#kathia berger

[tillthereweretangents]

Paul and Icke (part 6 of N)

In 1966 the Beatles returned to Hamburg, this time as international mega-stars. Icke and several of their other Hamburg friends greeted them at the train station, and were later invited in to meet them backstage.

Paul spotted Icke at the train station and called out to him before the band were rushed through. Later, at the venue, Paul made sure that Icke was invited back to spend time with the band.

George brought up Till There Was You at this meeting, and Icke explained that there had been some confusion, but we don't know if Paul ever found out. (more info at the end of the translation)

Thanks as always to the wonderful @didwemeetsomewherebefore and her mum for the translation of Icke's autobiography (original German is at the end).

The tour was booked from the 24th - 26th June; three days in three cities. Through the press photographer, Peter Bruchmann, I found out the Beatles would be arriving at 5 30 am on a special train at the Ahrensburg station, so I got up at 4 in the morning not to miss this moment. As the train approached, I stood very close to the edge of the platform. A mass of journalists, fans and other commuters also stood on the platform. It was terribly noisy and nobody could understand a word anyone was saying. Luckily, I found a favourable place on the platform - facing the wagon in which the Beatles were basically stood right outside my nose. I saw the guys standing at the window and Paul saw me too. He moved his lips as though he wanted to say something to me, and pointed to the front where they were going to disembark. Unfortunately this was about 10 meters deep with people who were all trying to see the band. I tried with all my might to push through but I was still stuck in the middle. It was just impossible to get through. The Beatles had already disembarked. They were corralled straight away by the bodyguards who had freed a walkway through the crowd. However, Paul managed to turn around, he called to me, ‘We’ll see you later!’, and then they ran at speed through the walkway, out to where the cars were standing, surrounded by journalists and fans who were waiting for them. They were taken with a police escort to the Castle Tremsbuttel, where they were staying the night.

The fact that Paul could even see him even with so many people is remarkable, and even though they hadn't seen each other in 3 years, and had no idea he would even be there, is a testament to how much Icke meant to Paul. Spoilers for the next part, but he never did forget Icke.

There is also footage of the train station arrival here, and interviews from earlier in the week with Icke, Bettina, and others in Hamburg here. A lot of stories we've already shared in this series are included, and some that we haven't as well.

The whole thing happened so quickly that on the way home, I thought it had been a dream. On the way back in the car, I asked myself, what did Paul mean when he called out to me? How should I approach him, how was it going to work that we would see each other when the instructions had been so vague. The two concerts were scheduled for 3pm - 4.45pm and then 7pm - 8 45 pm. In between both concerts there were press conferences being held, to which unfortunately I wasn’t invited. I managed to get a ticket for the second concert, but I still hung around for three hours with the other fans in the hall. Suddenly on the loudspeaker I heard my name. ‘Icke Braun is asked to come to the desk’. I thought to myself, what do I need to come to the desk for? but I went anyway. A man was standing there who I had met before - he was from the newspaper, Der Bild. He told me that Paul McCartney wanted to speak to me, then turned around and went into the conference room and I followed him. Already outside I could hear John Lennon’s voice and as the door opened, I saw him joking with the journalists. As everyone was only speaking English, I didn’t understand much of it. The Beatles were sitting on a podium together with a man I didn’t know. Later I discovered that that was Neil Aspinall who was the personal assistant to the Beatles.

George saw me and waved me to his side. I went a bit nearer to the stage but kept my distance. Why should I stand around on the stage looking stupid when I had nothing to say? So I stayed where I was and waited until the end of the conference until I said hello to the guys. A few journalists then left the room but most stayed. When the Beatles came down from the stage, George asked me ‘how are you and what are you doing with yourself’? I said, ‘yes I’m good, I’m now married!’, John heard that and called, “Where’s your wife, let’s see your wife!” and Neil said to me; the Beatles wishes must be obeyed! So I called Evelyn and told her the Beatles wanted to meet her. She was able to come straight away because we had talked about something like this happening.

We wonder if John wanted to see her to see how much she looked like Paul, which, if you look at the picture above, there is a bit of a resemblance (she's between Icke and Ringo, the woman on the other side of Paul is Kathia Berger).

We withdrew into a little room, and suddenly I saw that there was Kathia and Bettina from the the Star Club. I must have overlooked them amongst all the chaos. When Evelyn appeared, she was the first to be introduced to the Beatles. Everything revolved around her and as they were all speaking in English, I stood by looking stupid, and I also took the chance to go to the toilet. in order to do that, I had to go through the hustle of journalists who were waiting to grab one of the Beatles. When I came back from the toilet, they were begging me to take them back into the conference room. One said, if you take me with you, I will give you 1000 Marks.    When I got back to the Beatles, I asked if I could bring a few people in to meet them, but John and the others were emphatic; no way, we want this to be just us. Bettina took a few photos out of her bag, which showed the Beatles in the Top Ten and the Star Club. The boys were delighted and told her that they would like to have the photos. I told them that the photographer who took them was standing outside the door. ‘Fetch him in, fetch him!’ said John excitedly. The photographer was called Peter Bruchmann, and was absolutely delighted to be the only journalist to be allowed into the conference room. It was he who had given me the tip that the band would be alighting off the train at Ahrensburg . I knew him from the time when the Beatles played at the Top Ten. At that point he hadn’t heard anything about them, and I had to persuade him to come and see them and take a few photos. These became the most famous photos he had ever taken.

Even three years later, we see how important Hamburg was to them.

And here are some photos from that day! You've probably seen some of them, but now you know who everyone is!

Paul told me before the band went onstage that we would see him afterwards, however they disappeared from the stage straight away; while the public was still clapping and calling for more, they were already in their cars. That was the only way to take them from their fans in safety. This was the only contact that my wife Evelyn had with the Beatles.

There are stories that Paul and John wandered around St Pauli after the show. Based on this we wonder if they realized they hadn't given Icke any actual information and were hoping that maybe somehow he'd be nostalgic too and they'd run into him.

This paragraph is from the introductory part of Icke's chapter about the Beatles, which is why it's more retrospective:

Years later, when the boys were already famous, and I was allowed backstage, we were sitting in the Ernst Merck hall and George Harrison mentioned ‘Till There Was You. I told him that it was actually Kathia’s music taste and not mine. So he understood, but there is still footage from The Star Club where one can hear ‘And now we will play ‘till there was you’ for Icke’

It sounds like George always assumed Icke had a crush on Paul or was gay or that they were together or something based on thinking "Till There Was You" was Icke's favorite song. Icke sounds quick to correct him, and quick to mention it in the book, as this is near the beginning of the Beatles chapter. As you've seen throughout these parts, Icke does a lot of questioning his sexuality and trying to make it clear something doesn't mean what it sounds like. This book is only from 2018. It's very sad to us that he's still doing that even now in his 80s.

Let us know what your thoughts are!

Icke and Paul saw each other one more time (as far as we know, though Icke is still alive so that could potentially change) but we have one more part before we get there, so stay tuned!

Original German of the translation is below!

Original German

Vom 24. bis zum 26. Juni, also an drei Tagen, waren für die Tournee in drei Städten jeweils zwei Konzerte vorgesehen. Hamburg war nach München und Essen die dritte Station. Von dem Pressefotografen Peter Brüch-mann wusste ich, dass die Beatles morgens um 5:30 Uhr mit einem Sonderzug am Bahnhof Ahrensburg ankommen sollten. Also war ich schon vor 4 Uhr aufge-standen, um diesen Moment nicht zu verpassen. Als der Zug einrollte, stand ich ziemlich nah an der Bahnsteigkante. Jede Menge Journalisten, Fans und zufällige Fahrgäste standen auf dem Bahnsteig. Es herrschte ein fürchterliches Gedränge und ein Lärm, bei dem man sein eigenes Wort nicht verstand. Zum Glück hatte ich einen günstigen Platz erwischt. Der Waggon, in dem die Beatles waren, hielt praktisch genau vor meiner Nase. Ich sah die Jungs am Fenster stehen, und Paul sah mich auch. Er bewegte seine Lippen, als ob er mir etwas sagen wollte und zeigte nach vorne, wo sie aussteigen würden. Bis dahin waren es ungefähr noch zehn Meter voller Menschen, die alle zu den Beatles drängten. Ich versuchte mit aller Kraft, mich zu ihnen durchzukämpfen, legte mich mit den Leuten an, die ich dabei anrempelte, und blieb trotzdem in der Menge stecken. Es war einfach kein Durchkommen. Die Beatles waren schon ausgestiegen. Sie wurden sofort in die Gasse geschoben, die die Bodygards für sie freigemacht hatten. Trotzdem schaffte Paul es noch, sich umzudrehen. Er rief mir zu, wir sehen uns nachher, dann liefen sie im Eiltempo weiter durch die Bahnhofshalle nach draußen, wo ihre Autos in einer riesigen Ansammlung von Journalisten und Zuschauern auf sie warteten. Unter Polizeischutz wurden sie zum Schloss Tremsbüttel gefahren, in dem sie übernachteten.

Das Ganze war so blitzschnell gegangen, dass es mir auf dem Weg nach Hause wie ein Traum vorkam. Auf der Heimfahrt im Auto fragte ich mich, wie Paul das meinte, was er mir zuletzt zugerufen hatte. Wie wollte er es denn anstel-len, dass wir uns nachher noch sahen? Die beiden Konzerte waren von 15:00 bis16:45 Uhr und von 19:00 bis 20:45 Uhr angesetzt. Zwischen den beiden Konzerten gab es die erwähnte Pressekonferenz, zu der ich leider keinen Zutritt hatte. Ich hatte für 20 Mark eine Karte für das zweite Konzert ergattert, trieb mich aber schon drei Stunden vorher mit vielen anderen Fans vor der Ernst-Merck-Halle rum. Da hörte ich plötzlich über Lautsprecher meinen Namen: Icke Braun wird gebeten, zur Kasse zu kommen. Ich dachte, nanu, was soll ich denn an der Kasse, ging aber hin. Da stand ein Mann, den ich von der Begegnung an meiner Wohnungstür kannte, also der Mann von der Bild-Zeitung. Er sagte, Paul McCartney will Sie sprechen, drehte sich um und ging zum Konfe-renzraum. Ich hinterher. Schon von draußen hörte ich John Lennons Stimme, und als die Tür aufging, sah ich, wie er sich heftig mit einem Journalisten zoffte. Da alle nur Englisch sprachen, verstand ich natürlich nicht viel davon. Die Beatles saßen auf einem Podium zusammen mit einem Mann, den ich nicht kannte. Später erfuhr ich, dass er Neil Aspinall hieß und der persönliche Assistent der Beatles war. George sah mich und winkte mich zu sich ran. Ich ging ein bisschen näher zum Podium und blieb in einiger Entfernung stehen. Warum sollte ich auf der Bühne blöd rumstehen, wenn ich gar nichts zu sagen hatte. Also blieb ich, wo ich war, und wartete das Ende der Konferenz ab, bevor ich die Jungs begrüßte. Einige Journalisten verließen den Raum, aber die meisten blieben da. Als die Beatles von der Bühne runterkamen, fragte George: „Wie geht es dir, was machst du so? Ich sagte, ja gut, ich bin ja jetzt verheiratet." John hatte das mitgehört und rief „Und wo ist deine Frau? Zeig sie uns mal." Aspinall sagte zu mir: „Der Wunsch der Beatles muss dir Befehl sein." Also rief ich Evelyn an und sagte ihr, die Beatles wollten sie kennenlernen. Sie konnte sich sofort auf den Weg machen, weil wir vorher schon darüber gesprochen hatten, dass sowas passieren könnte. Wir zogen uns in ein kleineres Zimmer zu-rück, das hinter dem Konferenzraum lag, und plötzlich waren auch Kathia und Bet-tina, die Barfrau aus dem Star-Club dabei. Die beiden musste ich bei dem ganzen Trubel übersehen haben. Als Evelyn eintraf, war ich erstmal bei den Beatles abge-meldet. Alles drehte sich um sie, und da sie sich, na klar, auf Englisch unterhielten, stand ich nur blöd daneben und nutzte die Gelegenheit, um auf die Toilette zu gehen. Dazu musste ich mich durch die Journalisten drängeln, die darauf lauerten, einen der Beatles zu erwischen. Als ich von der Toilette zurückkam, bettelten sie, ich sollte sie mit reinnehmen. Einer sagte, wenn du mich mitnimmst, kriegst du 1000 Mark von mir. Zurück bei den Beatles, fragte ich, ob wir nicht ein paar Leute ruhig reinnehmen sollten, aber John und die anderen meinten sofort, auf keinen Fall, wir wollen unter uns bleiben.

The Beatles mit uns im Backstage der Ernst-Merck-Halle. Zwischen George und Paul steht Kathia, zwischen Paul und Ringo sind Evelyn und ich, und neben John sitzt Betty, die damalige Barfrau des Star Clubs. Bettina holte aus ihrer Tasche ein paar Fotos, die die Beatles im Top Ten und im Star Club zeigten. Sie waren begeistert und sagten, die hätten sie auch gerne. O.k., sagte ich, der Fotograf, der die aufgenommen hat, steht vor der Tür. - Hol ihn rein, hol ihn rein, sagte John. Der Fotograf hieß Peter Brüchmann und freute sich wie ein Schneekönig, dass er als einziger Journalist ins Hinterzimmer durfte. Er war es übrigens gewesen, der mir den Tip gegeben hatte, dass die Band am Bahnhof Ahrensburg aussteigen würde. Ich kannte ihn noch aus der Zeit, als die Beatles im Top Ten spielten. Von denen hatte er damals noch nie gehört, und ich hatte ihn mit Mühe überredet, sie sich mal anzusehen und ein paar Fotos zu ma-chen. Es wurden die berühmtesten Fotos, die er jemals gemacht hat.

Vor der Vorstellung hatte Paul noch zu uns gesagt, wir sehen uns hinterher. Aber als sie von der Bühne verschwunden waren und das Publikum noch klatschte, saßen sie schon wieder in ihren Autos. Das war ja auch die einzige Möglichkeit, wie sie sich vor den Fans in Sicherheit bringen konnte. Für Evelyn war dies der einzige Kontakt zu den Beatles geblieben.

Viel später, als die Jungs schon berühmt waren und ich mal in den Backstage durfte, wir saßen da in der Ernst-Merck-Halle, hat mich George Harrison auf Till there was you angesprochen. Da habe ich ihm das dann erzählt, dass der Musikwunsch eigentlich auf Katja zurückging. Das hat er auch verstanden. Aber es gibt Auf-nahmen, die irgendwann im Starclub mitgeschnitten wurden, auf denen man hören kann: „Und nun spielen wir für Icke Till there was you."

[eppysboys]

"Stuart was small, looked like James Dean and sang like Elvis." - Kathia Berger

[ourladylennon]

Beatles fans reminisce about Paul’s lovely look (Liverpool & Hamburg days)

“[I] always requested “Your Feet’s Too Big,” knowing he’d be doing “Till There Was You” and “Over the Rainbow” anyway, always with the big eyes and his face turned up, looking above our heads.” - Roberta Brown

“He looked like an angel with big eyes.” - Kathia Berger

"Girls used to say his eyes were like mince pies. He had long eyelashes and would deliberately flutter them, and though you knew he was always aware of himself, he was so friendly to everybody that you couldn’t help but like him.” - Bernadette Farrell

"Paul was the pretty boy: I fancied him and was blinded by the google-eyes.” - Linda Steen

"He had a beautiful voice and puppy-dog eyes,” - Iris Caldwell

“Paul was my favorite because he was so pretty, so angelic.” - Liz Tibbot Roberts

"Paul was my favorite (he had the eyes).” - Barbara Houghton

Quotes from Tune In by Mark Lewisohn

[d0wntoexperiment]

Kathia Berger

[ladyjaneasher-blog]

Seventeen-year-old Frank Sellman was one of the Beatles' new fans. [...] "It was nothing less than a revolution for children born at the end of the war to be out in such places, a real liberation. The strip shows in St. Pauli intrigued us, but the big draw was this American music, played by English band. We were all very taken with the Beatles, their presence, dynamism and charisma. It was like an addiction: once we'd seen them a couple of times we couldn't get enough of them. John and Paul interacted with the audience and were responsible for creating the sense of the show. The other three were very much more background, the quietest being Harrison." [...] Memories have stayed distinct and precise for Top Ten habitués. [...] Icke Braun, 24, liked it when John was late returning from a break because Paul would say over the microphone 'Quasimodo, get on the stage!' and John would go into one of his cripple imitations, which made everyone laugh. Icke also adds: "My main friendship was with Paul, who seemed happy to talk and spoke a few words of German. He came to my house, though the language barrier did prevent meaningful conversation. Quite often I'd stay in the Top Ten until four in the morning and then go out to eat with the Beatles afterwards. I felt that the closest grouping was John and Stuart; George belonged to that but wasn't as close, and Paul was orbiting around them. Pete never came along -- whenever they went anywhere outside the club, Pete wasn't there." And Kathia Berger, 22, was deeply in love with Paul. "He looked like an angel with big eyes. He found it hard to say my name so he would play a request for 'the girl with red hair' and sing Till There Was You. [...] I could speak English which not many could do; I told him the Beatles would be famous and he laughed.  I liked the others very much as well. [...] I thought John was intelligent and gifted, not so very happy but funny. He used to call Liverpool 'Liddypool' and had this rhyme he would sing into the microphone, 'Isadora Duncan works for Telefunken.'

the beatles - all these years - extended special edition: volume one: tune in, mark lewisohn  

[lesartistesontlaparole]

Les Artistes ont la Parole avec Kathia TCHENKO

Les Artistes ont la Parole avec Kathia TCHENKO

Pour écouter le podcast disponible partout dans le monde, il vous suffit de cliquer sur le lecteur ci-dessous.

[mejsaudio src=”http://michelbergeranimateurradio.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ktchienko_IP.mp3″%5D

Kathia TCHENKO au micro des Artistes ont la Parole avec Elsa MAWART, Stéphanie TERRIEN, Grâce De CAPITANI, Anne Charlotte MONTVILLE et Michel BERGER

[lostfunzones]

Berger, Kathia 

[thegilly]

I think this might be my favourite scrapbook in the world...

[tillthereweretangents]

Kathia Berger's Painting

We got curious about the painting in the background of this photo:

This photo is from the day in 1966 where the Beatles met some old Hamburg friends backstage. One of those friends is Kathia Berger, a painter, and ex-girlfriend of Icke Braun.

More on that meeting at this link.

According to this site Paul always called her Strawberry (after the way he met Kathia and Icke, but the use of this nickname is unsourced).

It seems that Kathia brought this painting with her to this meeting. At first we thought it could be Stuart, then we wondered if it was Icke. Could it be Paul?

We sure would like a better picture of this painting. It looks like it's full of symbolism.

[ilovedig]

Paul and Icke have been our hyper fixation for the past few weeks and now we get to start sharing it with all of you!

Paul and Icke (part 1 of N)

This is part 1 of a multi-part post about Paul’s relationship with Icke Braun, as portrayed in Icke’s autobiography. The book is in German, and we’ve included the original German text at the bottom of the post. Translations provided by the wonderful @paulsrighthand and her Mum! (Thanks!)

In Icke's autobiography, he's explicit that he was closer to Paul than the other Beatles

The best contact I had was with Paul, not only because he was the only one who spoke German, but to me he was the most likeable. I went with him a few times to the Raa-Wiese.

Raa-Wiese is where Icke was living. This wording and other moments we'll discuss later seem to suggest that Paul stayed with Icke on a handful of occasions. It's very possible that by saying "a few times" Icke is minimizing something that was very important. We know of two instances at least that Paul stayed the night, and there's a moment later in the book that suggests it was more often (we'll get to that later.)

The meet-cute:

On the way from Ahrensburg, we came past a great strawberry plantation. Because there were no people around, Kathia said, let’s steal a few strawberries. The strawberries were small, red and sweet and after we had eaten enough, we said, let’s take some for The Beatles. Kathia went into a barn and came out with a big basket. We picked so many strawberries that the basket overflowed, and on the way to the car, most fell into the road. We put the basket behind my seat and drove off.  At 10pm at the Top Ten, The Beatles were already in full swing, and the dance floor was thick with people. Between two sets, we took the strawberries to the stage. The other guests joked and called us the young strawberries. We could have invited them for a round of beer or schnapps, like the sailors or rockers did, but the strawberries were something else. The Beatles were overjoyed like children, and Paul said ‘what a wonderful idea, you can do this again!’ (He said this in bad German, which he had learnt in school).  The four boys started to eat and couldn’t stop. The interval became longer and longer because the basket was so full and took a long time to empty. The public began to protest, so John decided to start throwing strawberries at people, and then Paul and the others copied him. The public then threw back the squashed strawberries and it became a food fight…Luckily most of the strawberries had been eaten.  Paul then came down from the stage and asked Kathia and myself if we had a musical wish. There was a song which we liked called ‘Till There Was You’ and Kathia whispered to me that we should choose this song. It was a love song and didn’t actually fit into the whole rock n’ roll genre that they normally played. Unfortunately Paul didn’t understand that this was Kathia’s music choice and thought for years that this was my favourite song. Every time that I went to the Top Ten or The Star and he saw me, he would play ‘Till There Was You’, which was quite embarrassing for me because it wasn’t my taste of music at all, and also because the rockers bombarded me with rude gestures and remarks.  Years later, when the boys were already famous, and I was allowed backstage, we were sitting in the Ernst Merck hall and George Harrison mentioned ‘Till There Was You'. I told him that it was actually Kathia’s music taste and not mine. So he understood, but there is still footage from The Star Club where one can hear ‘And now we will play ‘Till There Was You’ for Icke’.

There's a lot to unpack here. For starters, this isn't the story we've been told in the past.

Typically, Kathia takes credit for this entire interaction

He looked like an angel with big eyes. He found it hard to say my name so he would play a request for “the girl with red hair” and sing “Till There Was You.” I wished that he loved me but I was not his type: he liked small, tender blondes. But he did like me and we talked. I could speak English, which not many could do; I told him the Beatles would be famous and he laughed. The Beatles were sexy. Very. You couldn’t decide who was sexiest. They didn’t try to be sexy, they just were, and they were natural.

This is from Tune In, cause, of course, it is. What we've learned over the course of our research is that Lewisohn has created a narrative that fits what he wants it to. We have half a mind to think that Lewisohn asked leading questions of his interviewees to get the exact narrative he wanted to portray.

Another interesting thing to note in this conversation is this web page. This is the only source we can find to Paul calling Kathia "strawberry." We'll talk more in depth about Kathia in a later posts, but these stories both seem in direct contraction to Icke's own recollection, and we trust Icke way more than we trust Lewisohn.

So now that we know what we've heard about this encounter before, let's break down the info Icke provides.

Before knowing this info it was very easy to assume that "Till There Was You" came out of Paul's love for musicals, which he tried to pretend didn't exist for most of the existence of the Beatles. After reading this it seems clear he really didn't know the song because of The Music Man. And it wasn't a song he liked because of the Peggy Lee version either. Icke asked for it, and Paul then played it literally every time he was in the room, going as far as to dedicate it to him.

It's crazy that it was based on a misunderstanding, but this is frankly one of the reasons we think Icke is so trustworthy. Throughout the book, or at least this chapter, he shares his insecurities. From this story to literally turning around outside Paul's gate in the 80s, cause he was scared Paul wouldn't remember him (from everything we can gather and the 3 pages on the subject, PiD scared him a lot and since he and Paul weren't in touch he internalized it a bit.) You can't fake that, or, I guess you can, but you have to be a really good writer to do so, and he enlisted a second author to help him write this. Not to mention, we are probably two of less than 100 people who have even read this book. So what would be the purpose in lying?

Anyway.

Based on what he said about George, it sounds like George assumed it was a romantic thing and then confronted him about it in 66. We wonder how George reacted, cause Icke doesn't share that, and if George told Paul or if to this day Paul thinks it was Icke's favorite song.

The song first appeared on their setlists in 1961 (the year they met Icke). It was one of the songs they played at their Decca audition (1 Jan 1962) and made it onto With The Beatles (recorded July 1963 – 7 months after their last stint in Hamburg).

As for the strawberries, we have a few theories about that as well.

For starters, we know from Paul and John that they both had this strong belief in telepathy. We all have always assumed it was just an assumption between them, but what if it wasn't?

Here's the theory. Strawberry Fields started as John's safe space when he was growing up, but then he invited Paul into that safe space and it became Paul's safe space too.

So given Paul's assumptions about telepathy and all that jazz, when Icke and Kathia go to literal strawberry fields and bring back strawberries cause they just felt like the Beatles would appreciate that, it's very possible he thought that was a sign of some sort. Maybe that Icke knew him in a really deep personal way. It's very easy to see Paul take that and start falling for Icke as a result.

Also, there aren't many mentions of "strawberries" in Paul's songs. But there are two:

In "Venus and Mars" which is all about psychic horoscope things:

Red lights, green lights, strawberry wine A good friend of mine, follow the stars Venus and Mars Are alright tonight

And in the early 90s, two years after he saw Icke for the last time, he released an instrumental album called "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest" which was also the title of the 7th track.

We have a theory that all the tracks on this album correspond to a lost or current love (but more on that later).

We could write a full essay on this section, but we'll leave it here.

Original German:

Den besten Kontakt hatte ich zu Paul. Nicht nur dass er der einzige von ihnen war, der in bisschen Deutsch konnte, er war mir auch am sympathischsten. Mit ihm war ich auch ein paarmal auf der Raa-Wiese.

—

Auf dem Weg von Ahrensburg nach Hamburg über die B 75 kamen wir an einer großen Erdbeerplantage vorbei. Es waren weit und breit keine Menschen zu sehen und Kathia sagte, lass uns ein paar Erdbeeren klauen, ich habe da mal gejobbt, ich weiß, wie man da reinkommt. Die Erdbeeren waren klein, rot und süß. Als wir satt waren, sagte ich, lass uns für die Beatles welche mitnehmen. Kathia ging in einen Schuppen und kam mit einem großen Korb zurück. Wir sammelten den Korb zu voll, auf dem Weg zu meinem Auto purzelten die Erdbeeren reihenweise in den Dreck. Wir aßen soviel wir noch konnten von oben weg, obwohl wir pappsatt waren, und verstauten den Korb hinter meinem Sitz.

Um 10 Uhr im Top Ten, eigentlich war das viel zu früh, die Minderjährigen wurden gerade nach Hause geschickt, aber die Beatles waren schon wieder voll in Action und die Tanzfläche war dicht. Zwischen zwei Sets brachte ich den Jungens den Korb Erdbeeren auf die Bühne. Die anderen Gäste machten sich zum Teil darüber lustig und nannten mich den Erdbeerjungen. Aber mir war das egal. Wir hätten sie auch zu einer Runde Bier oder Schnaps einladen können, wie die Matrosen oder die Rocker, aber Erdbeeren waren doch mal was anderes. Die Beatles haben sich jedenfalls gefreut wie Kinder. Paul sagte,

„What a wonderful idea, Icke, du kann immer widder macken."

Er hatte etwas deutsch auf der Schule gelernt. Die vier fingen an zu essen und konnten gar nicht mehr aufhören. Die Pause zog sich immer mehr hin, weil der Korb so voll war und nicht leer werden wollte. Das Publikum fing an zu johlen und zu protestieren. Da ging John dazu über, die Erdbeeren auf die Leute zu schmei-Ben, und Paul und die anderen machten es ihm nach. Die Leute aus dem Publikum schmissen die matschigen Beeren natürlich zurück und es gab eine regelrechte Erdbeerschlacht. Zum Glück waren die meisten Erdbeeren schon aufgegessen, sonst wäre die Schweinerei wohl noch größer geworden. Paul kam danach von der Bühne runter und fragte Kathia und mich, ob wir einen Musikwunsch hätten. Es gab ein Lied, das hieß Till there was you. Kathia flüsterte mir zu, ich sollte mir dieses Lied wünschen. Das war ein Liebeslied, passte eigentlich also gar nicht zu dem Rock 'n' Roll, den sie sonst spielten. Leider hatte Paul nicht mitgekriegt, dass ich nur Kathias Musikwunsch weitergegeben hatte, und jahrelang gedacht, dass das mein Lieblingslied sei. Jedes Mal wenn ich ins Top Ten oder später in den Starclub kam und er mich sah, spielte er Till there was you. Mir war das ziemlich peinlich, einmal, weil es gar nicht meinem eigenen Geschmack entsprach, und zum ande-ren, weil die Rocker mich mit schwulen Gesten und Andeutungen ärgerten. Viel später, als die Jungs schon berühmt waren und ich mal in den Backstage durfte, wir saßen da in der Ernst-Merck-Halle, hat mich George Harrison auf Till there was you angesprochen. Da habe ich ihm das dann erzählt, dass der Musikwunsch eigentlich auf Katja zurückging. Das hat er auch verstanden. Aber es gibt Auf-nahmen, die irgendwann im Starclub mitgeschnitten wurden, auf denen man hören kann: „Und nun spielen wir für Icke Till there was you."

[tillthereweretangents]

Thanks to @thedissenters for these higher quality images:

I'm pretty sure I see a coke bottle on the table in that last one, and some kind of broken down structure in the background.

Kathia Berger's Painting

We got curious about the painting in the background of this photo:

This photo is from the day in 1966 where the Beatles met some old Hamburg friends backstage. One of those friends is Kathia Berger, a painter, and ex-girlfriend of Icke Braun.

More on that meeting at this link.

According to this site Paul always called her Strawberry (after the way he met Kathia and Icke, but the use of this nickname is unsourced).

It seems that Kathia brought this painting with her to this meeting. At first we thought it could be Stuart, then we wondered if it was Icke. Could it be Paul?

We sure would like a better picture of this painting. It looks like it's full of symbolism.

[i-am-the-oyster]

Thanks to @the-paper-apricot for pointing out that the figure is wearing an MBE medal! This seems like pretty good evidence that it's Paul. I'm still super curious about the painting though. I wonder if any better pictures of it exist?

Kathia Berger's Painting

We got curious about the painting in the background of this photo:

This photo is from the day in 1966 where the Beatles met some old Hamburg friends backstage. One of those friends is Kathia Berger, a painter, and ex-girlfriend of Icke Braun.

More on that meeting at this link.

According to this site Paul always called her Strawberry (after the way he met Kathia and Icke, but the use of this nickname is unsourced).

It seems that Kathia brought this painting with her to this meeting. At first we thought it could be Stuart, then we wondered if it was Icke. Could it be Paul?

We sure would like a better picture of this painting. It looks like it's full of symbolism.

[ilovedig]

Yes, thank you @the-paper-apricot we have stared at this photo many times and never noticed that

I wonder if she was giving Paul the painting, probably, and if he took it.

If he still has it?

So many questions

Kathia Berger's Painting

We got curious about the painting in the background of this photo:

This photo is from the day in 1966 where the Beatles met some old Hamburg friends backstage. One of those friends is Kathia Berger, a painter, and ex-girlfriend of Icke Braun.

More on that meeting at this link.

According to this site Paul always called her Strawberry (after the way he met Kathia and Icke, but the use of this nickname is unsourced).

It seems that Kathia brought this painting with her to this meeting. At first we thought it could be Stuart, then we wondered if it was Icke. Could it be Paul?

We sure would like a better picture of this painting. It looks like it's full of symbolism.