Ministry of Propaganda - 16/Nov/2005: "Bremer Kaffeehausorchester Plays Dudley"
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Bremer Kaffeehausorchester Plays Dudley
It all worked out well, so as mentioned on Saturday I drove to Dudley yesterday to see and hear the Bremer Kaffeehausorchester playing at the CAMRA Winter Ales Fayre.
Having left work early the drive from Swindon (that's Swindon/Wiltshire, not the Swindon in Staffordshire near Dudley. Just to avoid any confusion) went quite smoothly and took me approx 1:45hrs. I managed to find my way through the one way street hell of Dudley and arrived near Dudley Town Hall just after 6:00pm. Unfortunately it started to rain soon after I arrived, so I only grabbed some fast food at the nearest McDonalds before returning to the town hall.
The concert was part of the Dudley & South Staffordshire CAMRA Winter Ales Fayre, this evening being a pre festival event with the orchestra and a lot of German (mainly Bavarian) beers. When I arrived I bumped into someone from Bremen who lived in Dudley with her English husband, so I wasn't the only one from Bremen (apart from the orchestra obviously). Adrian Hyde, who organised the evening, welcomed me as well and later introduced me to the orchestra (we had only communicated via e-mail previously).
As I had to drive I couldn't really drink, but still bought a six pack with a selection of Andechser beer (Andechs was one of my favourite places when I lived in Munich a few years ago) to take home with me.
Then it finally was time for the music, at 8:00pm the Bremer Kaffeehausorchester took the stage. As mentioned I have all their CDs (and am listening to one of them while writing this entry), so hearing the music being played live was great. I'm no expert, but the acoustics in the big hall probably made it quite difficult for them. Nevertheless they were able to create a great sound, I was impressed to how close everything was to their recordings. I always find it disappointing when the concert performance is nowhere near the recording performance, but that certainly wasn't the case here. The atmosphere in the hall was nice as well, I had some nice chats with other visitors while listening to the music and drinking the one beer I had allowed myself (almost like in a Kaffeehaus, only with beer instead). They played a variety of music, some I recognised, some I didn't. Despite a short night (they drove over night from Bremen taking the ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich) and having played in a shopping centre earlier in the day they were giving a great performance and also seemed to enjoy themselves. Including a break for refreshments for 45min they played until 11:00pm, i.e last orders and closing time.
We then had a chat about their music (and my attempts to take a few pictures of them playing, some of the results above) before it was time for me to drive back all the way down to Swindon. A great evening and certainly worth the long drive from Swindon/Wiltshire to Dudley. Thanks to everyone involved!
End of entry
Entry trivia
- When writing this entry the weather was: clear and cold (looks like night frost)
- When writing this entry I was listening to: Lieben Sie Strauß? by the Bremer Kaffeehausorchester
- I'm currently reading/have just finished reading this book/publication: none really
- I recently visited this website/-page: Swindon Gold Club (one of the few pages I could find relating to Swindon in Staffordshire)
- The last drink I had was/is: Hobgoblin Strong Dark Ale
End of entry trivia
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