...sometimes they come back...

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                 -ALPHAVILLE- LIFE - NEBRA/GERMANY 30.10.1999
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"Hey" you may  say, "Alphaville, Alphaville... there was something I remember...
but I don't know what?!"...
You really don't know what? So I have  to help you out a bit. Are you interested
to know what Alphaville means for me?

Apart from the funny german  saying "Alphaville und Beta Kann nicht" (means some
stuff  like "Alpha wants  and Beta can't"...) it  means for me -Synthie-Pop- and
-Eighties- and -Youth-... errr... youth?!

Yeps... times as I  don't must shave  my face every  morning, times when we must
watch "west"-TV  to see  clips  in the  legendary "Formel 1" show  in the  first
german channel and times when this band was played in the radio too...
You surely remember songs like "Big In Japan", "Sounds Like A Melody" or "I Wish
You Were Dead"... don't you?

And as I got the information that those synth-pop-heroes  are coming over to the
little town Nebra, nearby  my hometown, for their  new "Dreamscapes Tour", I was
running to the city information to get some tickets before they're sold out...

But... there wasn't a must to  run... the big hall  in Nebra wasn't  filled very
much, about 2oo, maybe  3oo people where there, the hall wasn't even half filled
to say the truth. And the people... uhhhh...
You  could  see old farmers, disco sluts, blackies, grandmas, poppers as well as
metallers and so on... a strange mix, eh? Maybe they all where there  because in
Nebra nothing happens at all and there is a must to join every party.

The flyers  announced an  eighties-party  too and so  the DJ played a lot of old
school  disco music, from times as bands like Human League, Erasure, U2, Depeche
Mode, Camouflage, Communards, Heaven 17 and last but  not least Alphaville where
standards in every DJ set.

The people mostly ignored the  DJ and drunk a lot of beer and such stuff. Around
9 PM the DJ announced (and he spoke  very old  stylish, in  the way the DJ's did
about 10 years ago) that the support band is going to enter the stage.

This band was called  SILENT WATERS and presented a mix made of new style synth-
pop and  heavenly  voices  stuff. Meanwhile  their keyboarder  was surrounded of
darkness the great singer girl was illuminated with strange wobbling colours.
There was  no show or  something, just the  voice of  the singer. They presented
about 7 songs or so and  some of them  really had the drive to catch some places
on a club DJ's setlist. Around 9:45 PM they left the stage and the horrible lame
80ies disco was continued, now with an ugly Alphaville quiz... urgss...

And then, about an half hour later the headliners (uhhh) entered the stage.
At first I  thought "Uh... are those  guys  the  roadies?" and then "Or are they
escaped from  the Old Peoples  Home in the city of Nebra?" untill I checked that
those guys weren't  more or less than the mighty Synth-pop-heroes from the 80ies
themselves!

Uuuuuh! I remembered  that the  singer was never some kind  of stylish or pretty
(for the ladies) but to  see now someone  who smashed maybe through  the barrier
of the fourties and was styled like a schoolboy irritated me very much!

But after a  few seconds and  wonderings about  the other guys of the band (they
looked like old creeps of  a beatband from  the 60ies) the first  noises smashed
through the speakers and all was clear: that's Alphaville, life and in color!

And they played all their great  hits and a few new ones, I don't know. The most
people in front of the  stage where very impressed and me too. And sometimes the
hall was flooded  by something like happiness about the fact that they're really
playing here. The singer  jumped around on the stage like a madman and he seemed
to like it  that the  people where  singing along  to the old hits, but this had
high price! After just 7o minutes they finally  left the stage  and sometimes it
seemed to me that the singer was short before a heartattack...
Nice...

The 80ies party was continued again but at 12 PM all things ended abruptly! Uh?!
I don't understand  this! And for just 4 hours of disco and concert I had to pay
36 DeutschMark?! That isn't a way to bring life  into this small city... But the
people seem  to know this kind of events because they left  the hall without any
mournings and even the dancefloor was nearly empty just before the party ended.

The most strange thing is that the DJ started to cut some songs to play more and
this sucks really if you just can listen and dance to the half of a song! Ugly!

So this  evening ended very hard  and fast. It was a  nice concert, no question,
and especially the supportband I liked very much and I will try to catch some of
their  releases. The  problem is  that they aren't  listed  in any  mailorder or
record store. But the fact that they're from L.E. should help to get my hands on
some of their releases anyway.

Hmmm... ALPHAVILLE  is still here  and they're still good, no question, but they
aren't the stars anymore they were in the middle of the eighties. Meanwhile some
of the other heroes of this  time just as  DEPECHE MODE or ERASURE matched it to
survive  untill the late nineties or even  today, and not only  survive but also
kick the balls of some newcomer bands and euro pop idiots in the charts as well,
ALPHAVILLE never matched it to come back into the frontline of the music scene.

They're just  living on their old fame and sometimes it  is a sad feeling to see
the stars from yesterday jumping around in front of a village posse... that must
be some kind of hard for them and not only a few stars can stand that fact to be
not the star anymore he was used to be some years ago...

Ok... last  words... if they're  playing a gig  nearby you, you just  have to go
there, even if the price for the tickets is a bit high... but if  you like synth
pop from the eighties, go there, because no one knows how long they will go on!

                                                                moondog / .tSCc.
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