THE STAR PALAST

[KIEL, GERMANY]

 

Travelling via France and Belgium, through Aachen and north-east to Schleswig-Holstein we opened our tour in the city of  Kiel just north of Hamburg which at that time was still very much a US naval base. We were allocated some cold damp rooms under the club which was actually an old converted Cinema. Called the Kiel Star Palast, the club was owned by a guy called Manfred Woittalla who promoted his own dancing girls called the Amstel Dancers. Many big names - and small names which would later turn out to be big names - played the club at around the same time as we were there or shortly after, such as Bill Haley & His Comets who took to the stage just weeks after we moved on to the Luneburg Star Palast gig, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lord Sutch, The ‘N Betweens [Slade], Paul Raven [Garry Glitter], the Boston Showband, Jimi Hendrix etc. . We were contracted to work daily from 8pm till 4am. There were two bands trading alternate hours, ourselves and the English group Tommy Bishop & The Riccochets.

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Nearby was the Todendorf U.S. Base. During off duty time, these guys certainly loved to drink, party and fight in equal measure and did just that. I mean, what else was there for them to do?  However, usually the night went well. One special musical memory I have of a night in the company of those guys was when we were playing our smoky instrumental version of Summertime with I would take the solo. This was a slow bluesy number on the ‘B’ side of You Send Me by Sam Cooke c/w with dreamy Hammond organ. Suddenly a singer named Davy Jones  began singing the song over the house P.A. with The Hi-Fi Combo backing him. Magic memory. I later found out that he was a big name around Germany in the early 60's and all the wee new bands - even The Beatles - were obliged to back him when they were in town. See photo of Davy with The Silver Beatles.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                     

 

Our contract stipulated that we play on stage in the Star Palast clubs each evening from 9pm until 3am along with Tommy Bishop's Riccochets, playing one hour on and one hour off [see pic of Tommy below]. We were never really able to mix with Tommy and the guys as we were 'on' when they were 'off' etc. and of course we always had plenty to keep us occupied. Another group I recall advertised alongside us  - in Luneburg I believe - was one called The Boston Show band. I actually think we played matinees as well, or at least I do remember returning straight to the stage from awakening in the afternoon to rehearse. The Star Palast stage backdrop at the time, which I remembered well was of a New York skyline at night scene. [see pic above I managed to come across online recently - which was a thrill for me]

 

Those long hours performing on stage certainly knocked the band into shape and there is no doubt that the group produced an excellent live show. This was a result of Dick producing such a powerful driving back beat, Tommy’s falsetto being ideal for the Motown sound we were striving for, Andy’s thumping bass and fun antics on stage, quiet man Kenny’s outstanding lead work with his new state of the art Gibson “fuzz box” and my backing vocals and thick organ chords filling in any gaps in the sound. The Hi-Fi Combo are pictured above on stage. On our return to the cheap digs under the Club at 3am, Danny usually had prepared our 'meal' of 5 small glasses of milk and 5 jam sandwiches, being all that we could afford until pay day. At other times we would stroll down to a local pub for a delicious hot meal seemingly made of leftovers from everyone else's dinner scrambled together in a pan. Thankfully I can’t remember the delicacies name . . . if you do happen to know please don't bother emailing me the details thanks. 

 

                                                                                                                      

THE GERMAN SCENE

 

I vividly remember at that time in Germany everything could be obtained from vending machines if you had German money - Marks - including cream cakes, and I would stand staring at them whilst drooling. I can't recall ever having any money during my time with the band, but I do remember that the exchange then was 10 marks to the pound so I must have had some occasionally. Oh by the way, I did smoke cigarettes for only one year during my whole life - this was the year.

 

I also recall vividly that the shops and staff were very hygienic and also that the German youngsters, especially the girls, were always very respectful and appreciative of all the British bands. This was indubitably as a result of the success of the Beatles - who incidentally, that week, July 1966, were playing and on TV at the Krone Club just a few miles hundred miles down the road from us in Munich as part of their final World tour.  So our claim to fame is that The Hi Fi Combo played Germany on the very same night The Beatles did . . how about that . . we always did wonder why we were unusually quiet that night. Incidentally, contrary to what you may have read elsewhere - the Beatles did not invent horseplay and pranks on stage. Speak to any group who toured Germany, whether British or American, and they will tell you the same. We were all involved in crazy behaviour simply to combat the boredom as a result of the long hours every single day of the week. In fact The N-Betweens who followed us onto the Kiel Star Palast stage on July 7th 1966 very soon would change their name to "Slade" and you know how mad those guys were.

                                                                             

This scenario pretty well repeated itself in each of the other 3 Towns apart from Kiel in which  we worked so I will refrain from revisiting old ground here. However I will provide a fleeting overview of my memories of the places.

 

Schleiswig: ...... The Stampfmule Club: The ancient town north east of Kiel [almost on the border with Denmark] was a really lovely place sitting on a beautiful fiord. I would go for long walks along the waterside alone and speak with the locals. Schleswig was undoubtedly my favourite town of the four in which I performed.

 

Luneburg: ...... The Star Palast: back down to the south west had been famous for it's salt mining in days gone by, and its streets were lined by beautiful buildings.

 

Dortmund: ....... I'm ashamed to say I remember very little about Dortmund - or even the name of the Club - as I very seldom ventured out, which I believe was due to homesickness by that time. I was forever borrowing one of the lads' transistor radios and enjoyed time alone listening to any English speaking station I could find broadcasting pop music.

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A particular favourite which I personally identified with was Bob Dylans'  Like a Rolling Stone recalling, as I write, that roaring Gary Hudson Hammond organ riff with the lyric "How does it feel - to be on your own ..... like a complete unknown". That was definitely how I felt as I kept 'myself to myself' for the last few days of our German tour being now very home-sick. This I suppose was understandable as prior to the German Tour, and still just 17 years of age,  I had visited a footballing friend, Michael O'Neill from Derby, England, as a teenager, but had never been out of the UK.