Café CC in Amsterdam, a pub for musicians

If you are working behind the bar it is good to realize that you are at that moment the face of the cafe. I used to work behind the bar myself, I think I did a good job to amuse people but the owners had different thoughts about me, so I got fired at least three times. But every time they asked me back because the costumers liked me, although they had to designate their drinks behind the bar...it just took me some time to learn all the names of the drinks by head so that I stopped giving the wrong drinks to people who didn’t order them. I must say, the face of café CC last night was most charming and I think he does a really good job by making people feel welcome at this pub. And I think he’s sometimes a bit like me because when I ordered a glass of water he put an empty beer glass on the bar. I think I’ve been staring at least 15 seconds at that empty glass while I was wondering what I should to do with an empty glass.. Then Frits discovered his mistake and with a “'Oh sorry, I am still a little sleepy from the New Year’s Celebration…”, and then he took the glass back and filled it with water. I thought this was a really funny incident.

It was about a year ago that I had been at café CC for the first time (and last time) and I remember that there was also a bartender who nicely welcomed me with a cup of coffee and a chat. That I never came back was not because of the pub itself, but because of the location. For me it is a bit far to cycle. This is really a shame, because CC is a café where a lot of musicians are coming together. If I lived closer to it I think I would be there every week ! Anyway, Frits the bartender explained that all the stuff laid down and that we ourselves could choose amps. The cafe itself looked cozy, there were candles lit, there were cushions and Frits said that we just had to do if we were home. It was still early and the Great Feast of the New Year's Celebration was ended just 12 hours ago in this pub. While enjoying a cup of coffee I stared into the void. It looked like as if we were gonna play for tables and chairs. And for Frits of course. A few time ago I had asked the owner of the bar if I could come over and play the first of January because I knew that my Italian friend Gian Piero, who just arrived from Rome, there also would play And also I wanted to play because it is Christmas holidays so I don’t need work next day. Gian Piero is, as you've read, the author of a book about female Soviet pilots in World War II. He is now in Amsterdam to visit bookstores who might want to sell his book. He has also written some songs (in Italian) and he runs off some pubs where he sings his songs. I was happy when I saw Gian Piero and Craig came in and also a woman with her boyfriend. This woman had announced on Facebook that they would come and I really liked it she did. I did not know her personnaly, but I had seen her in the cafe Langereis a few weeks ago. So that made four human beings in the audience.(And Frits of course) Finally some more people showed up including a man who thought that he was going to play. But after consultation it was no problem that his turn would be around 11. The sound was really good in the cafe, and we played for an hour. No idea why I suddenly skipped a chorus and why I was in another song two measures too late with the bridge. Fortunately, bassist Mick was immediately ready and I could only see his eyes were narrowing a bit as he followed what I was doing.

Finally we played the song “On the Corner” and during the third verse I felt totally drunk. It was so kicking and I thought to myself: “damn, that I can do this, am I really doing this ? This song is just a hit, man! Everybody should go out of their mind! Guess what! " (But there was just one to yawn and the other people had already begun with eating good food ...:)

Well, what I am saying is this: I had a good time with Arjen and Mick and I think the people who were listening were happy and relaxed. Some of them asked me if we have a cd which they can buy, but we haven’t. I hope we will make some good recordings in the future. After the performance I was really hungry and somebody brought good food so I also started to eat and drink and having a good time with listening to the other musicians and talking with my friends. Café CC is a really nice café and I’m really sorry that I do not live near the café. I hope to come back one day.

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café De Doelen

Arjen en Frits

There was a strong wind when I cycled to the centre of Amsterdam. On a bridge I fell of my bike and I thought my guitar broke, but everything was allright, thank god.

 I went to café De Doelen last night and when I arrived I looked through the windows and I saw a lot of people drinking, smiling and talking. I was not nervous at all, but I was happy when I saw a friend of mine, Frits, sitting next to the door drinking his beer.

I got inside and a nice woman told me it was pretty busy that night and that she would move a table to make room for us to play. She offered me a cup of coffee and then I saw Arjen, so me and Frits sat down at his place. Mick arrived and after ten minutes we started to check the sound.

 First I thought that we were gonna have a hard time because it was difficult to find the right sound. Than some people from the audience helped us by telling us how we sounded together so we could change the volumes. Mick brought his own mic and so I think my voice sounded allright.

 

 As you maybe know I am a teacher so I tell children everything about Dutch grammar, mathematics, geography, history and other subjects.  But in the meantime I am watching what's happening in the classroom...( which means that I want them to pay attention to the lessons and not writing little notes about how they are in love with some guy or so) So I am very used to tell stories on autopilot while watching around. Now this is what happens when I sing: I try to concentrate on my lyrics and the music but I see most of times what's happening in the audience. And this time I noticed that a man and a woman were talking all the time while I was singing and two other female friends were listening. They listened just two songs while they were looking severe and then they stood up and left. The man and the woman stopped talking after five songs and started listening till the end ( twelve songs). After we finished the show she came to me and asked me if she could buy a cd. I don't have a cd. Then she asked if she could download something. Well, maybe there is a possibility ( soundcloud) but I don't think so. "Write down the link of your blogspot", Frits suggested.
So I did. I hope she didn't loose it because I took a picture of her.

She told me she was from England and first she thought that the music we were gonna play wouldn't mean anything to her. But then she started to like it a lot. Well, I took this as a compliment. It's exactly what I saw happening. I also saw some other people watching and listening, sometimes leaving, sometimes coming closer,sometimes talking softly It was really a nice gig, because everybody was relaxed. We played the whole setlist ( twelve songs) and it took us an hour. Yes, it was really nice to be here. After playing we felt good.

 

 

 

I was very glad that Desiree and her husband Eugene passed by. As you could read in another story Desiree organizes houseconcerts and a few weeks ago we played at her house. If you like to get some information about these houseconcerts I could give you a link.

 

I think Arjen and Mick and me did a good job last night, we did not make many mistakes and the atmosphere in the café was allright. I did my presentation in Dutch, but I think almost everybody was English. There were no French people, this I know because I asked in my best French :) While I was singing my last song 'On the Corner' I was very suprised to see delta bluesplayer Henry come in. I didn't see him for a long time. The funny thing is that I thought about him as I cycled to café De Doelen. It was he who took me there once and told me this is a nice café to play. Henry took his guitar with him ( of course) and he started playing his songs after we were finished.

Second surprise was that I met Gian Piero Milanetti, a professor from Rome. I knew he would be in Amsterdam that night because he told me the day before. He is gonna play his songs Tuesday at café CC where I will play my songs too. But I was surprised that he came at café De Doelen. You must know that he wrote a book

Presentazione del libro "le streghe della notte" del prof. gian piero milanetti
„Le Streghe della Notte"

 

 

Gian also played a few songs of him.

 

 

Another guy who showed up was Craig and I saw him listening for almost an hour. Actually he could sing with me for he knows almost all the songs and he's got a great voice.

 

After the show we had a good time together.

 

And this is such a nice thing to do... thanks Frits :)

 

Ik ben net naar een optreden van Annette Vogel geweest. Erg leuk. Ik heb haar voorheen alleen bij optredens gezien waar ze een paar nummers speelde en dan heeft het geen tijd om saai te worden. Nu speelde ze een heel uur en ik kan zeggen: het wordt absoluut niet saai. Ze had een fijne bassist en en Utrechtse Cahon-speler bij zich en dat maakt de band wel compleet (wat natuurlijk mijn bescheiden mening is). Leuk, leuk, leuk!

 

“

 

 

Hans Teeuwen talks about singersongwriters

Tonight I will play at café De Doelen in the centre of Amsterdam. I hope that Mick and Arjen and I will have a nice time together and I hope there will be nice people to meet. However, we need to concentrate on the songs because we planned to play the full setlist in one hour. It's really great Arjen likes to play with us on his cajun. Anyway, I am not a woman of 'I am great, you are great, they are great', I am a woman who likes to protest and act like everything is allright. I am  the singersongwriter of what Hans Teeuwen is talking about. Except for the fact that I won't wear a hat.
(I used to  try to wear a hat, but it gets really hot in my head when I wear one while I am singing, so from now on I will never wear a hat again ( I think ...:) )
As usually I don't know what I shall wear for a  night like this, so when I drank some coffee at the HEMA in Amsterdam-Noord I told my friend that I feel kind of depressed, especcially about being a singersongwriter.  I mean, a singersongwriter wants to be heard, to be seen, to be on a stage. But what if nobody shows up but yourself ?
"You should listen to Hans Teeuwen", he said, "and then you will feel better. "  And so I did.
 I must admit, now I feel a lot better.

 Hans Teeuwen and singersongwriters ( sorry, in Dutch)

Well, despite the comments of Hans Teeuwen who likes to shoot me down I just bought ten plectrums and I made a setlist for tonight, so we'll see what will happen... Yes, I feel much better now ! 

Café Langereis in Amsterdam

Last week I had a great gig at Café Langereis. You can find this café in the centre of Amsterdam, on the corner of the Rembrandtplein and the Amstel. Cindy Peress had invited some singersongwriters to come over and play their songs. I had never been there before and after half an hour cycling I arrived at 7 pm at a very busy Rembrandtplein. The café was even more overcrowded, there was hardly room to stand up. I couldn’t find any stage, so I first thought I was at the wrong place. I asked at the bar and they said I was at the right place and than, thank God, I saw Cindy moving somewhere between all these smiling people who already started asking me when I was going to play ( no, not because I am famous, just because they saw me with my guitar on my back trying to get a seat somewhere.) She asked me to wait for a while so she could move some tables to make room for the musicians. In the mean time Arjen, the cajunplayer, had arrived, and because of the fact that there was no room for us at the café , we decided to have some coffee at another place. That was a wrong decision because when we walked into the coffeeshop just in front of café Langereis, they told us we had to pay at least 15 euro’s to buy some weed and to get a table.We only needed some coffee and a place to sit down so we left the smoking coffeeshop and then I saw Mick somewhere in the dark.  So we returned to Langereis and finally we found some seats. 

The first singersongwriter was a woman who played the piano. She did a   good job. She's called Sharon Goslar, good voice, good way to play the piano. (actually I think she was gonna play at SWAn one day but then she got ill, so maybe she'll come back another time)  Then Cindy played some of her songs and after her it was Hans Eckhardt his turn. He took a very nice singer with him and I really liked the way they played the last song.

Also I met Barbara Breedijk, she sang her songs in Dutch and some of them were really funny. Then it was Bomber Leo's turn, a nice young lady with a good steady voice. In the mean time it was around 9 pm and then it was our turn. I asked Barbara to make some pictures of me, and usually people take four or five pictures. But she took many, I almost started to feel a popstar by looking in the flashlight all the time; she took more than 50 pictures of me ! ! 

I think me, Mick and Arjen did a good job, allthough the we played the song Schizophrenia way too fast. It was only the second time we played with Arjen and I like what he is doing on his cajun. That little box sounds like a complete drumstel ( don't know the word in English, sorry again for my English) . The stage was really really small, so Mick sang his tunes right into my ear very loudly. This was a bit funny and everytime just before I knew he would start singing again I tried to shut my right ear.... The audience was very kind to us and the atmosphere was just allright. 

After we were done it was Ron Goudie his turn. I always like what he is doing, I mean I like free jazz, punk and Ron Goudie. He will play at SWAN at the 9th of January, so I look forward to hear him play again. 

There were some more acts, like a nice woman who played the piano. I don't know her name, but I do know she was the whole evening in café Langereis. I know this because at the beginning of the night she smiled at me in a very kind way. Finally it was Tony Chapman who started to play and sing, and he also played together with this woman with a nice voice ( sorry, don't know her name), you can see them on the pictures. 

At the end of the night the owner of the café asked us to come back and play on a Sundaynight in café Langereis. I am very happy she invited us because I liked the atmosphere of that place. So we'll be there again in March. 

Tony Chapman + singer

Barbara Breedijk

Sharon Goslar

Bomber Leo

Ron Goudie

Cindy Peress

 

Hans Eckhardt

Last night there were some people in the audience I really liked. They were watching and listening all night and I think they had a good time with all the singersongwriters who played last night.

Audience

Annette on Facebook

SWAN-SingersongWritersAmsterdamNoord

Suffering from schizophrenia

I just came back from a gig in café Langereis. It was a great gig but first I need to write something about my song 'Schizophrenia'.  Now this is the question people often ask me after they listened to my song Schizophrenia: "Do you suffer from schizophrenia ?"
And I am so lucky that I can tell people I barely escaped from this complicated disease. Yes, I do have experiences with psychoses and for this case I am also lucky that I didn't do drugs and alcohol. There has been research into the use of cannabis and schizophrenia in 1987: more than 45000 Swedish recruits were asked how much drugs they were using.These data were linked to subsequent hospital admissions related to schizophrenia.
 The result was shocking: the boys who had used cannabis more than once in their lifetime at the time of the inspection service, had more chance to suffer from schizophrenia. The chance is  two and a half times larger compared to those who previously or ever had used only once. Indeed, the risk of schizophrenia was found to increase with the frequency of cannabis use.  If I had used drugs I would have blowed up my synesthetical mind completely.
Since I have been suffering from any bipolar disorder you can think of, I spent half of my life trying to understand what's really going. As a busker I met many drunks, whores, psychiatric patients and all kind of people living on the street.  I've seen a lot of things happening in  mental institutions and as a teacher I often  see how children have to grow up under very difficult circumstances.
These days I understand what's happening in a psychose and I understand what's happening if you feel totally lost.
I can understand this because I am aware of what I really am. Now this may sound a bit  surprising or implausible but this is what I say: what I really am is consiousness.

The song Schizophrenia is one of my favorite songs. It's a protestsong against the use of the isolation cells they still use here in the Netherlands. It's a protestsong against the misunderstanding of the human psyche of people who feel lost and frightened.Schizophrenia - acoustic version by AnnetteV

If you are Dutch and you need to know more you can contact www.Anoiksis.nl
A very interesting website is the site of Joost: www.psychoseanders.nl
Nomad Remix -schizophrenia (original AnnetteV)

vogelannette@yahoo.com

This one is to you RONALD !  en nu.. hop naar bed ! 

Shining Guys in Café Barco

Unfortunallity, the evening started with a  disagreement with Mick about the participation of Arjen, the cajun player. I can't tell right now what was going on exactly, but this fight made me feel real bad.   I tried to get out of the tension I felt but I failed completely.
Before we started  there was already a group of people who were yelling and screaming. I can tell you, it's hard to play your songs if people scream that loud. They were flute students of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and they just had a concert, one of them told me. I think it's rude to think that one only should be quiet when classical music is played. I mean, Paul van Dijk, de organisator of the gigs in Barco asked them politely to be quiet because of the performances of the singersongwriters.They didn't even notice him. I didn't feel that strong to ask them to be more quiet, but, well, on the other hand, who am I to judge and think that all people should shut up when Annette Vogel opens her mouth :) Actually I don't mind if people are talking and having a good time when I am playing my songs, but this group was really too loud for me.
So before I started playing, I knew there was a problem here and I tried to play my songs as good as possible. In the second set I made a lot of mistakes and finally I left the ship  with a bad feeling. Thank God I have to cycle half an hour to get home so while I was cycling I became quiet and started thinking about the good things:
1.  There were two Shining Guys in the audience and I am so happy they came to listen, because they brought  a very positive energy with them.These two guys listened all night to the singersongwriters who were playing last night in café Barco.

2. Another good thing was that the owner of the bar took a seat for a while. It was kind of relaxing seeing him listening and watching my performance and the performances of the other musicians. I think he could affort relaxing because Esmee was working this night and she is such a nice helpfull and beautiful lady ( actually she is an actrice.Esmee ) so...
3. Esmee was working that night at Barco.

nice shining guys in the audience

owner of the bar, listening and musing

Esmee

Simon Kempston

4.Danielle played her songs pretty well  and when she was done 5. ...a guy called Simon started to sing his songs. I liked the guy, I liked his voice and his fingerpickingstyle and especially I liked how he sat down quietly next to his cd's waiting all night for his turn. Before I met him I had watched his vids on youtube and I was curious how he was gonna play this night and he did a good job.

Danalyze

Paul van Dijk

dinner at Barco

6. Just before I left Mick told me it was allright to play again in Barco because Paul had finally put the sound of his bassguitar louder.
7. Frank Fanille passed by and I always like that.

Me and Mick playing at Barco

So here are at least 7 points of a positive view of the performance last night. Still I got not much energy and I am not sure what 's gonna happen next with me, Mick and Arjen...

NOTE: