Vignettes #11

Occasionally, we'd host concerts at our cinema, the Blue Cheer concert in 1991 was one of them. Our friend Roland was (and still is) a professional concert organizer and has worked with many big names in rock history since the late 60s. Conveniently, he got us the band and did most of the advertising, while we provided the location and the catering. (And I got to do my own self-made psychedelic light show which was pretty cool). The concert was a great success, and we made good profit selling our drinks and snacks.

But we also had an agreement with Roland that we get a certain percentage from the tickets, which amounted to about $300-400. Our partner Gisela was doing the book-keeping, and she couldn't get in touch with Roland for weeks and then months. Obviously he didn't intend to pay us!

So one evening at the cinema it was partners Gisela and Walter and then our friend Arno present, and we were enjoying the evening while our movies were running. We knew that Roland - like Arno - also worked as a taxi driver, so Gisela told us she'd been taking a taxi more often than usual in the hope to accidentally get Roland.

Well, Arno explained that you can demand a certain driver, if you like. That was the idea! So Gisela spent the whole evening calling in ordering the taxi driver Roland to our cinema. He really did have duty that night, and we could listen to all the excuses he made that he was busy, had a long distance customer, and so on. It was certain that he was not going to meet us!

Well, we gave up, when the shows at the cinema were over, and ordered a taxi to take us over to the night bar Wunderbar. On arriving there was another taxi in front of us with the same destination. And we saw the driver was Roland! Gisela jumped out of the car and ran after him. He couldn't flee since he still had to get cash from his own customer. He was full of excuses, of course, and denied that he had been avoiding us. Then and there he was forced to pay us our dues.

And we had a great time at the bar.