Easter’s approaching and we have got fresh snow here in the Sauerland. That is why we left very early to ride the motorways down to Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Thanks to the description on the internet http://www.ohrakel-online.de/ the club was easy to find. Also in Ingolstadt it was stone cold but free of snow. So we hung around the hall a while. There we discovered J.J. testing some weird constructed bikes the bus driver has brought along. Here are some mobile shots: “I want to ride my bicycle.”

The responsible staff was impatiently waiting for the musicians. Then a phone call on their mobile proved that the driver had lost his way from the hotel in the northern part of the town. Finally the white Limousine with the Hamburg registration number arrived with Glenn, Tomas Broman and Kjell Haakan Alexis Haraldsson for sound check. I must emphasize that we were received very friendly at the Ohrakel and were allowed to come in from the cold earlier than officially announced. I had a pot of hot tea at the bar and Alf had a “Weizen” while we could watch some Classic Rock DVDs on TV. In the meantime I heard some one mention that Joe is still in his hotel room because he is very sick. Is there again a curse on the German part of the tour? The sound mixer responded “Then we must turn Joe’s mike louder than usual.” The crew was looking forward to the warm meals on the buffet because in Bergamo, Italy they only had sandwiches. J.J., the “old Swede”, was especially keen on the salmon. Unfortunately were not allowed to take photos the gig was filmed by a local TV station “TV Ingolstadt”. Indeed Joe had a very bad cold as I could recognize from his glassy eyes due to the high fever, which made me feel even more sorry for him. Somebody behind me whispered disparagingly “Was der wohl wieder getankt hat…” (He’s really tanked up…)  After a few titles Joe filed along the front row and greeted the fans. When he recognized Alf and me a he bent over to us with a big grin, fuzzed my hair and hugged me. “Thank you for coming, you really cheer me up!” he whispered in my ear. As observed on the tours ago Joe played along with the microphone stand and threw the cable around. He nearly strangled me with it. As far as I can judge the Sound was okay, as we were standing behind the PA, the vocals and the keyboards were sometimes to low, but that is very often the case when you are standing in the first row. One string of J.J.’s guitar broke which he handed over to a lucky fan. Joe returned with a mug of tea at the second half of the set also those you uttered so negatively must have realized that he was very sick. At the end of the show he bent down to me again and pressed his guitar pick into my hand. After the band has left the stage I nicked the set list with Joe’s shoeprints on.

Almost two weeks later we found us waiting in the storm and sleet outside the “Zeche” Bochum.
We were allowed to come inside and had a drink together with some other early fans at the pub upstairs. One of them mentioned that a doctor has been called to Joe’s hotel room, to medicate his throat so that his voice could stand the concert. This made me worry again. But we enjoyed again a very energetic show in a sold-out hall with a great crowd.
Joe had obviously lost some weight in the meantime. From my point of view this was the concert with the best sound of the four German ones. Some complained on several forums that the sound was too loud, but it is their own fault. We never go to a rock concert without earplugs!
Thus let the pictures do the talking:

Tomas in purple light

Already 2 days later we found ourselves waiting at the BLUESGARAGE in Hannover-Isernhagen. When we arrived at the club in the early afternoon the crew was busy installing the equipment. So we waited outside in the sunny cold. Later we went inside and had some drinks at the bar. Finally the musicians arrived and I caught Joe directly at the entry. Joe hugged me and smiled with me (Having my first spring sun tan – red cheeks and nose from the cold wind…) into the camera and went inside to check the venue.

Then Joe was informed that the equipment was prepared for sound check. We followed him and watched the test. The crew said everything is okay, so Glenn and Joe should check their ear monitors. But Glenn was everything else but content with the result and complained distortions on the monitors.  (Why has the staffs not remarked this before?)

Glenn wanted everybody who was not part of the crew to be sent out of the hall. We were lucky because we had just got served our meal consisting of hotdogs, so they could not send us out of the building. We observed it more or less secretly from our table around the corner.  J.J., Tomas and Kjell had to cross the hall several times from their backstage-room to the stage to check again and again. 
Over and over again the sound-engineer changed the channels on the soundboard. Then the doors already opened and the visitors came in. This made Glenn really angry.
The audience was sent out again and had to wait at the entry in the cold.
The sound-engineer tried his best to solve the problems but it seems that the reason for this trouble was a loose connection somewhere inside the mixer. So they all decided to install monitor speakers instead of the earphones for Glenn and Joe. However, they had just a kind of alibi function. After nearly three hours of testing the band decided to start the show.

Indeed the quality of the equipment was not the best because for example Joe got a microphone where the cable has already been fixed with a tape! (Seems that MacGyver has got a backstage pass. )    

Glenn and Joe apologized for the very long delay and thanked the audience for waiting so patiently at the door. As the mixer was placed directly in front of the stage at the left side this time I could see the cable mess behind the set, a plate of Spaghetti looks more structured…
The band took this incident with gallows humour, were grinning all the time.
Even during the performance the sound engineer had to hit the mixer with his fist from time to time.
From my point of view the sound was not the best: J.J.'s guitar too loud, keyboards to low but it was not the man’s fault at all...

While waiting for the artists to return into the hall after the gig we cracked some naughty jokes with our new JLT-friends Sandra and Dagmar: If our heroes could have heard us they might have expelled us from the hall. I remarked whether Joe has still got his tonsils, Sandra wondered whether Glenn has still got his balls.  We – the female fan section – were all of the same opinion that we like it most whenever Joe and Glenn are really suffering when singing as from the lyrical as well as from the melodical point of view when it gets to the very high notes, especially when Joe languishes in “I Surrender” and Glenn cries his heart out on "Mistreated".
The girl-talk like discussion continued with Joe's beautiful thick hair, we admired and made us envious. I denied circulating rumours that it is a wig because I have some shots (TIVOLI-Bremen 2002 when Joe bent down to sign my jeans.) where you can see the skin shining through his hair which would not be the case if it were artificial.
Big dark eyes, his voice à the whole bloke is simply cute! Immediately Glenn and Joe were surrounded by autograph hunters at the bar. Finally Joe had “worked off” the other fans’ autograph requests and turned to me to sign another big pile of my CD booklets, LP sleeves and tour books in a quiet corner.
Again Joe was very unhappy because of the technical problems due to the bad equipment. My comment that you cannot even burn the soundboard because it is not made of wood made him laugh.

(Pic. By Sandra Sass)

Later Sandra explained that his hair must be real as she had pulled it a little and it did not move.
Then I took the chance to give Joe the Penguin pillow, I asked whether he is not allergic to the grain stuffing. First he found the pet too precious to accept. But then he recognized that the blue pet was pillow he could use to sleep on the bus and fooled around with the animal behind the bar.

Also J.J. mixed with the crowd and I talked with him about the music scene and stupid casting shows which destroy the creativity. The blond one told us that the big IKEA sign at the motorway exit “Grossburgwedel” made him feel like home… I explained to him that this Swedish furniture chain nearly enjoys a kind of cult status in Germany.

After Joe has left the building I nicked his glass with the rest of red wine and his lip traces on. It will never see a dish washing machine again! Before the musicians had to leave J.J. shot the following photo of us all four:

Nearly two weeks later the HTP-team returned from sunny Sweden, where the crew had a barbeque at the lakeside the night before, to cold and rainy Hamburg for their last German concert. While waiting outside the “Fabrik”-building we chatted a little with the bus driver who used the time to fix some tubes of the heating.
Also on their last German gig the sound was not the best because volume level was going up and down.

The shortened set list because the crew and some band-members had to catch the ferry to the UK overnight. Glenn and Joe, however, spent the night at a hotel and flew over the Channel next day.
(I Surrender)

Joe fell into a non-marked gap at the left edge of the stage when he wanted to greet the fans at the side. The shadow of the unlighted part pretended a continuous floor. Joe was very lucky that two strong male fans who told me that afterwards when we were waiting for the band to sign after the show caught him so he did not hurt seriously. I guess the audience in the rear did not even notice this incident. Nevertheless Joe continued the action loaded HTP stage show.

During the encore I caught Glenn’s pick, which I put safely into my wallet.

In spite of the time pressure the band rewarded us with a long outro of Nero’s hymn “Burn” Joe held his guitar to me, and I played a wild thing on his guitar strings. I would have nearly ruined my finger nails unless Joe handed me his pick that it got louder.


After the show Joe had signed again piles of fan stuff, I got also some autographs from Glenn.
Sandra presented Joe a bottle of self-made sloe liquor. As we did not know the correct English word for “Schlehe” Joe got very curious opened the bottle, held his nose over it and took a nip.
Joe was happy to see and sign everything the fans brought along, old and new press cuttings, posters even Tribute albums or where he sang backing vocals on. They bring back memories of the recording sessions. Lita Ford has two children by now and is still doing fine... Joe emphasized that he loves to chat with fans; these are the moments he takes home and keeps in mind.
Hopefully the worn-out equipment will not appear on eBay or any other auction platform on the internet someday to ruin a young band’s career start.