Berlin

[turmbird]

I am still so excited about the news of the upcoming european tour! so far got tickets for london and all germany shows. Berlin will be a highlight for sure. I wonder if John ever played Berlin before?
does any of the experts know about this? past world tours (Lonesome Jubilee 1988, Whenever We Wanted 1993) did not include berlin, as far as I remember.
But maybe the band was here in the very early days, when they used to play as opening acts for bands like The Kinks, Kiss, Heart etc... is there any kind of tour-diary, exactly what day where what was played?

speaking of berlin, I´d like to try something I normally dont do, request a song. "WE ARE THE PEOPLE", a song that he didn´t even play in 1988.
writing this song in 1987, John foresaw german history. in 1989 people in the former GDR (east germany) started so-called "monday demonstrations", where they used to gather in big cities on monday evening to walk through the streets and protest against the communist regime. hundreds of thousands of people peacefully protested and their famous chant was "Wir sind das Volk (=WE ARE THE PEOPLE)". it was the beginning of the breakdown of the wall one year later.

neither John nor the east germans invented these phrase, it was often used before, but performing this song in the reunited berlin more than 20 years after, would fit in my opinion. besides it has a great melody and fiddle solo.

[turmbird]

in about 2 weeks John and his band will be here. for all you americans it may sound crazy, because you had so many tours, but this will be his first european tour since 1992.
the world has changed a lot since then, but not the meaning and influence of John´s music.

as far as i know there are still tickets available. since a few days a little pr was to be seen here in the city, a few tour posters on the walls, not too much but at least.
the "Tempodrom" in berlin is a great theatre venue, not too big, but it looks unique and with the former train station "Anhalter Bahnhof" it has a part of bad germany history right in front of its doors.

is anyone coming over from the us? if so, maybe we can meet, let me know.