Veni Vidi Vici

He came, he saw, he conquered. The audience in Munich, that is.

But more about that later. Let's start with the beginning of the first tour day, shall we?

(For those only interested about the show, please scroll down :-). )

Getting up at 4:30am was easy (there IS a difference if you have to get up for work or to go on a road trip), and after the car was packed and a quick stop at the bakery for some breakfast to go, we hit the road at shortly past 7am... just to end up in the first traffic jam about 5 minutes later. Caused by those poor people who had to get to work...

To make things a tad bit worse, I spilled half of my coffee over my pants about 15 minutes later. The good with the bad: the seat of the brand new car was spared. Whew!!!

But that bit of a rough start was no indicator for the rest of the day... in fact things got better and better, the farther we left home behind us. The weather couldn't be any more perfect ... guess Lee brought the good weather with him from the always sunny England ;-)

We arrived in Munich in the early afternoon and checked into our hotel which is located about 3 walking minutes from the club. So if you ever happen to see a show at the STROM, we can recommend a stay at Hotel Brack

Next thing to do was checking out tonight's venue (how far away from the hotel is it really? where's the main entrance etc.). Wasn't that easy though, because the name of the club was nowhere to be seen, and a poster that said "doors tonight 20:30h" wasn't the Tales From Britain poster.

Some friendly (ahem...) guy who obviously belonged to the venue confirmed though, that, yes, the show would take place here tonight. Swell.

Now it was time for lunch. Not far from the club was Caffé Giovanotti, and they sereved some to-die-for Linguine with homemade basil pesto and parmesan cheese. OMG, so good!!

Well fed it was time to do some work now. Street Team Work, that is. We had prepared little business cards of sorts with the date and time of the show and the venue on it and looked for opportunities to place them. Looks like it's okay to put up stuff like that on light posts etc. here (which isn't the case everywhere), and so we did. A phone booth and newspaper stand served just as well. Spreading the word really isn't that difficult ;-)

While passing out the cards, we saw a statue some yards down a side street and decided to have a look. There wasn't much time for sightseeing really, but this one wasn't far away, so...

It turned out to be Bavaria, a monumental, bronze sand-cast 19th-century statue. It is a female personification of the Bavarian homeland, and by extension its strength and glory. The statue is part of an ensemble which also includes the Ruhmeshalle (hall of fame) and a stairway. It was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

The Bavaria statue is facing the Theresienwiese, an open space that serves as the official ground for the famous Oktoberfest. It's March though, so here's what Oktoberfest looks like when there's no Oktoberfest ;-).

Sorry I can't show you more exciting photos. If Lee comes back on tour next October though... ;-)

Speaking of which. I'm sure you're all tired of the cultural excursion now and want to read about the Real Deal. Right, here we go:

Doors opened right at 8:30pm. There were some seating arrangements in front of the stage and some tables to stand at in the back. Lee was the first to play his set. This might change throughout the tour. At some shows, the Paper Aeroplanes will be first, Lee at the others. (That's the info we got from the tour management anyway.)

So there he was, looking dapper in his black suit, black shirt and deep red tie and started the night with a fan's favorite Joanna. As I said at the beginning... he came, he saw and he conquered and the crowd was totally into it from the very first minute.

Joanna was followed by
Hindsight
London In The Summer
All The Wrong Places and
Star Hotel

before introducing a brand new song which was very beautiful. I've called it You're not her, I'm not sure if that's the actual title though. Wanna check it out? Alright, here we go

Next up it got gemütlich again (cozy, for our English speaking readers LOL) when he unplugged his guitar and came down from the stage to perform his next song, She, amidst the crowd. Always a highlight of each show.

Back onstage it was cover time. I couldn't believe it when I heard the first chord of The Gorillaz's song Clint Eastwood... in combination with The Prince of Bel Air, Falco's Rock Me Amadeus, MfG by german Hip Hoppers Die Fantastischen 4 (the last two sung...err rapped in perfect German; Chapeau!, Lee :-D), Billie Jean, and back to Clint Eastwood. EPIC. He brought the house down!!

Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ZJ6B4INv0

The last two songs of the set were the current single Falling In Love For the Last Time and Smile.

It was after one hour that felt way way too short, when he left the stage and the cheering crowd. But: he had promised to be back later. Sounded good to us!

During the following break people started lining up at the merchandise table, who all wanted a copy of the new EP, autographs, a photo with The Artist... and/or a little chat. And the line was long! So long in fact, that there were still some people there when Sarah and Rich from Paper Aeroplanes came on stage.

Their set, which was also well received from the audience (no real comparison to Lee though, that was at least our impression) also lasted also an hour. They left the stage, only to come back after less than a minute together with our Lee :-). First song they performed together was A Girl In New York, followed by a Paper Aeroplenes song named Newport Beach. Lee's and Sarah's voices sounded very beautiful together. What a perfect ending of a perfect evening!


It was way past midnight when we were back in our hotel room. Tired but happy.

Thank God there are 15 more shows to come.

Stuttgart tonight. Can't wait !!!

PS: I'm not 100% sure if the setlist is complete. It should be... I'm terribly sorry if a song is missing though.

Also, I'm sorry that there are no photos yet. Will upload some later tonight. We're running out of time. Tour- and Streetteam-Life is a fun but busy life after all ;-)