"oh, ooohhh, it's her first time..."
Katja & Amy
Professor Buzz
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Four months of Ropey Shags and finally the first gig. Originally planned as another Friday practice session before our debut supporting Rocket 58 and Sin City Suckers, the Shags were instead invited to play at Katja’s as a farewell gig to Amy who had to return the next day to the land of the free and couldn’t possibly be allowed to leave without at least one Ropey Shag experience. Hence the premature deflowering.
With no little help from our island monkey groupie, Pete, we cleared out the practice room and shifted the lot to Wuppertal, where the size of our equipment was greeted with astonishment by Katja’s flatmates! No neighbours we were promised! Yeah right. As soon as we arrived we were met by a group of potential complainers who happened to live downstairs. I guess you could argue in a court of law that they’re not neighbours. OJ didn’t kill his wife, right? Anyway, it was clear that a visit from the bill was pre-programmed.
At 11 o’clock, bribed with a couple of beers, I was ready to slut myself around the stage but had to wait until handyman Wallah had drilled a couple of ozone layer size holes in the fucking floor and nailed a couple of planks down so his drums wouldn’t shift around. Finally, cameras ready, fuelled by the cool encouragement of beer, we were ready. Unfortunately the “PA” system wasn’t in the mood to cooperate and allowed very little in the way of my voice to come out. No big deal, we thought, the audience will certainly be so enthused that they’ll sing along. Shame they didn’t know the lyrics. All in all a pretty normal debut gig: technical problems and a half way decently played set finished off with our rendition of Reich Orgasm's 'Futur Pour Tous'.
Then came groupie Pete complaining of police oppression. Apparently, despite the fact that he doesn’t speak a word of German, he had been rattling on at length to a couple of cops who’d been sent (too late) to investigate the “noise”. They couldn’t understand a thing so he simply shrugged his shoulders, fucked off and left them there wondering what to do next. It almost makes you feel sorry for the pigs, eh?
As said, all in all a pretty normal debut. The beer flowed late into the night and we all looked forward to the following day’s official first gig. Cheers! Anni.
Pictures by Amy, © The Ropey Shags 2003 |
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