At the end of the 80th I finally started to go out, was a bit of a late starter. I vividly remember seeing my first gig: it was in the ‘Drugstore’ a youth club within a city financed youth center. On Potsdamer Strasse, one of the sleazier areas of West Berlin. I vividly remember one band: when the singer with shaven head screamed at us ‘Scheiss mich an, ich bin ein Klosett, scheiss mich an, bitte sei so nett!’ I was sold. V-Mann Joe became our favorite local band which we followed around town whenever possible. Drugstore was an odd place, I don’t think there was an entrance fee. Non alcoholic drinks were free and beer was very cheap. They served Engelhardt Pils, ‘Engelhardt macht den Stengel hart’.

That place was also well placed strategically: across the large intersection was the K.O.B. another of our favorites. You could hang out at the cheap Drugstore and wait for the K.O.B. to open up for free for the second part of their gigs, which they often did. On the way to and fro you could pick up cheap beer at the ubiquitous Doner Kebap places. Or go for a Doner and a beer, price was fixed at 5DM for that classic setup. Ah nostalgia…

As the Drugstore was located within a youth center, the educational aspect did get emphasised: a stall with books and pamphlets was in front, selling such valuable material as the ‘Squatters Handbook’ lovely copied by hand and stapled together. In one section it advised the ‘female comrade’ to not forget her contraceptives when fighting on the barricades. I guess the author was some sex starved youngster with a romantic vision of class struggle…