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London Roundhouse Concert 2009

Hello Holger. Just to thank you again for a great concert. How do you manage all that over 3 hours - and single-handed?

On the drive to the concert where I had 3 friends accompanying me, who although knew of Can, had not experienced your solo works. So I selected "Ode to perfume" and "Persian Love Song", as easily accessible examples of your work, to play on the car cd-player - to wet their appetites!
They all liked them a lot esp."ode to perfume", so it was a real bonus to hear you play it live, along with a double-whammy bonus of also playing the extra 10/15mins (or so) that couldn't fit on the original vinyl, and therefore later CD re-issues. The new bit was both different and yet complementary to the original. Will you be including the complete "Ode to Perfume" on your forthcoming re-release of your back catalogue? -Hope so!!

Other highlights for me, was that wonderful electronic tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen -built up nicely with something to get your teeth into. Is this available on CD yet?

Another one which you performed 75% through the concert (don't know it's title), literally moved me to bits. Again, an electronic piece, but which physically kept building up vibrations in my body (like high -power bass) until I was getting quite worried, as I had heart surgery 3 years ago! If that wasn't enough, the foreground synthesizer(s) seemed to build up a screaming in my brain, which like the physical bit seemed to be building up to a crescendo, that perhaps, mercifully ended just in time before I got physically and mentally blasted! Really, really exciting stuff and a musical experience I shall always remember - what was it called?

The concert as a whole seemed to cover those decades from early Can along with interesting film footage from the TagoMago period (which you can get on the Can DVD)through your solo career with a good unseen video to "Blessed Easter". Many of these pieces you seemed to be doing live remixes to on-stage. Another highlight was to see you playing that funny-shaped white guitar, which I instantly recognised by sound, as being the source of some of your most beautiful recordings. Inwardly, I was saying to myself: "So that's how he got those amazing sounds" -a real eye-opener for me, as I had previously imagined a lot of studio wizardy to achieve the same effects.

The only thing that didn't quite work for me, was the triple-split video screen, which had everything squashed to compensate for the very wide aspect ratio. This however, didn't seem to matter so much as the concery progressed. However, I did get a real buzz from just looking up into the roof of the Roundhouse with all its lighting gantries and struts which were being hit with the light show, and went well with the electronica of your music.

You may be pleased (or embarrassed!) by the verdict of my 3 companions - all women, who were all agreed that you were:
1) a genius
2) would make a great and approachable grandad! (Talking of which, I was the guy who shook your hand backstage, and had met you in 1974, Reading, as well corresponding by email a few times)

But we all had a really exceptional concert, and admired the way that your devotion to your music, got you through that technical hitch half-way through, that would have got other performers to give up.Thank you very much, again.

Alex