Category Archives: tour

On Tour- Germany – Berlin

news, photos, tour, travel

Thanks Wolfgang for this great email below.  I’ve been in Berlin and Hamburg and now driving up to Denmark for the concert which is tonight.

Wolfgang B wrote:

Hi Luke, hope you will remember the 22th of March in Berlin when we met you in Friedrichstraße near “The Blockhouse” restaurant. After a smalltalk you gave me a cd with a lot of songs made by your own.

Great in songwriting and guitar playing. I have a friend who is a guitar teacher in Berlin and a performer and composer too and he was very impressed of your fantastic songwriting. I hope you enjoyed your stay in Berlin.

Such a short moment we had together was worth much more than a stay in a cd shop with uninspired shopping. When you come back to berlin, maybe we will find a location for you to introduce your songs to a greater audience…….. All the best for you.

Wolfgang

Berlin was a buzz but i only saw the bright side there is a dark side of course.  A lot of poverty.  A lot of street people but the drunks seem more polite and orderly than antipodrunks or irish drunks.

I tried playing the street but it wasn’t as great as i thought it would be. The cops were very nice but adamant that.

..it is forbidden……here they are

german-police

So it’s not so easy and there are a lot of people on the streets asking for charity. like this lady see “the honest beggar”

honest-beggar-berlin

Then there are clubs like this one the junction bar where its nice and cosy but small and you get a cut of the door and have to do all promo. Not worth it for the money cause there is none by the time you pay expenses.cd sales? there are none.Ha ha. So its the usual tale of woe.

thejunction-band

The only guys coining it are the name acts but it’s probs not easy for them either cause berlin consists of many cities….its not under a forced centralised system ….yet. Thats why it still hosts a profusion of small shops and funky places.

In Alexandra pltz there is a conglomeration of franchises all vying for the visitors dollar. Ghastly atmosphere and a taste of things to come if the mammon heads take over ……èeeeeeeeeeeeek! God forbid! Berliners aren’t wimps they would put up a good fight …thats probs why its not a corporate city. They care about their heritage.

Berlin-luke

expression-city-side

Stayed at a backpacker called heart of gold very warm comfy and inexpensive. Close to everything ya need.

Old and new- side by side
oldandnew

berlin-graffiti1

berlin-graffiti2

Messing about in boats
berlin-boats

Was invited to play a house concert…..see facebook link

Very unlike any i have played.These berliners actually listen closely.They respond. It was recorded so let me know of you wanna copy.

Right now we are heading to Denmark for a concert tonite. Wilfried and Rita are driving me there and they are the reason i am in Germany as their daughter Natasha has a travel mag she runs with her husband michael… They did a story on me a few years ago and by an amazing coincidence i met Natasha’s parents when they were on holiday in Auckland….they invited me to Germany for the launch of Anamea.de Natasha and Michaels new mag….Wilfried and Rita have been together 50 years.

Berlin-Wilfred

We are taking the same road Wilfried took when he was 17 on his cycle trip to Denmark he is now 66.

Thanks to them we will be in Hjallerup soon. Thanks also to all those who made donations and gave other help so I could make this trip.

Since Paris-Part 1

photos, tour, travel

WRITING TO YOU AGAIN!

LH1

We live a sheltered life here.

Euro is way more stressy.

NZ is the “armchair of the world” by comparison.

It seems too good to be true.LH2

These girls promised to make my music popular.Friend on the right from Germany is writing to her grandmother, on the back of her best friend from Brazil .Way to go!

LH3

visitors from Sweden

LH4

Daddy daughter day

LH5

the happy young couple

Notre Dame

tour

Was invited to play in Paris. A few gigs came of this including one on a boat (there is nothing in the world quite like messing about in boats)

It was great to see my friends from Auckland- Madelaine and Aaron- and be able to invite them up to the apartment that I was a guest in. A perfect little apartment right in the heart of Paris.

My hosts had given me the most ideal conditions like something out of a movie….being met at the station and delivered there in a Porsche was just one of the things that went with this dream visit.

Cannot claim to have given much in return and certainly knew no way to be able to live up to the circumstances I found myself in.

I stayed up very late and slept late and explored the vicinity with the wide eyed wonder of a child.

Notre Dame - Western FacadeThe first thing that I noticed was Notre Dame…..a building I have always loved but this time it was real!

What a miracle of architecture. It took a century to build.

Nowadays it’s more of a tourist trap than a building within which to reverence the creator. …

Such kind of worship has given way to a worship of another kind.  No priests in evidence other than priests of commerce.

There is a whole adjacent block dedicated to selling junk to tourists and even a shop inside the church itself.  How did this happen and why do we let it happen? Commerce don’t belong here! It was a holy place now forced to exist for tourism.

It was a church now its a shop. Its surreal. It’s like when a beautiful woman goes on the game and her friends don’t pass any comment.

How DO Christians feel about their churches being offered up to this desperate game?

London, Paris, Gothenburg

news, tour, ,

In late November and early December Luke played gigs at number of locations including Paris, London and Gothenburg  as well as other parts of England.

Here are some notes from those shows.

PARIS
Paris is like a theme park full of the expectations a tourist would
have of it.  At Notre Dame there is a strange interplay between the “merchants” and the tourists.

Checking out the local music

No street players in evidence but no shortage of rich beggars. Much intolerance for one and total acceptance of the other. In the vicinity kitsch shops and very expensive cafes abound. A cup of coffee will set you back ten bucks kiwi.

Saint Michel
Played near the fountain and inevitably got closed down. Strange habit of mine playing anywhere at anytime for anyone who will listen.  I call this practice “meet the police”.

Strange how playing gentle music to people is not tolerated anywhere in the world!

The best Paris gig was at the GREEN LINNET.  Check it out if you are a musician. The owner has a very encouraging attitude and easy to work with.

He told me that Rory Gallagher was obsessive about guitar There was nothing else in his life Hope I don’t get like that Love guitar but its not the center of my life.

I guess the center for me is more about people than music. People are endlessly fascinating.

LONDON
A few days prior to my show there it looked like we would have to cancel. There was a concern that I was not going to draw a crowd!

It went ahead anyway and the result was contrary to expectations.  It was a full house. A great atmosphere in that place.  People I had not seen for decades turned up.

Along with a lot of Londoners who were suitably impressed. Can’t help being a bit proud of the way it turned out.

November 28th, 2008 at 12:18 pm Lindsay wrote a few hours after the Alma concert

“Just heard Luke at the Alma. I was worried that nostalgia would have tinted my rosy coloured memories of Luke but he was great! Better than great and better than I remembered.”

SWEDEN

is AMAZING . Played two gigs at Gothenborg University .

Note: If you were lucky enough to see / hear Luke In Paris, London or Gothenburg please write your comments below or send us a review.