% [?]

Disclaimer

Mit Urteil vom 12.Mai 1998 hat das Landgericht Hamburg entschieden, daß man durch die Ausbringung eines Links die Inhalte der gelinkten Seite ggf. mit zu verantworten hat. Dies kann, so das Landgericht, nur dadurch verhindert werden, dass man sich ausdrücklich von diesen Inhalten distanziert. Bonn’s English Network distanziert sich deshalb ausdrücklich von den Inhalten der Homepages, zu denen auf der www.english-network.de -Website, gelinkt wird.

http://www.disclaimer.de/disclaimer.htm

Popularity: 20% [?]

A Day out in the Netherlands

Nature and art enthusiasts will both enjoy a summer day at the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterloo, the Netherlands. 200 km. northwest of Bonn, this former estate of Helene and Anton Kröller-Müeller, a wealthy Dutch industrialist, is now home to a wildlife preserve as well as the Kröller-Müeller Museum and sculpture garden.

Cars are allowed on the main roads of the 5,400 hectare park, though visitors are encouraged to borrow one of the park’s complimentary “white bicycles” and explore the 42 km of cycle paths that traverse its varied landscapes. Camping, horseback riding, picnicking and walking are also encouraged.

Last October, the Museum celebrated the 150th birthday of Vincent van Gogh with an exhibit, Vincent & Helene, that follows Mrs. Kröller-Müeller’s acquisition of one of the world’s largest van Gogh collections. The Museum’s permanent collection includes a wide selection of works by important 20th century painters such as Mondriaan, Seurat, Signac, and Fantin Latour. The 25 hectare outdoor sculpture garden provides a lovely setting for contemporary works.

For more information check out the Hoge Veluwe¹s web site: www.hogeveluwe.nl

by Barbara Goodman Shovers

Popularity: 23% [?]

Day Out Dining Out

The St. Anno Park Restaurant in Bad Honnef, is in the same grounds as the international University of Applied Science in Bad Honnef.

It is open both lunch time and evenings – check the website for details. Excellent cuisine at reasonable prices.

St Anno Park Restaurant
Mülheimer Strasse 38
53604 Bad Honnef
www.st-anno-park.de

BEN tip – for visitors – a nice day out is to take the tram along the Rhine (No. 66 Telekom Express from Bonn HBF or Deutsche Telekom tram stop) past Königswinter, enjoying nice views from tram window, have lunch at St Anno Park, then perhaps tram back to Königswinter and walk up the Drachenfels, or along the Rhine, perhaps take the ferry across to Mehlem and then bus to Bad Godesberg for a stroll in the park or walk up the Bad Godesberg Turm (for the fit – a lift is currently being installed to enable easier access for the disabled).

Popularity: 17% [?]

Rod Mason – 5 go to the Harmonie

Jazz people certainly look different.  You couldn’t mistake these concert goers for rock, blues or classical fans.  Maybe Country & Western at a pinch…  Certainly I feel younger this evening than at the previous visit of the new ‘Young Blues’ scene.  This time around my oldest tie would actually be younger than a lot of the musicians and a large part of the audience.  There are bistro tables and seats but hey, I’m young, I can stand all night, no problem here buddy.

Showtime isn’t pre-empted by dimming of lights or abrupt ends to loud background tapes.  This is jazz.  It’s pre-empted instead by the musicians stepping quietly onstage.  Not even a chance to ‘plug and play’ unless Fraser Gartshores piano is electric.  I begged beforehand to hear a few songs with the word ‘blues’ in them but first up is ‘Panama Rag’.   I advise jazz fans to check out YouTube for a great video of Rod, looking uncannily like a young Gunther Netzer,  doing this with Acker Bilk in 1973.  Chicago Jazz is not really my cup of tea.  It tends to rely too much on an ‘oompahing’ sort of beat for my liking.  Rod and his band though I can listen to easily because of the quality of musicianship that runs overtop the rhythm.  His own trumpet/clarinet abilities are beyond question but in John Mortimer, Andy Leggett and Sean Moyses he has three equally proficient men to back him up.  Andy Leggett even managed the odd little dance during numbers that showed his love for the music is as great as his ability to play his clarinet and saxophone.  John Mortimer on the other hand looks much more serious – no little dances from his side of the stage, just a serious grimace as he blasts air into his trombone. It’s all the more surprising then when he whips out a harmonica and blasts out a fiery blues solo that Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds would have been proud of.

The band are playing to the converted.  Everyone in the audience seems to know everybody else like it’s a street party.  When Rod sings ‘Happy Birthday’ for someone at the front table I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t know who he’s talking about.  By the evenings end we’ve had a lively version of ‘Blueberry Hill’ (which almost has the word ‘Blues’ in it) and Sean has sung “A talking picture of you’ with such a timepiece feel to it that I swear the stage turned a washed out shade of sepia complete with torn edges.

Still ‘blowing’ strong – Rod Mason

An enjoyable evening then, even for a less ‘Jazzified’ person like myself.  I ask the musicians afterwards things that have been on my mind all evening.  “Yes it does a bit” is Clive’s answer to my “Doesn’t it get heavy, that Sousaphone on your shoulder for hours on end?”  Then he points to his picture behind the bar and says “but that one is even older, and even HEAVIER!”  Clive must be mad then?  But actually, as Sean points out later, there is method to the madness of these sousaphone/banjo wielding men.  “Guitar players are ten a penny – but banjo and sousaphone players will always find a gig” On the subject of Sean Moyses and pennies, I am shown the love of Seans life – she is shiny, sexy, made from mother of pearl and shimmers cheekily from the back of his custom banjo.  Her full name is ‘Pietsch Master Vox 7 Art Deco’, but I think ‘Pearl’ would be friendlier?  Since my visit to the International Banjo
Festival a few years ago though I know she is in very good hands.  I wonder aloud if the long term future of New
Orleans/Chicago jazz has any young hands to hold it safely in the future?  For now though Rod Mason and his band play with all the enthusiasm of young men and hopefully that will rub off on the youngsters who sit with their mums and dads on the KAH roof for Jazz this Summer.

Sean Moyses and ‘Pearl’

Gallery

Popularity: 93% [?]

Rod Mason

A reminder from Sean that Rod Mason & his Hot Five are playing at the Harmonie on 27 February.

Rod might be from Plymouth but his roots are firmly in Dixieland and he is considered one of Europes leading Louis Armstrong style trumpeters.  (Also a chance to see what a Sousaphone looks like for the uninitiated!) Start 8pm tickets 21.30 Euros in advance.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Blues Caravan – Exclusive Interview

 English musicians  Joanne Shaw Taylor and Oli Brown are the modern face of the Blues.

Forget images of old black men
on the street corner playing battered acoustic guitars for a dime.

Forget too embittered lyrics
like Bill Broonzy’s “If you’re white it’s alright, If you’re brown stick
around, but if you’re black, oh brother, get back, get back, get back…”  In 2009 the Blues has a very different face –
It was staring back at me across a table after the Harmonie concert on Sunday
and man, oh man, that face was young!

 

 

 

---

 

“He’s always asking ‘How can I
change this, or improve that?  And next
show he’ll go out there and it will be in the set”.

Mike Griot, musical director
and bassist for this  years Blues Caravan
enthused about Oli Brown.

“He wants to learn everything
and get better…and he’s only eighteen now!”

Griot has had the chance
to experience first hand the ‘Young Turks’ on Thomas Ruf’s Blues label for a
while now.  Last year  Brighton’s
Dani Wilde was onboard the Caravan.  Wilde’s
youthful energy and enthusiasm stretches
beyond her musical career to fundraising for a school in Embu, Kenya, so it looks like the Blues these days is in
the safe and caring hands of a whole new generation.  I can’t help but see the big, smiling face of
Louisiania Red when I sit down beside Oli Brown, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Erja
Lyytinen.  The enthusiasm of these
youngsters would make him a very happy man if he ever ponders his inheritance.

 

THE INTERVIEW:

JST = Joanne Shaw Taylor

EL = Erja Lyytinen

OB = Oli Brown

 

Joanne, there seems to be a
real resurgence of young people playing Blues in England.  Is it pure chance that they are all coming
through now?

 JST: No I dont think its just chance, its been slowly progressing over the
last 10 years. Ive been gigging in the UK now for about 7 years and I
think a lot of guys of my generation got into the blues when Stevie Ray came on
the scene.  He made a bold statement as a
lot of other guys did like Clapton.

You mention Stevie Ray (Vaughan)
and I know Ana Popovic also rates him highly as an influence, but he always
seemed more jazz blues to me.  Younger
artists don’t seem to mention Muddy Waters as a main influence these days.  Even Eric Clapton isn’t mentioned so often.

JST: I think the key with Stevie is that he was a gateway artist you know.  As a girl growing up in England I
couldn’t really understand Muddy Waters until I understood Stevie.  And from Stevie I kind of understood his
influences.  I think Stevie was wrapped
up in a better package that was easier to the ear.

 I came up in an era when Eric
Clapton was the blues hero

JST: Exactly, Eric Clapton did the
same in the 60’s

I sort of expected you, from
your age, to mention someone like Robert Cray as an influence.

JST: No, I think Stevie did for my
generation what Clapton did in the sixties. 
He made Blues more popular, more mainstream.

More marketable?

JST:  Exactly.  More of a show.  And then through him I went on to discover
Buddy Guy which I wouldn’t have without hearing Stevie Ray.

 We all start with someone
current to us and work back?

JST:  Exactly

Oli, who is your hero?

OB: My hero is a jazz blues guitarist called Chris Cain.  He’s absolutely phenomenal to me.  I love his playing, his style.  BB King but jazzier.  A really cool sound.  I love his stage show.  He’s phenomenal.  He’s the guy I idolize.

So your inspiration is more Jazz?

OB: Oh, Cain does the blues.  He has an album ‘Cain does King’ which is
phenomenal.  Check him out!

Who would your Blues hero be?

OB:  Okay, Albert Collins.

JST: That was the other guy besides
Stevie.

Erja, you’re listening
patiently to our mixed English accents, are you getting along okay with all
these English accents on the tour?

EL:  Well, it’s horrible (laughs).  No,
It’s helping me with my english too. 
Most people don’t think of the blues when they think of Finland – they think of America or England.  In a way that’s a benefit though, because
people hear me and say “Oh wow, that’s very different” and I will always carry
my Finnish roots with me you know.  You
can hear it in my playing I think.

It is different.  Is there a strong blues scene in Finnland?

EL: There is a blues scene in
Finnland 

JST: There’s a blues scene all over the world now.  I feel like there are younger people doing it
than there were maybe ten years ago.

EL: I think many people dont notice this. 
In Scandinavia blues is very big right
now. And we have a lot of festivals and bands actively touring.

JST: It’s because it’s so cold you
have the blues in Finland?

And in England because of the rain?

EL: Oh it’s the darkness in Finnland. 
We dont have much sun.  But the
thing is blues is for all your feelings. 
You will live through the happiness and through the saddness.

So blues isn’t always sad?

EL: No, it can be very relieving
music.

 

 

Shaw Taylor, Brown and Lyytinen enjoy the deserved applause in Bonn

 

I want to ask about Germany
and the difference to England
when you play live.  I’ve heard it said
that places in the UK
don’t take care of the musicians like they do over here.  Is that true?

JST: You get someone who’s gigged
regularly in England
and has done for over a decade, it’s very different.

As in worse?

JST: Much worse.  You don’t get anything for free. No free
food.  Not even free water unless its From
the tap!.

And here you get a mini bar…

JST: (Laughs) Germany is a great place to tour.

 EL: They have great fans

 JST: Germany is fantastic.  The fans are very loyal and the promoters
incredibly hard working – it is different

Walter Trout sings about someone
being ‘the next best thing – until the next best thing comes along’.

Maybe England is always after ‘The next
best thing’?

JST: I don’t think so.  There’s more of
a history maybe in England.  Not as much as in America
or Africa but the 60s boom we had in England,
I mean Hendrix wouldn’t have made it if he hadn’t moved to England.

The 60s Folk Blues Tours in the
UK?

JST: Right.  A lot of the pop stars
then promoted Blues and we could bring over Muddy Waters – and Alexis Corner
had the opportunity to make it and Eric Clapton of course.  That’s one thing I love about the english
blues scene, especially in London
it’s still open like that.

 And despite your youth Joanne you’ve been on the road regularly for ten
years now so you must have left school to do it. 

What did your parents think of that?

JST: Well I was thirteen and doing
quite well

An even bigger shock for them
then?

JST: No, I mean doing quite well as a musician.  I had a classical background playing with a
Birmingham Ensemble. 

I was home schooled basically.

So you learned classical music
and then went out and played Blues?

JST: That’s right.

So I guess you can read music?.  Can anyone else here?  Put your hands up if you can!

Oli is shaking his head. 

EL: I can read music

JST: There's no way you can apply it to
the blues really.   I’m sure most of the
blues solos you learned, you learned by ear.

EL:  Of  course.  All the little hints, you listen to
them.  Musicstores are full of written
guitar solos with every note written down but you really have to listen to the
record..  It’s great to learn that way.

Great for you as a band leader
but the band has to know what you’re going to play…

EL: For a session musician then,
yes, it’s important

JST: But it should be fifty percent
affinity and actual feel for the music

On the subject of bands – which
of you has taken their own bands into the studio to record as opposed to using session
musicians?

EL: I had all mine

OB: Some of mine. I coould mix n
match

But none of yours Joanne?

JST: No, I recorded in the States so
I used musicians there.

As Ana (Popovic) did

JST: Ana used the same producer I
did (Ed: Jim Gaines)

EL: Funny thing is that in the blues scene people dont want to use notes or
use music sheets.

They will play by feel or by listening to pre versions and demos.

In Jazz or Big Band they want music scores but not so much in Blues.

It seems rather fortunate for
you as lead singer/guitarists that you play what you want and they have to
follow.

JST: Well yes, but we’ve worked very
hard to be the kind of musicians that can front a band as opposed to backing.

I guess its a choice you make to some extent?  Laura Chavez for example is an excellent guitarist
backing Candye Kane  yet stays in the
background.

 OB: It’s a different thing being a front person.  You’ve got to have dynamics, percussive
control – different things from what the rhythm section does.

And (looking at Oli) you’ve got to have a good hairsstyle…

OB: (Smiles) I just got fed up of
having curly hair

You had curly hair?!

OB: Oh yes, there are pictures on
my webspace!

JST: Are we really spending time
talking about your hair?!

 But my point is that however
good you are you need image

JST: I don’t think it applies to
Blues

But take Walter Trout.  An incredibly talented man but music fans
outside of the blues don’t know him

EL: I think if you are good then
you have to tour ten maybe twenty years, and you will be known

JT: But I think we, or at least I
know I  did -  I went into this wanting to be a successful
blues musician.

Not to be a star?

JST:  No.   It was about guitar solos and good songs and
heartfelt music.  That’s the good thing
that when I got to do my album I got to do it the way I wanted:  Whereas a big record company would say you’ve
got to do this, you’ve got to dress like that. 
I could be what I wanted to be and play the music I wanted to play.  And earn a living from doing it.  It’s a wonderful life-style if you’re
fortunate enough to be able to do it.

It speaks a lot for Thomas Ruf  that
in mainstream music fashions come and go but Blues has been around for many
years and Thomas has been around for twenty years while other Companies have
come and gone.

The Blues will always be around. 
It will change but it will always be there.

It has certainly developed over time. 
Old blues songs didn’t have lines like Joe Jacksons “Open the window and
let out the dark” (from ‘Love at first Light’)

JST: I LOVE Joe Jackson – must have
seen him ten times live.

I’d be happy to see the Blues Caravan ten times live if tonights show
was anything to go by.

Joanne, Erja and Oli thanks for your time.

 

Proof that the Blues is looking good – Erja Lyytinen

 

After putting my concert review online,  I heard from a fellow Blues Fan.  'Glad you liked Oli' he wrote.

'Have you heard Jay Tamkin?  He gives me the same feeling of excitement I had when I first heard Oli Brown a couple of years ago!'

The wise words of a Walter Trout song immediately come to my mind.  

Popularity: 5% [?]

Blues Caravan 2009

 

 

I asked who was responsible for cutting his hair “Yeah, it does need cutting” he smiled.  Then I contemplated standing on one of his patent leather two tone shoes even, but it was clear – Oli Brown is too nice to take offence.  He prefers to smile and he has a lot to smile about.  Not least because he gets to stand centre stage flanked by two beautiful and talented Blues ladies.

Sunday night was Blues Caravan night at Bonn’s Harmonie as RUF Records brought it’s latest Tour package into town for 2009. 

 

 

This years show is titled “Fresh Blues” and the combined ages of  Oli, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Finlands  Erja Lyytinen are less than that of Louisiana Red – quite possibly less than that of Eric Clapton even.  I actually own neck-ties older than these people (and yes, I wear them too).   Record Company owner Thomas Ruf admitted  it was a calculated risk taking three relative unknown musicians across Europe.  Erja has played here before (on the Caravan with Ian Parker and Aynsley Lister) but the two Brits, despite having big reputations on the British Blues scene, are new to these shores.  The reception in Germany so far though has been fantastic says Thomas.

 

I recalled the show here last week with Paul Millns and just his electric piano.  It wasn't just the audience that had increased.  The Harmonie stage was now also bursting at the seams with equipment.  A drum kit replete with billiard ball decoration care of Denis Palatin, some ten guitars, and, at it’s height six musicians.   Last week saw just myself and the Harmonie staff photographer darting between tables in search of THE shot.  This week there is a scrum of camera wielding men (curiously just one woman) and darting around after THE shot’ was no longer an option.

 

 

 

 Joanne Shaw Taylor - screaming optional

 

The first act up is Joanne Shaw Taylor.  Joanne’s ‘Brummie’ accent is evident when she talks but not when she sings (the opposite would have made for a short international blues career?).  Incidentally, we might be talking young here (22) but Joanne has had her own band since she was sixteen not to mention a stint alongside Dave (Eurythmics) Stewart and Candy Dulfer.  From this and her energetic playing she obviously has talent in abundance, but on this night she doesn’t seem to be quite ‘firing on all cylinders’.  Joanne's Mike is situated in what I call the Harmonie stages 'Black Hole' – where few spotlights penetrate.    It's where keyboard players are sent and where Snowy White went by choice.  Musically no complaints though, “Bones” was my favourite of her set and it rocked well enough, but I had the impression she could kick more ass than she was kicking so to speak. 

 

Sandwiched in between the two ladies (hmm!) was the ultra highly rated Oli Brown.  I disagree with opinions that he would fit in well as a guitarist with Tokio Hotel.  For one he is too good a guitarist and secondly, where  Bill’s hair clearly points spikely upwards, Oli’s very definitely gravitates smoothly southwards.  A very young Jon Bon Jovi maybe?

 

Oli Brown – A star in the making

 

Both musically and fashion-wise though Oli Brown is very much his own man.  The tailored pin-stripe suit and especially the two-tone shoes say exactly what his music underlines: He knows exactly how he wants to look and exactly what he wants to play.  There is an extraordinary contrast of shyness in his stage presence yet complete ease with the audience.  Sounds like a contradiction?  Maybe charisma is a better word.  He gets maybe the biggest applause for the evening introducing ‘Psycho’ as a song about his experiences with women – a large part of the audience is male and (well) over 30 but even with the extra years over Oli probably haven’t had the problem of being targeted by a female stalker.  It’s certainly not a Sonny Boy Williamson song, and you have to give the man credit for a fresh blues topic.  By the time a raunchy sing-along version of the old standard ‘Black Betty’ finishes the set everyone is eating out of Oli Brown’s capable hands.  The future of the blues comes from Norwich? Stranger things have happened.

 

 

Finland’s Erja Lyytinen has the hard job of keeping the performance level set by Oli Brown.  The ‘veteran’ of this years show at a mere 29, Lyytinen could rely on her short and sexy red dress for attention but as soon as she plugs and plays it’s clear she doesn’t need to do so.  “The Bonnie Raitt of Finland” as she has been rather clumsily branded doesn’t actually bear much similarity to Miss Raitt outside of a fiery slide guitar style and flaming red hair.  Her dress and way of moving around the stage actually seem more like Tina Turner.  That her repertoire tonight includes ‘Steamy Windows’ is not entirely surprising then.  As Oli Brown did she talks easily to the audience; and like Oli she too has her own style.  If the dress doesn’t catch your eye then her glittery G&L semi-hollow guitars in red and blue ‘metal-flake’ design are sure to do so.  An added bonus for those at the front not distracted by the dress is her signature Joe Perry porcelain slide– can’t remember with all the blues guitarists I’ve seen when I ever saw one of those (though I guess Aerosmith fans see them pretty often!).  And the music? You ask.  Was pretty damn good is my answer.  An ‘earthy’ Ana Popovic one might say.  Like Ana, not pure bluesy but somewhat eclectic.  Both women are fans of Stevie Ray Vaughn and both play a smooth jazz tinged blues with ease. 

 

 

Joanne Shaw-Taylor, Oli Brown & Erja Lyytinen

Whether the sum was better than its parts is difficult to say.  There was certainly a lively version of  Muddy’s ‘Rolling and Tumbling’ to send the crowd home happy but I missed the centre of attention that Candye Kane provided last year .  The bottom line though is that Thomas Ruf was all smiles before the show started and the smile was deservedly still there at 9.30 (the show started at 7pm).   At a time when people are more inclined to stay home (Sunday, bad weather, economic woes) his latest Caravan is pulling in the crowds and
I suspect that for all three acts those crowds are destined to get bigger.  ‘The Blues is Alright!’ – Yes indeed.

 

Footnote: "Is that M.I.K.E.?" Oli asked me as he signed my CD cover.  "No Oli, J.O.H.N., my name is John", I replied.  Maybe he was getting his own back for the haircut jibe after all?!

 

INTERVIEW WITH JOANNE, ERJA and Oli

AND FOR MORE PICTURES CLICK BELOW: 

Gallery

Popularity: 6% [?]

Comedy Nights in April

Hi Friends and Fans of Comedy,

Only a few more days til our next show.

Remember, we have that fabulous lady from NY, Tamika Campbell coming in to get you all laughing in your and out of your seats.
Check out : http://ComedyNightNews.com for details

Email: johnnyhollywood@witty.com

Popularity: 24% [?]

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