DIE NEUE ZEITUNG (‘The New Gazette’) - ‘Gunther Plankl notes’:
“There was intensified police presence yesterday at the Konzerthaus because of the concert by popstar Jimi Hendrix. But it wasn’t the Hendrix fans in the hall that the law had to keep an eye on. Organizer Joachim Lieben feared that it would come to similar scenes like three days ago at the Opera. Shortly before the first show Lieben was informed that demonstrators had planned a march to the Konzerthaus. Lichen called the police. The officers had no reason to act because the demonstrators already had dispersed. It is however possible that the men in uniform went home with pain in their ears, because Jimi Hendrix is loud enough.”
KURIER (‘Courier’) - ‘Dispensable Aquantance’ by Igo Sicka: “[…]
Gimmicks are a part of show business, and Hendrix limited himself to playing the guitar with his teeth. When you subtract the offered performance, what is left are some quite passable drum solos, which offered the audience’s tortured ears a break to recover, as the drums weren’t amplified. [rest of text?]
[…] Whatever you can call this way of producing noise it belongs where it comes from: in the underground.
KRONEN-ZEITUNG (‘Crown-Gazette’) - ‘6,000 Watts’ by ‘A.M.’:
“The crystal chandeliers were swinging to and fro. Next door Otto Schenk was desperately cheerful. I kept ‘Oropax’ ready. At 20:30 somebody came nonchalantly on stage, as we know a real [sic] Cherokee Indian. First we didn’t see him at all. Twelve amplifiers blocked our view. Then a shouting broke loose in the Konzerthaus hail, which had been bought up by the under-aged long hair elite of Vienna, which in comparison with what followed next, sounded like the soft rustle of a forest. Because then there was underground. (The no less loud support-act I missed over a cup of coffee in the theatre bar.) Besides much noise about nothing, which would have fitted better in the Stadthalle (where there is a skating show at the moment), I can report about a boy who tried to snatch the sticks from the drummer and another who tried to trip Jimi Hendrix up. Both were chased through the hall by the body-guards of the idol, and finally stopped and... (that I didn’t see). The better seats cost two to three hundred schillings. The youngsters who despise money could afford it. Available police guards hardly came into action. A mad rolling of the eyes was sufficient to chase the particularly undisciplined through the emergency exit. It had little to do with ‘Stimmen der Welt’ [Voices of The World}.
DIE PRESSE (‘The Press’) - ‘Very loud, very boring’ by Gotthard Böhm:
“‘Stray cattle’ the teenager (male? female?), next to me sighed, when the loudest pop star of The World, Jimi Hendrix, shuffled onto the stage of the big hall of the Konzerthaus. ‘Hey boy, what’s the matter with you’ he yelled when there was an intermission, and grumbling he left the hall after an hour, taking a French leave, just like his idol. And that was it. Somebody told me that the imaginary star Perry Rhodan, great-administrator of the solar imperium, in his war against the threatening horrible worm has declared a total sound war. I smile mildly and point out that the author of this popular futuristic pop series has fallen back on an ancient approved way to kill by quoting from the detective fiction of Dorothy L. Sayers, in which the killer ties his victim to a church bell valued far and wide for the richness of its sound. After this the sound waves do their job. As you can see everything has been done
With nine thousand Watts of amplifier power Jimi Hendrix now makes war against the eardrums of the international pop audience, who by now apparently is used to noise and even knows how to appreciate it. For this son of an Indian [sic] and a Negro mother has nothing else to offer besides noise and a colourful appearance. At the risk of being lynched by Hendrix fans: it was boring, because monotony causes dullness, indifference, and boredom. Vienna did hear, at least during the second show at 22:00, the loudest sound effects from sixty speakers that have ever sounded along the Danube, but apart from sat there was at a weak trace of wildness and experiment to detect. As for the hair style and dress of the musicians, their road crew, and the public, sure enough there was something to see. Of course, Jimi can not be compared with his associates or his fans. From silver Turkish jewelry to tight pants which were embroidered on one side, he was a sight for every psychedelic fan. For the rest: he does all he can, but he isn’t the most ugly pop star by far. His guitarist looked like the devil’s grand-mother, dressed as Greta Garbo at a fancy dress ball. Before I forget: when somebody tells you that Hendrix protests against the abuse in his homeland the United States, don’t be fooled. Of the few bars of his singing which didn’t perish in the noise of the amplified guitars and drums, we couldn’t understand a syllable. And as for undergound: Jimi rakes in a considerable salary on his tour of the concert halls of the establishment.
Journal inconnu - ’The Lowest...’ by ‘W.P.’:
“[…] Nerve-racking scum, with animal passion on stage and a bestial reaction from the audience, it was ‘a sign of the times,’ a sad one, which will do its writing on the wall in capitals. - That tickets were bought by the public at 250 schillings characterizes clearly enough all circumstances of this physical and mental decline and its ‘origin’.”
…article by ‘T’:
“Frankly speaking it is a bit too much after all to sell such an exhibition of noise as a concert in Vienna, still calling itself a city of culture. Nor should there be anyone to organize something like that, nor should any owner lend his concert hall for it. When I witnessed the noise in the large hall after a visit to the latest reading of Otto Schenk in the same building, I was wondering if we shouldn’t alert qualified medical authorities. But perhaps I would myself have been taken in custody because such excesses of so-called artists and the corresponding misbehaviour of the public, most of them dressed in an utterly disgusting way - the Beatles are in comparison mere dandies - is still considered progressive and socially conscious. In reality however it is that same spirit of anarchy which deforms the idea of freedom into a hoax, that ‘revolutionary’ disposition deriding every genuine ideal, which was also the driving force behind the defilement of the memorial stone for the heroes at the university. If we cannot eliminate this kind of ‘revolutionary’ disposition, then the downfall of Western Europe - may certain half-heartedly sympathizing gentlemen take note - will not be far away. The result will not necessarily be the end of The World, but it could also be the Maoist ant-state, compared to which the visions of 1984 may be just a ridiculous understatement.”
Sujet: Vienne (Konzerthaus) : 22 janvier 1969 [Second concert] ![Vienne (Konzerthaus) : 22 janvier 1969 [Second concert] Icon_minitime](https://2img.net/i/fa/icon_minitime.gif){kind=icon}
Sam 10 Juil 2010 - 22:58
