I
met Blaine Reininger (Tuxedomoon) first in 1985. Me a fan in front of
the stage of Bremen Club "Aladin". After the concert I talked to Blaine
and he invited me to Bruxelles. This social visit took place in summer.
After years, in spring of 1991, I planned
a german tour for my band "Virulent Violins". The Hannover club "Bad"
offered a support job for Blaine Reininger's solo act. On 15.03. we did our
openers' job and Blaine watched (which, as he told us afterwards, he normally
never does). When we came back into backstage, Blaine shouted "Fiddle warlords
rule!" and invited us to Bruxelles. (He wrote this motto with an Edding
marker to the backstage wall, signing it it must be still there).
Stefan Walkau (git / bass), Tom Bennett (vla) and I (vln) went to Bruxelles
and had a great weekend with Blaine and J.J. We talked a lot and jammed a bit.
There still is a bad quality MC, walkman- like.
In
autumn came a call to Bruxelles and Tom Bennettt (e-viola) and I (e-violin) recorded
on the weekend of 14. / 15.12.1991 some demos in Drem Bruinsma's studio. We were
doing additional strings. We had written the arrangements and rehearsed our parts
in Bremen with the help of Blaine's CDs.
In
February 1992 came another call from Blaine for Paris. On 28. / 29.02. we played
in a very nice basement club in Montmartre: "Passage Nort-Ouest".
The mp3s are of 29th of February. Blaine called us "Virtual Violins".
In July 1992 J.J. planned with a Bruxelles friend to kidnap
Blaine to go to Bremen for his birthday on the 10th. In Bremen the couple lived
with Tom, friend Martine lived at my place. These were easy days. I transformed
the living-room of my small appartment into a rehearsing / recording space so
we could jam and record.