Good evening everybody, I just noticed that it’s more than a YEAR ago since I wrote my last newsletter here on N1M, and either I’ll start to do this more frequently again or I should just let go. Let’s see where we end up. The last 15 months have been one of the most intensive periods in my life, but unfortunately not in musical respect. At work, I had to deal with a fraud and theft investigation which initially started in summer 2017 but became even worse in September 2018. The deeper I dug, the more I found, and I sincerely hope to be able to finally bring this to an end now. My wife became subject to a despotic manager at work which ended up in a termination of her employment in May after quite some months of struggling and suffering. She fell seriously ill due to this kind of treatment already last winter and is currently trying to recover in a hospital in southern Bavaria. She’ll be back home next thursday after three months of absence, and I’m really looking forward to have her by my side again. Of course it’s even more important that she feels better after all and finds some new faith and energy to start again. And then there were some more family issues which I will not describe in detail here because I still don’t fully understand why and how this could happen and how to find a way out of this misery. It is sad and strange at the same time, and I feel like being paralyzed. Due to all this and some more constraints, the work on my next album has somehow phased out. We had one last recording session with Toni (member of Platform 6) who played some trombone and accordion parts, and we had one more working session, just Chris D and myself, in order to recapture where we stand and what we think we still need. That was in spring this year as far as I remember, and since then nothing has happened at all. Out of the 12 songs, I think that five or six are in a quite good shape and ready to be mastered and issued then. Another three or four are somewhere in between, I feel that something is missing or the song could be done differently. The latter wouldn’t be an argument to skip the song; I have often reworked my older songs and re-issued ‘em again as you might know. My homepage www.schnoed.de is full of examples of such metamorphoses. And maybe the doubts will fade away when Chris D has finally completed his recordings. I remember there was a slide guitar on “Big weird love” and a baritone sax on “No one knows” which most probably still wait for the master to get played and recorded by him…but he’s extremely busy as well and tries to serve everybody as good as he can. Which is one of his biggest strengths and weaknesses at the same time, but I won’t start coaching him into a different direction. He’s a fine guy through and through, and I’m proud and happy to have him as a friend and as a partner in several musical projects. All the ones who still learned counting at school will notice that I talked about 12 songs, and that 2 or 3 are still missing. Well, one is just a disaster and will not be issued. I don’t really know what went wrong, but it must have been quite early when doing the basic tracks. It just doesn’t roll. It feels like driving a bumpy road. There’s no chance to get this repaired. And then there are one or two (depending on the mood I’m in when listening) which are somehow on the border. Not bad but not good enough. In one case it’s the song as such where I think this one could need a complete rework. In the other case I feel the song’s all right but we didn’t do good. Or something’s still missing. Could be another guitar track, or maybe an electric one instead of an acoustic. I hope Chris D and myself will be able to sit together again and decide what to do with these three, and then it’ll be an album or not. I think that nine songs are not enough. Maybe we can agree on ten and skip two. Anyway, this will be the project for the coming winter. To get all the artwork and conceptual design done (maybe I’ll do a reduced one this time), of course the mastering of the tracks and finally the production of the CD as such. Yes, still a CD. I’m used to this format, and I love having an “album” in hands and not just some streams. The High Field Band has ceased to exist, or at least has taken a sort of sabbatical year which in fact are two years and two months since our last public appearance in Gerolzhofen. Which is a pity, no question, but on the other hand a fact. My daughter lives far away and has other priorities, so we have to either skip the keyboard or look for a successor. I tend to the first option and would prefer to look for another guitar player, so I could focus on singing a bit more. We had an idea of combining two bands, one being the basement project of Chris D together with Dirk (also a member of Platform 6) and Isabell on Sax, who also played some tracks for my new album, and her brother on drums. The other party would have been Nicole and myself. The gig to be played was planned end of may in Ebenhausen, but just two days after a rehearsal session Dirk suffered a severe heart attack and needed months to recover. Another shock, for him first of all, but for me and his friends as well. As I said before: A difficult and painful time. So this project is currently on hold, as well as the High Field Band. But the other ones are not. Platform 6 played a Gig at Würzburg Prison again in January; it was the second time for us to be there. It was a tremendous success again, the 120 guests were yelling and clapping hands all the way through our setlist, no matter which country or continent or culture they came from. There were only men this time; the prison director said that more than 250 prisoners would have had applied for the concert, and they decided to do a show for the female prisoners at another date. Two guys were shouting something at me when leaving the prison hall after the gig; first I didn’t really understand why they were yelling “Liverpool! The Real Thing! Liverpool!” but then it turned out that those two prisoners were from Liverpool and were just completely excited that we played “You to me are everything” from a 70s band called “The Real Thing”, which originated from Liverpool! Those two buddies had tears of joy in their eyes when heading back to their cells, and when I realized what kind of feelings we brought to ‘em with our simple music, my eyes became wet as well. The Platformers had another gig in August, being the 29th birthday of our singer Nicole (ok, in fact the 22nd time that she became 29), and also this one was just great. We had to get along without Albrecht and thus tailored the setlist a bit different; as a surprise for Nicole we had three songs of Peter Maffay (Lieber Gott, Eiszeit, Sonne in der Nacht) with us which we secretly prepared for this one show, and thanks God it went ok. At least she was absolutely happy, and that was the purpose of it all. And we tried “Radar Love” by Golden Earring for the first time in public. Also this one was proposed by Nicole, and I was rather sceptical in the beginning and decided just to sing this one and put the guitar aside, otherwise the long instrumental part in the middle of the song would have become even more chaotic and loud. But it went ok again, and so we’re looking forward to maybe try another complex one, an all-time favourite of mine: “Carry on wayward son” by Kansas. I’m absolutely unsure whether this is something for a band like ours, but I made the proposal some days ago and earned positive response. But I think we’d need a rehearsal weekend for this one. Well, why not? With the Erratics, the blues rockers, I played a gig in May at the Montana again (in fact the band seems to play either at the Montana or at the Schmiede in Schwebheim and nowhere else, but both are fine locations for this kind of Music, and the next gig is just around the corner. Saturday, 19th of October, Honky Tonk Festival in Schweinfurt. The Erratics live at the Montana once more! And then there’s PAM, still alive and still kicking. We had a weekend workshop in October 2018 in Eschwege, and one more in April this year. Both were again as productive and focused as can be. The main purpose was to prepare for the upcomimg 50st birthday of bassman Noop, but we recorded own material as well. The results can be seen on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKvGl_RA-ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaw-yWaUXy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEtTApEzE38 The gig at the birthday party will take place at Cologne on the 26th of October, and again I’m very much looking forward also to this one. At this kind of parties there’s usually much more audience than at club gigs, so I’m taking it as serious as can be. That’s it for the moment. At least you’re informed again now. I won’t promise to keep you posted on all my activities the way I did the years before, but it won’t take a year again, that’s for sure. Keep on rockin’! Yours schnoed