photos: Amanda Artiaga
I once described Berlin as an apotheosis of the proverbial sex, drugs, and… well, mostly techno. As a self-confessed Elvis worshipper, I find that last characteristic slightly regrettable. Personally, I try to do my share in maintaining Berlin’s legacy as the erstwhile home to Iggy, Bowie, and Nick Cave – but even cranky me can’t constantly live in the past and/or Johnny Cash lyrics. Saddened by the recent demise of the Bassy Club, we decided to put together a list of joints that still spice up the nightlife with some rock’n’roll spirit, be it punk rock, new wave, post-punk, blues, or whatever else to float your barman’s boat.
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by Michalina | Bars, City Guide, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg
“If you can remember the 80s, you weren’t there”, says the slogan of the Berlinale success B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin. Watching the video to the new single ‘Singularity’ by New Order, you get an idea why. The night scene of the 80s in West Berlin was raw, fueled with drugs, and filled with musicians. The times were agitated and the nights were long.
The band from the UK seems to process some of these memories in their newest music video from their 2015 album Music Complete. And they used footage from the iconic B-Movie in it, edited to the song perfectly. Get a glimpse of the good old days and see the new music video right after the jump.
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by Yasmin | Music, Videos
photo: Ilse Ruppert
One of the treasures of this year’s Berlinale was the documentary B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin that captured the wild and crazy years of West-Berlin in the 80s before the wall came down. I know that we commonly always think that it was the East part of Germany that was behind the wall in the case of Berlin it was actually the West part that was walled-in like a prison. It must have been a strange feeling to be surrounded by the Soviet-led East Germany and I am not surprised that this led to a lot of chaos, craziness and rebellions of the youth culture. The 80s are known for its punk and rave eras and you can still feel the influences of that in fashion and music nowadays. It’s funny when the older generations comment the 80s by saying: Oh, you remember the 80s? Than apparently you haven’t been there… I was still so young back than and too far away from Berlin deep inside East Germany that I didn’t catch anything of it. But thanks to the film B-Movie by Jörg A.Hoppe, Klaus Maeck and Heiko Lange I have a chance to relive it through a lot of footage from the time, a lot of it previously unreleased.
The film follows British musician, actor and author Mark Reeder as he moves to Berlin to discover the creative underground scene of the strange city. The film is like a collage of images from the nightlife, the street riots, the art and music scene – there is definitely a lot of sex, drugs and rock’n roll involved. We encounter a young Nick Cave as he dips into the city, we meet Westbam before the Loveparade and many more legendary characters that started their careers in this period of political instability. It was a world that was undergoing drastic changes which made everything more extreme and I think this is what made the 80s so significant in the history of Berlin. Watch the trailer after the jump and I think you will understand what I am talking about…
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by Frank | Movies
Night life Berlin is the title of a great book of photos that tells the visual history of drinking, celebrating and dancing in Berlin from 1974 until today. Check out a preview after the jump.
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by Jens | Books, Party, Photos
