The first time I saw
Johnny and the Jukes was on German television in the late 70‘s in
"Rockpalast". The first time I saw him live was in spring 1992 in Stuttgart,
Germany. After that, I saw him many times with the full band. I was in France and in the
Netherlands to see him on his acoustic tour; I also saw him in New Jersey several times by
chance; I also saw his New Year’s Eve shows in Red Bank in 1995 and the Millennium
show in Atlantic City. The shows were great every time, and every time I thought it
couldn’t get better. Well, those were the years before Jukestock.
When Maggie told me about the idea to
celebrate Johnny’s new CD at a "Private Party" with Johnny, his truest fans
and other related bands a whole weekend long I have to admit, I thought that could never
work. But I underestimated the endurance, power and courage of Maggie, Jane and Debbie. I
really did, I was skeptical. When she told me a few weeks later that it will really
happen, date and venue are fixed, and she invited me to take part although I’m not a
member of the Digest, I was speechless for quite a while. And sometimes I’m still
speechless when I’m thinking of everything impossible the three girls made possible.
I’m sure I can say that everybody at Jukestock was in "Jukes-Heaven" every
day of the weekend. Everything was perfect and pure fun, even "work" was fun.
Folding up T-shirts for hours and packing the surprise-packages, no better things could
happen to me and it was the very least that I could do to show how thankful I was to be
invited.
Everybody treated me like a member of a big family; I met a lot of very nice people whom
I’ve never met before, Jane and Debbie, Cheryl, Carole, Mike Saunders (at last!) and
Dave from England, Annmarie from Belgium and many others whose names I don’t
remember. I knew in advance that I would be the only German at Jukestock so I was happy to
meet Silvia and Markus from Switzerland again – a chance of speaking my own language
at least a few times every day. The autograph session surprised me. Not only was Johnny
there with angelic patience, answering every question, smiling and talking to everybody,
even the Asbury Jukes were there, sitting at a long table ready to sign everything what
you wanted to get signed. Maggie and I said to each other: "This is a
once-in-a-lifetime-event and we should savour every moment."
The shows I saw – every show! – were great, Jeff Kazee, Bobby Bandiera, Mark
Pender and the highlight of the weekend: Southside Johnny! I was lucky to be in the first
row and I could see the good mood in everybody’s faces. This show was absolutely
special: like a private party with Johnny and the Jukes playing with fun and passion, the
best fans in the world singing along to nearly every song.... it was fantastic. Dancing,
singing, laughing with each other all night long, even after the show when we were sitting
in the hotel bar tired and exhausted but very happy. I’m sure I fell asleep that
night with a big smile on my face. But with tears in my eyes, too… I had to leave the
next day. Because of the bad weather I changed my flight back to Germany, I was afraid of
being caught again in a blizzard in New Jersey for days which already happened to me in
January 1996 when I had to wait 5 days to get a flight back home.
So unfortunately I missed LaBamba’s show on Sunday afternoon but I’ve heard it
was great, too. Thanks to Annmarie who took me to the airport, she cheered me up a little
bit, and thanks to Silvia and Markus who sent me a video tape so I could see at least a
bit of LaBamba’s show.
Sometimes dreams come true and sometimes they don’t, but I’m sure that many of
you will agree that this was a dream we all had in our hearts. Jukestock was an incredible
weekend. Thank you to Maggie, Debbie and Jane for making it happen. And thank you to
Johnny and the Jukes; it was so good to see you again.
Gisela Schaefer, Germany |
