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I had spoke with Jan Beddies he would come to hostel boat as Berlin's venue Festsaal was not so far away. There were lot people outside of Festsaal. It was good to meet some fans first time at live, like Italian fans Martino Pasina and Simona Saverino, and Maurizio "Nodus" Nodari. You can know them through www.gabbagabbabook.it site. And Nodus as he is the co-president of the Italian Ramones Fan Club. Maurizio had also chance to tour lot in Europe when Ramones was still alive. In late 2008, Nodus released his first book titled Nodus Il Gruppo Dei Ramones. It is all in Italian and it talks about his long career as a Ramones fan from 1977 to 2007. Nodus Il Gruppo Dei Ramones has 144 pages and around 150 black & white photos. Photos are mainly taken after 1987. Around half of them has at least one Ramones member. It is good that book has also photos of Ramones crew members. There is material also of Ramones fanzines and merchandises, backstage passes, set lists of the shows etc. Book does cost 15 euros + postages. His E-mail and PayPal address is: nodus@tiscali.it
Another pretty wellknown European Ramones fan is Heiko Gerdes. He is lively man and you never know what he is planning next. Next Finnish fan Chrisse Usenius walked next to me. I found out Chrisse and Heiko didn't knew they both were at Festsaal, so I was happy to bring them together. Chrisse has huge bootleg collection, and he was taping show next to me in a second floor. I wanted to follow first half of the show more faraway also because it was good to DVD record show from second floor, and from there was good view.
There were around 500 people at Festsaal. Set list was a bit in
different order in Berlin than day earlier in Leipzig. Setlist at Festsaal was:
1) Blitzkrieg Bop
2) Judy Is A Punk
3) Beat On The Brat
4) Cretin Hop
5) Listen To My Heart
6) Sitting In My Room
7) Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
8) Endless Vacation
9) It's A Long Way Back To Germany
10) Poison Heart
11) I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
12) I'm Against It
13) Glad To See You Go
14) Strength To Endure
15) Swallow My Pride
16) Here Today Gone Tomorrow
17) I Wanna Be Sedated
18) R.A.M.O.N.E.S
19) Pinhead
Encore 1:
20) Pet Sematary
21) Commando
22) Teenage Lobotomy
Encore 2:
California Sun
Endless Vacation
They played two songs less in Berlin than in Leipzig. Wart Hog wasn't heard in encores (as a third encore how it was in Leipzig), and guys did not played My Back Pages. CJ dedicated Endless Vacation to our Dee Dee. Dee Dee sing this crazy and great song in Too Tough To Die album. It is written by him and Johnny Ramone. Endless Vacation was great choose to live set by CJ, Daniel and Brant. Endless Vacation was played a way how original version is in a album, so...
1) it started with a slow tempo,
2) next was a fast part,
3) slow part,
4) fast part,
5) hey-hey-hey-hey... part,
6) long and slow part to the end.
Before hey-hey-hey-hey... part, guys had 10 seconds long break where CJ drank a water and threw bottle to the audience. Fast parts are really hard to sing in Endless Vacation, it is hard to understand what are sang in album and also now at live, if you don't have read lyrics. If you wanna test what kind of performance Dee Dee and CJ has done... CJ sang in first fast part following lines in 12 seconds (when I look from my DVD):
"I kill myself, kill the pain, a suicide death. A suicide game, my skull he's bleaching. In the dust, my rage turns to insade lust. All depressed, all alone, I drift into the danger zone. Deadly spitten cobra life of crim. eI want revenge I want what's mine."
After Endless Vacation, brought Beano Skint (roadie/ tech) to Daniel new guitar. So they had then a little break, CJ and Brant were in happy mood and laughing to each other.
Followed was song what goes well in Germany, and it is really easy to sing. In that song, It's A Long Way Back To Germany, only lyrics are: "You by the phone. You all alone. It's a long way back to Germany. It's a long way back to Germany." That is repeated thrice.
Daniel changed guitar again before I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. I'm Against It was dedicated to Johnny Ramone. Here Today Gone Tomorrow song CJ sang in touching and honestly sad note.
I had noticed CJ Ramone, Daniel Rey, Brant Bjork and Gene Frawley had really good and friendly German crew. From crew members Beano Skint had a longer chat with me. Beano told he knew me in advance from my site and because he had bought my second book Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone. We spoke of many things but of the some reason Beano didn't mention to me of bands he has played or plays. While I am writing this, I did a Google search with his name and I found he had played (and maybe also in future) for example with Texas Terri Bomb in her European tours in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Texas Terri Bomb had one song in her MySpace from the show at Semifinal, Helsinki, Finland. She does live nowadays in Berlin.
Woimasointu Records
Soon later I headed to tour bus. Before entering I took Timo Pullinen and Hannu Jokinen to chat with Daniel Rey as I knew those Finnish guys had many things to ask from Daniel. Later Kyösti Rautio wrote me there were more Finnish people at the Festsaal, his four friends Tyynelä Kurvinen, Juho and Lurppa.
One good subject to discuss with Daniel was Senzabenza's single. Hannu's Woimasointu Records has released a 7' performed by the Italian band Senzabenza. The B-side is from the sessions mixed by Joey Ramone and Daniel Rey in 1996. Pressing is numbered and limited to 500 copies; 300 of which come in a red transparent vinyl and the remaining 200 in black (2003).
Every day after the show CJ did call to his children and wife, and he wanted to make sure they are doing fine. There were so many people who wanted to meet with CJ. I knew CJ wants to rest but I had spoke him before how Hannu Jokinen will be in Berlin. As I did mention before, Hannu's label has released Bad Chopper's 7' single Real Bad Time/ Diabla (2003). So it was good they finally met. You can ask Woimasointu's releases from E-mail address: info@woimasointu.com
It was good to take photos of CJ, Brant and I where were also in a photo 7' single and Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives.