On June 2nd 1992 Faith No More took a break from touring with Guns N' Roses to perform an undercover gig at The Marquee in Hamburg Germany. The gig was unique and Faith No More played a truly once in a lifetime set list.
They are coming!
Photos and Words by Julietta Kühle
Exactly 30 years ago, this exclamation with confirmation echoed through Hamburg’s landlines. It was the signal for hundreds of doubtful but excited people to rush to the red-light district around Reeperbahn and gather at the Marquee Club.
Then the long wait started. Release came when finally a bus stopped in front of the club and out tumbled...FAITH NO MORE.
The secret, not so secret, gig went on for hours and was one of the best I have ever attended. How did that happen?
We met the guys of FNM at a DIE TOTEN HOSEN show in Dortmund. I was waiting at the VIP counter for my turn but the queue was halted because the guy in front was shouting in vain. I went to check what was going on and saw Jim Martin arguing that FNM were supposed to be on the guest list. They weren't.
It turned out our posse had some extra tickets and we invited some of the band to join us while Jim continued in his mission.
The capacity of the venue was something like 15,000 and it was sold out. When the song Bommerlunder came on and the whole audience sang along, Bill Gould asked me about the lyrics and I translated “1 sandwich with ham, 1 sandwich with egg”.
“Not bad for a small German Punk band” he smiled.
After the show some of us squeezed in Bill’s Trabbi car which he got from an East German fan. In Düsseldorf the whole trip ended at the Dschungel and our fan-ship friendship began.
Bill said if I ever came to San Francisco I could stay at his house, which I did in 1993 and again in 1998.
In 1992 during FNM's tour with Gun’s N Roses we got VIP tickets for every show we wanted to see and we used them - Berlin, Köln, Hannover, Würzburg, and of course all the solo concerts later that year and ever since.
Now, back to the gig at Marquee. At that time Babs Oberpichler, may she rest in peace, mother of Gagu Steffens, was the manager of the club. The German punk rock band Rubbermaids provided their backline, the in-crowd prepared the venue and we were sitting next to the telephone waiting to hear about the show.
As I recall, it was a day off for FNM in Hannover, their concert was scheduled for the next day, on the 3rd. They had to do interviews, have dinner with important people but around 11pm the long-desired call came. They were on their way.
The concert itself is a blur. It was crowded, it was hot, it was long, it was fantastic. At one point Mike Patton called for a break as he needed some air. Later he announced they would play until everybody left. Nobody did.
The show was recorded and released on CD. I gifted my copy to Patton at the Dead Cross show in Hamburg, Markthalle, in 2018. It belonged to him, it came home.