Good to have you back sir even though you weren’t away long enough for us to miss you… just kidding 
that great that you had a fab reunion. Shame about the PC though but I’m sure you could come up with a witty wee original to turn a negative situation into a positive situation. Look forward to hearing more about the local song competition.
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Goof to be back and even better to have been missed by my Droogs 
(I suppose I’ll have to msg @roger_holland directly, eh? 
)
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Two and a half years ago I crashed my PC while installing Ableton… lost everything, thousands of photos etc etc… I then made a bad promise to make backups… I’ll do it soon 
. …promised
What have you missed… just briefly summarized…a whole lot of words 
Greetings,
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Hi Brian, good to get an update from you. I’ve not been around much recently either and haven’t done an AVoYP for ages. Things go round in circles here I think. Quite a few new contributors on the forum just now.
Good luck with your Community catch up. A new post is number 25 on the list after a few hours!
Your sessions with Lars sound like loads of fun and I’m sure you learned a lot.
Yes we are all so reliant on tech nowadays although I’ve survived with no computer for quite a while now. An iPad and an iPhone seem to fulfill my needs. I’ve told my kids that if they want to know what I’m up to they should pick up the phone as other than a family what’s app group and another with my golfing buddies I avoid social media. This Community is an exception of course as I enjoy all the guitar related chat.
If you’re wondering how I’ve got time for this reply, I’m multitasking at the moment. I’m cycling on my indoor exercise bike, watching Charlie and Naga on breakfast tv and typing this. Yes, I have tried playing guitar whilst on the bike! Cue Bicycle Race from Queen.
Looking forward to your next original.
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I feel your pain, Brian, it’s hard to lose a lot of data, in particular when it’s personal, irrecoverable stuff. Catching up at the community might be the smaller problem .
Greetings
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Hehe, part of me was thinking, actually none of this stuff is really important. It’s probably a good sign that the thing that was bothering me the most was losing three projects in Reaper that I would have to go back to the beginning on, which is a bit of a pain when they’re collabs. Still all worked out ok in the end.
The thought of my Scottish friend strumming cowboy chords on an exercise bike while watching daytime TV makes me lol It’s a good job you don’t share the like on social media…
I’ll have another song up for you soon. Cover of a song you won’t have heard of (surprise, surprise), but with original lyrics.
Impossible, but I’ll respond to a couple of posts just to show willingness
Vielen Dank!
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Surely you have backups?!?!? 
Yeah I know most people don’t, at some point in my life I started obsessing over that stuff and everything gets backed up these days. Hopefully you get that PC sorted soon.
It sure has been different around here recently. A lot of the regulars have been quiet. Quite a few AVOYPs from new faces that haven’t really posted much of anything else. Personally I haven’t been online much. Will be good to have you back online!
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I know, I’m terrible
good to hear from you 
I’m pretty sure most of the old regulars still check what’s going on, just don’t comment the way they used to because of the volume. That’s fine and a new equilibrium will set in.
I think I’ll continue to post (and waffle) in a similar fashion for the foreseeable future, but who ever knows? Meanwhile you can go over and give your countryman’s axe-work a thumbs up on my latest offering
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Rigtige mænd tager ikke backup, de ægrer sig ----- Real men doesn’t do backups, they regret
This is probably the last post that will be ‘migrated’ over from the old forum 
In July '21 I visited Berlin for the first time and shared some of the musical connections to places I visited. There’ve been a couple of times where I went to link it to some comment, but that was no longer possible. I remembered I had sent it to a friend as an email, so am saving it here in my blog for future use if required.
No need to comment, as it’s old stuff
Berlin 21-24 July 2021
Finally got to visit Berlin, the centre of so many political, cultural and musical events that have accompanied me through life.
Time to see whether my ‘imagined’ memories would be reinforced or replaced by the real thing.
Exploring the city on foot, I soon found myself trawling through my mp3 player, searching for a piece of music that connected me with any familiar sites. Dorothea, a good friend and fellow bellringer, asked me to send her some of the snapshots and accompanying songs.
First stop- the Reichstag
In 1980 Barclay James Harvest played a free open-air gig in front of the building and wall to over 100’000 people.
This was on heavy rotation when I was in boarding school in Switzerland. I haven’t listened to it in decades but became quite nostalgic.
It turns out Dorothea was working in a hospital just on the east side of the wall at that time. She climbed the stairs to the top floor and listened through a tiny window.
For many of my vintage, Berlin is almost eponymous with Bowie when it comes to music.
Right next to the Reichstag is the Tiergarten (Zoo-park) and the memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma under the Nazis.
The sites of the death camps are engraved in stones surrounding a simple water feature.
This is ‘Warszawa’ from Low, the first of his Berlin trilogy albums. An appropriate soundscape
In a Bowie frame of mind, I made my way towards Potsdamer Platz (more below) and, passing the Brandenburger Gate, I remembered the opening lyrics of ‘Where Are We Now’, from his last album. ‘Had to get the train From Potsdamer Platz…’
Seems like I’m in good company with my mildly melancholic nostalgia.
As kids we were brought up on WWII, often in the form of entertainment.
I admire Germany’s ability to acknowledge, accept and try to deal with the failings of the past.
The Holocaust Memorial is as impressive as it is depressing. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but walking through the grid, every now and again you catch a fleeting glimpse of someone emerging from behind one pillar only to disappear behind another. Such is the transience of life…
The immensity of it all accentuated by bombastic accompaniment of the Cantors in Faith
Richard, one of the moderators on the Justinguitar website where I try to learn guitar, had recently mentioned he attended the gig on the 21st July 1990 when Roger Waters performed The Wall on Potsdamer Platz, shortly after the wall came down.
The only thing to do was snap a selfie, press play, sit down and rub my feet which were becoming comfortably numb…
No, this is not Bono & Co. from home. It’s the underground line that stopped by my hostel (on Rosa Luxembourg Platz) and goes out to Pankow, centre of the of the Soviet-occupied zone during the cold war. German singer Udo Lindenberg had a hit with ‘Sonderzug nach Pankow’ in 1983. I never liked the song, but it was a political statement and a sign of the times, becoming a bit of a cult hit in the East where it was banned.
The Glenn Miller tune is a bit of an ‘Ohrwurm’ as they say in Germany. (Just be grateful, I didn’t venture into Kreuzberg and share ‘Kreuzberger Nächte Sind Lang’!)
I often forget how many tourists visit the capitals of their own country. The government put on a free open-air multimedia show outside the Reichstag, projected over the river Spree onto the modern architecture opposite. I liked the fact that it was in German with no translations/subtitles. A half hour potted history of the Reichstag throughout history- the old and the new- the good, the bad and the ugly.
I had to smile when the soundtrack included ‘On Days Like This’ from a Düsseldorfer punk band that set out almost 40 years ago, often trying to shake the establishment. (I gather Campino the singer is a friend of Juergen Klopp and staunch supporter of LFC)
I was a bit early for my brunch date with Dorothea on day two, so lay down on a park bench in the sun, listening to some Annenmaykantereit.
The chorus in the song ‘Third floor’ translated:
I’d really like to live with you in an old apartment block
Two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a small balcony…
A couple of minutes later I was breakfasting with my friend on the 3rd floor in an old 2-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, bathroom and small balcony.
Serendipity strikes again.
Before we left, she gave me a tour of local history in the cellar, where illustrator Lisa Marie Blum had painted some murals on the walls during the war. Dorothea had to fight her own battles with the builders to stop them from further damaging the paintings, while upgrading the plumbing… (blue line for the pipes)
The book ‘Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo’ (we children from train station zoo) made a big impression on me as a teenager. It was a powerful story (told by journalists) of a drug addicted child prostitute. The film Christiane F came out in the early 80’s. Bowie (again) performed in it and provided the soundtrack.
This, however, is one of the few places I wanted to see before setting off to Berlin.
Punk/goth Nina Hagen had considerable success with her debut album.
This song begins with the lyrics ‘Auf´m Bahnhof Zoo im Damenklo’ (at train station Zoo, on the ladies loo).
I was either too stingy or too embarrassed to pay the Euro entrance charge…
The Siegessäule is a famous monument in Berlin, designed to commemorate the Prussian victory over us poor Danes in the Second Schleswig War in 1864.
Nationalism- what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
… and yet so many of us feel that glow of pride when the country we happen to have been born in, achieves any success - in my case, Ireland and Denmark.
So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I donned my earbuds and pumped up the volume on a band I was introduced to at Roskilde festival a couple of years ago-
‘Descendants Of King Canute’- King of Denmark (oh yeah… and of England too)
This piece of music is the only one that I didn’t choose, but rather it chose me.
While waiting to visit the ‘Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church’, I received an email from my cousin Aran in Dublin, with this attachment.
He had composed a piano piece named after my father, dedicated to my mother who lives with us.
And some people say there is no God…
Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin x
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I was at the local open mic last night.
Performed two songs- Pillar of Davidson by Live, a song I’m doing a ‘family & friends’ project with at the moment.
I completely forgot to play the bridge, which meant I launched into the chorus on the wrong note. Sigh…
Then sang Humpty Dumpty, an a capella version of James Joyce’s ‘Ballad of Persse O’Reilly’ from Finnegan’s Wake.
Lots of good stream-of-consciousness stuff, relatable to this Irish Dane
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Hi Brian ,
That is a sweet song 
A bridge too far short, I didn’t miss him 
Greetings
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No one gets away that easily. Hopefully you’ll see this again as a family & friends project
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Where is that confounded bridge?
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Lovely song, Brian, and between you and the hosts the mix was great.
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We found the bridge! It’s here
Cheers, David. It feels weird. I’m the only one who ever plays with an electric guitar (but only clean). Pure laziness, because I hardly ever practice on my acoustic
I heard on the grapevine that the arts centre will probably be closing down next spring.
A pity, as it’s been a great resource, esp. for many of the more senior musicians in the area… 
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What night is the Open Mic night at the Arts Centre Brian?
Enjoyed your set on Justin’s Open Mic last night, and caught your mention of West Kirby.
I’m in Heswall so it would only be short distance to see you live and in person!!
Richard
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Haha!
Cheers Richard, just sent you a message
The rates and menu for breakfast?
Super stuff. You really were born to be on stage. You should go more often.
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Thanks James. Much appreciated
I like to give the impression it’s natural and I’m just going with the flow, but I’m as vain as the next person and it does take me quite a while to get a song to the stage (sic) where I’m comfortable to perform. And even then, two is the maximum I’ve ever keep in this noggin
‘Mates rates’ means friends fed for free!
I’d only charge you a tenner for the Full English or a fiver for Continental
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