There was an outcry
under the AV Fans, as we got to know about the plan to make a "Dreamscapes"
Release Party.
On one hand AV kept
their promise for all the fans, who experienced the Friends- and Fans Party
in 1996 (many didn't believe in it anymore) and on the other hand, it was
THE occasion, all the fans waited for, who were not on the legendary Friends-
and Fans Party. Accordingly the resonance was great while enrolling
for the party. The Release party was planned as a private party, what means
only the enrolled fans were on the guestlist and authorized to enter the
party.
Unfortunately one
week before the great day nobody knew the exactly place in Berlin and the
time of the beginning. That was the reason for many doubts. Will they cancel
the party in the last second??? To say the truth, it was also very strange
for us, but actually we never had doubts. We knew that AV knew, how many
fans from abroad already booked their flights to and rooms in Berlin. They
never had cancelled the party with that knowledge.
Good things need
a while! And AV are known for their spontaneity, so three days before everything
was clear. Here we want to say thank you to all our members, who called
us to get this informations. We know it wasn't so easy to reach us. All
the members who are attainable via Email or Fax had more luck.
And so came the
09th of January 99 - the big day!
It was absolutely
impressive how many fans arrived. Special what a distance they covered
and which price they paid for that journey. We're thinking to the Italian
Fanclub "Euphoria" or the Scandinavian Fanclub "New Horizons",. Each of
them came with 10 members, Also Angelique from the International Fanclub
from the Netherlands was there and besides fans from Switzerland, Belgium
or England. We don't want forget to mention that also many German fans
had a long journey.
Spice Graphics &
Sequential Performing, that's the name of the location where the party
took place, was situated on a typical Berlin backyard. The way to this
yard inspired only a little confidence. On the right and on the left side
where garbages. But we found a very cosy club. Subdued light gave a great
intimate atmosphere. The club was not only one room, there were many niches.
There were two bars, a place for dancing and many places to sit down, rest
and talk. Okay, sometimes it wasn't so easy so find someone in all this
niches. But it had really a great atmosphere. Suitable to the event, the
walls were decorated with posters. These poster shown the 60 pages of the
booklet of "Dreamscapes". We were able to see how much power and energy
special Monika put into this booklet. Unfortunately no one was able to
study all these poster intensive. There were so many people in the club
that no one had the chance to come near enough to each poster. Originally
AV planned as surprise to raffle these poster during the night. But some
fans purloin the poster before, so that the tombola was cancelled. Really
a pity and AV were very sad.
To enter the club
was a little bit chaotic. At first everybody had to give the jacket to
the wardrobe, got a number and then we had to notice this number to the
right name on the guestlist. Okay, it was also very funny. Done - everyone
watched the place, looked for known faces and had smalltalk. Nearly unnoticed
Bernd, Martin, Rob, Marian and the rest of the crew arrived. Like always
Marian was the desired one for the most fans there. Soon he had to write
many autographs. But also Martin and Bernd were very busy with talking
to the fans. Other interesting persons to talk to were Monika and Tobias
from Moonbase, K.P. the manager and Karin Gieselmann, who works from the
very first time in Alphavilles background.
"Dreamscapes" is
an evidence of the AV history of the last 15 years, so it was great there
were also people, who accompanied AV on this way. We want mention Colin
Pearson, who discovered AV in the beginning of the Eighties and who was
the first producer of the band, Rainer Bloss, who wrote often songs together
with Marian and he's also a close friend of Marian (fans call him also
the 4th member of AV), Janey Diamond, known for the lyrics she
wrote for AV and Marion, who answered many years all the AV fanpost.
The highlight of
the night took place more or less at 11 p.m.: for half and hour they played
live for us. The special feature was that some of that songs never were
played live before, for example "Summer in Berlin" or "In the mood". Later
Marian said, they want to play such songs now on the "Dreamscapes" tour
this year. Naturally they also played "Forever Young" and "Big in Japan"
and maybe you can imagine a little bit the great atmosphere if 150 real
fans are out of control. It was simply breathtaking. Although there were
only a few places with a good view to the stage, no one was angry or aggressive.
Many fans were quite inventive and found higher places everywhere to see
a little bit more. This half an hour went by much too fast. And it was
strange after this performance many people left the pub. Later we got to
know that about 60 persons came in for a little fee without being real
fans. This ones only wanted to see the live performance. And to say the
truth it was better with not so many persons in the club. The air was more
pleasant and it was easier to talk. We don't want to make a secret that
some fans also were disappointed. In 1996 the musicians went from table
to table and talked to the people their. This time they sat in a corner
next to the bar after the live session and you had to go to them, if you
wanted to talk to them. And that wasn't very easy because there was only
a small room and mostly there were already too many people.
But all in all it
was a very successful night with many friendly people. The hours went by
very fast and anyway everything was over before we could grasp it. We're
sure many fans will feel the euphoria only later if they remember to that
night. Now we all hope to have "Dreamscapes" as soon as possible in our
hands. We could hear the stuff during this night and now it's much harder
to wait for it any longer.
Thank you Alphaville for everything!