Man vänjer sig.

Vanligtvis välunderrättade källor, enkannerligen den officiella hemsidan, tillkännager att Kraftwerk ska ge åtta 3D-konserter i Düsseldorf under januari. Det är samma koncept som på MOMA i New York tidigare i år: varje kväll kör de alla låtar från ett av de åtta klassiska albumen (flera av låtarna hade faktiskt aldrig spelats live tidigare) samt de flesta andra klassiker, allt till ackompanjemang av 3D-grafik (glasögon delas ut till alla besökare).

Jag är osäker på om jag alls har råd eller möjlighet att åka ner dit, men det vore kul att se åtminstone en av spelningarna. (Att se alla åtta är inte en realistisk plan. Det kostar mer än jag kan avvara.)

[KORRIGERING: Ämnesraden ska naturligtvis lyda "Dag 8", inte "Dag 6".]

Yesterday, Kraftwerk had to cancel their festival gig in Melbourne, Australia, as their sound engineer and live musician Fritz Hilpert (the short, grey-haired guy, third from the left in their usual live setup) was hospitalised for what a visibly upset Ralf Hütter described as "heart failure".

The latest reports say that Fritz has been cleared to fly to Perth, so it appears they won't cancel the rest of the tour. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him.

Tonight it's 15 years since I saw Kraftwerk on the Mix tour. God, I'm feeling old now...

It's still one of the best concerts I've ever been to. Others that stand out in my mind are Depeche Mode at the Globe in 1993, New Order at Cirkus in 2001, The Klinik at Hof Ter Lo in Antwerpen, 2003, Kraftwerk at Cirkus, 2004, and Depeche Mode at Stockholms Stadion this summer, but Kraftwerk in 1991 was my first. And, like they say, you never forget the first time.

Spent today watching Kraftwerk's DVD Minimum-Maximum together with sunjan and Justina; kjn and thette joined us later in the afternoon but only got to see the second disc. Of course it's partially brilliant (I still get goosebumps from "The Man-Machine" and "Neon Lights"), but I did get a slightly sour taste from seeing the really ugly black field on the "Music Non Stop" backing video — it's there to block out Wolfgang Flür's face.¹ While I understand why they do it, they could have done a much less obvious job of it. I still love their music, but every time I hear of them pursuing their copyright in dubious ways Ralf and Florian drop a bit in my esteem. Only last year they filed a complaint with eBay when Wolfgang put up his old red shirt and black tie for auction (with all proceeds going to charity), because he mentioned the name of his old band in the auction.

After the show, I played video and audio snippets of older concerts. The premiere of "Europe Endless" and "Trans-Europe Express" (live at Paradiso, Amsterdam, September 11 1976), both in rather primitive and almost brutal versions; "Pocket Calculator" live on the Computerworld tour, with the hand-held instruments and a real miked-up calculator; "Vitamin" in Helsinki (Helsingin Jäähalli, February 6 2004), with Ralf's vocals almost an octave higher than usual... If nothing else it makes me realise how much things have changed, and also how many interesting recordings I have in my vaults.

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¹I presume everyone who is even slightly interested in Kraftwerk knows about Wolfgang's 1999 autobiography Ich war ein Roboter (translated into English as I was a robot), which lead his former bandmates Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider to sue him. Their attitude can roughly be summed up as "Wolfgang is lying most of the time, and when he's telling the truth for a change you wish he hadn't". Whether this is true I cannot tell, but I know that his book, though interesting, isn't very good. I agree with the description I found in a review: "bitter and bonkers". Not to mention having a significantly higher sexual content than is usual in a Kraftwerk context.