A Manfred Mann's Earth Band Gig In A Very Special Venue - The Kraftwerk Rottweil

By Uschi Schmittele (pictures by Paul Bossenmaier)

Have you ever entered a venue walking on a red carpet? Have you ever thought it would be nice to have a party in a room where red roses are hanging from the ceiling? Have you ever thought it would be fine to have a helmet with you when you were going to a rock concert? No? Then you haven`t been to a concert at the Kraftwerk Rottweil yet. Built about 90 years ago, the power station hadn`t been used from the 70's to the 90's and had abandoned to dereliction until clever people discovered its special atmosphere for various events like the Ferienzauber Rottweil, a summer festival taking place each year for four weeks in July and August. Six years ago (when the Kraftwerk wasn`t yet used as a venue) Earth Band had already played there in a marquee. This year Earth Band, as one of the main acts of the festival played in the larger power station, a gig which had already been sold out for several days.

As Paul wrote a review of the concert immediately after the gig for the Message Board, I don`t want to repeat details already mentioned in his report but introduce you mainly to the exceptional venue. Standing in front of the building you were at once impressed by its size, although compared to Battersea Power Station which is known to all of us from the cover of Pink Floyd`s album "Animals" it`s only a dwarf. What a pity that the admission was through a side-door and not through the main entrance where you would have been walking under the above mentioned hanging red roses. The auditorium was the former boiler room with a high ceiling almost like in a cathedral and with a lot of rusty machines, ladders and galleries. Looking around you could fancy Noel doing a spectacular start, beginning Shelter on one of the galleries and then gliding down to the stage hanging on a steel rope – what a pity, mere imagination. The stage was situated in a hole broken into the wall between boiler room and the former coal depot. Untamed steel tubes and rough concrete formed the edge of the artificial mouth to the coal depot where the biggest part of the stage was built up. Good that Geoff hadn`t time to look up at the almost threatening height of the old bunker and - good that nobody had told the singer of the Band that the demolished wall had been very important for the stability of the building....(Only joking, Noel!)

Surely it wasn`t easy for the mixer and the monitor man to outwit the acoustic peculiarities of the building, especially the stage. You could well imagine that the sound coming out of the monitors escaped up into the enormous height of the coal bunker like smoke into a chimney. From the start of the gig both – audience and Band - were in a great mood and seemed to have huge confidence in the "Amt für Öffentliche Ordnung" which had to give permission for the use of the power station as a venue. Nobody cared whether Mick`s solos or Steve`s bass could cause here and there a loose stone to become a falling stone or a still erect column to become a collapsing one. Soon the singing and clapping audience were sweating despite the agreeable temperature behind the thick stone walls like the power station workers about half a century ago. Concerning Geoff`s effects on the building there was nothing to be worried about. Long ago the Kraftwerk had been planned to be an engine room and so the perfect place for him to show his powerful drumming. And because there is no song in the Earth Band repertoire in which Noel could show his ability to sing in Kate Bushish heights, the few still more or less intact windows stayed where they were. But who knows, maybe the paneless frames you could see at several places high up the walls were the result of Noel`s vocal activities during the sound check. And what about Manfred? Wearing a hat like always he was the only one who was at least a bit protected against the dangers lurking above him. His well known dynamic and sophisticated keyboard solos didn`t fail to cause their positive effects – to fill audience and historic walls with tremendous awe.

After a great gig in a great venue was over many people were enjoying themselves in the adjoining beer-garden in the court of the Kraftwerk where a camp fire was burning in an old steel tray. If you ever have the possibility to visit an event in the old power station in Rottweil – do it. I`m sure you will never forget this venue. Btw in October the Trossingen Conservatoire is performing Mozart`s Magic Flute there. Quite a difference to a Manfred Mann`s Earth Band gig but surely also worth visiting.

Uschi

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