Well, I got out of bed in London at 5.30 am, got the plane to Amsterdam, met Marjan, who then – thanks, Marjan!’ – drove us to into Germany, where we met Doug, Steve, Carina, two Johns, Glasgow and Watford, Maggie, Marc, Richard, Ender, Ulla and so many other friends old and new, had a Jukes Xmas party, drove back to Amsterdam and got back to bed at 6.30am the following day. Wow. I haven´t pulled a 24 hr partying shift for about 25 years.
Oh, but what a swell party it was! The Lagerhalle sits in an arch in the wall of the old part of Osnabruck (parties of tourists were following historically-dressed, lantern-bearing guides on ghosts walks past it as we approached); but inside it’s a very smart complex with a huge bar in front of the venue and another one upstairs, and facilities going on and on (up two flights to the cloakroom and down one to the rest rooms, past a spookily illuminated hole with plaster lizards in it. We were greeted at the door by Klaus in his own historical dress (a 3-piece suit of Jukes circa ’77 vintage) and entered to find buffets piled high with succulent meats, side dishes and deserts and a free bar for the duration. This had to be Jukes heaven!
The amazing Reiner, who had organised the whole party, gave a gracious speech to throw the proceedings open (though, as I may have mentioned, the bar already was) and welcomed guests from the UK, US, Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to huge cheers – we all really did feel welcome.
We had the ‘world premiere’of two ’local heroes’, Toby and René, who sang and played guitars on a nice selection of songs, including Rockin’in the Free World, Where Do The Chlidren Play, Youngstown and Proud Mary.
Then Reiner announced: ‘Round for round and pound for pound, there ain’t no finer band around’ and the Jukes took the stage with Talk To Me kicking off a wham-bam, fun-packed and very Christmassy set to a roastingly warm reception.
Setlist:
Talk To Me
I Played The Fool
Baby Don’t Lie/I Can See For Miles
All Night Long
Love On The Wrong Side
Santa Claus Is Back In Town
Blue Christmas (Ricky Byrd)
Jingle Bells
(bit of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – RB)
Without Love
All I Needed Was You
(bit of Here Comes Santa Claus)
Merry Christmas To You (‘chestnuts roasting’…)
Happy
Walk Away Renée
Hang Down Your Head
This Time Its For Real
Don’t Call Me Baby
Broke Down Piece Of Man
Gin-soaked Boy (sort of)
Shake Em Down
Stagger Lee (Santa Lee and Rudolph) version
The Fever
Trapped Again
(bit of Windmills Of My Mind)
I Don’t Want To Go Home
Working Too Hard
Happy Birthday to You
(bit of Little Queenie)
I Love Rock And Roll
Nothing But A Heartache
I guess from that you get the idea: the Jukes were determined to party in honour of the season and South’s natal day both, and, boy did they –and we – have a party. The atmosphere was so definitive, they didn’t even need to do the song.
The mood was set when South, in a pause before “Baby Don’t Lie” started: “So. 3 Jukes went into a bar in England. And they asked for 3 beers. And they asked for ice in it. Well, it’s funny in England.” Ricky was then totally superb on that, the Who cover (SJ joining in, it was thrilling) and All Night Long, even though he managed to fall over and ended the segue with South holding his guitar lead to stop the resulting crackle. This was sorted out, and I have to say his tone on that Gibson was really lovely tonight, all night.
South declared All Night Long the first Xmas song of the night: “It’s a Xmas song if I say it is. Goddammit.” And they had to do lots of Xmas songs “because I promised Eddie” (and we all know how scary Eddie is, right?)
Thus a beautiful Wrong Side was followed by a rollicking Santa Claus Is Back In Town on which Ricky again sounded terrific, Chris took a great solo and the horns excelled themselves, and then Ricky’s Blue Christmas, on which he did a boo de-doop last chorus, was told he could do better than that, and tried Roy Orbison on the reprise – then, urged to go higher, went and sang it from the horn riser. Not satisfied with that, South tried a Satchmo-style Jingle Bells, which the band augmented appropriately, and Ricky essayed “I saw Mommy…” in falsetto but got cut off.
But then we got a really moving Without Love, everyone, most especially Bobby L on piano, playing marvellously and with an improvised bit that ended: “Maybe by Christmas next year/ All of this shit will be clear” and changed the final lines to “The world may be just poor/ If war is all that it has.”
Then it was back to Xmas medleys, plus rude remarks about Hood’s shirt “he’s wearing Xmas flamingos. Still, I wore a black-and-white Hawaiian shirt last night. Only I could buy a Hawaiian shirt for 3 dollars in a thrift shop that was in black-and-white. “ But South’s rendition of Nat King Cole was absolutely lovely (SSM, you would have loved it).
Renee was also beautiful tonight, with another wintryy impro: Rain’ll come and we’ll get together/ She hates stormy weather… She hates stormy weather”.
Mentioning the new CD as an intro to Hang Down Your Head (magnificent), South told a story about passing a guy on 44th St in Manhattan selling bootlegs of Bruce, Litel Steven and himself. He picked one up and the guy said “4 dollars”. “But it’s my album.” “That’s 4 dollars”.
TTIFR was riotous and righteous and Don’t Call Me Baby soaring and superb. BDPOM was attacked with gusto by SJ and RB and the Gin-soaked boy turned into a completely improvised ditty about wanting gin and chocs for Xmas and ending: “Snow is coming soon/ Dark clouds chasing cross the moon / When the snow has fallen, white and blue/ All I want, unwrapped, is you”. Shake em had Bobby’s rocking piano and a solo form Joey so great it got extended and then got Eddie invited down to join in, ending with all four horns prowling the front of that stage and driving everyone wild with hot ensemble blowing.
Eddie, said the South, lives way out in the wilds of NJ, beyond the swamp where we were scared to go as kids when we went out after cheap wine and UFOs; the place where even we were scared to go, that’s where Eddie lives. We want Eddie to do a song: we want Christmas songs, we want attar of roses, we want Giacommetti sculptures…”
So Eddie did a version of Stagger Lee altered to feature Santa Lee and Rudolph, so that Rudolph had “3 little children and a very furry wife” and when “Santa Lee shot Rudolph” (cries of NO!) “he didn’t shoot him dead; you can still see Rudolph, cos his nose is very red”.
By this time most of the Jukes, plus Joey’s horn had on Santa hats with flashing lights on, or reindeer horns, and various creative positions for them were tried by those out front. Thus attired, they did a lovely Fever, with Bobby’s organ and Neal’s trombone solo really firing us, and ended the set on a furious Trapped.
The encores started with South trying to find a song appropriate to our hosts, an alternative energy company, hence Windmills of My Mind; but the highlight was Ricky’s account of his accumulating woes in Working Too Hard: “He promised me Shangrila: I got Blackpool out of season. He promised me trails of glory: I got Swansea out of season. He promised me sex, drugs and rock’n’roll: the drugs were for my chloresterol; and as for the sex…” There followed the usual tale of the chick he saw last night: “she was wearing a tight, leather skirt up to here, with a bustier – “ “A taffeta bustier?” “real fur. I tried my best to chat her up, I got a million lines in a pinch. But all my hopes were dashed when she… told me she had no time for no middle-aged 80’s guitar player, who by the way has had a gold record and six top ten hits, all she wanted was some young, virile stud of a piano player (Bobby does muscle-boy poses in front of stage): bring me the head of Bobby Lynch.” (somehow coming back to the tune – another star).
At this point it turned midnight and Reiner brought on a cake with everlasting candles, which South tried to douse with a bottle of water while we sang Happy Birthday. He then sang Happy Birthday to me (rpt), Screw all the rest of you, Happy Birthday to me.
The second encores started with South singing the first verse of Little Queenie, but when Ricky tried to join in, informing him: We’re NOT doing Little Queenie… and finally the penny dropped and finally we got I Love Rock’n’Roll, which was smashing. Then an eqaullay smashing Nothing But A Heartache, a brief return by South to say thanks for the card everyone had signed at the door, and we all went… back to the free bar.
What a swelegant, elegant party that was! Thanks SOOOOO much to all concerned.