Mànran’s Touring Tales: episode three

Welcome back for the third and, for now, final instalment of Mànran’s Touring Tales. We’ve just come to the end of a three-week stint in Germany and it’s been a cracker.

The final week of the tour began down in Bavaria in what is perhaps one of the most beautiful venues any of us has ever played in. The Parktheater Göggingen near Augsburg is seemingly the last remaining fully operational cast-iron and glass theatre in Europe and forms part of a complex that dates back to the 1880s. Built much in the style of a spa town ‘pleasure garden’, the buildings were commissioned by a local aristocrat (and ‘miracle doctor’) to provide respite and orthopaedic medical care for the well-to- do (including German empresses) as well as crippled Bavarian children living in poverty. Even back then, there was a great interest in the curative powers of music and, as such, a theatre with regular musical entertainment was deemed an essential part of the treatment. It certainly seemed to do the trick the night of our gig anyway.

After a set or two, the crowd – with an average age a good 20-30 years higher than our typical audience in Scotland – were a little reserved at first but seemed to cast off any aches, pains and inhibitions and gave us one of the best nights of the whole tour.

Next up was a trip back west to Reutlingen, the home of the agency that sets up our gigs in Germany. We don’t often get to meet up with the folk responsible for so much of the hard work that goes into planning gigs and ensuring tours go smoothly so it was great to swing by their home town and catch up with the crew in the office.

In contrast to the majority of the concerts on this tour, the venue in Reutlingen was mostly non-seated so helped create the party atmosphere we love. And partying was very much on the agenda this week, as we had no fewer than three birthdays to celebrate within the touring group.

At this juncture, I think a word in praise of the tour crew is in order. The sound team, Steffen and Kirschti, are the first on the road every day (despite their insistence on and expertise at sourcing at least one kleine pils each night before bed), they’re the first into the venue to set-up and they’re the last out once all the gear has been de-rigged. True professionals both and highly skilled at their work – it would seem that German precision engineering doesn’t end with cars.

Making up the rest of the team, we have Ilka and Mario. Mario joined up with us a few days into the tour to relieve Ilka of merchandise duties as she stepped-up to take on the role of tour manager after Petr, head of the agency and all-round live entertainment impresario, retreated to the comfort of his home in Ireland, confident that the tour was well on it’s way and in safe hands.

This week also saw us dip into Austria for the night to play a gig in Hohenems, a town nestled in the foothills of some mighty Alps. A welcome change of scenery, we made the most of our time near the mountains and enjoyed a trek up to a 10th- century castle with magnificent views over the Rhine valley.

At the concert, we had a visit from a couple of fairly long-term fans including a German lady who made it to no fewer than four gigs on this tour alone and a Swiss friend of ours who has had us over to play a couple of gigs in Switzerland before. Seeing news of the various band birthdays online, he took with him a highly intriguing bottle of Swiss whisky. Try saying that after a couple of bumpers.

A couple more concerts in Bavaria saw us round off a highly enjoyable tour and it was all hugs, laughs and promises to keep in touch as we bade farewell to our new-found friends at the airport.

Seeing new places, picking up a bit of local culture and entertaining new crowds are, obviously, real highlights of touring but it’s the people you encounter and the friends you make along the way that really help shape your impressions of a place and secure a fond spot in the memory for a particular set of adventures. This gang were top- drawer.

We’re having a couple of weeks down-time for weddings and holidays but we’ll be back again with more Touring Tales before too long.