GROUP LESSON WITH A DIFFERENCE
At the point before the long drum solo, the LP had a thick scratch and repeated the last few bars over and over again. You therefore had to either move the playback arm gently by touching it carefully with your finger or lift it off and put it back on at a later point. Both required a steady hand. And neither happened, because the boys from the Catholic youth group were busy preparing for the party: Carrying out chairs and tables, lugging crates of drinks, filling glasses with salted pretzel, decorating the room.
So the record, which produced more crackling from the speakers of the old Philips record player than music, produced an acoustic hiccup at the scratching point ofIn A Gadda Da Vida. The piece by Iron Butterfly was actually supposed to play in the background to set the mood. But since nobody really took any notice of it, Wencke Myhre or Roy Black could just as easily have been played. Normally, of course, this would have led to yelps among the young people: Who puts on girls’ songs like that? Turn it off immediately!
Nico was just about to take care of the record player when he got a shove from behind and jumped to the side. »What’s wrong with you?« Nico looked at Eddy in amazement. He was obviously standing in front of him, drugged up, before the group party had even started and held a paper garland under his nose: »Hang it up!«
»Hey, we’re not at the Barras here!!!« Nico took the colorful thing, although he was annoyed by Eddy’s commanding tone, climbed onto a chair and hung it up. The heavy dark brown and pale yellow patterned wool curtains of the group room contrasted sharply with the garishly colored paper garlands and lanterns that now adorned the room. Apart from a small cupboard, an old wooden shelf and a smelly, gray-green corduroy sofa, they had cleared out the room. After all, there should be enough space for dancing. They had partially covered the orange-brown wallpaper with large globe ornaments with posters from Bravo and POP, which looked unintentionally collage-like.
In a few hours, the first group party was to take place where the Catholic youth group Neues Deutschland used to hold its group meeting, with fun social games, quizzes and discussions.
Bundy didn’t really want to believe it yet. Eddy was already more or less sprawled out on the sofa and accompanied the Procol Harum song with movements like on an air guitar, which wasn’t so easy lying down. »There’s no guitar inA Whiter Shade of Pale, you bastard,« Nico retaliated to Eddy for the commanding tone.
Bobo, their group leader, came up with the party project as a kind of educational m
