August 29th 1990 - October 7th 1990
This here is a wonderful look in to the bands shenanigans as they left Aussie shores to take on Europe in 1989. This Originally appeared in #5 of my old fanzine RESISTANT HARMONY  in August 1991 and is reproduced here in all it's Rock'n'Roll glory! It's a warts 'n' all account of a band on the road in a pre-Internet /Pre- iPhone age and retyped from the Cut and Paste Originals a few years back. SEVEN WEEKS of Rock Action and all the highs and lows & getting up to no good!  Enjoy this cool piece of Oz Rock history....
29/8/90 - Amsterdam:
  • We visited here today and had a ball…smoked great Hash in the Holland Hell’s Angel bar ‘The Other Place’ whilst drinking good Dutch beer and coffee and listening to Slayer. Walked around the Red Light district (window shopping) (look but don’t touch) surrounded by black hustlers (‘Hey guys you want hash?, coke ? trips? How about it ?)  Buzz and Marv (our roadie) got tattooed by Hanky Panky downstairs at The Other Place…Can’t wait till we get back here!!

30/8/90 - First Gig Vera, Groningen, Holland
  • Apart from a shaky start to the day (me leaving all my luggage in the place we were staying in) & then discovering that the Trace Elliot amp Paperclip (Booking Agency) have hired for me is gonna take A LOT of getting used to (this gig was the worst Bass sound I’ve ever had). The gig turned out to be very good ! great venue, with a downstairs bar, a fairly large hall for the bands, and an upstairs bandroom with a bar (unlimited free beer). Ran into Sylvana, Cathy and Guido (friends from Geelong), played for almost two hours (I think everyone agrees the set was a little too long), did an encore…not bad for the first nite considering that at soundcheck I busted 3 bass strings…Germany tonite!

31/8/90 - AJZ , Bielefeld, Germany with House of Suffering
  • This place is a big anarchist squat (someone later told me it was a Government funded Youth centre...not sure of the correct answer), great atmosphere, good food, some very weird people...one woman with plastic straws behind her ears and a bag around her waist with 'NEW AGE' (moulded in tin foil) stuck on it. She said 'Do you like my creativity, Is good for myself, I like Australian men'...in a very icy Germanic accent. She ended up getting on stage with us and performing some kind of ritualistic pagan love dance. Support band House of Suffering were dull thrash metal that dragged on forever. Stayed at Bo Bo (the promoter)'s parents place (they were away for the weekend), a great big German mansion. Apparently not long after we left the gig for Bo Bo's place some drunk American soldiers turned up and attacked a few of our fans.

1/9/90 - ‘Odeon’ , Munster Germany with Mudhoney
  • I didn’t enjoy this one at all. Our soundman Eppo has a cardiac arrest every time I cause my amp to overdrive... The volume level he wants me to play at is completely unacceptable to me and vice versa. We ended up sticking a piece of gaffa tape over the red overload signal…he doesn’t have a clue about what it is we’re going for. Dave or Marv ‘decided’ we should hire this piece of shit (the amp that is). Mudhoney turned out to be pretty nice guys -in Melbourne they seemed a little stand offish. We all got very wasted at the gig as there was unlimited beer and bourbon. Also a very good veg meal, but I poured strawberry yoghurt all over it (thought it was native custom) and rendered it unedible. Back at the hotel I ended up puking all over the bed and the floor and blocked up the sink as well. Johnny also took a couple of rides on the porcelain bus during the nite.

2/9/90 -‘Occ’, Venlo, Holland with Bleach
  • Tiny venue, how they managed to cram a bar, an upstairs bandroom and a stage in there I’ll never know. This was local band Bleach’s second gig..pretty terrible funk/arty type of band, they all wore tight fitting suits and seemed to be pretty embarrassed (for good reason too). Hardly anyone there but we played an ok set.

3/9/90 
  • Drove back to Niejmegen Holland    

4/9/90 
  • Did my washing, bought a ‘classic metal’ effect pedal to beef up the awful sound I’ve had onstage (cheapest pedal in the shop at 99 Gilders, that’s about a hundred au$). My money is holding up well, we get a daily wage of about 20 bucks. The guy whose house we’ve been staying at has a cupboard in his lounge room full of bizarre pornography…like hundreds of what appear to be ‘Score Cards’ i.e.: pink slips of cardboard with photos of famous women stuck to them (Kim Wilde, Kim Bassinger, Michelle Pfeifer, Suzanna Hoffs) and a score next to their names (e.g.: Kim Wilde 145). He also has a book of tracings from porn mags - we assume he meant to trace Kim Wilde’s face on to them or something...we’d been told he was ‘on holiday’ which we took to mean ‘he’s out of town’, but of course when we came back to the flat with our dinners, he opened the door. To make matters worse we’d left his secret porn stash scattered all over the lounge room. Most of us ran into the toilet, or one of our rooms and collapsed with hysterical laughter….very embarrassing moment.

5/9/90 - ‘Schwimmbad Musik Club’, Heidelberg, Germany with The Devil Dogs
  • One of the best gigs so far. The Devil Dogs are a great Punk Rock band from New Yawk who ripped into the finest N.Y.C. tradition (Shades of The Dictators, The Dolls, and The Ramones). We played a so-so gig, but the crowd seemed to like it. There was an upstairs disco room, a cinema, a games room (Pool Tables, Pinball Machines) as well as the music room where the bands play. They played ‘My Pal’ in the disco so John and I got down on the floor and did the Lambada. The Devil Dogs are great guys, we all bought each others records and traded autographs and addresses. These guys have even jammed with Handsom Dick and Ross the Boss from The Dictators !!. Hung out with a bunch of German freaks who took me, John and Andy (Bodyguard and String Changer) to a parking lot to smoke some joints and listen to their car stereo. We met a man tonite who’d hijacked a helicopter to get out of Czekosluvakia 15 years ago. He thought we were great and bought a double of everything we were selling (t-shirts, LP’s etc..)

7/9/90 - 'Reithalle' Bern Switzerland w/: Burger Von Calais
  • Breathtakingly beautiful place. Went for a walk around the town with Andy and John-incredible cathedral, most awesome stained glass windows I've ever seen. Went up to the bell tower, incredible view etc...bought a camera, a disposable one..very good day. Last nite (6/9/90) stayed at Reithalle, a great big Anarcho-hippy squat where we are playing tonite. Most of it is well set up, there's a cinema, a coffee shop, an Anarchist Library, and of course a Venue. Unfortunately it seems to be overrun with Hippy parasites ( a guy came in to our room and said "Hashish" 'To Sell?' we asked..."I look for some to smoke" he said). No locks on any doors...constant visits by people all through the fuckin' nite and stupid aggro punks...we're expecting some kind of confrontation tonite-this morning one "Punk" sprayed water on Eppo, he responded by hurling a bottle at him, so when we went to check into our hotel in the afternoon, the punks sprayed water (from a hose) all over us as well !!! fucking scum....not really looking forward to playing, but we'll just have to wait and see. It sure ain't the summer of love....... The gig actually turned out to be really great (the best so far). Fabian the promotor had a word to the Punks who promised not to cause any trouble ( and they kept their word) We played with Burger Von Calais, a sort of Art /Noise band...Swiss guys with shaved heads and baggy trousers. I started off thinking they were shit (well not my cup of tea anyway) but was won over by an intriguing version of "Walk on the Wild Side". Quite good, a three piece, bassist with an effects rack, very good drummer and a singer with a wooden leg !. The Reithalle let's people in for free and they carry around a hat at the end of the nite asking for donations. We actually made 200 Francs more than the guarantee ! Biggest crowd so far-about 350-400 people- great room, big stage, good fold back sound. The crowd was wild-we were called back for 2 encores. After the gig a swingin' chick called Barbs laid some coke on us...the full rock star trip ! then back to the hotel to grit our teeth and talk at 200MPH for the rest of the nite.

8/9/90 - Joc Ralley 90' (festival), Izegem Belgium w/: Negazione & L.O.G.
  • Today was absolute hell....hideous cocaine comedown. We drove from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening and were held up at the border by fascist border guards...went through all our pockets, but when they saw how jam packed with luggage and equipment the back of the van was, they let us go. Sheer hell in the van -John, Andy and me (the drug squad) all feeling really frail and fucked after sitting up all nite and only getting 3 hours sleep. As for the gig, Joc Ralley 90' (whatever that means), we played in between Life on Grey (very contrived pretentious 'power rock' group from Holland) and Negazione (The Italian band i once would of probably creamed my jeans to play with). These days unfortunately, Negazione are really shithouse -they all look like a bunch of wannabee Americans (Bandana's, long 'conditioned' hair, those knee length skate shorts or whatever they're meant to be, NIKE sneakers, and of course those little blue baseball caps worn backwards on the head! They even spoke American to the crowd !). The audience was hilarious, 200 or so 16 year old Wattie lookalikes complete with Mohawks, Exploited T-Shirts, and 'BARMY ARMY' chants in front of the stage !! When we played, it felt like 1982 all over again. Young punks trying to make themselves vomit, then getting up and pogoing...these guys were the worst stage divers I've ever seen -they get up on stage, wave to a friend, then jump into his arms !! We played the lack lustre gig of the tour so far, after all that driving i don't think any of us were in the mood to play. I had no voice at all, couldn't even be bothered to go through the motions. We met up with a group of people who'd come from Antwerp to see us...I sold my GOD shirt to one guy (who actually had a Birdman patch sewn on his jacket) for 500 francs. Thinking that I'd just made an incredible profit, I gave him a European BORED! shirt as well. Found out later that 500 francs is worth something like 19 Aussie Dollars......

9/9/90 - Day Off Rotterdam Holland
  • Went to 'Metropolis Festival', a big outdoor gig with 18-20 bands. We were on 'Stand-By', meaning that if another band failed to show up or pulled out we'd get to play. Of course no-one cancelled so it was a day of much needed relaxation.....free beer, food, and 'Access All Areas' passes fastened to our shirts. We scored immediately from 'Henry' or 'Harry' or someone, a guy who was there for community work ( he kept saying something about 'Drug related crime'). Saw MUDHONEY again, shithouse mix but music wise it was the best gig I've seen of theirs. Hung out in their backstage caravan and ravaged the fridge and food...heaps of HEINEKEN, cheese, salami, fruit etc... then stood in the sun and were bored into a semi-comatose state by their bassist. The big highlight of the day was getting to see THE GUN CLUB, who headlined the show. Jeffrey Lee played some great slide, Kid Congo looked like one of those Puerto Rican gang members in 'Colors' and a hot lookin' Asian chick on Bass. Well chosen set (not the standard 'Greatest Hits' package you seem to get from most 'Legendary' American bands these days), only complaint being yet another gutless P.A. sound. Then back to Niejmagen and a quick visit to the local coffee shop to buy some 'Skunk Specieel' (finest Sinsemilia in Holland). Tomorrow nite we're staying in fantastic Amsterdam.

10/9/90 - Amsterdam - 3 days off
  • Bang. words cannot describe this nite (except to say that 'Big eyed beans from Venus' by Beefheart, and 'Song For Karen' by Sonic Youth are now the greatest songs ever written). Also should mention that i got the eye of Horus tattooed on my left arm by Hanky Panky.

13/9/90 - 'U-Boot' - Ravensburg, Germany
  • The tiniest venue I've ever played in. forget the Napier or the Prince Pat, this place takes the cake. It's apparently a 400 year old cellar, which has been used as an Air-Raid shelter (amongst other things) at different times in history. With 15 people in the room it was standing room only/full house affair. Anyone wishing to stand up the front had to squeeze past the pinball machine and the bar, but none were game enough. We played a very rusty set (It's been 4 days and many many mikes since the last gig).The owner of the club was a seedy looking coke head with far too many skeletons in his closet. He turned out to be another one of these Euro-Sex perverts we have a habit of running into in these parts. While we were perusing his meagre underground comix collection, he told us that he didn't mind if we wanted to "have a wank" (his words) when reading his Cherry Poptart books, but could we refrain from getting cum on the pages, cos' they were 'very precious' to him. We laughed nervously and got the fuck out of there as soon as dawn broke.

14/9/90 - 'Zirkus', Gammelsdorf, Germany
  • To get to the 'Zirkus', one must drive away from the city and then through lush Germanic countryside for about 90 minutes. The club is surrounded by farms and foliage. Bizarre setting, the place itself is like the Old Greek, but better acoustics, run by cool people, great crowd.....we played really well tonite, fantastic on stage sound,only problem being that when i told the foldback mixer to give me more of John on my side of the stage, he gave me so much more of John that for a while there I thought i'd somehow drifted in his astral body. After a few songs of the loudest noise pollution since Vesuvious's last gig, I began to curse John's very existence. I could feel my skin peeling away from my body, and out of the corner of my eye saw sparks (blue and red ones too!) shoot out of my finger tips. I couldn't bear it anymore. My eyes were turning rapidly into bubbling gelatin. I turned to the foldback mixer and yelled 'NO, YOU INSANE KRAUT BASTARD,DEAFNESS I CAN HANDLE,BUT PERMANENT BRAIN DEATH ?'. Somehow the language barrier disintegrated and the ghost of Jimi was immediately dismissed from my wedges.

15/9/90 - 'Ehingen Festival' - Ehingen, Germany with Anfrenn, Miners of Muzo, Paranoiacs, Veterans
  • We started the day off with a very sobering trip to DACHAU, the concentration camp. On a tour like this you can cocoon yourself with leisure, kicks and no task more strenuous than making yourself comfortable, but if you try and ignore the legacy of horror that is so inherent in European culture and society, then you are only getting half the story. The festival itself was a very polite and dull affair....the festivals seem to be set up in out of the way country towns to cater for the fans who can't make it to the clubs in the city. Therefore they seem to be pretty much devoid of atmosphere, everyone stands around awkwardly and no-one smokes. There was too much in band tension on stage for me to enjoy it (Andy described the gig as a 'grudge match'). The other bands were all awful 60's cover type of shit, the kind of bands who make Blue Ruin look wild, except for Anfrenn, a punk band from Wales who played in a melodic Skids /early Clash style. The bass player thought he was Paul Simonon and ran around with his shirt off. I'm sure that in his head he was a remarkably sexy rockin' HE-MAN, but to us he just looked like a pleasant, well mannered working class guy with a couple of drinks inside him. Nice people tho'.

16/9/90 - 'Negativ' , Frankfurt, Germany with Napalm Beach and 69
  • We saw some flyers '69' (local band) had printed up - '69 with the fucking great BORED!'. They even had the promo photo of John and Dave in the window of their van !. Great venue, reminded me of The Tote, tho' it was a little bit bigger. 69 weren't bad, very big MUDHONEY influence and they obviously did their best to impress us with a couple of handfulls o' Stooges covers,but the thing that keeps striking me about the local groups we've played with so far is their lack of individuality......I mean, some of these bands sound more like Mudhoney than even Mudhoney do. Napalm Beach were fuckin' great axe hero heavy rock, with that BIG 3 piece sound ala MOUNTAIN (Chris -NB's Singer /Guitarist looked like Leslie West anyway) Gun Dust etc.. Fucking great people-man talk about Brothers in Arms !. Drummer Sam was in the original WIPERS (Circa : 'Is this Real?'), Chris was in an early line-up of POISON IDEA and Bassist Dave sidelines in a 'Pebbles' type Punk band called RED WINGS ROMEO (best band name I've heard in a while!!). We both blew each other off stage, and as the nite went on, the proceedings became exceedingly debauched and decadent. The beer, beam, and boo flowed freely till it was time to go home. We said 'So long, see you in Zurich' when we were next to play with them.

17/9/90 - 'Ecstacy', Berlin ,Germany
  • Had a leisurely stroll around (what remains of) the fabled wall today...felt kind of eerie walking through no man's land, looking up at the gun towers (under 2 years ago we would have probably been shot for just standing in that particular spot). The borders are all deserted now ,so it takes less than 5 minutes to drive from West to East Berlin. Once there, the transformation from clean, modern metropolitan west to dull, grey, polluted, uninviting communist East is quite shocking (In your head you're thinking 'and this is meant to be a United nation now ?).The Ecstasy club is everything I'd ever imagined Berlin to be, I was just waiting for Bowie or Iggy to come prancing in, decked out in furs. Thomas, the XTC''s promotor is one of the most generous guys I've ever met, and what he provided us I shant' go into, lest to say that we were pissing ourselves at the thought of all the dipshits back home running around with nostrils full of Epsom saying "good score" !!. An hour or so later tho', i was laughing no more, as the huge pasta meal, the 3 lines, and all that warm beer caught up with me, and i bought it all back up, right on stage.....had spew all over my foot pedal, my jeans, in my hair etc... all this in the middle of 'Remedy' too !!. Apart from that, a great gig, much like the ones at home....loose, loud, very sweaty, we ended up doing 'My Pal' as an encore, and the krauts went wild !. After the gig, Thomas took us and assorted hangers on down to the disco floor 'Madhouse', where the party went on and on and on.........

18/9/90 -Molotow , Hamburg, Germany
  • Right in the heart of the infamous Reeperbahn, where the Beatles used to play the Star Club. We were told by people, 'don't walk around at nite without a gun', but compared to the totally upfront wildness and weirdness of the Amsterdam red light district, we found it a trifle dull. Still, some interesting sights: a street that's fenced off and has signs up telling you not to enter if you're a female or a minor (same things in here as anywhere, whores in shop windows, pimps, sleazy Turkish guys in long brown overcoats),plus here a lot of the whores stand on the street holding umbrella's and they 'hook' you as you walk past. I was 'hooked' by one honey-eyed blonde, who said 'don't worry, i just want to talk, i won't bite..' Not being used to pick up scenes like this, I turned a pale shade of purple and whispered ' after the show toots' ( a slight exaggeration of course). The Molotow was yet another tiny cavern, very good place, but so fucking overcrowded (no air-conditioning) and stuffy that i wanted to vomit again !.A big guy from Hamburg (who spoke English with a very pronounced Cockney accent) came up to me and said 'Tonite you made a sin - you tried to be Angry Anderson!!'His favourite band was ROSE TATTOO and he'd been in a band which had played a 30 minute version of 'Butcher and Fast Eddy' !!. We stayed at the promoter's place, and he turned out to be ANOTHER sex deviant. At about 5.30am, the usual silence of dawn was shattered by the sounds of a woman's screaming orgasm in the next room. This was followed by the sound of a gunshot outside the window....OK, I'll admit that i was in a state of chemically induced psychosis at the time, but John and Andy heard it too!!

19/9/90 -'Line Club' , Braunschweig, Germany
  • It's not hard to imagine the kind of scene the 'Line Club' caters to (It used to be called the Coca Club).The 2 guys who ran the place were the most obvious speed freaks we've yet seen...same goes for the crowd. Tonite Reinhardt, Glitterhouse's head honcho (and the man who financed the whole tour) came to see us. We're staying at his place tomorrow for some much needed sleep....7 gigs in a row and we are FUCKED.

20/9/90 - Day Off - Glitterhouse Mansion
  • Spent this day at Reinhardt (Glitterhouse Fuhrer)'s place, slept most of the day, then went off to a traditional German Restaurant, ate Schnitzel, and drank lite glasses of beer, then back to the mansion to get stoned, and listen to Reinhardt's priceless collection of Bad Company Records. Reinhardt says he respects us for our ability to smoke all nite (when Mudhoney stayed they flaked out after a couple of joints).Great guy !

21/9/90 - 'Beat Baracke', Leonberg, Germany with Parish Garden
  • I've got to hand it to these Dutchies - when they decide to rip off a band, they go the whole hog ! Parish Garden look and sound a lot like Soundgarden. Highlight of their set was a so-so version of 'We Love You' by The Stones. We played a very tight, slick set, but it was so uninspired and lethargic as to be completely forgettable. No low points, but no high ones either. Gimme a bad gig any day. I've got to take it easy now, the last 3 nites of sleeplessness (and excess) have left me with a cough......still exhausted from Berlin. At the moment, John and I are in a Hotel room watching an Italian spaghetti western dubbed in German!!

22/9/90 - Kulturwerkstatt Kaserne (KWK), Basel, Switzerland w/: Phil Singer Songwriter (or something)
  • Great venue, seems to be more accustomed to theatre than rock (miniscule P.A.), but a good space none the less. We were supported by a Singer/Songwriter from England, Phil something (can't recall his last name).....sort of a cross between Nick Cave and Syd Barrett but the most pretentious sides of both of them.. Very shithouse. As for us, same set and approach as the Beat Baracke gig - well oiled and tight,but fairly uninspired. Fabian, the promoter of the Reithalle in Bern came along to see us again, which was good of him ! He told us that on Swiss radio last week, some D.J.'s had given us a big rave, telling the listeners 'You will never see another band like this', Best Live gig etc... Elise (Melbourne friend) came along again too (she was at one of our earlier gigs). After the gig, John and me hung out with DAVE FROM NEW YAWK (spoken in deep Brooklyness), who was the original singer in AGNOSTIC FRONT. He told us he'd been working as a roadie for G.B.H. for the last six years, and is now living in Basel with his Swiss girlfriend. We went then to a crazy German speed freaks house (this guy had the most intense 12 gauge pupils I've yet seen). He lived with his wife, and brewed his own schnapps - a sort of very high alcohol fruit drink, very citrusy (I threw up most of it before we left anyway). Dave rolled joints and talked on and on about breeding Pit Bulls and hydroponic lamps (said the 'skunk' we smoke in Holland is full of toxins due to lamps used) and the old N.Y. skin scene ('I'm an awld skin, I ain't one faw this new breed') and so on till we walked back to our hotel at 4.30 in the a.m.

23/9/90 - Zurich, Switzerland
  • We were meant to be playing with NAPALM BEACH at the Rote (another great squat with restaurant, venue etc..) and we would've too...but the cops closed down Rote Fabrike's sister venue (as it was a big left wing/Anarchist centre). First the gig was off, then it was on again, then it was relocated to the sister venue as a protest, then it was off for good when the old -anarcho hippies committee that was behind the place decided they only wanted 'quiet music'...so that was that. Both bands went back to the hotel, John and Andy crashed, as did Dave and Marv. Buzz and me sat up with Napalm Beach drinking whiskey and beer, then went off to the infamous Needle Park, Zurich's experiment at controlling the Heroin problem. This is a big park with a marquee in the middle which is occupied by junkies and dealers day and nite. They set up stalls where you can buy fits, cotton, spoons and of course Heroin, coke and speed. It looked kinda like a degenerates MOOMBA from the outside, cept with no Mr. Whippy vans or Ferris wheels. An enterprising ice-cream vendor could make  a mint here, although i doubt if these people would of been even slightly interested in anything that didn't cook up in a spoon. We talked to one dealer who had heard BORED! and liked us....not sure if that is good or bad. This nite could be sub-titled 'Journey Thru' the land of nod'

24/9/90 - Day off, travel through the Swiss alps all day
  • Awesome, breathtaking, BEAUTIFUL Swiss countryside, long long drive towards the sky. Everything you'd imagine Switzerland to be like -too bad I was sick most of the day. Stayed in an Austrian hotel, and generally forgot the accumulated tour tensions. Sat up late with Andy and John as usual, playing BEACH BOYS and ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS on John's little Walkman speakers.

25/9/90 - Yugoslavia
  • Woke up and stood on the balcony outside our window and looked into wonderland. Felt great to be alive,but as the day progressed.....the good vibes deteriorated. We finally arrived in Ljubljana, where we drove around in circles ( eventually getting directions from some very nice girls who spoke English) looking for the 'K4 Club'. First thing we noticed upon arriving at the club (apart from the fact that a toasted Ham and Cheese sandwich served here looked and tasted like an imitation brick) was the complete lack of advertising for our gig. Finally, a very suspicious looking gent dressed from head to foot in Black ( a KGB agent obviously) walked up and introduced himself as Igor -'the unfortunate promoter'. With an earnest expression on his face, he explained that the gig had been relocated to another club, only an hour's drive from Ljubljana (after a day and a half on the road, the humour of the situation was lost on us as you'd imagine). Igor added 'You know i played your record last nite you make a great record', and as we nodded approvingly (as if to leave without any doubt of his having played 'our record') he said, 'No really, Wow!, It's a great record'. He assigned a friend of his to give us directions, and then disappeared without so much as a 'Good-Bye'....an hour and a half later we arrived at the gig, situated in an ominously dark, dirty industrial town...the perfect environment for a BORED! GIG! The place itself appeared to be a bar, with a tiny stage, and an even tinier P.A. The microphones were the sort of thing you'd attach to a Walkman, there were no fold back speakers, the front of house speakers were, well...SMALL, and the mixing desk was situated conveniently BEHIND the stage, causing Eppo no end of nerve strain. After knocking down a couple of dark Yugoslav beers (and noticing that the alcohol content said 12%) we took to the stage. The crowd was very stand offish for most of the set, but by the time we played 'Whole Lotta Rosie', the house was rockin! Finally, after we'd been on for 30 minutes or so, the owner of the place (It was called the 'J Klub' i think) came up and told us the cops were outside and the gig was over NOW. Too bad. We played 'Sonic Reducer', the crowd went nuts, and that was it. Altho' Dave hated it (and made no attempt to disguise this),it was a good gig....short, aggressive, energetic (despite exhaustion). It was moving to meet people after the gig, a couple of these guys had driven 200k's to see us !. People were getting us to sign autographs for each member of their family !!. After a less than delicious meal of scallops and chips, we did an 'in-depth' interview with a 'prominent Yugoslavian Rock writer', who took himself very seriously and asked questions like 'Is your music influenced at all by the necessity of travelling through the desert on Motorbikes ???' (as we sat around scratching our heads in confusion, trying to find an answer to this absurd question, Andy said 'I think it's referring to the Macho culture', a most logical translation /deciphering, only to be cut down by the Interviewer, who told Andy...'If I'd meant the macho culture I would've said so').Then we went back to the Hotel, tho' that's a very liberal application of the term.....I'm sure a Yugoslavian prison would be more cosier than this place !. The sheets didn't tuck into the ends of the beds, there was no hot water, and the breakfast we were served next morning was not more than 10% less edible than dog food.

26/9/90 - Day Off
  • Spent a great deal of the day at the Yugoslav border, tuns a fun, if only to see the black market in action....there are people here who spend probably most of their lives driving to and from the border with boxes of Levi's, Booze, whatever-you name it, they'll buy it by the shitload. Got into majestic VIENNA by early evening, and took a train to the centre of town to check out St. Stephens Cathedral, the most awe-inspiring eye feast so far seen. At nite, it is absolutely glorious, lit up by lights and giving out an aura of almightiness and fear of god... Big day tomorrow.

27/9/90 - 'WUK', Vienna, Austria, with Rated XXX
  • Today was fantastic - spent so much fucking money...but the beauty of the place more than warrants it. We (Andy, Marv,John and me) got up at 8.30 and spent the whole day walking around like tourists. Bought another disposable camera and took many photos. St. Stephens is incredible. We went on a guided tour of the Catacombs -creepiest, eeriest thing I've ever seen (equal to Dachau). There's a small cell in here filled with the remains of 16,000 victims of the black plague. Another cell with walls made with human skull and bone...a cold aura of death and decay. On a lighter note, the tour guide was one of the most bizarre people we've yet encountered. He spoke 3 languages (German , English and one other). His English appeared to have been learnt thru osmosis, so that he had everything in the right order, but with no idea whatsoever about pronunciation or sentences or what emphasis to place on words etc.. He sounded like a retarded robot !!. You had to listen very hard for a couple of minutes before you could even tell it was English he was speaking !!. Also incredible was St. Peters, which we found by chance-turned out to be amazing, two skeletons, embalmed and drenched in jewellery and so forth....Wow. The imperial palace of Vienna, surrounded by immense sculptures depicting the 12 tasks of Hercules (did the Monarchy have an inflated sense of ego or...). I've said it before, but it was AWESOME. Marv and I finished the day with a walk to Freuds house, now the 'Sigmund Freud Museum', but it was closed. We ran into Dave and Buzz and headed off to the WUK, the site of the nites gig. Originally a squat, now it's a huge centre for rock music, theatre, a restaurant...yet another great space. Very nice promoter, an English guy named Paul, laid some hash on us, which was like manna from heaven, as we've been unable to score for the last few nights. We were supported by RATED XXX, a local hardcore band, very tight, fairly dull, tho' one of their songs has been playing over and over in my head. A friend of the promoter laid some coke on me and John before we played, but it tended to make us more withdrawn than usual. Coke is a great drug to take, but as the rush subsides after a few minutes, the energy flow of the gig can be severely affected. Speed is better (for me) to play on, as it lasts longer and seems to charge up the body again and again. We played well, but the crowd didn't seem to cut loose, they applauded loudly, but hardly budged an inch thru the whole set.

28/9/90 - 'Konkret', Hohenems, Austria, with The Papers
  • Konkret is situated in the middle of a very suburban looking street...family homes, family cars etc... Imagine if the Richmond Club was in the middle of a street in North Balwyn !!. The manager is the Mayor's son apparently....he looked like a cross between Tom Baker and Robert Plant with genes scrambled by billions of L.S.D.  Yikes!  GREAT GIG ! We'd spent all day driving and eating food at every truckstop, felt lethargic and stuffed before the gig, but the crowd were great -they went wild, really made us fire up. The support band The Papers had an old Hippie guitarist who'd somehow turned into The Edge from U2 crossed with Andy Summers from The Police and Peter Garrett. This guy had some of the most awkward dance movements I've ever seen...looked hysterical ! They weren't very good...in fact, they were shit !! But the locals obviously saw this guy as the Austrian Hendrix, so we kept our comments to ourselves. Very friendly people tho', and good vibes predominated...lots of hash, food, wine, and so on...

29/9/90 - Day Off
  • Today was spent driving back to Germany. No problems at the border this time.. ate, drank beer, nothing else to report.
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30/9/90 - 'Rose Club', Cologne, Germany
  • Great venue, tiny but friendly, run by nice people -Krista and another woman who made our beds, sweet friendly people. Someone made a video (European's are obsessed with video's ! we've had 4 -5 made of us so far),and the crowd was pretty good too. After the gig we approached a guy called 'Wolf' (who was covered in tatts etc..), asked if he knew where to score. He said 'In return for 'Sonic Reducer' i get some dope for you'. One thing that nearly all the crowds have in common is their familiarity with THE DEAD BOYS 'Sonic Reducer'.. sends them nuts without fail !!. Upstairs in 'the Musicians Apartment' where we stayed we did an interview with a woman from 'Spex', a prestigious German music mag (looked like 'The Face' or something, very glossy), then Buzz, John and I went off to the 'Station Hotel', the local Punk hangout. Good music and beer, and full of rowdy German freaks. We spent a while chatting to Wolf - turns out he's a Roadie and has worked with Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P. (says Chris Holmes was 'a great guy') and AC/DC (I think) on their European tours. The only other Australian band he'd seen was THE COSMIC PSYCHOS, his only comment on them being 'They are not Hardcore'.

1/10/90 - Day Off
  • Today was great, walked around Koln ( as they call Cologne here), saw the biggest most awesome Cathedral so far, ye gods ! the history ! the humanity ! the beauty of it all !. Smoked a joint on the banks of the Rhine, ate fantastic servings of Pommes Frites with generous dollops of Tsatsziki and Mayonaise from a Turkish shop....beautiful relaxing day. At nite we drove to some little town to see L7 at a club called 'Rock Fabrick' ( not to be confused with Zurich's Rote Fabrik),and they were fucking great !!. We all stood up the front drinking huge quantities of beer and making idiots of ourselves. On hearing our Aussie accents, the Rhythm guitarist (Danita i think her name is) said 'You're not the Cosmic Psycho's or Lubricated Goat are you' ?. After the gig we hung out with 'em and got drunker, looser, and stond-er, till we were kicked out and forced to drive to the next town Dortmund.

2/10/90 - 'FZW', Dortmund, Germany with The Secrets of Cash and Carry
  • The local promoter and his girlfriend put us up in his flat and charged Hotel prices for the priveledge. He also asked us to wash the dishes, but we thought 'Fuck That' and went out of our way to abuse his hospitality. Dortmund is a strange place -it seems to be a ghetto for cripples, the elderly, and Turkish people...very strange. As for the gig it seems that some sort of double booking had occurred, so the promoter (good bless him) decided that we should support the other band 'The Secrets of Cash and Carry' , a local C&W band, as it was their record launch. Fair enough we thought. We've only come from the other side of the world y'know, no big deal. Due to this ludicrous programming change, most of the people who came to see us turned up towards the end of our set, and the Secrets.... crowd were forced to sit thru us. Anyhow, our irritation at being used in this way was channeled directly into the gig, and we played with a vengeance. A total 'Ass-Kicker' of a set, one of the best of the tour. Too bad most of our crowd missed it, but i guess them's the breaks.

3/10/90 - Day Off
  • Here's history for you : on this nite, the two Germanys were finally united, after 40 or so years. Our friend Bobo, the promoter of the AJZ in Bielefield had been at the gig the nite before and he'd said 'Tomorrow night in Berlin, every Anarchist street fighter will go the city centre to make a nice riot for the cops', and sure enough on Wednesday the 3rd of October 1990, we watched (on National T.V.) the reunification ceremony's disrupted by massive street violence.....images of people hurling molotov cocktails at cops, cops beating shit thru people with truncheons, etc... Altho' we were snug in Dortmund with our beer and hash, the mood of imminent apocalypse in Berlin ricocheted thru the country....the mood everywhere was electric. Far from the scenes of joyous celebration shown on International news broadcasts, the reality was much grimmer. NONE of the young people we met and talked to in Germany were pro-inification. There is a very real fear here of the 'Fourth Reich' becoming a reality now that national pride and propaganda and so forth has increased. The slogan of the rioters was 'SHUT UP GERMANY'.

4/10/90 - 'Drieluik', Zaandam, Holland with Butterfly J
  • Back in Holland and off to the nearest coffee shop IMMEDIATELY !. Can't get enough of that 'skunk' !. The support band Butterfly J, were like The Scientists with Mark Arm singing. An immense on stage sound, due to the two bass players and 2 guitarists, but as has been the case with nearly all of the European bands we've played with, they are let down from the word go by their unoriginality. Then again, they'd probably be huge if they were on Sub-Pop...Altho' there were only 26 people there ( I counted) we did a great gig, i guess the knowledge that the tour is almost over made us fire up. Got a good tape of the set too.

5/10/90 - 'Willem II', Den Bosch, Holland with False Prophets
  • Today we went to glorious Amsterdam for the last time - a few last drinks at the other place, and then down to Hanky Panky's to see Dave and John get tattoo's. Dave got some kind of mythic creature playinga  guitar, John got an incredibly intricate chines dragon on his right arm, startling purples and blues. Buzz was unable to resist the temptation and got a black eagle on his right forearm ! If we'd had more time, Marv and I would've got another tatt as well !. Then back upstairs to get shitfaced and then off to the gig. The False Prophets are a famous punk band from New York who've been around for about ten years. These days they sound like D.K.'s meet the B-52's (lots of stage props, and theatre, Stefan the singer was Jello x 25, very preachy and annoying). We stayed in the same hotel as them, but people who discuss changing the world at breakfast have never really been my scene (altho' the drummer was a cool guy, that nite he'd said 'I wanna hang out with people who party'. I thought to myself 'You obviously joined the wrong band you poor soul')

6/1/90 - 'Beest', Goes, Holland with The Doppelgangers
  • Second last gig over tonite ! One to go ! I never thought I'd feel this homesick....Actually, if it wasn't for Julia, I'd do my best to stay here in Holland !. Today we all felt very lethargic and exhausted. Got to the gig- did a sound check, them met up with this crazy black guy who said to Dave ( of all people) 'What do you want' ? Tonite I blew your mind !'. We asked for Coke, he said he'd look around, then before we played, came up to John, Andy and I and laid some great speed on us. Me and John fired up incredibly, got into it hugely and played a very good set, the crowd all seemed to dig it too. A hot looking punk chick, dressed all in black leather, fur mini-skirt just barely past pussy level, garters, fishnets etc.. stood right up the front rockin' out, till Andy invited her up on stage to shake her thang during 'Iron Man' ( she left soon afterwards). The Doppelgangers were a bunch of Dutch tough guys (ha-ha) with tattoo's, who played fairly straight forward Metal Punk (Motorhead inspired), the only criticism being the awfully cliched rock star posing, but so what, they were probably the best Dutch band we played with.

7/10/90 - 'Serenade' , Rotterdam, Holland
  • The last gig of the tour ! the climax of 7 weeks of blood, guts and beer ! and what a complete anti-climax it was too ! After the show we snorted the last of the coke, smoked the last of the grass, ate the last of the hash, said a tearful goodbye to Andy and Marv, and got into the van for the last long drive to Frankfurt Airport, where we'd begin our 36 hour plane trip back to Australia ( via Dallas and Honoloulou). But the action was not yet over, 15 minutes from the Dutch border, I bought up the last of the coke, the last of the hash, the last of the grass, and probably all the food and drink I'd digested in the last 24 hours......all over myself, my luggage, and every other thing in the van ( Including Buzz and John who were lucky enough to be sitting next to me). And that was it.
The Original RESISTANT HARMONY Fanzine pages cut and pasted onto A4 with Bromide photos and black Texta fills etc.