Choice clips of Public Image Limited, performing live at Zeche Bochum, Germany, for Rockpalast in 1983.

John Lydon was 5 years into his PiL experiment, and having either kicked out or split from the band’s original members, was now teamed-up with a band of session musicians (who acquit themselves admirably), and regular drummer Martin Atkins. Lydon seems happy that he is now in charge and gives a great performance of his “greatest hits”, a similar version of which would be released as the double EP record Live in Tokyo.

Track Listing

01. “Public Image”
02. “Annalisa”
03. “Religion”
04. “Memories”
05. “Flowers of Romance”
06. “Solitaire”
07. “Chant”
08. “Anarchy in the UK”
09. “(This is Not a) Love Song”
10. “Low Life”
11. “Under the House”
12. “Bad Life”
13. “Public Image”
 

 
More choice chunks of PiL on ‘Rockpalast’, after the jump…
 

 
Nos television’s six o’clock news are claiming they accidentally gave German chancellor Angela Merkel a “Hitler moustache” during a report this past Sunday.

Apparently the Hitler ‘stache “was caused by part of the news programme’s updated set decorations which crossed Merkel’s face with a black line.”

According to the show’s editor in chief Marcel Gelauff, “It was an unfortunate coincidence.”

Set malfunction gives Merkel a moustache
 

 
Via Arbroath

 
Here are some photos of David Bowie holding an adorable pink pig. These were shot during the shooting of Bowie’s second major film performance Just A Gigolo in 1979.

Bowie himself has said that Just A Gigolo, directed by Blow-Up actor David Hemmings, was his his 32 Elvis movies all rolled up into one.
 

 
More shots of Bowie and the pig after the jump…

 
“Workers of the world, shop til you drop!”

“When you’re short of Das Kapital, just reach for your Marx card, comrade…”

Oh the blessed irony of this, German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz held an online vote so the public could choose between ten different images for the bank’s new credit card.

Karl Marx won.

Via Reuters:

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, citizens of Chemnitz - then known as Karl-Marx-Stadt - and the rest of East Germany would have seen Marx’s face on their 100-Mark banknotes.

Flattened during World War Two, Chemnitz was rebuilt as a model socialist city and still boasts a seven meter-tall bust of Marx in its center. The city has been economically depressed since the end of communism and its population has shrunk by 20 percent.

The east has witnessed a wave of nostalgia in recent years for aspects of the old East Germany, or DDR, where citizens had few freedoms but were guaranteed jobs and social welfare. The trend is not limited to the region.

“We’ve even received inquiries from clients in western German states asking whether they could open a local account with us to get a card bearing Marx’s features,” Sparkasse’s Wirtz told Reuters.

A 2008 survey found 52 percent of eastern Germans believed the free market economy was “unsuitable” and 43 percent said they wanted socialism back.

As someone who has considered himself “a Marxist” for some 30 years, I was quite amused by this. If a bank ever offered me a credit card with Karl Marx’s face on it—not that this would be very likely in the US of A. of course—on principle, I’d max it out in one day and tell them to go fuck themselves…

“The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.”

Priceless!

Photo credit: Helge Schreiber
 
Here’s a rather provocative Hitler float spotted in Düsseldorf, Germany. According to some of the comments on the StreetArt in Germany Facebook page, NPD is a German political party and “Nachgeburt” means “afterbirth.”

Via KMFW

 
You have to love someone who scans every single page of their favourite book just so they can spread the wordy magic with their friends on the internet. So, big thanks then to Evan Levine at the Swan Fungus blog for doing just that with the rare-as-hens-teeth Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope. A history and compendium of German rock from the 60s and 70s, Levine says of the book:

Back in the great, distant era of erm…the mid-’90s, there was a chap by the name of Julian Cope (ex-Teardrop Explodes/music-writer geek), who decided he wanted to chronicle the history of the Krautorck genre. So, he wrote an excellent book, called Krautrocksampler, in which he not only tells readers exactly when and wear he bought all these much-sought-after-now-sadly out-of-print LPs, but paints a great picture of West Germany in the ’60s and ’70s. When he’s not waxing (his bikini) poetic, he recounts crazy stories, and draws very cool connections between projects and personalities. Cope even proclaims that Klaus Dinger “directly influenced David Bowie to take his Low direction” and “had a direct effect on the Sex Pistols, via Johnny Rotten”. Thassalotta influence!

Having wanted this for a while, now I can read it while I try to track down a copy. In case of imminent yankage I recommend anyone else who wants it gets it now too.

Thanks to Pee Six.

 
Eric Burdon and War perform a blistering version of The Stones’ “Paint It Black” on German television 1970. More cowbell, Eric.
 

 
With thanks to Takeshi Hattori
 

 
And that’s a good enough reason to post this fantastic piece of music. The Ash Ra Tempel guitarist’s early 80s solo album has been a massive influence on house, prog rock, techno, ambient, kosmiche and electronica but is worth hearing in its own right too. It still sounds remarkably fresh to this day.

E2-E4 was re-released by Gottsching in 2007, and there are still some copies of this edition floating around if you have the money to spare. It’s worth it - the album is a crate-digger’s classic and I am ashamed to admit that I only have a bootleg vinyl copy.

You can still hear it online, though. At over an hour long E2-E4 is the very definition of “epic,” but if you have the time to spare, and can get past the 6 parts YouTube hurdle, it’s a journey I highly recommend:

UPDATE:
Thanks to Doctor Oxygen for posting the full, unbroken E2-E4 in the comments:
 

 
Thanks to Brian Morrison and Barry Walsh.
 

 
In the mess that is Lulu one song that is generally singled out as having some of the vibe and feel evoking vintage Lou Reed is “Junior Dad.” Last night, during their concert in Cologne, Germany, Reed and Metallica performed the song and, lo and behold, it’s the first live video I’ve seen of the band that actually moves me in a good way.

Reed seems a shitload more engaged with what he’s doing in this video than during his addled performance on Jool Holland’s show from a few nights ago. World weariness has displaced death warmed over.

Is it possible that as Loutallica tours behind Lulu they may actually discover the heretofore untapped magic in their collaboration? Perhaps, if they replace their current drummer with Mo Tucker.

You can visit the Lou Reed/Metallica Youtube channel for more of the Cologne concert.
 

 
Loutallica take another shot at ‘White Light/White Heat’ after the jump…

 
I gotta get me one of these. It might teach the menfolk not to piss on my floor. Photo taken by Flickr user masterklaas at the Rheinfels Castle in Germany.

(via Neatorama)

 
The World Beard and Moustache Championship was held on Sunday, in Trondhejm, Norway. The American team (“Beard Team USA”) brought home a respectable total of six gold medals, in categories such as “Full Beard Styled Moustache,” “Hungarian Moustache” and “Imperial Moustache” (congratulations to Burke T Kenny, Bruce Roe and Giovanni Dominice respectively). The big shock of the tournament was the dethroning of the popular Jack Passion (above) by his fellow American Rooty Lundvahl in the “Full Beard Natural” category, a title Passion was defending after a win in Alaska last year.

While all this looks great on paper, it wasn’t enough for Beard Team USA to defeat arch rivals Germany, who took home gold medals in a total of seven categories. I know the Americans had a lot riding on it, but as a European I can let you in on a little something we have known for a long time - you can never beat Germany at facial hair. Sorry, but it’s their precision engineering. Their wins this year included yet another overall competition win for Elmar Weisser in the “Full Beard Freestyle” category. This guy is untouchable, and I would fear for any competitor going up against him (have you seen his Brandenburg Gate!?). This year he really outdid himself, managing to sculpt his beard into a forest scene. Featuring a reindeer:
 

 
Fans of such matters (me included - I have been known to sport a Dali from time to time) should check out the trailer for a new series currently in production from the Independent Film Channel called “Whisker Wars.” As the name would suggest it’s a reality TV program that follows the trials and tribulations of some of the members of Beard Team USA (including Jack Passion) as they talk about their facial hair, the problems it can cause them, their grooming regimes and their preparations as they enter into local championships. I know this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I cannot wait to watch this:
 

 
Guess what? You don’t need to speak a lick of German to understand these helpful tips on how to hide an erection from Germany’s The Children’s Channel aka KI.KA. The invaluable tips start around the 1:23 mark. BTW, this is much different than The Electric Company I grew up with. 

 
(via Nerdcore)

 
In The Real Cabaret, actor, Alan Cumming goes in search of the people and places that inspired Christopher Isherwood’s novel, Goodbye to Berlin and the muscial Cabaret.

Starting with Isherwood’s arrival in Berlin in 1930, and taking in a visit to his original apartment (immortalized in the opening paragraph of Isherwood’s novel), Cumming takes the viewer through the sex clubs and cabarets, to the performers, and writers who turned the Berlin stories into a multi-award winning musical. With contributions from Liza Minelli, and Ute Lemper.

Alan explores the origins of the Cabaret story in the writings of Christopher Isherwood and uncovers the story of the real life Sally Bowles, a woman very different from her fictional counterpart.

He talks to the composer of Cabaret about the inspiration for the film’s most famous songs and discovers the stories of the original composers and performers, among them Marlene Dietrich. Finally, Alan reveals the tragic fate of many of the cabaret artists at the hands of the Nazis.

The documentary pays tribute to the magic of the original film and explores the fascinating and often shocking reality of the people and stories that inspired it.

This is an excellent documentary, and Alan Cumming is quite superb as our host,
 

 
Previously on DM

Revealing portrait of Christopher Isherwood: ‘A Single Man 1904-1986’

 
Parts 2-6 of Alan Cummings ‘The Real Cabaret’ after the jump…
 

 
Few artists personify the spirit of demoralized post-‘60s Europe like Blixa Bargeld, the frontman for legendary German post-industrial music outfit Einstürzende Neubauten. Born in Berlin two years before the Wall went up, Bargeld leveraged his destroyed looks and singular voice—which Nick Cave likened to the sound of strangled cats or dying children—to make Neubauten the key progenitors of Western machine-age art.

As brought to our attention by TwentyFourBit‘s esteemed Peter Henry Reed (and fortunately for us English-speaking-only dopes), YouTuber Nevaree has seen fit to add English subtitles to Birgit Herdlitschke’s fascinating 2008 Blixa doc, Mein Leben. It traces Bargeld’s journey from young, torn-up Berlin musician to cosmopolitan middle-aged avant-garde artiste, actor, and gourmet, and features both answers to the heroin question and a visit with his charming mutti.
 

 
Mein Leben part 2 | Mein Leben part 3 | Mein Leben part 4
 
After the jump: Blixa grimaces at Neubauten live mistakes…

 
Dangerous Minds pal Chris Campion wrote this morning to alert me to something going on right outside his own apartment window today: More than 2500 German police officers are evicting the tenants of a former (now legal) squat in the Liebig 14 tenement block in the east Berlin district of Friedrichshain.

So there are 2500 cops. Guess how many residents there are? 25! Still, about a thousand protestors turned up to support the (legal) tenants. The most amazing thing about this is that the German police are apparently being used to enforce the will of a private landlord. Just imagine the cost of that little operation!

From The Guardian:

Demonstrations and publicity stunts are planned across Berlin throughout the day. Already, protesters claim to have paintballed the famous department store KaDeWe, Berlin’s answer to Harrod’s, along with the town hall in the district of Schöneberg, where John F Kennedy gave his"Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1963.

The building, which has 25 bedrooms, four kitchens and five bathrooms, was first squatted in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After Berlin’s housing board took ownership of the house in 1992, the squatters signed a lease making them the legal residents.

After it was sold to private developers, the lease was passed on to the current occupiers, who range from 19 to 40 years old and hail from around the world. One British resident, a 24-year-old PhD student, gave her name as Sarah.

“We were told we have to leave because the landlord wants to renovate the house and divide it up into expensive flats, which is what has already happened to other alternative housing projects like ours,” she said.

“People with not much money are being forced out of Berlin city centre. This is not just about 25 people losing their home, it’s a protest against the gentrification of the city and ordinary people all over being priced out of their local housing market.”

Sarah refused to say how much rent she paid, but it is widely believed to be a token amount. German media has reported that the rent is still set at 1992 levels, which equates to just €1 (85p) per square metre per month.

The district mayor, Franz Schulz, criticised the eviction. “It is not a good day. We’re losing an important alternative project,” he told Inforadio.

Most of today’s protesters were in their 20s or 30s, but standing by the police line on the south side of Liebigstrasse were an older couple from Munster, who looked on with concern.

“Our daughter is one of the residents,” said the 60-year-old university professor, who did not want to be named.

“She has lived there for 10 years now. We come and visit every month or two. It’s almost like our second home. I know many of her housemates and they are nice, peaceful people. It’s crazy that the city of Berlin is allowing this to happen.”

Crazy and tragic.