Something new, something old.

I wanted to try out some new design and I’m quite happy with it. And of course, having chosen one of my alltime favourite motives, it was double fun working on it! Here’s to John.

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Please don’t sing that song, that we all can sing along

Some memories of the Paul McCartney concert yesterday at Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna. It’s his Out-There-Tour and it sure was a blast, of some kind. But I don’t need to see the biggest Beatles-Cover-Band featuring Paul McCartney. I don’t have the urgent want to sing “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” or “Hey Jude” in a drunken beer-mood. I want the real thing. I want to see a brilliant musician at work. Not an entertainer, celebrating his Greatest Hits over and over again. There should be more to it. And – I guess you can ask every real Beatles fan – there is.

Heroes II

As promised, my next hero banned on paper in black and white. As I mention, quite frequently, on this blog, I’m a very big Beatles fan and my biggest hero ever must and will be Mr. John Winston Lennon. I was close to an obsession I guess, when I was around 13, 14 years old and he was a very important figure to me during my adolesence. And my fascination and engagement with all things Lennon never really stopped. Now, when I think about him, he feels more like a family member or a close friend which I don’t get to see anymore but have so many fond memories about. It’s a strange thing, how you kind of get to know a person, without ever actually meeting him. But of course, in the end, you can’t really get close to your hero, how could you. You get close to a version you fabricate in your head. A version that let’s you get closer to yourself maybe. And that may be a good thing, I guess.

Day 01: Top five favourite bands & musicians.

Ok, this decision wasn’t too hard, because there always will be this big five in my heart:

• The Beatles – because they were my first real music love and I know every album and can sing along to every single song of theirs.
• Oasis – because it was the logical conclusion after being a Beatles fan for years and because, as born in the early 80s, being in the middle of Britpop when I grew to be teenager. This vain bastards just rock my world.
• Green Day – my first digression into Punk Rock and also a big love since early teenage years.
• R.E.M. – a band I discovered a little later on. I don’t know them as well as The Beatles or Oasis but they always accompanied me through life.
• Tocotronic – the only German band on my list, even though I got into “Hamburger Schule” quite strong for some time. When I listen to Tocotronic many lovely teenage memories come to my mind and Tocotronic kind of grew with me, from this wild Punk boys to something a little bit more grown-up.

Quarter of a dream, coming true.

I doubt it, but maybe there are still people out there, who don’t now how big of an Beatles fan I am: Well, I just fell in love with those guys when I was around 11 or 12 years old. Their music was everywhere in our house and my older sisters had posters all over their bedroom walls featuring the four guys from Liverpool.

Early innocent questions, where followed by me literally eating up every book about the Beatles, sorting their albums chronological and listening my way all through them. Soon that wasn’t enough and I wrote down the lyrics of all their songs in a big folder, accompanied by drawings and scribbles and soon not only my school-books were covered in Beatles quotes but my whole room looked like a fab shrine.

Those guys were my first real music love. They gave me a reason for really wanting to learn English in school, they awoke my affection for drawing and painting and they taught me to play the guitar. I knew and still know all of their songs and can sing along to most of them. I saw all of their films and collected everything I could gather. I was member of the Beatles fan club, went to Beatles-Double-Group concerts and Astrid Kirchherr exhibitions. I lit a candle on John Lennons day of death every year and I found my longest and one of my dearest friends through my manic search for Beatles stuff.

These four guys were my life for a long time and still have a big part in it. I did everything a fan could do, I guess – but one thing: I never had the chance to see them live, beeing born 13 years after they split up and 3 years after John Lennon died.

But now the day had come for me to see at least one of them: Mr. Ringo Starr played the Arena in Vienna last Sunday, 17. July 2011, and I was there! And I can’t even begin to tell you how happy that made me. It was a dream, nearly as old as I am, coming true. I have to admit, that Ringo never was my favourite – there was always John Lennon first and after that Paul McCartney (like most of the Beatles fan would say, I guess). But it was nearly unreal for me to be in the same place like a guy that I, after all too, worshipped so much over the years. He was there. And he was so much alive and real.

My favourite bits of the concert of course where the Beatles songs he played, but also some of his solo or early stuff really rocked my world:

• “It don’t come easy” – Ringo Starr
• “Honey don’t” – Beatles, Carl Perkins cover
• “I wanna be your man” – Beatles
• “Yellow submarine” – Beatles
• “Act naturally” – Beatles, Buck Owens cover
• “Boys” – Beatles, Shirelles cover
• “With a little help from my friends” – Beatles

He ended the show the best way possible by giving a prayer out to John Lennon, singing “Give peace a chance”. I was really touched and it felt, and I know that sounds quite cheesy, as if Lennon was looking down on us. But, when it comes to the Beatles, I guess I am a bit cheesy…

The only thing that was quite strange and left the audience really unsatisfied, was that there was no encore. Ringo and his All Starr Band simply left the stage and that was that. But, however, this are two hours of my life I will never ever forget, with or without encore!

© all photos taken from Cremers Photoblog, derStandard

She came in through the bathroom window.

I got a wonderfull and unexpected easter present from my lovely partner in crime: “Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs”, a beautiful Taschen coffee-table book. As you might already know I am a big Beatles fan but must admit I know little about Linda. And this book is amazing! Her photography just really gets to me…

Somebody to Love.

A few weeks ago some very dear friends of mine and I decided to give us an assignment every month. According to a “motto” everybody produces some kind of creative output. The first assignment was “The last book I read.”. So – here’s my solution for this lovely problem, a drawing that is dedicated to Arne Bellstorf comic novel “Baby’s in Black”. I wrote about it on this blog some time ago – it’s the lovestory between Stuart Sutcliff (brief member of the very early Beatles and gifted painter) and Astrid Kirchherr (a german photographer).  However, this is what I came up with. What do you think?

Nowhere Boy.

I could’nt wait to see “that new John Lennon movie” this weekend. After all I read about it on the net, I was quite sure that I would like it – and the poster looked gorgeous (which, for me, is always an important thing)!

And it really is great! It is authentic but doesn’t loose it’s artistic freedom. It has really good actors in it (I knew and loved David Morrisey from the BBC series “Blackpool” and 2008 Doctor Who christmas special, and of course most people know Thomas Sangster from “Love Actually” or “Nanny McPhee”). And it is just beautiful made and combines strong pictures with great music.

It is based on John Lennon’s half-sister’s biography “John Lennon, my brother” and shows a young, confused and revolting John Lennon who is filled with emotions but finds his best possible cure: Rock’n’Roll. Julia Lennon, his always abscent mother is the center of the movie. When he finally seems to win her back into his life for good, she dies in a car crash. As the future had shown, she always will be a driving force but never fullfilled fantasy in Lennon’s music and life.

Find out more here nowhereboy.com

Fab photography.

I was, am and quite sure always will be a big Beatles fan. Yesterday my heart jumped for joy when I stumbled over beatlephotoblog.com a wonderfull and wide collection of Beatles photos – and most important, many many unseen photos of the Fab 4 and family! Which is a rare thing when you’ve been a Beatle-maniac for about 15 years now. So – just check out this fabulous resource of photography, here are some of my favourite:

 

Baby’s in black.

 

Oh dear, what can I do?
Baby’s in black and I’m feeling blue,
Tell me, oh what can I do?

She thinks of him and so she dresses in black,
And though he’ll never come back, she’s dressed in black.

I think of her, but she thinks only of him,
And though it’s only a whim, she thinks of him.

Oh how long will it take,
Till she sees the mi stake she has made?

Dear what can I do?
Baby’s in black and I’m feeling blue,
Tell me, oh what can I do?

 

One of my favourite presents this year for christmas was this graphic novel by Arne Bellstorf: “Baby’s in black”. I read it in one go and was totally amazed: The story of Astrid Kirchherr and former Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe ist told beautifully and Bellstorf graphic style is just great. It fits perfect in this wild years of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn early glorys and plays beautifully with the colour, that it is all about – and, it also interprets Astrid Kirchherrs beautiful photographs (which I always was especially in love with) in a fresh and very becoming way.