Report from the Run Devil Run Listening Party in Cologne/Germany
Preface: This page including photos and transcriptions is
copyrighted and I expressively forbid usage of any part of this page on other websites or
other media!
Video Files - from the news:
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News clip #1 on the Run Devil Run Listening Party in Köln
(=Cologne), Germany. 28 September 1999 (high quality) |
real G2 |
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2:03 |
3919KB |
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News clip #2 on the Run Devil Run Listening Party in Köln
(=Cologne), Germany. 28 September 1999 (high quality) |
real G2 |
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1:36 |
2655KB |
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News clip #3 on the Run Devil Run Listening Party in Köln
(=Cologne), Germany. 28 September 1999 (high quality) |
real G2 |
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0:31 |
991KB |
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News clip #4 on the Run Devil Run Listening Party in Köln
(=Cologne), Germany. 28 September 1999 (high quality) |
real G2 |
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0:29 |
916KB |
The webmaster's report:
Thankfulness
Of course I'm very grateful to Paul and EMI that they decided to do this listening
party! Thank you! What a great idea!
Even more thanks go to the Beatles Fanclub Wuppertal,
who I begged for tickets when I sent in for the contest.
Oh, and to my boss who allowed me to take a day off!
Arrival
Köln is almost 450km away from where I live so it was quite a trip there. When we
arrived at 4:00 p.m., only around two dozens of fans were already waiting. Paul's security
people were seeking out the venue, arriving in their huge black limousines and leaving
again after maybe half an hour. Not before 5 p.m. the huge crowds started to assemble. In
the end between 1,000 - 1,500 were waiting before the venue, filling the not very huge
place quite densely.
Geoff Baker, Paul's PR man, could be seen as usual: very nervously
running up and down all the time, mobile phone in one hand, ciggie in another. He and his
team told the TV and radio crews that Paul would pass the barriers at this position and
that he would stop there to give interviews.
When Paul actually arrived, things happened very quickly. I was
standing on the steps at the entrance so I could see a little more than most people. I saw
the limousines arrive and stop on the street, and Paul exit from the car. He wore dark sun
glasses (!) and I was too surprised over that to immediately take a photo.
You can now see Paul arrive (at approx. 18:30):
Paul is arriving (with sun glasses!) |
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No chance for the TV teams!
(Paul is in the center of the photo) |
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The press was definitely not amused! Paul was quickly hurrying inside, not giving a
single interview nor saying a word! The press was miffed - and said so in there reports on
TV and also in the papers.
After Paul has entered the venue "Das E-Werk", the two ordinary gates were
opened and people started to get in. In the outside, the TV teams were still hoping that
Paul would come out again - but he did not. Furthermore, no cameras nor recorders were
allowed in the inside, not even those of TV teams.
They only let in one person after another, and everyone was
"welcomed" by two guards who "carefully" searched all bags, jackets,
trousers ... needless to mention that it was very hard to get a camera in. Most people had
to leave theirs at the entrance, which involved a register process, so it took very long
until everyone was inside.
Introduction and "Making Of"
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There is some bar/café in the inside, and surprisingly only few people
assembled directly in front of the stage, at least in the first hour of waiting. They had
the album artwork projected on the stage while they were playing rock'n'roll songs from
the 1950s. Finally, at around 8pm, they turned off the music and the beamer, and an
announcer (probably someone of EMI Electrola) came on stage, and started his introduction
(in English language).
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"... rock'n'roll music. Welcome to Cologne and welcome to this very special
listening party here tonight, where we all have the chance to listen for the first time to
the new project by an artist who as a musician and as a human being has influenced the
world-wide music scene like second to none during this second half of this century.
Now Paul's new album is called Run Devil Run, and we'd like to pick off
tonight's event by giving you some inside views and background information about the
production and how it all came together.
Now enjoy the music, dance if you will, and wait for the man himself.
Let the tape roll first!"
Then a playback of a short "Making of Run Devil Run" (aka
EPK) was shown on the projection screen. A video tape of this was also given out to the
press, and you could see portions of it in most of the video files on top of this page.
You can listen to a Real Audio of that video here: [coming soon!]
"liebe Freunde, Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in welcoming on stage -
the one and only Paul McCartney!"
Intro by Paul
"Deutschland ... Guten Abend!
Then Paul finds out the the microphone stand is located in the center of the stage -
too far away from his fans. He moves it a couple of meters closer to the fans, right to
the border of the stage.
"C'mon .... Thank you, alright!
"You are a grand .?. ... shoop!"
"You like Freddy Star a bit (???) Thank you very much, Dankeschön, vielen Dank. Dies
ist ein klein bischen Deutsch, zuerst, klein bischen Deutsch. That's more than he did. He
talks in English. I'm coming out talking in German. Okay. Es ist sehr gut, hier wieder in
Deutschland zu sein. Wir machen eine Ausweiskontrolle. Alle Jugendliche unter 18 Jahren
müssen .... [much laughter]. So I ... now I do it in English 'cause I can't really say
too much. Unless we want to get to "Jakob, der Rabe" [there is more to come
in this regard: Paul quoted himself here. He said the very same thing over 33 years ago!
Audio file coming soon], and I don't really wanna get there. Er, okay, so, think about
this evening, I hope you understand this. We just gonna play the record to you, the new
record. This is a rock'n'roll record called "Run Devil Run", and the reason is
that, normally when you introduce your new record, you're in an office and there's old
people sitting round (humms), ... so we said we gonna have some people - Leute, wir
müssen Leute haben ... so, that's you. So that's basically all we're gonna do. And I'll
explain a little bit about how we made the record. Um, when I was thinking about making a
record I had some good memories on how we used to do the early Beatle records because it
was very quick. You know in those days you didn't have much time, they didn't give you
much time to make a record, you didn't have three months, just like a week or something.
And you had to arive at the studio at a Monday morning at 10 o'clock, you had to be ready
to play at 10:30. From 10:30 to 1:30 you had to do two songs. 1:30 to 2:30 - Essen, at
2:30 to 5:30 two more songs, and at 5:30 you went home. So it was like really great when I
remembered this, I felt that was a really good way to work, so that's how we did this, you
know, so we all showed up, I didn't even meet all of the band 'till the Monday morning, so
it was very fast and very spontaneous. So that was how we made this record, and we ended
up doing I think like 19 songs in a week, just 5 days it took to record this, so it's very
fresh, um, and that's the idea behind it anyway. So what we're gonna do tonight is gonna
play it, so if you wanna dance and rock'n'roll and have a good time ... I'll be back
afterwards to talk some more ... and maybe we'll have some questions, anyone wants to, so
try to be intelligent, try and think of intelligent questions, not 'Paul, what toothpaste
do you use' [in some heavy German/Bavarian accent!]. It will be sensible, intelligent
faces I'm going for. So, okay, so enjoy yourselves now. I'll see you in about - it's about
45 minutes long the record. So I hope you're enjoying - the first people in Germany to
hear the record. So here we go with the new album called 'Run Devil Run'.
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Finally, after the EPK: Paul on stage |
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Album Playback
Then the actual album was played back via the PA. Unlike LA or NYC, there was no
accompanying screen projection. They only showed a track listing in white letters on blue
background.
With a few exceptions, people did not start to dance (how? People were
all densely packed in front of the stage). A few guys sang with the more familar songs.
The audience did not get very excited, at least from my point of view. If the sound was
the same elsewhere, it is not too surprising: Besides from some very strong bass I could
not make out anything but distortions. The sound level was deafening. So I could not judge
the album from the album playback. Luckily I had heard at least 30 seconds of each song
before at EMI's website. My favourite still is Try Not To Cry, one of Paul's 3
own compositions on the album - would've been my choice of a first "pushing"
single...
Anyway, the album definitely rocks. It is very upbeat! CHOBA ... pales
in comparison!
Paul's Q&A Session
EMI's announcer enters the stage again:
"Alright. Rock'n'Roll at its best. And here's the man again ... Paul
McCartney!"
Paul enters the stage again:
"Okay, Okay ... ... Hey! ... Good, I hope you enjoyed that!"
"It's good to ..." [???] "Thank You!"
"Thank you all" [???] "C'mon" [???] ... ... "So!"
"It's good to ..." [???] "Thank You!"
"So hier ... in Deutschland .. hier in Köln .... ahm, so I think I just wanna thank
you - Vielen Dank - for showing up tonight, coming along to this listening
party...."
"We thank you!" someone from the audience threw in.
"You thank me?" (Yeahs from everywhere) "I thank you!"
"Okay" ...
Someone hands over a stuffed toy (a "Diddle" mouse) to
Paul via one of the security guards. Ohs and ahs from the audience. Paul plays with it
"hello oo oo" (audience laughs)
Very shortly thereafter, someone throws a green stuffed animal towards the stage - and
hits Paul's shoulder/head ... - audience acknowledges this. Paul keeps the properly handed
one throughout the show.
"Okay ... we won't do that again ... alright. So you know what, maybe now is a
good time for .. if anybody would like to ask some questions - if you want ask a question
and it's like sensible - put your hand up ..."
Someone near stage holds up a "Tug Of War" LP:
"Well I've got that one [....] I've got a hundred of them one at home"
"Here we go, this looks like a sensible face here" points to a Dutch
person, who asks:
"Any favourite tracks of your own, any left-overs and any own compositions?"
"Any favourite tracks of my own - on this album? Yeah, this 'n tracks that didn't
get on the album" We made uhm"
Audience laughter
"These aren't my favourites. Those are like B-Sides. But there are some that I
like out of the B-Sides. There's one that was the first one we recorded during the week
which is called 'Fabulous' - which, uhm, always reminded me of going to a fairground when
I was about 15 years old and uhm, so that was, that was a good favourite called Fabulous.
Dum Dum dipidi dum dum dipidi dum. It's good, so check it out. It's going to be a B-side I
think if we do a single or something.
Okay, there's a guy here looking pretty sensible ... here we go!"
"Congratulations for the great album, at first."
"Thank you very much. ... This is good i'nt it, we chat, in a way we talk, I
figure this is like a new carreer for me, coming along to places, you know like people do
lecture tours, they go all over the world. This is my new carreer. Don't have to sing
anymore, just gonna talk. [German talk follows] ... mußt nur reden, nicht ...en, ja wir
machen das. [....] and let's have an idea [???] okay!"
Someone asking some very long question [can only make out a few parts]:
"........ will you find the time, or the will, to listen to ... a young German band
..."
"Okay, this is a long question here, a very long question."
"Can you repeat it for us" someone throws in very fast.
"Most people left. Um. He said do I have time to listen to German artists. Well you
know the thing is we don't hear them in England. It's not the time. It's just the truth
they don't play 'em. Hey, they don't play me, never mind German artists. You know in
England, you see the radio [???]... [whistles a short tune] ... YOU GOTTA BE ABOUT 15
YEARS OLD, BIG TITS. So anyway, it's another story. But, I would love to hear it someday.
Okay, wait a minute, there's a person screaming over here, and ... she's gonna .. she
would like to have a question okay."
".... [not loud enough] "
"The question is: Can I shake your hand. The answer is: Nein, das ist verboten.
We can't shaken Hände."
"Okay, here's a very sensible face"
"Can you imagine playing those great rock'n'roll songs live on stage in the
future"
"Yeah, she says can I imagine playing those songs live on stage in the future.
[Applause] Um. It's a. The thing is you know, I don't know the band. Precisely we made
like a record over five days and then we just did the show in L.A. where we did one day
rehearsal and then one day in the show. So I've only met this band for seven days, so I
daren't ask them we go on tour yet. [We can help you, we can help you] But,
you're a drummer? ... So, um, so the answer is maybe in the future we do that, but we were
talking about it, um, and it's like, it's so new for us that we haven't even thought
about, you know most bands the first thing you think of: make a record, go on tour, but
it's very new for us, so we haven't even thought about that. So maybe - vielleicht, mein
Fräulein.
Okay, and I think this is gonna be the last question now, so I really gotta find a really
sensible face. And there's not too many out there... You are, you are sensible .. I hope!
" ... [not loud enough] but ..."
"Okay. She said what of the songs did I write myself and what was the inspiration for
these songs. Okay. Well, there's three of them I wrote. Um. I wrote one called "What
It Is", and there's one called "Run Devil Run", and there's one called
"Try Not To Cry". And the inspiration for "What It Is" was Linda, I'd
already written that for Linda [Applause] and um, so that was the first one I
wrote for the album. And then the second one - I was talking to the producer and he said
you know it'd be a good idea if you wrote a couple of songs, so I wrote "Run Devil
Run". 'Cause I was in a shop in Atlanta, in America, in the USA, and I saw all these
products. And the products, it was like um ... interesting shop, the products were
like called "Run Devil Run" and it said if you put this in your bath it will
send the devil away. I'll have a couple of jars of that. And um, so I liked the
title "Run Devil Run". So I made a song about that. That was the inspiration of
that ... and then the other one was called "Try Not To Cry", and that was just
one I did after that, it was just inspired by my love of rock'n'roll. So that's it. That
was very good. Thank you very much, that was a great deal questions. And um, just a
minute, I wanna just say hello to this little girl here, meine Kleine, meine Kleine, Guten
Abend! Okay, so that's it. Jetzt ist Feierabend. Es ist die Sperrstunde. Sie sind besoffen
und wenn sie .... es wird geschlossen. So listen, thank you very much for coming. And this
is like obviously the beginning of a new carreer for me, you'll probably see me at the
local standup, um, cabaret clubs, a talking tour. But thank you very much seriously thank
you very much for coming. I hope you enjoyed the new album, and err, Grüß Gott!"
(this all took just less than eight minutes) [real audio to follow here]
After the playback of the album: Q&A with Paul |
without flash for a change - red spotlights ... |
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Paul's trademark? ;-) |
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Paul is leaving - he picks up things which fans
had placed on stage before his microphone
stand: A fab CD-ROM, a letter, etc. |
Afterwards
At the end thousands of balloons fell down
from the ceiling... |
After hardly eight minutes, Paul prepares to leave the
stage. He picks up a few items people have placed on stage next to his microphone stand. I
spotted a letter, and I know for sure that Paul picked up a very fab CD-ROM of this
website! Yeah! And then he was gone. 1950s music was played again, some dancers (in
petticoats) came up, people left in a rush. The first ones took away all the Run Devil Run
posters etc. The VIPs with the yellow badge were handed a promo/press kit folder (wished I
was a VIP too). |
More Run Devil Run on this site:
Please check back soon: There is more to come!
©1999 PLUGGED - the (un)official Paul McCartney
Home(p)age, by Harald Gernhardt. All Rights Reserved.