Church 'Friedenskirche' in Leipzig / Saxony:
Our first concert in Leipzig in 2008 took place at the church 'Friedenskirche'.
It was nice for us to play in our home country too.
Comparatively many came to see us. We were quite happy about that cause in big
cities like Leipzig always is an excess supply of culture.
We played 2 hours but the audience couldn't get enough from us and demanded
extra songs.
Many thanks to the association 'Friedenskirche Leipzig-Gohlis e.
V.' and to the Michaelis-Friedens church community, that they invited us to play
at their nice church. We would be very happy to come back and play there again.
Maybe next time as part of the smaller scale performing arts festival 'Grenzgaenger'.
Church 'Nikolaikirche' in Aken/Saxony-Anhalt:
We started on the very first day of the smaller scale performing arts festival 'Grenzgaenger'
with a concert at church 'Nikolaikirche' in Aken. By the way the church is the
oldest building in Aken and it was just great to play there. The whole church
was decorated with wonderful flower arranging.
On the same weekend
Aken was celebrating its city festival. The protestant church community
contributed the concert as one of the city highlights. But for the first time
they were part of the 'Grenzgaenger Festival'.
We started right on time with the church bells. The whole church was occupied to
the very last seat. The audience was great and we already got our first applause
while doing the last sound check. There was no need to ask the people twice to
sing with us for example the songs 'The cycle of chai' or 'Dakota Moon'.
We made a short break cause the audience could buy drinks too. Also the second
part of our concert was great. Eberhard had to search someone for the howling
tube again. After the gig we heard that this man was from Aken but never went to
the church before. This was a great compliment that we managed that with our
music. Of course we had to play some extra songs before we finished the concert.
This concert was without an entrance fee. They only asked for offertory at the
end of the gig. We thought that was great cause everyone was able to come. This
is one aim of the 'Grenzgaenger' festival.
We would like to take the chance to say thanks for the great local gifts we got
at the end of the concert. We really enjoyed playing in Aken.
Restaurant of the
outdoor pool in Bad Bibra/Saxony-Anhalt:
For the first time an international youth work camp took place in Bad Bibra. For
this reason they invited us to give a concert for the young people. The gig was
free of charge and so everyone was able to come.
The hall of the restaurant was not so bad at the first view. But the stage was
dark and the the catering took ages. We ordered the same dish but they served
the meals in big intervals. That is why we couldn't start on time. Some had to
gulp down their food.
There were many different events in Bad Bibra on the same day. That is why not
as many people came to our concert as expected. Plus most of the young people
came really late cause they vistited Naumburg during the day. I think that was a
really bad timing. But all up it was a really nice concert. Erik had to guide
through the concert in German and English.
At the end of the concert the young people couldn't remain on their seats. They
stood up and danced.
Deep Cellar System in Grimma/Saxony:
The last of the 3 guided tours through the deep cellar system was the most
successful cause almost 60 people came. And the band was compleate again.
Everyone from WARU was somewhere along the deep cellar system. Erik discovered a
great new place, right behind a little ghost. As the people came by he moved the
ghost while he was playing on his traveller didgeridoo. Of course everyone
laughed about that. Damien set the cave into vibrations with the djembe. Pankaj
played the cajon a bit further on and Eberhard played on his brand new
didgeridoo which looks like a snail. Ari played the on the frame drum and the
gong at the end of the guided tour.
The real concert at the ice cave was very sucessfully again. The audience sang
with us and clapped their hands too. Only the fairies didn't had enough room for
dancing. But you couldn't tell that. But they were very professional and danced
to our music again.
The last event at the deep cellar system was very sucessfully and a great final
for 2008. One is for sure there will be more special guided tours next year.
Fortuna-Estate in Leipzig-Thekla/Saxony:
In 2008 was the 70th anniversary of the Fortuna-estate. Eberhard is living there
and committed. So it was only natural that WARU was part of the programme too.
Damien was feeling better but only Ari couldn't be with us.
We were very lucky that it wasn't raining cause the gig was open air. We only
had some problems with the wind. That is why it took a bit longer with the sound
check.
The concert was really good and the audience loved it. Our special guests were
Jaja and Dschilali from Algeria. Both played a few traditional songs from
Algeria. Pankaj supported them with his Tablas.
The people, who organized the summer party that so many inhabitants and other
people from Leipzig came to the event.
Deep Cellar System in Grimma/Saxony:
On our second special guided tour WARU wasn't complete cause Damien caught a
cold and Ari was with his Uzbek ensemble on the castle 'Schloss Gosseck. Lucky
enough Dschilali, a musician from Algeria, had time to support us.
This time we had to change our programme cause this time to major band members
were missing. So it became a lot more mystical and meditative. The audience
loved that too. Somehow the ice cave was the right location for that music. And
the fairies danced again.
Soon after a photo of us at the local press it was back to normal and the
tickets of this tour sold out again.
Thanks again to Dschilali for your support.
Deep Cellar System in Grimma/Saxony:
Also this year were 3 special guided tours through Grimma's deep cellar system.
On the first one were were almost complete. Only Pankaj was missing cause he was
on a tour with another Indian musician through Germany.
Like the past years the combination of both music during the guided tour and the
concert at the 1000 year old ice cave was very successfully. The fairies, the
dance group Dazzling Flies from Grimma, danced to our music.
On the first date weren't as many people as we expected. We couldn't tell the
reasons. Usually all the tickets were sold out. Maybe the local press should
mention it before.
In the begin of June took place the International students week in Leipzig. Again they organized a very wide programme.
Like every year there was an opening concert at the famous 'Moritzbastei', Leipzig's student club. With the programme you already got a impression of what is up to come in the following week. There was Oriental dance with Indian touch, African rhythms, Samba and much more.
We were very pleased to be part of the programme. We had lots of fun with our little concert, even it was only 30 minutes long. We are a band from Leipzig but for us it was a premier to play at the 'Moritzbastei'. We already tried it so often to play there but never were successfully.
Just before our concert was African music. The audience was just great and like us they had lots of fun. It was a shame that we couldn't play longer. Because it was a programme with many different live acts it wasn't possible. Ari got the most applause. No wonder he is just a great musician and we are so glad to have him with WARU.
"Cosmopolitan, multicultural - colourful
instead of brown" in
Tangermuende/ Saxony-Anhalt:
The right wing party NPD planed a 'funeral march' with the motto the final of
the lie of deliverance on the 10th of May. They choose this day close to the 8th
of May, when Germany was released from the fascism. The government of
Saxony-Anhalt had new laws to ban demonstrations on a historical sensitive day
like the 10th of May. On that day was also the 75th anniversary of the book
burning, which was the begin of the end for Jewish people and dissidents.
They were successful banning the funeral march at the first stage. But the city
of Tangermuende wanted to set a sign against right wing radicalism and still
organized the programme 'Cosmopolitan, multicultural - colourful instead of
brown'.
The annual motto of the evangelical churches of Central Germany was 'grace of
charity demands clearness - evangelical church against right wing radicalism'.
They asked the church communities to play an active part too. The evangelical
church of Tangermünde took the chance to invite our band to be part of the
programme. We are a good example how to live the tolerance against foreigners,
people of different faith or against disabled persons.
As we arrived we got the bad news that the NPD got the permission for their
funeral march. But the good thing was that they had to do it outside the city
centre. So it was good that Tangermünde didn't cancel the programme on that day.
Everything was were well organized and peaceful on both sides.
We played twice on that afternoon and Erik gave clear statements against right
wing radicalism. The audience liked our music which was nice too.
Unfortunately was the lack of enthusiasm amongst the people of Tangermünde.
Maybe the total alcohol ban was one reason for it.
We would like to take the chance to say thank you to the priest Mr. Weinert and
his wife for everything, especially for the great catering.
In the end of march an extended secondary school in Delitzsch had a project week about Australia. They had many different courses like Didgeridoo, art or Aussie rules football.
Eberhard and Erik were invited to be one part of the course about the Didgeridoo. Instead of only talking about the instrument itself, Erik used this opportunity to talk about the historical event in Australia, the "Sorry day". For the first time the Australian government said sorry for the bad treatment of the Aborigines. Especially to the members of the 'Stolen Generation'.
Of course it wasn't only a dry lecture. We also played some songs and also explained the history of the Didgeridoo and how to play the instrument.
Later it was time for the teenagers to become active too. First they formed their mouthpiece and then they started to play. Of course it wasn't enough time to explain them all the playing tricks. But some were really talented and managed to play the keynote without any problems. If they are interested in the instrument, they have to practice a lot. We had a good feeling that the pupils liked it, even the ones who originally wanted to go to other courses at the first stage.
On the following day they panted the PVC-pipes and changed them into real little masterpieces.
Event for children at the Seumeclub in Weissenfels/Saxony-Anhalt:
Our last concert for both the year 2007 and the smaller scale performing arts
festival 'Grenzgaenger' was at the Seumeclub in Weissenfels. Like last year we
were asked to play for children. They had many registrations in advance. But
also the pupils who had school holidays could come spontaneously.
The staff of the Seumeclub welcomed us very heartily. Everyone helped us to
carry all our stuff. Soon after we finished setting up all our instruments and
gear the MDR radio and also the newspaper 'Mitteldeutsche Zeitung' interview
Erik. Unfortunately the radio journalist was in a hurry and not able to stay at
the event itself.
The hall was really crowded and they counted about 160 children. It was great
that they also gave handicapped children the chance to take part of the event.
There was a little girl which was sitting in an electronical wheelchair. They
had to carry her to the second floor, which wasn't easy. The 'Kulturhaus'
Weissenfels has a stair lift for wheelchairs but the Seumeclub is not allowed to
borrow it from them.
The concert was great and one of the highlights for us. We didn't only play our
songs and tuned in to the kids. Erik brought Aboriginal things with him. The
children answered his questions and listened to his explanations. He also
brought an Aboriginal painting with him and told the background story from the
dreamtime. It was about 'Bubuk the owl'.
And our music was important too. After every song they clapped their hand and
cheered enthusiastic. One was for sure the children had a lot of fun. Ilonka Struve,
the boss of the Seumeclub, was able to watch closely how the little ones hardly
could stay on their chairs. The highlights on this morning for them were the
songs were we asked them to sing with us. The final was the dance 'Kiweya'.
There was no need to ask them twice.
After the concert a kindergarten group asked us to have a photo with them. The
children got also the chance to play some of our instruments.
Last was a nice lunch together with the staff of the Seumeclub. Needles to say
they helped us to carry all our stuff to the cars.
What a great final for 2007.
Evangelical church in Zethlingen/Saxony-Anhalt:
Our third concert at the smaller scale performing arts festival 'Grenzgaenger'
took us to northern Saxony-Anhalt. We played in a small village church which was
build from large rocks. Well you could feel that the winter was not so far away
cause they had no heating in the church.
The concert was big fun despite the fact that only 25 people appeared. Also the
few people had fun and sang with us. Like some other locations were we played
during the Grenzgaengerfestival, the entrance was free. They only asked everyone
for a collection. So people could donate some money to cover the costs. The
little audience gave good money after the concert. Guess this is a good sign
that the loved our music.
Thanksgiving at the church in Ebendorf/ Saxony-Anhalt:
Our second concert
at the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger' was in Ebendorf. They celebrated Thanksgiving with a church
service, had coffee and cake and a concert.
The church was rather small and also we didn't have enough time to set up the
sound technique. The church looked a bit different because of the long tables
and chairs. And it was crowed with people.
The concert was great and we only got a very positive feedback afterwards. Of
course they claimed an extra song too. After our gig we had very tasty homemade
cake.
We also were allowed to take all the vegetables home which were decoration of
the church. Erik decided to take a pumpkin which was a real monster. For Damien
it was no problem to balance this heavy monster on his head. Erik invited band
and later some friends and cooked for him different dishes with pumpkin. Now he
is really sick of it.
'World open Mittweida' in Mittweida/Saxony:
The city of Mittweida organized together with associations and other partners
the event 'World open Mittweida'. Their aim was to send a signal against right
wing radicalism. The location was the modern sports hall where we already played
some years ago.
The programme was really great. So they showed the movie 'The black Nazi' and
had afterwards they had a panel discussion with the director of the film and
some more guests. Associations also got the chance to present their work. Of
course they also had a great cultural programme too. The band 'Rada synergiea'
played klezmer music. There also was a Taiko drumming group and a band from South
Africa played too.
We were the closing act of the day. The audience loved our music and we were
allowed to play an extra song. Thanks to Alex that he recommended us and for the
great live photos.
After the programme they started with a march around the city with candles.
Church 'St. Marien' in Stendal/Saxony Anhalt:
We got an invitation to play at the intercultural day in Stendal. We were the
closing act of a day with many cultural highlights. The location were we played
was the Gothic hall church St. Marien. It was very impressive with the two huge
towers and was close to the marketplace.
Unfortunately there was another concert with Maggie Reilly, the singer of Mike
Oldfield, in Stendal at the same time. This competition was too big for us. So
only 20 people appeared. Really sad. But the concert was a big highlight for us
due to the great acoustics. We played with our sound technique which brought out
the great sound even better. Somehow it reminded us to our concert at the
memorial to the battle of the nations in Leipzig long time ago. The people who
came had lot of fun too. They asked for extra songs but we only played one more
due to our long trip back home.
We would like to say thank you to priest Mr. Krueger. The pizza was very tasty.
The concert was part
of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger'.
Roland party in Burg/Saxony Anhalt:
It wasn't easy to become part of the programme of the Roland party and we had to
get over some hurdles. Lucky enough was that we were allowed to play on a little
stage and not at the passage 'Rolandpassage'. But the stage was not perfect
either. Beside it was a carousel for adults and they played very loud music the
whole time. We asked them to fade it a bit down. Well, we were able to hear the
music the whole time. That was very irritating for us.
The other problem was that the didn't mention the band at the programme at all.
So only people who passed the stage knew what was on. But some stopped and sat
down to listen to our music. And the weather was not like late summer. Lucky
enough it didn't rain cause the stage was not completely covered.
After the concert we talked to some people and we got very positive feedback
from them. They also told us that the music from the carousel was not so
disturbing.
presented by the association paraCultura e. V.
Villa Donnersmarck in Berlin:
On the following day we had a second concert, this time in Berlin. Our friends
from the association paraCultura e. V. organized that at the villa Donnersmarck.
This is a barrier-free meeting place for handicapped and healthy people.
Guess some of you would recognize the name von Donnersmarck from somewhere. No
wonder cause Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck won the Oscar for the movie 'Das
Leben der anderen' (The live of the others). It is a drama about the east German
Stasi.
Our concert was in the afternoon and again families with their children could
come too. Our VIP guests were some members of paraCultura, who really wanted to
see us live again. The audience was mixed with both healthy and disabled people.
Everyone loved our music and at the end the asked for extra songs again.
The whole weekend our friend Azedine from Algeria accompanied us. Every time he
is helping us with carrying all the equipment and with setting up everything. We
would like to say thank you to him.
We also would like to say thanks to Mrs Stamm that she invited us to play at the
villa Donnersmarck. Thank you also to everyone at paraCultura.
Parochial barn in Schoenwalde/Brandenburg:
The 250 years old parochial barn is a famous location in Schoenwalde (Wandlitz).
The great thing about that location is that all the events without an entrance
fee. So everyone will get the chance to take part of the cultural life, even if
you don't have money for that. After the concert they ask the audience to make
an donation towards the musicians. To be honest we were bit in worry cause the
minimum salary was so low that we only would be able to cover the travel
expenses. Lucky enough almost 70 people appeared and this concert was one of the
few which paid off at the end of the day. Even some people came from Berlin to
see us.
In the barn it was very nice and you could see that they furnished it with an
eye for the detail. There many antique things and even the stack of wood looked
very decorative. The little stage was not big enough for us. Erik and Eberhard
had to play beside the stage, but that was no problem.
That night we broke many records, we were the band with the most members and Ari
was the oldest ever playing at the barn. The concert was great and the feedback
in the break was very positive. .
This time we got no flowers as present. We got sausage, bred, butter, jam and
some more food. Guess you might think it is a bit strange, but it was our
breakfast for the next day. We had to sleep in Schoenerlinde cause we had a
concert at the following day in Berlin.
Deep cellar system in Grimma/Saxony:
Since many years also in 2007 were 3 special guided tours through the deep
cellar in Grimma. They took place in June, July and August. As usual all the
tours with us were sold out again.
Like every time first the band was standing along the deep cellar system. So the
visitors were able to listen to our music while they walked through the deep
cellar. It was very funny cause people got frightened cause thy didn't expected
us. Hopefully it was only the music... Following the tour were the traditional
concert at the 1000 year old ice cave. Of course the fairies danced to our music
again.
In August Pankaj couldn't be with due to his other band. No problem cause we
were able to bring two guest musician with us. Winni from Leipzig and Erik
composed together a new song which they played at the ice cave for the first
time. Kishor from Grimma, originally coming from Pakistan played the Cajon on
the tours.
Church 'Friedenskirche' in Hengersberg/Bavaria:
In 2007 was the 50th anniversary of the evangelical church 'Friedenskirche'. Of
course the were celebrating that with many different events. In June they
invited us to come to Hengersberg, Lower Bavaria. We were looking forward to
come back to Bavaria.
Our concert was in the afternoon. This time many young people were in the
audience. They really loved our music. After the concert was a special church
service for young people. They picked out our band name WARU - fire as a central
theme. We supported them with our music.
The priest Ms Sibbor-Heißmann served us a very tasty Indian curry and rice. They
also had barbeque too.
After the tea Damien took his Djembe and thought the children and young people
their first African rhythms. The kids had lots of fun. Erik and Eberhard
accompanied them with the Didgeridoo.
Pankaj and Ari slept at the vicarage. All the others found Asylum at the Manneck
family. They gave us the children's rooms while the 3 children camped beside the
church.
We would like to use this opportunity to say thank you to Sabine and Jakob and
of course to the Manneck family.
Would be great to come back one day.
The local press came to our concert too and the reported about it in two
different newspapers.
Ecological party of the 'Oekoloewen' in
Leipzig :
After some years they asked us to be part of the programme of the ecological
party, which was organized by the environmental group 'Oekoloewen' (ecological
lions). It was at park Klara-Zetkin-Park and the weather was just perfect.
Only Ari couldn't be with us. But we brought a special guest with us, a big
tabla master from Varanasi in India. He was on tour in Germany and was visiting
Pankaj. So we gave him the time to play after our own concert.
The audience loved our concert. The highlight was the tabla master. He was
impressing everyone with his great performance on the tablas.
Long night of science at the 'Max-Planck-
Institut' in Magdeburg/Saxony-Anhalt:
It was the first time that we played at the long night of science. We played
outside and the idea was that we welcomed the interested visitors of the
institute with our music. Due to the weather we asked for pavilions to protect
us and the sound equipment from possible rain. Lucky enough it remained dry the
whole night.
This time we were supported by a fire show of the group 'DuoQuattroDuo'. The had
fun to have their show with live music. The audience loved that combination a
lot. We played several time on that evening.
As we already packed up our stuff again the had their last fire show. This time
they used our music from the CD. We allowed them to do so but asked them to make
PR for us too.
We would like to say thanks to the staff of the Max-Planck-Institut. The cake
was very delicious.
Benefitconcert for Indian handicapped children
at the church 'Klosterkirche St. Augustin' in Grimma/Saxony:
One of the highlights for WARU and for Erik in particular was the benefit
concert
for Indian handicapped children. The idea arose from the wish to play again at
the beautiful church 'Klosterkirche St. Augustin'. Very soon we realized that it
would be very hard to gain a big Grimma audience for a single band. It would
make no sense to pay out the bands from the entrance fee, we decided to organise
a benefit concert. And we could find more and more bands who were interested in
taking part of the programme.
WARU had to be the opener cause Erik was responsible for the smooth time flow of
the programme.
It was great that the dance group 'Dazzling Flights', the elves from the deep
cellar system, were dancing to our songs. We also had a premier too cause Katja,
a former class-mate of Erik, was singing a Chinese song for the first time. The
audience loved that.
There were many musical highlights like the bands Mahoott, Ndungu Kina, Pentairo, Doomed to Failure,
classical Indian music with
Pankaj and music from the Berbers of Algeria performed by Jaja and Dschilali.
Of course there was great dance too. So you could see Bollywood dance with Tridevi,
oriental dance with Leyla, classical Indian temple dance with Anne Dietrich and
modern dance by the dance group 'Dazzling Flights'.
The benefit concert was organized for a project of the association
'Andheri-Hilfe Bonn e. V.'. They will use the 800,- € from entrance fees and
donations for hearing impaired children in India.
A bit later you will find many more information and photos about the event on an
extra page. We would like to say thank you to all the sponsors and bands.
Without you the concert would be impossible to organise.
Evangelic church in Axien/Saxony-Anhalt:
Withsunday was a contrast programme to the concert we had in Goslar. We played in
the tiny village of Axien, which was very close to the river Elbe. The shortest
way to get there was by the ferry. The operation time of the ferry was limited
until early evening. Well Axien was really small and only had one road, one pub
and a small church. We were a bit afraid that not so many people would come to
our concert.
Due to the size of the church we decided to play unplugged. So we even had
enough time to go to the pub and have our tea there. On the way back to the
church an old lady, who was sitting in her doorway. said to Damien: Isn't it
nice that you get the chance to come out too. Guess we arose the proportion of
foreigners in Axien by 300 percent...
As we got back to the church already many people were waiting for us. The
concert was a big success. Outside was a big thunderstorm with heavy rain,
lightings and thunder. Well the atmosphere inside the church was even nicer.
While we played our song Andijan a lightning stroke in somewhere nearby.
Right in the middle of the break was a big thunder. This couldn't be an
accident. Guess the lord was telling his opinion about our music. :)
After the concert they published a very nice article in the paper 'Mitteldeutsche Zeitung'.
Churchwalk at the church ' Neuwerkkirche' in
Goslar/Lower Saxony:
Also in 2007 was a so called churchwalk within the inner-city churches of Goslar.
This event you could compare to the night of the open museums. Adult had to pay
once an entrance and then you could go to all the events. For children it was
free of charge.
This was our premier cause we played in Lower Saxony for the first time. The
location were we played was the Romanesque Neuwerkkirche which was already
sanctified in 1186. That night we played twice so everyone would get the chance
to see us.
Our first concert was our personal record cause we played for about 450 people.
The audience was seating just everywhere: in front of us, beside us and behind
us. Some people loved our concert so much that they preferred not to go to the
next church to see the second part. We speculated with that and therefore
we didn't played the same songs on the next concert.
We would like to take the chance to say thank you to Mr. pastor Boese and to Mr. Gerald de.
Everyone was very nice to us It was great to play at the Neuwerkkirche. Maybe
there will be another concert at the church but outside the churchwalk
programme. That would be great.
Anniversary of the citizens' organisation Moeckern/Wahren in
Leipzig :
The citizens' organisation Moeckern/Wahren was celebrating its 10th anniversary
with a big party. We were invited to be part of the programme.
The event was outside in front of the office of the association. Even we already
had May the weather was more likely typical April weather. As soon as we
finished setting up our sound some big showers started. Very quickly we brought
everything under a roof to protect it from the rain.
Just in time the sun came back again. We hesitated a bit cause we didn't want to
risk the damage of our sound equipment. But then we decided to set up everything
again and played. Lucky enough we left the microphone stands and the microphone
cords on their position.
The concert was not to bad and even the mayor of Leipzig was amongst the
audience.
Globetrotter Ausrüstung Store in Berlin-Steglitz:
The Store of Globetrotter Ausruestung in Berlin was celebrating his 5th
anniversary. Because of this reason on each Saturday in March continents were
presenting there special music. An we were asked to represent Australia.
We played several times in the afternoon. Due to the fact that they only asked
for background music we only played unplugged. It was inside the shore and our
stage was the covered pool were you could check canoes. The costumers who were
interested in our music could take a seat and listen to us.
Well the location was a bit different to the ones we usually play. But you never
know which contacts you will get. So the might organize a real concert at the
Globetrotter Store another time.
Watercastle Reinharz in Bad Schmiedeberg/Saxony-Anhalt:
Erik has never seen the castle before. Only his parents told him that they have
some events there. They were very interested in a concert from us and the booked
us really fast.
From the distance the castle looks very impressive. But if you look closer you
see that they still have to do a lot reconstruction work. But inside the
building we were surprised by some beautiful reconstructed rooms.
It was lot of fun playing in this really nice ambiance. Cause the concert was in
the afternoon families with children came too. Because of the size of the hall
it was not necessary to play with any sound equipment.
For Erik the concert was very special cause a very close friend from Israel was
there too. They haven't seen each other for 19 years. After she concert she said
that she absolutely loved the concert. It was a lot better than only listen to
our CDs.
Adventure days
in Glauchau/Saxony:
In march took place the very first movie & slide show festival 'AbenteuerTage'.
This top event was organized by the two adventurer Gil Bretschneider & Peer Schepanski.
The location of the festival was the Sachsenlandhalle in Glauchau. Within two
days you could see films and slide shows with famous adventurer like Matto Barfuss or Bruno Baumann.
Cause the programme was so varied, they invited us too.
So we were the openers of the festival with our music. Later we played one song
before the each slide show or film which fitted to the upcoming topic.
On Saturday night we even gave a little concert at the party.
In the meantime Erik did band PR at their own little stand. He informed about
the band and also about the planned benefit concert in June.
Of course there were many more highlights like different stalls. There also were
workshops too. On both days Eberhard had Didgeridoo-workshops for beginners. He
had many students there.
Association 'Arthur e. V.'
in Chemnitz/Saxony:
Our first concert in 2007 was again at the association Arthur. That was already
our second gig at this nice and cosy location. Peter rang before and asked us if
we could fill the gap of a band which cancelled their concert. He was about to
book us anyway for this year. Before the concert he was very worried that there
weren't so many advance reservations. Lucky enough these worries were without
any reason. Two people who came a bit later even had to go home again cause it
was so crowed.
We weren't complete cause Pankaj was in India again. That wasn't so bad cause
the stage was extremly tiny. Due to the small room it was not necessary to play
with sound equipment.
The concert was great again and the audience loved it. One is for sure, this
wasn't the last concert at the Arthur.
International Christmas-party at the 'Evangelisch-Lutherischen Missionswerk in Leipzig'/Saxony:
Like every year the 'Evangelisch-Lutherische Missionswerk' organized an
international Christmas party. One of the reasons were the countries where the 'Missionswerk'
was committed to.
So the responsible people decorated a complete room, dedicated to the countries
India, Papua New Guinea and Tanzania. In these rooms were special programme
point related to the countries.
At the little chapel was a cultural programme too and we were invited to play
there too. We gave a little concert. The chapel was quite small so we played
unplugged. The concert was nice. Of course it was not easy for the people to
decide which programme point would be more interesting.
Following the concert a lady from a local radio station interviews Damien how
they celebrate Christmas at the Democratic Republic of Congo. After that she
also interviews the WARU too. The broadcasted that the following year.
unfortunately nobody was listen to that cause it was rather early in the morning.
Church St. Bonifatius in Ditfurt/Saxony-Anhalt:
Our last concert with complete instrumentation was at a church again. This time
it was at the church St. Bonifatius in Ditfurt near Quedlinburg. The
priest was a bit worried about the concert we had in Bad Suderode in spring. He
thought that not so many people would come again cause both villages are not
very far away from each other. His concerns were without any reason and about
100 people came. Not bad for such a small church community like Ditfurt. Even
some people came back again after seeing us in Bad Suderode.
Our concert was great and the people just loved it and sang with us. Like
every time Erik presented the concert. Everyone giggled as he called priest Mr
reverend. His only comment was that his name is Matthias.
Somehow all our songs sounded a bit like Christian chorals, even if the audience
only had to imitate a steam train. At the song 'Dakota Moon' we asked the priest
Matthias Zentner to help us with the atmosphere. For him it was very special.
Again we couldn't stop without playing some extra songs.
We would like to thank Matthias for everything. We wish you all the best for
your work at the new church community in Qedlinburg. Hope that you won't forget
us cause we would love to play in Quedlinburg one day. Maybe at the cathedral,
which would be great.
This concert was also part of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger',
which had their 10th anniversary in 2006.
Church St. Katharinen in Wolmirstedt/Saxony-Anhalt:
On the day of the Germany unity we gave a concert at the church St. Katharinen
in Wolmirstedt. The church is a neo-Gothic and was build in 1876. In 1981 was the
second lustration after some changes. It is very unusual that the church is very
modern and starting at the first floor.
The concert was also part
of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger'. Our concert was the second best visited event in
2006. The also published an article at the newspaper 'Volksstimme' Even people
from Lower-Saxony came to see us.
The audience was really great. They sang with us clapped their hands and had
lots of fun. At the end of the concert we got standing ovations which is still
very special for us.
We would like to say thanks to cantor Mrs Mueller that she invited us to play at
her nice church. Also the catering was very nice.
Autumn-party at the meeting place Bochumer Street in Leipzig:
We were invited to play at the programme of the autumn party of the meeting
place for mentally disabled people. After all the years they always wished to
hear us again, which is great.
unfortunately this time we weren't complete cause Damien was on tour with Ndungu
Kina. Also without him we were able to play 30 minutes. And more important the
weather was great and so the party was outside.
"Seume-Club" in Weissenfels/Saxony-Anhalt:
Everything was much more relaxed at the evening concert. The sound check was done
before. The staff of the Seume-Club told us that not many people would come to
the concert. Like in many small towns people complained about the poor cultural
offers, which wasn't so true. The only problem was that the people just didn't
accepted it. The staff of the Seume-Club could reinforce that.
Unfortunately they were just right. Hardly anybody came. But it still was a great
concert. Even some kids, who were at the morning event, came back again.
For us it is more important that the audience is enjoying our music and has fun.
We could start up a little competition who is singing louder: the children in
the morning or the adults in the evening. We had to stay within the timeframe,
which was not negative. After the concert they had a barbeque.
After packing up everything we had many helping hands carrying all our stuff to
the cars. Soon after we finished eating we talked about the work of the Seume-Club.
That was very interesting. It was amazing how much they organized for the
children of Weissenfels. They told us that many children and young people had no
problems to tell negative characteristics of their classmates. But it was
extremely hard for them to tell about the positive sides of them. Somehow we
started to play the game 'My right, right place is empty...' Everyone of us was
called at least once. A good sign.
One is for sure, this wasn't our last appearance at the Seume-Club. They are
planning some more new projects.
This event also was part of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger',
which had their 10th anniversary in 2006.
World Children's day at the "Seume-Club"
in Weissenfels/Saxony-Anhalt:
At the Seume-Club we had two events on the same day. In the morning we started
with our children programme, which took place because of the World Children's
day.
Our way to Weissenfells was much harder than we expected. Not even our navigator
was able to help us. The only bridge crossing the river Saale was a construction
site at that time. And the detour was not very clearly for us. So Eberhard and
Erik only arrived at the very last minute. Not so bad cause before the event we
already decided to play unplugged for the children. We started with only a little
delay. The children were able to play outside at the meantime.
The event was very popular and almost 100 children came. Cause it was not a
ordinary concert for the kids, Erik brought soft toys, road signs, boomerangs and
much more. He told them stories about his trips, about Australian animals and
about the Aborigines. The kids loved our music too. They sang with us, clapped
their hands and the highlight for them was dancing at the song Kiweya.
After the official part the kids got the chance to play on most of our
instruments, including a lot of noise and a flood on the stage too. Following
the concert we prepared everything for the evening concert. The lunch was just
great and then we drove back to Leipzig in the meantime.
The feedback was really great and I guess almost all children of Weissenfels
came to see us.
This event also was part of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger',
which had their 10th anniversary in 2006.
Festival of cultures in Hamburg:
The festival is a meeting festival of cultures. Their aim is it to bring
together Germans and foreigners living in Germany. With meeting they want to
reduce stereotypes.
The festival of culture took place in September for the 4th time. The programme
was really good. So they had an art forum, literature of cultures, movies, and
events for children and young people. You could buy arts and craft or could
eat international dishes. Of course the biggest highlight of the whole festival
is the carnival parade where 80 nations, living now in Hamburg or Germany, are
presenting themselves.
They also had 4 stages with world-music. We were extremely lucky to play there.
Well it was a long trip to Hamburg too but it really was worth it. Our music and
the band itself fitted into the motto of this years festival 'respect'.
Unfortunately our gig was only 45 minutes and the set up and sound check took
longer than expected. The really nice thing was that no one was pushing us to
speed up. It is not possible to do the sound check of our many instruments
within 10 minutes. The concert was great and a nice premier for us playing in
Hamburg.
After a delicious soup we wanted to start going home again. We only got to the first
big main road. The carnival parade was still ongoing. No chance to get through
with our car. But it was nice to see the a bit of the colourful parade of the
different nations.
Grassi-party at the museum Grassi in Leipzig:
For the first time after a 5 year break they had a Grassi-party. Again the
programme was very varied. For example there was a children dance group from Sri Lanka.
It was also possible to enter all the museums for free or you could be part of
guided tours through the exhibitions. The party was especially attractive for
children too. die Kinder You could buy different things or eat and drink. Associations got the chance to
present their work too.
We were very happy to be part of the programme cause one of our first gigs of
WARU was at a Grassi party. Due to the time with set up everything we decided
not to play on the stage. We found a really nice spot within the inner
courtyard.
Our concert was in two blocs. We had lots of fun to play open air. No wonder
cause the weather was just great again.
art-Kapella in Schkeuditz near Leipzig/Saxony:
The art-Kapella had their 11th anniversary and was celebrating. We were one of
their programme highlights. It was nice to come back again cause in 2003 we
already played here as part of the opening of an exhibition. We won't forget
that cause it was our very first concert with Ari. Everyone loved that and we decided that would become a fulltime member of our band.
Due to the great acoustics we played unplugged. Only some old ladies asked Erik
after the break to present the concert a bit louder. The were seating in the
first tier but still couldn't' hear properly. We played almost 2 hours and
everyone really loved it.
This event also was part of the smaller scale performing arts festival
'Grenzgaenger',
which had their 10th anniversary in 2006.
Event night in Wittenberg/Saxony-Anhalt:
In 2006 we were lucky to be part of the Wittenberg event night. The association
Wittenberg Kultur e. V. found our band through our homepage.
Our concert was at the city church St. Marien, where Martin Luther preached
regularly. As it is an ordinary church there was an English church service at the
same night. So we had to be in Wittenberg very early. Sound technique was
necessary. After set up and the sound check we had enough time to see some of
the nice programme which was all around the city centre. The atmosphere was very
nice and the weather up to our concert was just perfect for an event like that.
Our gig started right on time with the bells ringing. We had to try to be in the
timeframe, cause after the concert was nightly tour through the church. It was
great that so many appeared. Almost all the seats where taken. Of course it was
a coming and going which is absolutely normal for an event like that. The
audience loved our music and there was no need for begging. They sang with
Damien "Dakota Moon". Within churches this song always sounds like
chorals. As planed we stayed within the 60 minutes. But the people asked for
extra songs.
After the concert we took our time to talk to the audience and answered their
questions. We were a bit in a difficult situation. One lady was complaining that
the tour is not starting in time. So we had to be extremely fast to pack up
everything again. Next time they should think about 30 minute break
between programme points.
Festival 'Liederflut' in Grimma/Saxony:
They weren't sure about having the international festival 'Liederflut' in 2006
again. This time the city of Grimma was organizing everything themselves. People
said that the programme change for the worst compared to the two festivals
in 2004 and 2005. But not to be forgotten that most of the people were
volunteers earning no money for their work. Plus they had less money for
everything. But they should try to book more intercultural bands. There are also
many bands in Germany who play the music of their culture.
It was our first appearance at the festival and we weren't able to compare with
the years before. For us everything was just perfect, the stage 'Muldenbuehne'
and the weather too. Many people came to see us. The concert was great and we
had to play extra songs too. At the end Bettina Holfter from the city of Grimma
came onto the stage hugged everyone and said thank you for the long-time
collaboration.
We keep our fingers crossed that Grimma will be able to organize this festival
in 2007 again. Of course we would like to be part of the programme, maybe on the
big stage on the market place. :)
Photo-exhibition at the town hall of Grimma/Saxony:
Just before the international festival 'Liederflut' was the opening of a photo
exhibition about the last two festivals. The exhibition was at the town hall and
the art and photo association Grimma organized it.
The association was very happy that we were able to come and play at their
vernissage. They also wanted to make PR for the festival too. Even the
TV-station MDR came to report about both the exhibition and the festival too.
For us it was really good cause they would mention our concert at the festival.
But we had to play the song 'Herati' three times cause they only brought one
camera. No problem for us.
On the following day the MDR showed the report at their programme at the 'Sachsenspiegel'.
They mentioned our band and you were able to listen to our music too.
Deep cellar system Grimma/Saxony:
Also our last event at the deep cellar system was completely sold out. All the
dates at were a big success.
It is remarkable that the audience is enjoying our music despite the cold
temperature 8 degrees C and the fact that they are standing the whole time. Also
this time our little concert at the ice cave was about 60 minutes long. They
enjoyed our music, clapped their hands and sang to Dakota Moon too.
There will be events like that in 2007 and for sure there won't be a change in
the concept.
Deep cellar system in Grimma/Saxony:
Our second date was sold out again at the deep cellar system. This time the band
was not complete. Eberhard was on holiday in Norway.
It was always fun playing at the guided tours. Also the traditional concert at
the ice cave was great. Of course the elves were part of the programme to and got
used to dance on the bad ground of the cave. Erik made their conditions a bit
harder this time and placed the water-drums in their way. So they had to dance
around them.
Water park 'Calypso' in Saarbruecken/Saarland:
At the sauna facilities of the water park 'Calypso' are organized regular sauna
events. In June we were invited to be part of an Australian theme night. For us
it was a premier to cause we never played at the Saarland before. We felt sorry
for our poor drivers Eberhard and Damien.
Beside our music Erik lectured about Australia and during the whole night photos
from his last 3 trips were beamed to a screen. Of course they also served food
and drinks too.
There was a buffet with many different Australian specialities. While the hourly
sauna sprinkling the hot stones with aroma-infused water we had a break. We
talked to the people and also answered their questions. Of course they also could
try to play the didgeridoo too.
Even the dress code at the sauna was a bit different to normal concerts we had a
lot of fun. And the audience loved it. Some even went straight to the reception
and asked them to book us again. Of course we would like to come back again cause
the staff was very nice.
Damien, Pankaj (both had concerts the next day) and Ari drove back home to
Leipzig right after the gig. Eberhard and Erik packed up everything and stayed
overnight at a hotel in Saarbruecken.
Castle Stolpen/Saxony:
With almost one year delay the geological exhibition 'The basalt is a Saxon' was
opened in 2006. Extra for the exhibition they made up the cellar rooms of the
castle. We were responsible for the musical part of the evening.
After the official part the invited guests went to see the exhibition. We were
asked to play at the beautiful inner ward of the castle. It wasn't a real
concert only nice background music for the guests. So Erik didn't presented the
songs at all. We played without any breaks. Eberhard and Erik also walked around
the exhibition while playing the didgeridoo. Meanwhile Pankaj played his Tabla-solo.
After we performed our last song something unexpected happened. They audience
asked for extra songs. Usually it is almost normal for us but all the conditions
were a bit different. During the concert we hardly got any feedback at all. It
was only a vernissage and not a concert.
But the atmosphere was very beautiful specially later the evening. We hope that
we will be able to come back another time to play at a real concert. But it will
be with sound equipment and Erik will guide through the evening.
"Party in the park" with FUSION AUSTRALIA
at the
Johanna park Leipzig:
The Christian organisation FUSION AUSTRALIA organized three-day festivals at
some of the soccer world cup cities. In Leipzig the festival took place at
the park 'Johannapark', which is close to the city centre. Erik got to know
FUSION already on his first trip to Australia. Many of his friends are or were
linked to this organisation. So Erik asked everyone at WARU to give a little
concert there. So we were complete Not only the FUSION people loved our little
concert. They were extremely thankful about our gig. In-between the games for kids
and adults we played. Damien had to go earlier because of his drum lessons. But
that was not so a big problem cause we played our solos or jammed together with
some other musicians.
During the 3 days they presented many funny games like
Water balloon-Volleyball, stilts-races and much more. They had food and
drinks. Believe it or not: everything was for free. The weather was absolutely
perfect for this party in the park.
Memorial Church in in Leipzig-Schoenefeld:
Erik had with this concert a clear home field advantage cause it took place at
the Memorial church. This church is only a stone throw away from his flat and he
is able to see it from his little winter garden.
The priest and the cantor trusted in us and we got the keys of the church. So we
were able to organize everything ourselves. The weather was perfect plus there
was the first soccer match in Leipzig as part of the world cup. Absolutely no
good conditions for a concert in the afternoon. Well Erik did a lot of PR before
the concert and distributed flyers all around Leipzig and hang up posters too.
He also used the internet to publish the concert at different online databases.
Also different papers like the newspaper LVZ mentioned the concert too. In
Leipzig it is always hard to organize an event due to the big cultural
competition. Damien made a joke and said that we are about to play only for the
two chairs of Clara & Robert Schumann. They had their wedding at the
Memorial church. Lucky enough Damien was wrong.
About 50 people came and we were very happy about that. There was more than
soccer in this world. The concert was great and we played about 2 hours. Of
course we had to play some extra songs too. Among the audience was also Birgit Scheps
from the ethnology museum of Leipzig and her partner. She just finished her
dissertation.
Many thanks to cantor Oliver Burse and reverend Heinrich
for the opportunity to play at their church. Would be nice to come back again
another time.
Deep cellar system in Grimma/Saxony:
Our first date at the deep cellar was in June. The guide was by himself this
time and responsible for everything. So it was rather chaotic.
The concept with music during the guided tours and the concert including the
dancing elves at the ice cave was still very good. Also this time all the tickets
were sold out.
Somebody took many photos but we never got the chance to see the pictures. That
is why we have no photos from our gig.
Student Street party in Erfurt/Thuringa:
Also in 2006 students organized a Street Party close to the student club 'Engelsburg'.
We were asked to perform there. Everything was open-air and the stage was
uncovered. It has no protection against rain. They organized two huge sunshades
which covered the whole stage now.
The concert was nice but because of the weather not so many people came to the
street party. Unfortunately there was an organisational problem too. About 10
minutes before our finish the next band started to play at the stage of the
Engelsburg. And this band was so loud. We had absolutely no chance against them.
Many thanks to Katrin for the opportunity to stay at her place overnight. Thanks
to Steffen for the nice photos from the concert.
Tropical night at the Botanical Gardens in Jena/Thuringa:
This was going to be one of the highlights of the year and we were looking
forward to play in Jena. No wonder we performed at the palm-house of the
botanical gardens. One was for sure this time we wouldn't feel cold cause
temperature was rather tropical. It was planned that our stage would the
catwalks in about 5 and 10 metres. Well Eberhard, Ari and Pankaj preferred to
stay on the ground. Maybe because of the height but there was not enough room.
The catwalks were only about 60 cm wide.
Only Damien and Erik dared to play up there. But it was under bad circumstances.
We didn't think about the difficulties hearing the rest of the band. Up in the
height we were only to play with a delay. Somehow we managed that.
Our concert was divided into some parts cause beside us was more programme at
the tropical night. The audience loved our music and also for us this gig was
very special. Absolutely great were the Caribbean frogs. Their constant whistles
remained in our head for a long time. By the way one guy from Australia came to
our concert. He was from Albury/Wodonga, which is not far away from Erik's
friends.
After the concert Damien, Ari, Pankaj and Erik drove directly to Erfurt. Crazy
how Damien is always able to fit in the whole stuff into the car.
Alte Kirche in Bad Suderode/Saxony-Anhalt:
For the first time we gave a concert on the foreland of the Harz mountains. The
location were we played was an old church, which is now only used for cultural
events like concerts and exhibitions.
Because of the great acoustics we decided to play unplugged. Beside our music
Erik not only explained about our band but also talked about the Australian
aborigines.
The gig was great but only a few people came. No wonder there was another event
at the health resort which was free of charge but with rattling of plates, cups
and cutlery inclusive.
'Nachtschicht' at the Kiwara Lodge of the Zoo
Leipzig:
After a few years absence we were part of the 'Nightshift', the night of the
open museums. It was our second time at the Leipzig Zoo. Only this time we
didn't play at the terrarium. The concert was at the African restaurant Kiwara Lodge,
which is beside the beautiful African savannah.
Beside our concert was also the premier of the book 'Die Löwenfabrik' (the
lion-factory). The author Dr. Mustafa Haikal was reading from his book.
We were extremely lucky with the weather. We played on the veranda and it wasn't
chilli outside. As usual on the 'Nightshift' the audience came and went away.
That is normal due to the big programme which is offered all around Leipzig
museums. It was big fun playing on the terrace overlooking the African savannah
and the park Rosenthal. All up we played 3 times that night. Some people even
preferred to stay the whole time with us.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the staff of the
Lodge. They cared for us a lot and the exotic African food was just brilliant.
Festival 'NeustadtFest' in Dresden/Saxony:
The party 'NeustadtFest' at the district Dresden Neustadt started the open air
festivities of the 800 anniversary of Dresden. Andreas Grosse, who is bringing
the world music into Dresden with his concert series "Music between worlds",
was asked to organize a programme on a stage right beside the church 'Dreikoenigskirche'.
First it was planned to WARU would be part of the series before. But because of
acoustic reasons it was cancelled. That is way we were very happy that he asked
us to play on that stage.
But the weather wasn't perfect for an open air event. It was raining and
rather cold too. There was no spring in sight at all.
But we had no problem with that. The stage was beside some paddles dry. Compared
to the little audience we had one big advantage. It was fun playing for them and
somehow we managed to stop the rain with our music. And it remained dry until
the end of the day. So Andreas Grosse said that it was a mistake that WARU
wasn't the opener.
Church St. Concordia in Ruhla/Thuringa:
Our first concert with the complete band was only in April, cause Pankaj missed
out on the extreme winter. He preferred to be in India.
We were happy to perform in Germanys only untouched Angle church, the church St. Concordia.
It was great to see that our music draw about 100 people to the town of Ruhla.
Even people from Mittweida (Saxony) or from Bad Hersfeld (Hesse) came to see us.
Even after our longer winter-break we didn't got rusty. In the meantime we
practiced a lot and also bought new instruments like a proper big steel-drum.
The concert was just great and the audience was very surprised as Erik walked
around the church while playing the song 'Herati'. They couldn't believe it the
he even went up to the audience on the gallery of the church.
The audience asked for extra songs, even after a two our concert. They sang with
us, stood up, clapped their hands and had just a great evening.
Later their was a great article at the newspaper 'Thueringer Allgemeine'
reporting about our concert.
Extended secondary school
in Leipzig:
Also in 2006 they invited Eberhard and Erik to the extended secondary school for
adults. This time more class levels came to the lesson.
Again they showed a film about the aborigines and after that Erik also told
about their present situation in Australia.
Eberhard and Erik were supported by a drummer. One part of the lesson was the
jamming with everyone. They brought different instruments and also used our
instruments too. That was lots of fun. Also in 2006 Daniel managed to come and
played on his Berimbao, which is used in capoeira, the Brazilian sport.
'The association paraCultura e. V. in Berlin:
Our concert weekend wouldn't be possible without the support by the association
parCultura e. V. (association to promote artist with disabilities). They
organized the location for the concert, paid the rent and did a lot of PR for us
as well.
That is not enough. They had always time for us on that weekend. Starting from
driving us around, accommodation at their flat, catering and much much more. What
would be do without you? We would like to take that chance to say many thanks to Ronald, Mike
and all the other good souls of paraCultura.
paraCultura e. V. was founded to promote artists with disabilities. (Erik
is handicapped too, so they took care about WARU. But there biggest aim is it to
organize an international festival disabled people in Berlin. Unfortunately they
had to stop there planning because of the lack of money. They found no sponsors.
If you want to support the idea of that great festivals, contact the association
directly:
paraCultura - Verein zur Föderung von KünstlerInnen mit Behinderung e. V.
Postfach 61 01 80
D 10922 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30-42014082 Fax.: +49 (0)30-42014081
Email.: info[at]paracultura.com
Kulturfabrik Moabit in Berlin:
(presented by paraCultura e. V.)
Our concert was part of the series 'jazz in the dock'. The Kulturfabrik and also Erik
did a lot PR for the concert.
The Theatre dock is on the second floor. So it was not possible for wheel chairs
to get there. They had to go back home. So sorry about that. We didn't know that
before.
The theatre dock was very cosy and had a nice stage, great sound and light and
very nice staff.
Again not so many people appeared. Guess it is quite hard for a unknown band to
give a concert in Berlin. Sure next time it will be easier.
But the concert was great and we really enjoyed it. The mood was great. The
people sang with us and it took not long to find 2 assistants for the song 'Dakota Moon'.
It is not always necessary to play in front of a big crowd. More important is
that the people enjoy it and have fun. We almost played for two hours and one
extra song was not enough for them. Pankaj had to play a tabla solo and we
had to start packing up again. No wonder cause we still had to travel back home
to Leipzig. But we took time for the audience after the concert and received a
very positive feedback.
Art Gallery Weissenseer Freitag in Berlin:
(presented by paraCultura e. V.)
We already had the concert at the 'Kulturfabrik Moabit' on the following day. So
Mike from the association paraCultura e. V. tried to organize a location for a
second concert on Saturday. In Berlin are masses of great locations. Many of
them were interested in a concert from us. But there was only one problem they
all were booked out already. Mike didn't give up and finally found the art
gallery 'Weissenseer Freitag'. Holm, the owner of the gallery, took only the
half price of the rent. paraCultura paid for that. Both the association and Erik
promoted the concert everywhere in Berlin.
Almost just in time we arrived at the gallery. It even was possible to stop in
front of it. So we could unload the whole stuff without a problem. The gallery
was a great location. The whole ground was covered with fine sand. You almost
had the feeling being on a white sandy beach. The timing was perfect and we
were able to set up everything and do the sound check without a rush. So we were
able to go to the Australian restaurant 'Billabong' on time. (see chapter
below).
Unfortunately not as many people came to the concert as expected. Berlin is such a
big city and has to offer so many cultural events on the same day. So it is not
so easy to win a big audience, specially if you never played there before. But
we were lucky somehow that many people came who were involved with paraCultura.
Also handicapped people came to our concert. We were happy about that. The
audience was great and it was big fun to play for them. Aris manager Ms Dr. Jung
came to the concert too. She lives in Berlin and got to know Ari some years ago
as he still was back in Uzbekistan.
After the concert we took us much time for questions and showed the instruments
too. There was no rush.
Australian Restaurant 'Billabong' in Berlin:
Our weekend in Berlin started with a small 20 minutes concert at the
'Billabong'. It was only just around the corner of the gallery where we played
next. The owner of the restaurant told us that the guests came to dine and not
for music. Fair enough so we decided to play unplugged. Pankaj wouldn't have any
chance to fight against the Djembe with his tablas. That is why we gave him a
break. The guest enjoyed our music and gave us a warm applause.
We played for a very tasty Australian meal for us and the people from the
association paracultura.
Soon after we played at the 'Billabong' the restaurant had to close down. Sure
that our music wasn't the reason for it.
Arthur e. V. in Chemnitz/Saxony:
In 2004 we already worked with the Arthur association and were part of their
brilliant event at the caves 'Felsendome Rabenstein' In 2005 we got the chance
to play at the Arthur itself. Before the concert they were a bit worried that
enough people would come to see us. In the last time they always had to struggle
with decreasing attendance. Lucky enough we didn't have that problem and soon
the small room of the Arthur was really packed.
We had to play without Pankaj again. On this little stage was just enough room
for four of us. We decided to play unplugged. It is no problem for us to do so
with our music.
The concerts was great. The audience loved our music and asked for some extra
songs after our concert. After that we took a lot of time to talk to everyone
and answered their questions too.
Damien almost had to stay in Chemnitz. Somehow we lost the little chip of the
anti-theft device of his car. So we all tried to find that little thing. It was
like searching a needle in the hay cause it was dark. After Damien unloaded all
his drums from the boot of his car he found it.
Some days after our concert we received a nice email from Grit. She lives in Chemnitz:
I visited the Waru-concert in Chemnitz last Saturday. That was very beautiful
music, which really touched me a lot. I felt that each instrument was calling me
and its country of origin. Specially the Didgeridoo. Now I know the reason why I
felt a bit like blowing in the wind after listening to the didgeridoo music. On
your homepage I learned that the didgeridoo is a wind instrument...
Party at the social meeting point in Leipzig Mockau:
Also in 2005 was a autumn party at the meeting point for mental handicapped
people in Leipzig Mockau. It became almost a tradition to be part of that
programme. We are happy to play there for free. The staff and the visitors
always like to see us again.
We gave Ari a rest and played without him. It was only a short concert for only
30 minutes and we were able to manage that without a problem. Like every year
people loved our music. Some of them danced the whole time. We really loved
that.
This time the weather was a lot better than the year before. There was no rain
at all. So it was possible to have a bonfire too.
After our little concerts we remained for while to see the following programme.
Sure that we will play there in 2006 again.
Tango fabric in Leipzig:
Mr. Kaufmann, a city planer who does a lot for Leipzig's eastern suburbs, booked
us for his 40th birthday party. He saw us on a small concert in 2004. Most
important for him that Ari was with us. He really is a fan of him. Pankaj was
busy with one of his other music projects. So he couldn't play on that concert.
Mr. Kaufmann organized some other highlights like Oriental dance,
performance with a ladder and another band too. He also booked a great company
for the sound and the light, which was just perfect for us.
Our concert was very nice. Specially Mr. Kaufmann loved it and it was his own
special birthday present.
St. Petri and Pauli church in
Soemmerda/Thuringia:
Our second concert of the Grenzgaenger Festival took place in the small and cosy
church St. Petri
and Pauli in Soemmerda. Despite the good acoustics in churches we preferred to
play with sound technique. Some instruments like the tablas and also the vocals
would get lost for example with the drumming.
The parish offered the concert for free but asked for a offertory afterwards.
The priest was really funny and said that he will place one basket on the left
and one on the right side. So it will be easier to donate money for both right
and left-handers too.
As usual I walked around the audience at the song 'Heratri'. So I also walked up
to the gallery too. The people up there couldn't belive that I didn't miss them
too. They were surprised and happy about that.
Also this time we couldn't leave before playing some extra songs.
Gutsscheune in Schwemsal/Saxony-Anhalt:
As part the smaller scale performing arts festival 'Grenzgaenger' we played at
the 'Gutsscheune' (barn) in Schwemsal. The aim of the festival is bringing
culture to non urban areas. That is a great idea.
The beautiful restored barn had a great atmosphere and was just perfect for our
concert. The audience were great listeners. They also took the chance to
ask many questions during the break. It was not hard to ask them to sing with us
'Dakota Moon'.
This time we had a premier too cause one of Damien's African dancers showed how
to dance 'Kiweya'.
After the concert we had a very positive feedback. We were happy about that.
Deep cellar system in Grimma:
Our last appearance at the deep cellar system was a big success. This time there
were much more than 50 people. How could they got in?
As usual we played music while the tours walked along the cellar systems. Only
this time Damien brought his heavy African bass drum with him. And you can
imagine how this felt in there. Not to be missed.
The concert was a big great too in the ice cave. Again the fairies dance almost
to each of our songs.
Also in 2006 will be 3 of those events at the deep cellar system. One is for
sure the tickets will be sold out very fast again. So better be quick with
ordering them.
Park stage of the 'Geyserhaus' in Leipzig:
Also in the year 2005 the ensemble 'Sonjeka' (from near Tschernobyl) had the
opportunity to travel to Germany for some weeks. They also got the chance to
have some concerts too. For those young people it was the only chance to get
away from the radioactive polluted environment for a short time.
The 'Geyserhaus' organized a concert with 'Sonjeka', another band and WARU as a
farewell.
The programme was really nice. It really was a shame that not so many people
came to see that.
We gave a short concert and had fun. The audience loved it. Everything was just
perfect.
The last act were the stars of this evening. 'Sonjeka' were able to take the
audience to their home country with their beautiful songs and dances. The final
of the concert was a jamming with all bands of this evening.
Deep cellar system in Grimma:
For this event we weren't complete cause Eberhard had to go to 'shool' again.
Pankaj was back from India, so it was no problem for us. This time the guided
tours started right in time. So we met the first group in the middle of the
cave. Also Ms Holfter had problem to lit the torches and candles because of the
high humidity. That night the audience was not in such a good mood. Lucky that
is not happened so often before. Of course we gave it all.
Froebelhouse - Dance & FolkFest in
Rudolstadt/Thuringa:
Our second concert was at the inner courtyard of the Froebelhouse, which was
also our own accommodation. How good is that? Peter Uhlmann from the city of
Rudolstadt organized that for us. With Ari it was very important for us to stay
in Rudolstadt.
First Erik was very worried that many people will find there way to this
location. The band just before us had to play for a very small audience. We were
very lucky cause much more people came to our concert. Also the weather was
perfect. It was warm the sun was shining and no rain in sight. Not like all the
other years. Due to the better acoustics we decided to play in a garage. The
audience was very thankful and at the end of the concert they ask for more
music.
Kleinkunstbuehne Rudolstadt - Dance & folkFest in
Rudolstadt/Thuringia:
We were very happy being part of the programme of the Dance & Folk Festival
after our first appearance there 3 years ago. With the difference in 2002 we
were only 3 members of the band. Now were were 5. Lucky enough Pankaj came back
from India just in time. To be honest we didn't count with him.
Our first concert was Friday. We were lucky to play at the Kleinkunstbuehne Rudolstadt
and it even was permitted to play with sound equipment too. What a nice surprise.
The few microphones help us a lot. We are able to play unplugged but it was much
better using the technique.
It was a great atmosphere and there was no need to ask for assistance or
dancers, which is typical for this great festival.
Many thanks to Sven for the great photos you shot that night.
Deep cellar system in Grimma:
For the second year in a row we were booked to make 3 guided tours more
interesting. All the 3 dates were booked out very well in advance. The concept
with music during the tours and the concert afterwards with the dancing fairy
was very successful.
As usual it was lots of fun to be part of it. The highlight of the evening was
the concert in the 1000 years old cave. The fairy from Grimma gave their best
again. Not so easy with the rocky ground. Even Erik had his problems to remain
on his chair.
Summer party at the 'Diest-Hof' in Seyda/Saxony-Anhalt:
Also this year took place the summer party at the 'Diest-Hof', a housing project
for mentally ill people. The slogan of the party was 'Sounds of Life'.
Burkhart's friend Christian works at the institution and organized us a concert
at the party. Somehow we didn't hear from them for a long time and so everyone
but Erik and Burkhard had different appointments.
We didn't wanted to cancel it and so we decided to play as a duet. Believe it or
not we even were able to present a 30 minutes concerts. At the end of our gig
Christian and some other people from the Diest Hof joined to play with us. The
audience liked the concert and some liked our last song most.
The aim of the programme was to get money for the Diest Hof. So we had no
problem just to get back the costs of driving to Seyda and back. We enjoyed
playing there and that was most important.
Children day at the Lipsia-Club
in Leipzig Gruenau:
The Lipsia-Club of the 'Wohnungsgenossenschaft' Lipsia celebrated the children's
day and we were invited to do a programme for the kids. It wasn't on the actual
day cause there are too many offers on the 1. of June.
Damien couldn't play with us cause he had a little surgery on his shoulder.
Lucky that Sam had time to play.
Of course this wasn't only a concert. Erik brought many Australian things.
Between the songs he told interesting things about Australia, the unique animals
and the Aborigines.
The kids loved the music and were very active with handclapping and singing. The
highlight for them was to try out most of our instruments. Again that was very
loud but they had lot of fun too.
Dripstone cave Schulerloch at the
Altmuehltal/Bavaria:
For us the concert at the cave was a premier cause we never played in Bavaria
before. The long trip to get there was worth it. Only the conditions were not so
easy for us. The humidity was very high and the temperature only about 9
degrees. Between the guided tours we were able to set up everything for the
concert. We knew that before so we could cope with that.
Of course we hoped that many people will come to the concert. Lucky enough this
was no point to worry about. 200 people appeared. Ari was not with us cause the
stress of the trip would be to big for him. Sam supported us with his Kora.
The atmosphere in the big hall of the cave was very nice. No wonder cause the
also were able to arrange it different nice light effects during the concert.
Most important was the music. At Dakota Moon
they all sang with us and liked Damien showing to dance Kiweya. We had to play a
few more extra songs too. All up we got a very positive feedback after our gig.
Spring-party
in Leipzig Schoenefeld:
For the first time we were part of the spring party. For Erik it was a bit of a
home match cause for a few years he lives in Schoenefeld. The programme and
everything around the event was great. Also different associations were able to
introduce their work.
Erik also had a little stand were everyone could try out some instruments.
Specially the kids used that opportunity. Best of all for them was the big gong
which was the loudest.
In the afternoon was our concert. The sound check took longer than the planned 10
minutes. No wonder with all our different instruments. The audience loved our
music. For the first time Erik's grandmother was able to see our concert. She is
92 already. It was a little bit to loud for her but she enjoyed it.
We hope the concert is the first step of the continuous work with the
association Schoenefeld.
"Leipziger Welten" at the 'Theatre
of the Young World':
In May took place the Leipzig worlds at the 'Theatre of the Young World'. In one
week they celebrated the different cultures with a varied programme.
We were the closing act of that week. Due to the financial support it was
possible take no entrance fee for the concert. Not bad. We really had great
conditions. The stage was huge, the sound and the light was great and very
professional.
The manager and artistic director talked about the 'Leipziger Welten' first and
then he opened our concert.
The gig was really great. Good conditions are half as good if the audience don't
like the music you play. But they loved it. They sang, danced and had a lot of
fun. Again at Kiweya almost everyone danced and the ones who didn't dare clapped
their hands.
Many thanks to everyone at the theatre that we got the chance to play there. We
hope that we will be able to play there again.
Event day 5th continent at the tree nursery
Mueller in Oschatz/Saxony:
In all tree nurseries of Germany will be an event day. The date and the
slogan will be given out. This year it was the 5th continent, Australia. They
booked us on somebody's recommendation.
The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert. It was lots of fun to play
there. The audience really loved it. Only not so many people came. That was a
shame. Beside our music you also could buy different sorts of Australian plants.
We had lots of fun and maybe all the plants were growing a lot better with our
music.
Night of the 1000 drums in
Hoyerswerda/Saxony:
For the second time we were invited to be part of the night of the 1000 drums in
the cultural fabric in Hoyerswerda.
Also this time the rage of different workshops was big starting from Japanese
Taiko-drumming up to samba. Eberhard and Erik were leading a didgeridoo workshop
for beginners. We only had to 2 people so it was very intensive. That for sure
is great at this event. A workshop also would take place with only one person.
Sam and Damien were giving workshops in African drumming with djembe and congas.
Traditionally the evening started with a presentation what the people learned at
their workshops. The didgeridoo opened this interesting concert. Eberhard, Rico und
Erik even were able to create a brand new song. The audience really liked that.
Later all the others presented what they learned and that really was very
impressive.
The second part of the show were concerts of the bands who leaded the workshops. WARU
was the final of the programme. Ari was not with us. So Sam supported us at the
begin of our little concert.
We would like to use this opportunity to say thanks to Scholli and everyone from
the Kufa (cultural fabric).
Retirement party in Leipzig:
A friend of Eberhard celebrated his retirement party and his wish was a short
concert from us. No problem for us.
To be honest it was not so easy for us to play for them. But somehow we managed
it again to win them for our music. At the end they sang and even danced which
was very nice. Of course Dakota Moon was one of our big highlights beside Kiweya.
This concerts was unplugged. Not always we need to play with sound equipment.
Grammar
School in Leipzig:
Eberhard and Erik played at grammar school. It was not only a concert in more
was a lesson about the Australian Aborigines. The pupil watched a film about
them and their traditional life. After that we played the didgeridoo. Erik also
talked about the problems and about the injustice of the aborigines.
At the end of the lesson everyone could try to play the didge. Some also
brought their djembe and even an berimbao. All together we jammed which the
really liked. For us it was an interesting experience too and I am sure this
won't be the last time in that school cause the teacher liked the way we did
that lesson.
The final of a very successful year was a concert in the African club and restaurant of the Tulamahash.
We were very happy to play there for the first time. It was just before Christmas but many people came to see us. We gave just everything and played for more than two hours. Poor Ari, it was already early in the morning as we got home.
Everyone had fun and at the end some danced Kiweya too. This time Arba, our friend, showed them how to dance it.
The final for us was a great African breakfast with many tasty African dishes.
The Arthur association of Chemnitz organized a great event in the end of October. The Moto of the night was 'Cave sounds in the shade of the bats' and it took place in the caves 'Felsendome Rabensteine'. Despite some other big events in Chemnitz at the same night, many people came to the spectacle.
The programme was just great and started with a light and shadow theatre 'Anasages'.
Our concert took place in the second hall of the cave. The audience was great. They were very active with each song. Only the dancing they didn't like. Maybe they were frozen already. But the asked for some extra songs too. They were in the best mood for the last act of the night, the fire show of the Radugas.
The concept of the show worked out very well and I am sure that this won't be the last event of its kind in the caves of the Felsendome Rabenstein.
On our second day in Erfurt we also gave a real concert. It was very funny that some people in the audience thought that the concert would take place outside on the mall. It wasn't us. It was a band from Erfurt, including a didgeridoo player. A nice PR for us. Later they came to our concerts too.
The gig was great. No wonder, the audience had fun. So we did a little competition between the kids and the adults. So they sang with us and had fun to be the train on our new song cycles of tea. The also danced and we had to play a few extra songs too.
After the concert Martin, Damien's little son was in his element. He wanted to drum everywhere.
After the gig a heard only very positive critics from the audience. Later we received a nice email with a CD order. One little advice: our albums are only available on our concerts or directly at Erik.
In the autumn school holidays the house Dacheroeden invited us to give concerts for the kids. The motto was 'Didgeridoo and percussion. A musical trip around the world.'
The schools in Erfurt were very interested in it and on both days it was sold out.
On the first day we had 140 kids. They had lots of fun and very soon they were clapping hands on each song. It was quite hard to concentrate on our rhythms. Of course it was not only a concert cause the kids can't concentrate on the music for an hour. We were prepared for that and Erik brought soft toys, road signs boomerangs and much more. He included the children and asked questions. They also had to be active in some songs. The highlight for them was kiweya. We asked them to dance to the song. It was not easy to tell them to form three rows. After a little while we managed that too. The final was to try out most of our instruments. This was quite noisy but the kids had lots of fun. After that we had to give autographs too.
On the next day we had the same concept. Only this time we choose only 30 kids for the dance. But everyone was allowed to play on the instruments again.
On the 3. of October organized the Engelsburg together with other associations their own celebration on the day of the German unity. In Germany don't only live Germans so they changed the name into the Day of the unity of the humans. Nice idea.
We were the first band who gave a concert on the inner courtyard of the Engelsburg. The weather was just perfect and many people came. Sam supported us on this concert too and the audience loved his solo very much.
The celebration wasn't concentrated on the Engelsburg and on the little road in front of the student centre were many stands and events too. After our concert we moved to there too. We played there but also gave some little workshops for everyone. All the time people stopped and wanted to try drumming. Even two women from Congo danced and sang too.
The student club Engelsburg organized an Australia night in the cosy cafe 'Duck dich'. We were the musical part of the night. It was also planned that they would show photos from Erik's Australia trips in the background. But the laptop was not able to read the CD. What a pity.
Ari was still not fit again but we took Sam and Burkhard with us for support. This time the official celebrations for the day of the German unity were in Erfurt. So they had many events all around the city. Not so many people came to the concert. But the cafe is very small and the audience had lots of fun. So we did not mind to play for a few people. The concert was almost 2 hours and we had so much fun. For the first time Sam played on the cora (African harp) with us. Also his solo were just great and everyone loved it. Everything was perfect and everyone danced. The also asked for extra songs.
We would like to say thanks to the whole team of the Engelsburg. Would be great to come back and play at the Engelsburg again.
Also the association who organized the the events for the day of the refugee got a negative answer for financial support from the city of Leipzig. The only thing they could do was ringing the bands and telling them not to come. We decided to give the concert for free.
The sound was from another band and so we had to improvise a bit. So Pankaj and Henning had to play before our gig. We followed with our concert right after them. Not many people came and that was a bit sad cause topic with refugees is very important.
As part of the programme of the Leipzig intercultural weeks some associations organized an Africa party in Halle 5. In the morning were different lectures about Africa. In the afternoon was party. They had no financial support but the programme was great. Of course we played there too. Panbkaj and Burkhard wanted to support us too. Only Ari was still sick. After the concert Erik stayed a bit longer and showed the kids many instruments. They really had fun to play on them.
Other highlights of the programme were an African tale played by pupils of a Leipzig school. There also was an African fashion show and the closing act was the band Ndungu Kina.
All up it was a great event and nice that many people came.
Also this year we wanted to play at the social meeting point in Leipzig Mockau. Our little concert started a bit deleted and it took place at the stair well. Outside was the weather far to bad. But there was no other room for us because of the big programme. So the audience was standing on the stairs. They still had lots of fun.
In 2004 took place the opening of the intercultural week of Chemnitz in the nice Schlossberg museum. The programme was really good and we were happy to be part of it. Our concert was in the inner courtyard of the museum. Maybe it was not so well organized cause there no signs about the gig at the main stage.
But the gig itself was great and many came to hear our music. Even three danced too. One of them was a woman from Damiens home country. During the whole concert she couldn't stand still. After the gig she said that she loved our music very much. Of course we are very happy if people have fun with our songs.
The company 'Stadtwerke Leipzig' organized as special day for young people. During the day they were active and in the evening was a programme for them. One part of that was the Vitality-Show, which is quite a different fashion show. The models didn't walk along the catwalk only. There were dance and artistic elements in the show too. The two young designers created modern sports fashion. They were inspired by the continents Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia and America.
In the breaks between the continents we played typical songs. In they background they showed slides too. The photos from Australia took Erik on his trips. It was a great experience for us to be part of this great show.
If you are interested in booking the Vitality-Show you can contact Erik.
Not often we have two gigs on the same day. But this time we had to leave the agra very soon for the next concert. Just in time we arrived at the social cultural centre Kulturpark Deutzen. We were part of the Australia evening. The audience were very happy as we go there.
We played unplugged and so we were able to start as soon as we unpacked. It was a great audience and we had lots of fun. Even we had a few dancers at the song Kiweya. This is not on each concerts. After the gig we only had very positive reactions.
For the second year we were part of the very colourful program of the multicultural summer party. An this time it was their 10th anniversary.
Traditional we were the final act of the programme. Pankaj wanted to support us on his tablas. He decided to come himself, but didn't know how big the exhibition centre was. Erik was worried and rang him several times. His answer was very funny. He said: I am running but I don't know where to... There was not much hope that he would arrive in time. Only 5 minutes before the concert was at the stage.
And this time we were able to use the sound technique of another band. So there was no need to improvise as much as usually. The concert was big fun for both the audience and for us. Sure that we will be back again next year.
We were invited to be part of the 8th Steamboat Festival, which is part of the big Dresden city party. We were looking forward this gig cause it was the first time to play in Saxony's capital city. Burkhard supported us again with his hurdy-gurdy.
The stage was on the road 'Terrassenufer' right beside the river Elbe. The audience was able to stay in front of the stage or could look down from the 'Bruehlsche' terraces. Just to play there already was a highlight for us.
As usual we did not start the concert in time. The dancers before us danced much longer than planed. And also the time for the sound check was far to short. But we tried our best to be as fast as possible.
The audience and we loved the concert. It was big fun. Only the sound was very poor and specially the didgeridoos you could not hear very well. We had to play without monitor speakers so we had no chance to change that.
After the gig we got interviewed by the DJ cause he thought our music and our band story was very interesting. Playing there was a good PR. for us too.
A group in the Kindergarten of Erik's mother finished their jungle project. The aim of that was to learn more about the culture of foreign countries. So it was an good opportunity to give a little concert for them. WARU's member are from 3 continents and 4 different countries.
Of course it was for the kids and not only a concert. Erik brought some Australian things like a soft toy kangaroo, platypus, koala and also road signs with him. Elvira, Damien's wife, read an African tale too. In some song the children had to be active too. So they sang with Damien 'Dakota Moon'. Erik also asked them to blow wind with their mouth. Some of the kids didn't stop blowing until the end of the song 'Willy Willy'. And they really got red faces from that and almost collapsed.
Of course they had to dance to 'Kiweya'. None of the children remained seating. They all wanted to try out the dance from Congo.
After the concert every one got an instrument and played on it. Ari's escaped very quickly cause it was far to loud for him. But the kids had big fun. The Gong and the water drums were their favourite instruments.
One little boy said to his educator, that it was a great morning. We had lots of fun too cause children are a very thankful audience.
A very special concert for us was at the Naumburg cultural night at the old city gate 'Marientor'. For the city of Naumburg our music was only an experiment. They counted with 50 people. But the were wrong and about 150 people came to see us. Eberhard could be with us but we took our guest musicians Burkhard and Pankaj with us.
Again it was not only a concert. Erik also lectured about the Australian Aborigines with funny but also sad facts.
The audience was quite sad as we interrupted the concert with a little break. That was quite funny cause some said 'Ahh' very loud. Of course we had to play a few extra songs.
For sure we will remember that concert very often. Everything was well organized and with perfect conditions like the stage, the sound and the light. Not to forget the great audience. This won't be the last concert in Naumburg.
In this year WARU was invited to be part of the festival 'Folk am Fichtelberg'. But we only had to play on a small stage between the main bands. It was planed that each little concert of us would be about 20 minutes. That was the theory cause from concert to concert it became shorter. Not the best conditions for us.
Erik was still on holiday and so Burkhard supported us with his hurdy-gurdy.
Maybe next year we will be one of the main acts of the festival.
For the second time was the Viva Africa Festival. But this time they promised to have a much better festival. So it was on the 'Festwiese' near the stadium. But it did not work out. Only a few people appeared. In the paper LVZ they had a big article about the reason of the bad success. One is for sure the bad weather was one of the factors but not the only one. The main reason was the high ticket price.
We were part of the festival. Also without Erik they had a great concert for the little audience.
They cancelled most of the workshops, only Bernhard's didgeridoo workshop took place.
In July we were booked for a wedding on the Puechau castle. We were one of the wedding presents. It was a big surprise for everyone.
We were complete and took Burkhard with us too. The castle is great and we had big fun to play in one of the ballrooms. It was an unplugged concert cause the acoustics was brilliant.
Fabrice, the dancer of Ndungu Kina, couldn't stand still and started to dance to our music. Of course everyone loved it too.
We asked to dance at Kiweya and so the young couple and their parents had to join in. And they managed it until the end of the song. Not easy with the long white wedding dress.
Also in 2004 were guided tours through Grimmas deep cellar system. It was mentioned 1621 for the first time. First the used the system for the storage of the wine produced in the city. Later on a brewery stored there beer there.
For the first time there were guided tours with a cultural programme including WARU and dancing fairies in June and July. First we were on different spots on the 1,5 kilometre. So we welcomed everyone at with sounds of the didgeridoo and the djembe. After the tours we gave a 30 minutes concert at the old grotto. The fairies danced to our music and you could think that they never did something else before. The audience loved it and we had big fun too.
Everything looked just magic with the torchlight along the deep cellar system. Only at the first tours in June the have done a big mistake. The torches were burning the whole time in the grotto. So as we came to there the air was filled with smoke. We hardly could breath and the playing was almost impossible. Poor Ari he just gave up smoking... But we managed everything without any problems. Later on they realized that the escape was blocked with a concrete block.
Both tours in June and July had the same concept and they were booked out well in advance. People, who came without booking before had to go again because on each tour were only 25 people allowed.
In the local part of the paper LVZ was a big report about the first tour in June. It was an article without photos cause the pictures useless were with all the smoke.
In the primary school 'GeschwisterScholl' are many kids from foreign countries. No wonder that they organized project days dealing with the continents of the world. The motto was "One world in the school".
In the end of may was a big event in the gymnasium. The groups presented all the continents with songs, stories and games.
We were the highlight on this day. Maybe it was not good to play at noon. Even sitting for hours and being quite can be very tough. For us it was not easy to play against the big noise. But they had fun. One highlight for the kids was our song 'Dakota Moon'. They all joined in the chorus. And the wanted more of this.
Suddenly the kids started to run up to the front. First we didn't know the reason why. Somebody gave one child a piece of cake. That was it. They started to storm the cake buffet. We tried to keep on playing but that was impossible. Anyway some kids tried to dance Kiweya. At the end of our short concert they asked us many questions. They also tried to play the instruments. We also had to give them autographs too. That was quite cute.
Despite the chaos we loved the concert and never will forget the storm on the cake buffet. How funny.
On Easter Monday was a special concert for us. We played at the 'sound wonder of Witznitz', at the eastern hall of the Faszinosum. (The room itself is already a big attraction cause it got a clear delay of 10 seconds and an unique acoustics. It reminds of an old roman cathedral. The hall is 22 metres long, 7,50 metres high and 7 metres wide.
Even our practice before the gig was just amazing. About 150 people came to be part of that big sound event. There was no need to play with technical support. Beside our own songs we also jammed to use all the opportunities of the hall. Not only the audience loved the concert and we had lots of fun to play there. We also had a special guest with us. Burkhard played 3 songs together with Eberhard on his old instrument.
After two hours concert and a few extra songs we were able to leave the stage.
In March we had a concert at the 'Zentrale' in Ilmenau. It is a cultural pub with many different events like concerts or readings. We started later than planed. No wonder, the students are not so keen on the time. We were waiting for a while until more people came. And it was worth it. At the end came about 150 people. The gig was a big success. But we were smoked a lot. Now I am sure we are lasting much longer.
At the end we asked Tino, one of the owners of the pub, to come on the stage. We wanted to give him the chance to play with us Didgeridoo. But he didn't dare to play a solo. So we started with him and then stopped. They all laughed about it.
We loved the whole atmosphere at the 'Zentrale'. Thanks to Tino and the whole staff for everything.
In the begin of March we gave a benefit concert for 'Halle 5'. First they thought that they had to close down this children and youth meeting point cause the city of Leipzig cut down the supporting money a lot. But somehow they try to survive. We wanted to support their work with our concert. The idea was great. But that night there was too much on in Leipzig. Not as many people came than we hoped. Maybe we will give another benefit concert for them in the end of the year. We are not so sure if they still exist.
Despite they less people the concert was great. Eva, a young girl, who already danced for us at Halle 5, came spontaneously too. She was ready to dance. That was a big surprise for the audience and for us.
We had lots of fun cause the audience was just great. At the end they couldn't get enough. Somehow they didn't want to go home.
By the way we recorded the whole concert. Stefan Gruber is working on the mix at the moment. Thanks for that Stefan. If the quality is good we might publish a live album at the end of the year. It is worth waiting.
Again Amalie Dietrich invited to Siebenlehn. This time two different Australian musical styles met, the Didgeridoo and traditional bush songs of the white settlers.
WARU was this time the supporting band in the crowded church. We played about 60 minutes which the audience really liked.
Following WARU was the concert of Erik's friend Peter Dymond-Ramplin from Townsville/Australia. With his humour he had the audience very quickly on his side. Peter was great and played many nice songs. Of course Waltzing Mathilda was not to be missed. A bit strange for him to sing that song in a church. Some people had to help him to play the spoons and the lagerphone. We finished that night with our song WARU. Peter played the spoons and later the lagerphone.
Jakob Merker, the priests son, was responsible for the sound again and did a great job.
The 'Halle 5 e. V.' organized this year an Australia evening with different partners, like the publisher Renate Schenk with different Australian products. We were invited to be the musical part of the evening.
After a short musical introduction Birgit Scheps from the ethnology museum Leipzig started with her very interesting lecture and slideshow about the Australian Aborigines in the Red Centre. She is a big expert about that topic and travelled several times to this region to live together with the Aborigines. It was not a multi vision show. Her aim was it to talk about the problems and the live of the Aborigines. Topics were for example the bush tucker and natural medicine.
Our concert after the lecture was great. Some people danced Kiweya but were not fit enough until the end of the song. No wonder we played an extra long version. Of course they asked for more than one extra song.
In 2003 was the monuments 90th birthday and the battle to the nations took place in Leipzig 190 years ago. So there was a congress too about famous European monuments. People from 15 different countries came to the congress.
We were invited to play in the monument for 15 minutes. This time Erik couldn't be there but also without him the little concert was a big success.
We were always searching for spectacular locations where we can perform. That is why we also asked the team of 'Yadegar Assisi's Everest 360 degrees' to play there. The gas meter hosts the world largest panorama photo. They were very interested. We could rent the location for free but were responsible for everything around the gig like PR.
About 120 people came to see us. Amongst them were many young people too. Guess Radio Energy helped us with their heavy PR. It was a great atmosphere to play in front of the huge panorama. Also the temperature was freezing cold, just like in the real Everest massive. But we knew that before and dressed warm. The audience really liked our concert and were shaking with the music. They were brave enough to stay until the end of the gig.
We would like to say thank you to the team of 'Yadegar Assisi's Everest' for their great support.
Erik was very surprised to get a call from the radio DJ 'Der Graf' of radio energy Saxony. He told him that they have a campaign to win up to one year in Australia. So we were invited to come to the morning show 'Knallwach mit Freddy' on the following day.
Only Damien could come too. A few times we played live but they also interviewed me about Australia. We had lots of fun with both radio DJs 'Der Graf' and 'Freddy'. We also gave them a crash course in playing the Didgeridoo. Of course we brought a few 'Moto'-CDs too which the people could win. Many people called the radio station. For us it was a big PR for our band and the concert we had on the following day. Plus the used some songs as background music.
Traditional right on full moon a bunch of musicians are organizing concerts at the old brewery in Dessau. The main audience were students so everything was just different to all gigs we had before. After the sound check we started to play much much later than planed. Not enough people were around. But the loved our music. We also had to have a break in-between. Some people asked us when we start playing again. After our concert we jammed with the people who organized the event. They are all members of a Dessau drumming group. That was lots of fun. It was also nice that a few came to see us again.
All up it was a great night and we wish the team of the full moon night that they are able to organize that party for a long time.
The hostel for mental ill people organized their autumn party perfectly. The highlight should be our concert at the campfire. But we asked them to find a alternative location cause the evenings were already pretty freezing. We had a few important gigs in advance and a cold would be a real disaster for us.
As we arrived it truly rained cats and dogs. So we were quite happy to play in the beautiful Trebitz church instead. The people who organized the party made it very romantically even without a campfire. There were candles just everywhere. They all loved our concert. The stuff of the hostel told us that they were very surprised about the patient of everyone. Usually the would leave about 3 to 4 times. For us it was a very nice compliment.
Again the intercultural party took place right on the beautiful marketplace and the programme was just great. We were very happy to open the event. Also with the weather we were more than lucky and the sun was shining. Both the audience and us loved playing at the party. At Kiweya only a few people dared to dance. For us it was a big success and a good P.R. for our music.
Also Erik's friend Peter Dymond-Ramplin from Townsville, Australia, was extremely lucky to slip into the programme. The audience loved his traditional bush songs and sheepshearer songs. They really had fun. He also asked a member of the band Otumfuo from Ghana to play the lagerphone.
We almost believed that our gig beneath the campfire couldn't happen because of the rain. Plus we had a little accident on the way to the Connewitz city garden. While driving the boot of Damien's car opened itself and a few congas and djembe-drums fell on the road. Lucky enough nobody was hurt and the drums were still o.k.
Despite the really bad weather the lighted the campfire and got us a tarpaulin to protect us and our instruments from the rain. We were very surprised didn't escape from the rain and stayed until the end of our concert. For some moments the poring rain stopped. They also danced at Kiweya. That really was a new experience for us.
To the central opening of the week of the foreign citizen came high politicians of Thuringa. So for example the president of Thuringa Dieter Althaus, Eckehard Peters, responsible for foreign people in Thuringia and the mayor of Nordhausen were among the guests..
Main feature of the programme was a lecture of the kurdian-german Nazif Telek, about the history, the culture, literature and the religion in Kurdistan. We were the musical part. After the official part we got a very positive feedback.
Last but not least Erik's Udu-Drum broke in a few pieces while loading the car. No panic we got a new one again.
Later on you also could see WARU at the news on TV. Only in the background of Mr. Althaus while having his speech. But better than nothing.
We were part of the multicultural event 'OstLichter' and played at the opening of the 'Kult(o)ur Leipzig'. The programme was great with Ndungu Kina, Flamenco, Scottish dances and a fireworks display and much more.
Cause we were asked to play for only 20 minutes. That was not easy for us and so we only could perform 4 songs. That was far to short for both the audience and us.
But we had fun to be part of that nice event on the brilliant late summer day. The location, the park was perfect.
Beside the concert was also an Uzbek meeting. A student from Uzbekistan saw a photo of Ari and us in the paper LVZ. His brother translated some lyrics from Persian for Ari years ago. Small world.
In this year we were asked to play at the summer party for mental ill people, for former alcoholics or just for lonely people at their meeting point. It was only a small performance so we decided to play unplugged this time. We were very lucky with the weather so we had the concert outside at the campfire.
The people really loved the concert and we found new fans of our music.
It was very nice that they collected some money for us.
For the first time was an African Festival in Leipzig. We really loved that idea and supported the event with our gig. Eberhard couldn't be with us cause he still was on holiday.
Even with a great sound equipment the sound quality of our 30 minutes concert was very poor. No wonder the real technicians didn't appear before 8 p.m.
But the gig itself was very good and the audience really liked it. If there is a festival in 2004 we might be there again.
We were extremely lucky to be part of the ten year anniversary programme of the folk festival 'Folklorum'. We almost missed that great opportunity. Erik had contacted the people who organized the event earlier the year. The people were very interested and asked for a promo and other material about us. But after that it was silence. Only by accident Erik looked through the flyer of the cultural island 'Der Irrgartenbote'. Two pages were about the upcoming Folklorum. They introduced the bands and we were mentioned too...
Eberhard went to his summer holiday two days later to be part of the festival. We heard many good critics about the folklorum. It was only a bit more alternative.
Because of the technical equipment we requested, we played on a different stage. That was great for us. The sound check was quickly done and so we were able to start right on time. Many people came to see us. Everyone was in a great mood. Nobody was standing still. The danced and after each song we got a big applause. But the star of the gig was Ari. The requested more than only one solo. At our song Gopichand the only string of the instrument tore. Erik's dry comment was: 'Well, we have to find a different name for the song now.' (Don't worry everything is fixed again.)
At our final song 'Kiweya' we asked everyone to dance. Almost everyone started to dance on one leg. It looked so funny from the stage cause big dust clouds rose up to the sky. No problem and they all didn't stop.
Of course we had to play more songs but we had to stop because of the following bands of the programme.
We received an nice feedback in an email. Ina G. from Leipzig wrote: "I saw your concert at the folklorum. I was very amazed and enthusiastic about the gig. For my friends and myself you were one of the big highlights of the festival 2003. I was like enchanted by the richness of the sound and the deep expressively of your music..."
For us the gig at the Folkorum was great and we would like to say thank you to everyone who was involved. The cultural island Einsiedel is worth a visit all year round. There are many attractions for kids.
The 'Gesellschaft fuer Voelkerverstaendigung' and the cultural and environmental centre organized for the ninth time the multi-cultural-summer-party at the agra. Our performance earlier the year was a big success. That's why we were asked to be part of the programme.
Again we only had 3 microphones for 4 people. Pretty hard but this time we knew it before and we had to find a good solution.
The audience loved it. The boss of the association asked us to work with them in the next year.
Later there was a nice band photo in the local part for Markkleeberg of the paper LVZ.
For the first time the 'Imaginata association' organized something different than classical music or theatre. But this experiment was a big success. About 90 people came to the combination of lecture and gig. Until now the most number of people for an event at the ' Imaginata'.
Our songs like the audience. Specially after the concert we had a positive feedback. The people like the combination of music and interesting facts about the Australian Aborigines.
The people were a bit shy but a few dared to dance at the end of the gig.
Many thanks to the very friendly staff of the 'Imaginata' for the nice care.
Also in the year 2003 was a multi-cultural-party in the small park beside the restaurant 'Suedbrause'. It was organized by the 'Werk II', 'Halle 5 e. V.' and the 'Gesellschaft fuer Voelkerverständigung e. V.'
The programme was very good again. Highlights were Ndungu Kina, Vietnamese Music, the Russian band Retschenka, the kids theatre of the Werk II and oriental dance with the group 'Sternfeuer'.
We were the closing act of the party. Despite the big problems with the technique it was good. We had to play with only 3 microphones . That wasn't easy cause we used to have at least 8 microphones. But the audience loved it.
We were part of the spring programme of the adult college. Again it was a concert and a lecture about the Aborigines.
Again the audience loved our music and we asked them to dance at the song 'Kiweya'.
We were very happy about the appearance of Rolf Sprink, the director of the 'Volkshochschule'. After the concert he showed his drumming and jammed together with Damien. He was not a greenhorn caused he was a drummer for twenty years.
After the gig we took many time for a blind boy and showed him all our instruments. He was able to test all of them.
'Amalie is inviting...' was the motto of our concert in Siebenlehn. This time it was in a church. They did a good job with promoting the gig and about 80 people came. Not bad for a small town.
This time Ari was with us again. With his support we were able to present a very vulnerable programme. Even it was only a gig without lecture we played for 2 hours. To be honest we were a bit surprised about us performing that long.
The audience was great and we got for our gig 'standing ovations'. Of course we had to play some extra songs for them.
Also in this year was a 'night of one thousand drums' organized by the cultural centre. There was a wide range of different workshops, like samba with the band Rakatak or African percussion with Ndungu Kina, Damien's band.
Erik gave a Didgeridoo workshop for beginners .Part of the workshop were the playing itself but also interesting information about the background of the instrument and about the Australian Aborigines.
On the evening the teachers and their pupils presented a little programme where they could should how far the got with the instruments. After that the 3 bands gave concerts. WARU was only with Damien and Erik cause Eberhard had an appointment on that weekend already. We played 30 minutes and the people liked it.
For the 5th time already the local radio station 'Radio Novum' presented the 'spring cleaning for the ears'. We were invited to be part of the gala-evening.
The programme was great and had a big variety. So there was blues, soap bubbles, improvisation theatre and much more. We only played for about fifteen minutes, but the audience liked it. We wished to play a bit longer to show more of our repertoire.
It was nice that a couple only came to the show to see us.
For the third time we were an active part of the night of the open museums. This time we realized another big dream of us and played in the tropical Terrarium just opposite the crocs. Again Ari supported us at the concert.
At the 'nightshift' we had to present a real WARU-marathon. We really had to fight for our breaks to survive the whole evening. Everything was different to a real concert cause the people came and went off again to get the chance to see as much as possible. So we had to play a lot. So we played our complete programme at least twice. The whole gig was between 7 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. Ari survived the marathon very well cause we were a little bit afraid about that. He had fun as we did too. Again the combination of Ari and WARU was a big success.
For the first time we played in Magdeburg and of course we were very excited about it. This concert we will remember often. Almost ninety people came to see us. The PR must have been very good before the concert.
This time it was a combination again of both gig and lecture about the situation of Australian aborigines. Erik talked about different topics like the 'Stolen Generation', the Atom tests in Maralinga. There also were some interesting information about the traditional life of the aborigines.
The audience was great. Most of the people danced to 'Kiweya'. The ones who remained seating clapped hands. We had the feeling that everyone just warmed up with the last song. Of course we had to play many extra songs. All up we were about two hours and thirty minutes on stage.
After the gig we talked to many people and the said that the concert was great. Some asked further questions about the aborigines.
In the end of march the exhibition 'Around the egg - Easter eggs around the world' was opened by Birgit Scheps and Klaus Gloeckner at the beautiful art Kapella. WARU was responsible for the cultural part of the opening.
For us the performance was a premier cause for the first time Ari, a 70 year old music professor from Uzbekistan, supported us.
For the people who organized the event it was a nice surprise that we presented a whole concert. Even the mayor of Schkeuditz was in the audience and loved our music.
After the concert we got many nice critics from the audience. For example an old lady wrote some nice lines in the guestbook of the art Kapella. A man said that he was working for the last few days on the computer. He had strong headaches. After our concert all the pain was gone... . Another man went to the opening as a favour for his mom cause she was a Easter egg fan. From our concert he did not know anything and he was positively surprised by the gig.
Many took our music home and were a little bit sad that Ari was not on the album. For us the test integrating Ari as a guest musician was a full success.
A few days later there also was a little article about the opening, including a nice photo of us.
Leipzig was very happy to have the first indoor hockey world cup at the modern Arena in February. The cultural office of Leipzig was responsible for the cultural part of the event. They tried to dedicate each day of the world cup to another continent. They contacted us and asked if we could be the Australian part.
Of course we took that chance to perform in front of an international audience. Despite of some changes of the programme we had lots of fun to play there. In our breaks we went to the 'kids-hall' and played only for the children. They were very fascinated.
Many thanks again to Lutz Kohlschmidt who offered his precious time for us. Even without a real sound check he has done once again a great job.
At an event for the fans and dealer of worlds most well-known plastic boxes there was a small surprise gig of WARU. We played in front of about two hundred people. They absolutely loved our gig.
While clearing the stage Erik dropped his Udo-drum. Of course it felt right against the microphone tripod and the neck broke into 3 pieces. No chance to fix that. Don't worry he already bought an even better instrument.
In February was the press conference of the adult college with their director and Mr. Giradet, who is responsible for the culture at the city of Leipzig .They wanted to present their new spring programme. We were invited to play there too cause we part of the new programme.
For us had that press conference a nice side effect cause photos of our band were printed at the 'Leipziger Volkszeitung', Leipzig's biggest newspaper, and the 'Amtsblatt Leipzig'. But it must have been a bit difficult to mention our band name too.
Just before Christmas the 'Gerberei' organized a night for human rights. After a movie we gave a concert. For us was the starting time of the gig a little premier. We only started midnight. Unfortunately was the date not such a good choice before Christmas cause not many interested people appeared. Anyway we gave the best we can and even had to play some extra songs. We want to use this opportunity to say thanks Pierre for the great host on that weekend.
The whole history of the 'Gerberei', a house from the 15th century, was interesting too. Just after the peaceful revolution in East Germany people occupied the empty house. Lucky enough they could stay and even were supported for a while with money. But now they don't get the money anymore and they have to survive somehow.
At the legendary Christmas parties of the diving school Lutz Kamski were many surprises at the great evening programme. Several times an original samba dance group from Brazil brought the audience to the boil. Their marvellous costumes were worth a feast for the eyes.
We gave our concert under really bad conditions. It was not so easy to play against the very high noise level. We also had to smoke passively quite a few cigarettes and cigars, which was not to nice. All up they liked our programme and some have seen us several times.
Our gig at the 'Halle 5' was for us one of the highlights of the year. Because of the good PR. in many Leipzig magazines , in the newspaper LVZ, and on the screens of the trams many came to our concert. Even our own fan club came, the young people of the 'BAF' came completely.
We also had a surprise with us. Eva, a young and very talented dancer, interpreted our music in a modern way. She almost danced the whole time and everyone loved it.
The audience was just great. After our programme we weren't allowed to leave the stage. We had to play many extra songs.
The concert wouldn't be the same without the great audio engineers, who mixed our songs perfectly.
After 2 years the people who organized the event contacted Erik and asked him if he would like to be part of the programme. His solo-gig was highly successfully in the year 2000 and the people requested him. Of course Erik said that we would perform with WARU.
This time we were able to present a real show programme. Our concert was supported with Oriental Dance from Leyla. She danced to songs like 'Goanna Totem', 'Gopichand' and 'Melfuf' but also danced to real Arabian songs from CD. The audience loved this combination of both dance and concert and requested more.
We were invited to come and play in the social-cultural-centre in Cottbus at their first anniversary. Our concept with our music and lecture about the Australian Aborigines was also perfect for the audience at the centre. They really enjoyed it and had some good laughs with Erik's jokes. But they all loved the songs with Eberhard's overtone singing 'Meditation' and 'Mongolian Spirit'.
After the gig they all were able to try playing the Didgeridoo. A young boy and big Didge-fan was pretty good with that.
On our way home we almost ended up in Poland. No wonder we drove along the wrong direction and just realized it before the border. Now we no the last exit before Poland. Maybe we should go further and have a gig there...
We gave a concert including a lecture about Australia and the Australian Aborigines at the youth-club 'BAFF'. This time we almost played all our songs and the people really liked that. Erik was moderating between the songs and told funny stories about WARU but also interesting information about down under. He was very funny and some in parts he used his dry humour. The audience laughed a lot that night.
After the concert we gave a crash-course in playing the Didgeridoo and the drummed with us and danced with us together. We had lots of fun and our planned 2 hour concert was at the end more than 3 hours. In the whole house where the 'BAFF' is, are living not many people anymore. Guess the people would have complained about the big noise very soon.
The socio-cultural centre 'Gleis 1' (Track one') organized an a multi-cultural party as part as finishing of the eight month project 'Wahlverwandschaften' in the Chemnitz shopping-centre 'Vita-Center'. The aim of the project was to introduce young and old people from Chemnitz with the culture, the history, but also specific problems of foreign people. It should help to fade the fear of contact and prejudice towards foreigners. The stage programme was with Arabian, African music but also with puppet-theatre very varied.
With our sixty minutes concert we were the closing act of the event. The time was just right to perform our many songs. People really liked it. Maybe the gig also was the ticket for more concerts with both the 'Gleis 1' and the 'Vita-Centre'.
We were part of a casting for a following band contest at the 'Saalepark'. The people really liked our performance and after a while almost everyone was holding a flyer from our band. Again we had some troubles with the mixing of our music. Somehow we thought that we were a bit displaced with our music. Plus we were a older than the other band-members. Compared to the other bands we were the only ones who played their own songs.
They did not want us for the contest cause they said that we were too old. Not sure if they meant our age or the age of WARU. But they said that our music was not the reason for it.
Again we were invited to play in the children's home. Eberhard was so nice to bring a huge barbeque-bowl to 'Tabaluga'. In there they wanted to lit a campfire.
The kids were frilled that we were back again. All helped us to unload our car. After Eberhard started up the fire we began with our concert The children loved it very much and had big fun. This time they could be free and danced cause we were in the garden of the children's home. After the gig everybody said thanks and good bye.
Later Eberhard asked the kids what was the best of the evening. Guess what it was! The campfire following our music.
Despite the nice weather the small club was quite full. This time we not only performed our music, it also was a lecture about the present situation of the Australian aborigines. There were also information about us and the instruments we were using. I tried to be not like a teacher and made some jokes in-between, which the audience thanked with some good laughs. All up, the lecture and concert took two hours.
The Muehlstreet e. V. organized a multi-cultural-party. Only with a small budget they arranged a great programme, with belly-dance, flamenco, Greek dances and much more. Ndungu Kina, Damien's Band and also WARU were part of the programme.
In twenty minutes we presented the best songs of our broad spectrum. The audience, specially the many kids loved our music very much.
Benefit-concert for the victims of the floods in Grimma
near
Leipzig on the lake Cospuden:
We were very touched by the reports on TV about the century floods in
Eastern Germany in August 2002. Specially the inhabitants of Grimma (near
Leipzig) suffered from the floods very badly. Many of them lost just everything
through the destroying force of the usual quite and peaceful flowing river Mulde.
Together with Christian Conrad, manager of the company Pier 1, we organized two
benefit-concerts, which was about to take place on the floating stage of the
lake Cospuden. Erik promoted the concerts and even Leipzig's newspaper, the LVZ
printed a short note inside the section how the people of Leipzig are helping.
Because of the weather we had to cancel the gig. The weather was not on our side
and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Most of the people left the lake
already. We decided to play spontaneously at the dive school there. A few divers
were there. They really loved the concert very much. And it had a nice side
effect too. The boss of the dive school arranged a gig at the dive club
Christmas party in December.
On the next day the weather was changed completely and we were able to give our
concert. We did not trust the floating stage very much and so we played on a
different spot. The Pier 1 provided their technique. The mixing was my job. The
audience loved our concert. We used that platform and played many new songs from
us. So we were able to check how the audience liked the songs. Beside collecting
money we also donated our blood, cause the mosquitoes attacked us really badly.
Of course we could not hit them while drumming or playing the Didgeridoo.
The great result of the concert were 87,- €. We transferred 100,- € to the
account of the flood-victims in Grimma.
(deposit slip)
"Großkamftag" im August:
The company Schultheiss-optics organized a party for the building of children-cancer-research-centre in the his inner courtyard. Mainly there was a raffle to rise as much money as possible.
Of course we wanted to help there too and played without a fee. The people liked it and we had fun to too.
Star of that party was Peter Escher, from the MDR-TV (Middle-German Broadcast), well-known from his show "A case for Escher". If he did not sign autographs he listened to our music.
After only 30 minutes we had to finish our concert because of a thunderstorm.
Our next gig on the same day was at the summer-party of the allotment "Old-Mockau". We preferred to play inside the little restaurant cause we did not trust the weather very much. Ant the technique of the DJ with only one microphone was not enough. The people inside the restaurant were privileged cause they were able to hear everything. For the others outside we tried to do the best we could with 1 micro.
After the concert Damien had to go to another gig with his African band Ndungu Kina to Plauen / Saxony.
Next Eberhard and Erik drove to the diver-meeting which was beside a quarry in Boeltitz / Saxony. It took place over the whole weekend. Playing romantically beside the fire was impossible and everyone escaped under the big party-tent. But the atmosphere was very special too. We played and around us it was raining cats and dogs, the lightning's were flashing and the thunder was growling. Everyone liked the little performance.
Erik performed spontaneously at the City-Party in Weissenfels. His girlfriend danced there. In her break to get changed he entered the stage and performed a sample of WARU-Songs. The audience loved that very much. It was a great PR for the band and maybe the chance to play there another time again.
The city party was organised by the 38th brigade of the soldiers in the armoured Infantry for the people of Weissenfels and the soldiers who where in Bosnia.
As every year the Dance & Folk Fest took place on the first July weekend. This time we were very lucky to be part of the programme. We went basking but got 2 fixed gigs on Saturday and Sunday which were also mentioned in the programme, including a short description of the band. It was a huge PR for us cause they published 11.000 brochures of the programme.
Report about the gigs and photos.
In the end of June was the Street music festival in the city centre of Leipzig. Eberhard was very active this year and played Friday and Saturday with Hosoo and solo.
Sunday was the band complete again cause Erik returned from his holiday. This time we played under the arcades of the old Town hall cause the acoustics was very good there. First we played with Hosoo again. After he left, the "stage" was free for us. The people really liked our performance. For us the basking was a good test for the Dance & Folk festival in Rudolstadt/Turingia.
A class from a Leipzig gymnasium made their study trip to the library in Mockau. Their topic was Australia. We were invited to play for them.
All the pupils listened to our music very attentively. We did not change our programme from the children's home cause it was really good. Erik again told facts and stories about all the Austrian things he brought to the library. Of course the pupils knew a lot and were able to answer most of his questions.
One of the highlights for everyone was trying to play the Didgeridoo. Of course Erik asked the teacher first if she would dare to play. It was very funny For the teenager. Surprisingly she was pretty good and after her third try she was able to produce a sound.
The class loved it very much playing the Didgeridoo or beating the drum. The teacher said that our concert was also a little contribution against Racial discrimination, cause under different circumstances they would not do something with Damian. But here it was the ordinariest thing in the world to play Djembe with him.
We gave a concert for the kids and they loved our music. They concentrated the whole time. This occasion was a real Australia day for the kids and teenagers who had hung the walls of the home with newspapers about Australia. Erik brought some things from Australia with him, like a boomerang, road signs and more. He explained it to them and told some funny stories about his trip. Elvira Zöllner from the library in Leipzig Mockau read some Dreamtime stories too.
At the end the children were given the opportunity to beat the drums and play the Didgeridoo.
Our two gigs at the museum in Leipzig were a big success, as many people wanted to see us. The first gig we played more traditionally accompanied only with clap sticks. The second gig was with Djembe. We also tested our new song with overtone singing, vocals and Didgeridoo. The audience liked it very much.
Spontaneously we also played with the Mongolian musician Galtai Galsan.
We were on TV and almost nobody has seen it. Who is watching TV at 6.20 in the morning? On the 6th of March we were the MorningStar at the SAT. 1, German private TV-station, morning show. We did not manage the time limit of three minutes. Of course we had hoped to reach that time limit and get the chance to become the MorningStar of the month. Unfortunately you could not pick out the sound of our Didgeridoos very well because of the poor mix. The Djembe from Damian came to the fore too much. With less experience we could have done a better job. Our performance was on the Sat. 1 homepage for one month.
But it was a great experience for us and we were able to see behind the scenes of a TV-studio. Many thanks to our friends and family who supported us with telephone voting.
P.S.: After our appearance at Sat 1 we had a real trauma. There was no chance to play the song 'Dance the fire' without thinking about Berlin. Much later with Ari we changed that song completely. Now we enjoy to play it on our concerts again.
If the audience on our concerts is in a good mood, Erik tells that funny story. Nobody told us anything that the viewers didn't call for us. While we kept on playing both show master weren't sure who would tell us the bad news... The background music was nice anyway.
We were invited to the 'Stand-on-the-chair-day' at the children's home and we performed for free. They were thrilled and giggled at certain sounds like the dingo and kangaroo.
After our performance we gave the children two self-made Didgeridoos. They wanted to try playing the instruments and it was not easy for the staff to bring them to bed.
Our gig at the pub Wiesenschaenke was a premiere. For the first time Damien joined in and supported us with percussion and vocals. It was quite tough to play against the background noise but we managed well.
In October we were the musical component of the private viewing of the contemporary exhibition 'Kontinent der Traeume' (Continent of dreaming) in Bad Frankenhausen. Despite the beautiful autumn weather the hall of the Kreisheimatmuseum was crowded to the last seat. Some guests like the cultural attaché of the Australian embassy, the mayor of Bad Frankenhausen, and the manager of the Museum of Ethnology Leipzig, attended the exhibition.
After the event the band was interviewed by MDR-Radio Thueringen and this interview and our music was broadcast the next day.
Another highlight for us was our performance at the Interkulturelles Fest (multi-cultural party) in Leipzig. Again Andreas Schneider from the band Massala supported us with percussion.
They all liked our gig. Comment of Erik's former Russian teacher: "It was great."
As part of international children's day we gave a concert and built didgeridoos with the children. The best part for the kids was that they could take their own Didgeridoos home. It was a pleasure for us to work with kids and it was fun for both.
At the beginning of September was the street party in Leipzig's Bach district. We performed beside Volly Tanner; the kids' band 'Die Rockkelchen' and others. The whole programme was great only the weather was not kind with almost the whole day it was raining and it was very chilly.
In June WARU gave a concert and also completed a lecture given by Mrs Birgit Scheps with sound samples. The title of the lecture was 'The Didgeridoo - about the cultural history of an Australian music instrument.
This year we were part of the festival. We were busking in different places of the city centre i.e. in the Mädler arcade and in Peters Street.
Together with the Mongolian overtone singer Hosoo we jammed on the little stage which was right on the market place. The people loved this interesting combination.
'Memorial to the battle of the nations' in
Leipzig
It always has been a big dream for us playing inside the Memorial to the battle of the nations. In May,
At the second 'Nights of the Museum', we got the chance to realise that dream.
Again Andreas Schneider from the band Massala was so nice to support us
with percussion. All up we played 3 times that night, despite the Siberian
temperatures inside the memorial. The acoustics were brilliant and we recorded
our gig live which became the basis of our Promo-CD.
Our music was used for an online report about the 'Night of the Museum', the
report staying on the internet for almost a year.
'Werk II' in Leipzig:
The cultural fabric 'Werk II' presented an event with the slogan 'Diversity instead of simple-mindedness'
on Human Rights day.
We were invited to be part of the program and played after the panel discussion.
A particular highlight for the audience was when we left the stage and walked
through the rows.
The Olympic Games in Sydney are already making itself felt even in Leipzig. Some car selling places in Leipzig got into action and invited sportsmen and women from Leipzig, who were part of the German team in Sydney. An artist from Berlin painted a female shot-putter on canvas. Beside a DJ we were part of the musical framework.
At the museums party at the Grassi-Museum we held a workshop for anyone, who was interested in the Didgeridoo.
Many people came to learn, some bringing their own Didgeridoos and for the others we provided them with instruments on which to practice.
Our first public performance was at a seminar, organized by the Europe-House Leipzig for young Polish and German people, It was held at the disco and youth club Moritzbastei in spring 2000. The young people quite liked it.
At that time we started up as a duo.