Der Transformer at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues 2000

Der Transformer at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues 2000

What a wonderful experience. We took this chance to play at the legendary Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues at the St. Moritz club in Soho, London on Thursday night 24 august 2000. A real magic night.

Memories from 2000

Thursday morning Simon Gut meets René Hiob Frey at Café Arlecchino in Luzern. The Bassman and the Drummer are playing together since 1992. Drum&Bass duo like the Barrett brothers or Sly & Robbie. Ready to leave Luzern for London. Ras Claude joins ’em up.

First news of the day: Oliver (Keyboarder) has left Luzern by train earlier this morning. He’s affraid of travelling by airplane. No troubles with our flight, lucky TRANSFORMER. In Luzern train station we join up with Fabian Weibel (technician and melodica player).

Bandleader and guitarrist Christoph Nonsi Schnurrenberger is already in London since Wednesday. He’s hustling for the backline, running through the city, it’s a pity. The Top Cats (Natty Bo) help finding a backline provider. The presence in town seams to be very important. A big advantage for the rest of the band.

Maestro Gino Mastroianni picks up the whole of us at his house. We are six Transformer and we’re all invited to stay at his place for free. It’s a sunny afternoon in London.

London welcomes DER TRANSFORMER warm and nice. Waiting at Gino’s place for Nonsi. It is an enormous challenge to manage the backline inna London city. After a short rest we’re leaving for an indian take-away to full up our stomaches. And the indian chicken paints red hands.

St. Moritz in London

Then the band walks from Leicester Square to St. Moritz club. Since 1974 the Swiss restaurant is running and it’s Londons oldest Swiss restaurant. The Club is downstairs in the catacombs. With a small entrance. What a big surprise to hear Swiss language talking from within the club. There is Sweety the boss. He is the owner of St. Moritz since the Sixties. Kind of Basel-dialect is still there. Lovely to here another Swiss voice. It’s Vesna from Luzern. What a big surprise. She sits there and she can’t believe we’re coming to play. Her plan is to visit the Notting Hill Carnival. In advance she wants to attend for her first time the famous Thursday night at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues (the longest running weekly event – every Thursday for more than 30 years!). “Great you’re here, but not what I expected” she says.

Stage

Next things we have to manage is to find enough space for our equipment on that little stage. How to place the drum set? It’s a tiny little stage. One Ampeg bass amplifier, the drum set, it’s full already! Simon must push the Amp away to get to his drum. Can’t imagine that Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster and numberless other Ska legends played there.

Beside the Ska nights there were bands playing like: Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, AC/DC, Marillion or Nirvana (is this all true? How?). The dance floor is reserved for the wildest and wickedest dancers. Not more than a hundred? It’s hard to say, how many. Soundcheck? Forget it. It’s already DJ time. Old and even older records turn the table and bring some people to dance. Another legendary event and jam is creasing along.

This nights selection drives along the fifties and sixties. A mixture of Rhythm ‘n’ Blues and Ska to Rocksteady drives along. Not many people are here that early. I meet up with Nilsa, who shoot the picture of mine with flute.

Gaz Mayall presenting DER TRANSFORMER from Switzerland at St. Moritz, Soho

At 1.30 AM it’s Luzern time at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues. DER TRANSFORMER is transforming London. The one and only Gaz Mayall starts the show. He’s the eldest son of blues legend John Mayall and leader of The Trojans, worlds greatest DJ, multi-instrumentalist and best announcer ever.

“Drum Song” is running through heavy vain and starts the firework of dub canons. Track by track the program goes on. No words. Just sound and power. Dub – Strictly for you. Wicked. London is amazed. No computers, just 4 musicians, basics in it’s own rights. What a surprise, but the technique is running steady. Max Romeo’s “Chase The Devil” rocks the club real hot. A party at its highest level and the dance floor rocks. DER TRANSFORMER rocks.

Special guests

First special guest is Ras Claude with his flute and is performing Herbie Manns “Memphis Underground” inna funky-reggae style.

No effects (samples, intros) are possible. Oliver’s notebook doesn’t work, game over. Because only hand made music is around, it’s unfiltered live music and the audience loves it. Oliver can’t hear what he’s playing. Meanwhile the dance is hot and sweet and everybody rocks the steady beat.

Second special guest is Fabian with the melodica.

Fabian the dubmaster mixes up the audience in a fresh style with the melodica. Some like it Dub.

Nonsi is running around for more than 24 hours. All day long he is picking up telephones, dealing around, constructing, talking, searching and on and on. No surprise he’s not relaxed and this stage is a difficult experience. Our wonderful crowd can feel the music and have no idea about the stories behind. Not everything is perfect, but nobody cares. No 1 and first swiss band at Gaz’s Rockin’ And Shockin’ Blues survive the trip to the Mekka of sounds and play their first London show. Respect.

After show party

In the club there are some further special guests: Late great legendary DJ and originator Duke Vin (his words: “great concert”). Amazing Rudy Jones, saxophonist for THE TROJANS (no picture). After the show we enjoy the club, the people and it is hard to leave.

Till 4 AM everybody is rough riding on wine and grine. Wonderful place, great atmosphere. Million thanx to the one and only GAZ MAYALL. Rockin’ Blues parties are the best in the world.

London early morning

After the show we go back to Ginos place to rest for a few hours, before we have to leave London. Again Nonsi is leaving much earlier to bring the backline back. Again through London with all the equipment but this time with Simon as a helping hand. It takes much more time than expected and they miss the plane. Only a few minutes too late to catch the airplane. They have to stay another night in London and travel back home the next day. Oliver takes the a train again. We’re reading in the newspaper: “Thursday morning airplane crash, hundreds dead” (fact: NYTimes). This is one of those moments. How many airplane crashes a year, but this one is crashing the very same day, we’re in one of them. Luckily we’ve been in another. And another sad news I’ve found about the Notting Hill carnival 2000 (a carnival with two dead on 28th wikipedia). Lucky Transformer just celebrate the first band trip to London.

Playlist

Playlist of the show is inexistent but the following tunes have been played at St. Moritz:

• Drum song (Jackie Mittoo-Coxsone Dodd / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• How Can I Leave (Heptones-Coxsone Dodd / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• School (Cedric Brooks-Coxsone Dodd / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• Chase The Devil (Max Romeo-Lee Perry / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• Memphis Underground (Herbie Mann / arr. DER TRANSFORMER) (find some sound examples here)
• Some Like It Hot (Dennis Brown / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• Millenium Dub (Black Princess Lady, Linval Thompson / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)
• Dub # 7 (DER TRANSFORMER)
• Transformer Dub (DER TRANSFORMER)
• Punnany (Ansell Collins – Winston Riley / arr. DER TRANSFORMER)

Der Transformer in London 2000

Nonsi	Simon	René	Oliver
Fabian	Ras Claude

Background story

The Roots Connection invited The Trojans to Luzern in 1995. The warm-up band is Peacestreet (featuring René, Simon, Nonsi and Ras Claude who later became Der Transformer). In 1996 Ras Claude met Gaz Mayall again in Montpellier while touring with Skasplash (The Skatalites & Laurel Aitken). And then at the M for Music festival in April 2000 Der Transformer played the same Ska Night as The Trojans. Rudy Jones and René talked about playing in London. René went to London to ask how about playing at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues. Again short afterwards Ras Claude went to London to meet Rico Rodriguez, Natty Bo, Megumi Mesaku and Gaz Mayall to finalize the deal and fixing the date.

More Der Transformer at The Roots Connection:

• Der Transformer music
• Der Transformer music stories: rootsconnection.ch/rasclaude
• Der Transformer news on Facebook.