Excerpts of The Broken Toys tour journal 1998

(by Karl)

    "DIRTY, DISGUSTING AND GROSS, YOUVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE

IT! YOURE GONNA LOVE IT!"  We were in Amsterdam. It was a cold, but sunny

Sunday afternoon, and this guy standing outside a sex-club, was yelling this at us. I was

such a mess from the last few nights, I thought out loud "That describes me this morning

and I didnt love it!" Ollie (of the Stormtroopers) was taking us on a journey for hash, but

all I needed was a cup of coffee, badly! But let me explain the events leading to this quest.

    On Thursday morning, Oct. 8th, we landed in Stuttgart. Naturally my guitar stayed

in London. After describing what a rectangular black guitar case looks like, the lovely

young lady behind the counter assured me that it would be delivered to me on Friday. So

me, Steve and Ken, along with Stormtroopers Texass and SantaKlaus hopped in the cars and

headed for Sindelfingen. The sour note of the missing guitar was soon replaced with joy as

we passed the ASS FACTORY, The pride of Stuttgart! Honey I'm home! We stopped

and unpacked at the famous (but as you read this, probably torn down) Seemuhle Str. and

proceded to taste the fine German elixir.

    Fri. Oct. 9th, the show was in Nortingen. The people who ran the club were really

cool and provided us with good food and good beer. This was the first time Id ever seen

"The Rock n Roll Stormtroopers" and I was impressed. Nothing out of the ordinary

happened that night. Got to see a few old friends, Ingrid, who was with us on our tour in

'91 and also Meli and Jasi. And who could forget "Long-Schlong Dave" and Janet? Oh

yeah, I did get my guitar before we left for the show!

  Sat. Oct. 10th, the Sindelfingen Pavilion. It was a cool turnout and the booze was

really flowing tonight! It was the Stormtroopers turn to play second, so we could drink

their beer as they played. I can remember seeing Steves ass while we played and then

driving a car to the a pub called the Traube after we played. Because of this motor ride, I

missed seeing the drunk guy in lying down in the street and covered in vomit. I was told

that when he was woken up and asked if he was all right, he said "ja" and went back to

sleep in the street. Sadly, after the drunken adventures in the Traube, I think I joined him.

  Sun. Oct 11th, Damn, Damn, Damn! What a hangover!!! The show is at at place called

The Rock Fabrique. Its like a disneyland of  black/gothic/crustcore/lame/death metal!

There's weird paintings on the walls and ceiling and  there's also contorted statues of evil.

At about 7pm, as we were served our meal of "Fruit Loops", pickles, butter, ham and

bread, a loud pounding of death started to erupt. It seemed to be awakening the statues

and beckoning them to a duel to the death with my hangover. And suddenly, as if from out

of the dry ice, people started to appear and then spin their hair/heads around. Air guitarists

and headbangers were everywhere. There was nowhere to go to escape this evil noise,

even the toilets were haunted by the sounds of misery! For this night was known as

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY! Right before we were to play, I noticed that the uniform of

the day was BLACK, black clothes, black hair, black everything even black thoughts but,

to my dismay, I wasnt dressed for the occasion. No, I was still in the filthy glory of the

night before, the same flowery shirt, same checkered pants and the same unwashed,

beer-stained smoke infested body. Now I had to take a leak. That meant walking the

gauntlet through the black-death crowd in my clown suit. Fortunately, the black-metal

gods were in a good mood, because no one taught me a lesson. The show went on, dry ice

and all, to a small and confused audience. Which included Freya and Julia who drove here

all the way from Sindelfingen to witness the blackdeath all around us. As we were packing

up I noticed my headache was gone.