[kj] Nice Streets Below: How We Wait in Europe

[Karen Weil]

Hi, Change:

Appreciate your thoughts on Belgium; it's a fine place. Germany also offers 
so much, and has a very strong avant-guarde scene.
 However, I have to take issue with your comments about the Dutch and 
Europe. If anything, the Dutch have a totally different attitude when it 
comes to languages; that's why so many of them speak three or four of them. 
Whatever differences they may have with their European neighbors; I really 
don't think the English issue plays a great role.
And while Paris is outrageously expensive (I was there in May; and believe 
me, it was no fun coming from a country where the currency is in the 
toilet!), I really can't agree with your observations about the French, 
either. (Although I will concur about their love of Wire!)
But at any rate, enjoy travelling  -- veel plezier, as the Dutch say!

Groetjes,

k.w.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Change" <crackedmachine at yahoo.co.uk>
To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" 
<gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:53 AM
Subject: [kj] Nice Streets Below: How We Wait in Europe



> How nice it was to escape this ever more petty joke of a nation, occupied 

> as it has been by the USA since WW2. If you want to get away from this 

> rotten island then a great place to go is Belgium. Its not too far by 

> coach through the tunnel. Brussels is beautiful. The streets smell of 

> coffee and chocolate, the people are jolly and kind and there is great art 

> everywhere. No wonder Colin and Malka made it their home. There are also 

> lots of Belgians with little noses straight out of a Tintin book. The food 

> and beer are amazing. I thought Brussels was wonderful but then I made it 

> to Ghent and was pretty damn glad the trams had been aborted by a flower 

> festival because I walked along the canal to get back to the station and 

> realised that this is architecturally the most beautiful city I have seen. 

> I haven't made it to Prague yet though! Antwerp looks like a low rent 

> Barcelona copy, in the same way Manchester tries to be European but always 

> ends up looking like

> a post-industrial dump. Tilberg is very boxy but the people were partying 

> hard and late and the Dutch all seem to think the rest of Europe is crap 

> just because they don't all speak perfect English! "Those crazy Dutch!" 

> said Lewis but I can't remember why. Maybe it was something to do with the 

> hotel WIRE rejected in Tilburg. Margaret the guitarist said it was so 

> grotty she didn't even want to put her bag down in it let alone sleep in 

> it!

>

> Berlin is a great place to explore, full of impressive sites and large 

> enough to spend years there I'd warrant. Tiergarten is the largest and 

> most lovely park I've ever strolled through. German venues also make a 

> mockery of British ones in terms of the sound.

>

> Strasbourg has a fine market where I found a sabre for a mere twenty 

> euros, a light sabre for two euros and a tiny plastic Obelix for twenty 

> cents. Lewis loves the trams, but the modern art gallery, watched over by 

> one of Lovecraft's Forgotten Ones, is even better. I spent too long there 

> so got to Paris 23 minutes too late. My Cologne friend Dirk from the 

> Gathering reckons Strasbourg is cool because of the huge German influence. 

> Cancel your order, crossing the border, changing the menu!

>

> The Eyefull tower is good for a stroll but Paris is full of too many slow 

> people and the prices are obscene. Jus d'orange? Mai non je pense que je 

> WAIT until ich gehe zu Belqigue! Paris hotels are the worst. Unlike 

> Germany and Belgium, the beer is worse than Britain. French computer 

> keyboards were designed by a retard and the showers go some way to 

> explaining why the English have often mocked the French for being 

> hygenically challenged. The redeeming feature of the French is that many 

> of them seem to really love WIRE and gave the most enthusiastic response 

> of any crowds on this tour.

>

> Anyway this was the route of my rail and road trip:

>

> I arrived in beautiful Brussels in the middle of some kind of medieval 

> WARDANCE pageant. I had time to visit the city's most mainstream record 

> store just opposite Ancienne Belquique which Killing Joke would conquer by 

> and by. I was rewarded by finding a copy of one of the few PJ HARVEY 

> singles I didn't yet possess, 'A PLACE CALLED HOME.'

>

> After a couple of hours I caught the train to gorgeous Ghent for the WIRE 

> gig at Democrazy.

>

> Next day I took trains via Antwerp and a bus NORTH OF THE BORDER to 

> Tilburg just in time to catch the seismic riffin' PELICAN and Dutch 

> hardcore heroes SEEIN' RED before WIRE blasted off at around 7pm. Later I 

> was also entertained by the double breasted PRE and a Satanic black metal 

> band who gave the crowd the finger for watching them, all of which was 

> unexpected.

>

> On returning to Brussels I witnessed a lovely WIRE gig at La Botanique, a 

> venue which could verily call itself NICE STREETS ABOVE if it so desired. 

> I struck up conversation with a charming photographer and graphic designer 

> called Violette who sent me eight great photos of WIRE from the gig.

>

> After the gig I had to START TO MOVE pretty sharp and jumped on the night 

> train where I was entertained by conversation with a former theatre 

> director who had just aborted a trip to Turkey. He recommended a trip to 

> Tiergarten which proved very good advice. My first police encounter was 

> with two cops on the Ostbahnhof platform who took a rather long time 

> checking to find out if Interpol have a warrant out on me for listening to 

> music in my living room. Berlin is also very cool and well worth a visit 

> in its own right, but smells worse than Brussels.

>

> The first night was free before the arrival of KILLING JOKE so I checked 

> out the SO36 venue where they and WIRE played, which was immortalised in a 

> song on the first KILLING JOKE album. The sound was excellent as are all 

> other German venues I've ever been to. The soundman played KILLING JOKE 

> before the headline act, a comedy punk trio who weren't very funny but 

> probably liked DEVO. We talked after the gig and I run into him again at 

> the KILLING JOKE gigs.

>

> After the amazing KILLING JOKE regeneration in Berlin, with Big Paul's 

> drum kit illuminated and smoking ritualistically, I planned to head to 

> Paris to see them there. The train times were TOO LATE so at the last 

> minute I rerouted to Strasbourg for more WIRE and this proved a wise 

> choice as the COMET hit very late and I caught the whole set in front of a 

> very young and enthusiastic crowd at a festival that went on until 6am. 

> Next day my second run in with cops was with two French transport police 

> who ask me to wrap up my sword so that it couldn't be seen before I caught 

> the train.

>

> Paris next for more WIRE, on a first class train where I started downing 

> some of the left over Heineken from last night's rider and upset a French 

> idiot who had a tantrum because I couldn't stop belching even when she 

> kicked my chair. She complained to the guard and he clearly thought it was 

> a bit silly having to ask me not to belch when I couldn't help it. In the 

> end she started complaining I was playing the BUTTHOLE SURFERS too loud on 

> my headphones and he came back, again embarrassed, to ask me to turn it 

> down. Then she had a stroke of genius and moved to another seat. Perhaps 

> its a good job the sword was wrapped!

> If you ever feel like going to Paris my advice is don't bother. Go in a 

> cafe that advertises coffee for a Euro and they greasy waiters will 

> chearge you five.

>

> It was nice to speed back to Belgium and Brussels which was already 

> seeming like a second home. I found many cool CDs in the shops, including 

> quite appropriately COMMERCIAL SUICIDE. Being there for three days I had 

> plenty of time to explore and each day surpassed the previous one. I met 

> so many great people in Belgium I felt like moving there!

>

> My favourite songs to listen to on a speeding train were

> KILLING JOKE - Pssyche

> WIRE - Drill (DJ Fuckoff Version)

>       oh dear the moderate Craig won't like that will he?

> KILLING JOKE - Timewave

> PJ HARVEY - Taut

> EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Haus Der Lauge

> BAND OF SUSANS - Guitar Trio

> KILLING JOKE - Empire Song

> WIRE - Germ Ship

> WIRE - Spent

> BUTTHOLE SURFERS - Who was in my room last night?

>

> Back home after another awesome double dose of the mighty JOKE I had a day 

> of rest and didn't even have time enough to notice what a terminal dump 

> Manchester is because the MELVINS wheeled in to rock the town and give me 

> a chance to catch up with lots of old friends. That is the great thing 

> about Manchester, lots of good gigs.

>

> Next day I was off again to London for the KILLING JOKE homecoming and as 

> chaotic synchronicity would have it, THALIA ZEDEK and her band began their 

> tour the very next day. She's a brilliant intense songwriter. Check her 

> out while you still can...

>

> www.myspace.com/thaliazedek

>

> Her tour ends on October 23 at La Botanique in Brussels!

>

> I went to all the THALIA ZEDEK BAND gigs in England and after the best one 

> at Hull Adelphi I had to zoom down to Cheam in Surrey for my younger 

> sister's wedding. The lavish reception was held on a Territorial Army base 

> but my uncles and I resisted the temptation to hijack a tank. One thing I 

> gave her was a copy of 'UH HUH HER' by PJ HARVEY as "The Desperate Kingdom 

> of Love" couldn't really be a better song to wish for a long loving 

> marriage, at the end of this burning world.

>

> Then I went home to transcribe interesting interviews with MAGAZINE and 

> WIRE, blow up some more stereo speakers, and wait for civilization to fall 

> in its grave.

>

> ACCELERATE

> ACCELERATE

>

>

>

>

>

>

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