Numbers

Cor Schlösser rovata

A szerző alapítója és több mint negyven éven át, egészen 2011-ig vezetője volt Európa egyik legpatinásabb klubjának és kulturális intézményének (kicsit az A38 Hajó példaképének), az amszterdami Melkwegnek. A jelenleg tanácsadóként dolgozó, és részben Budapesten élő Schlösser az egyik legnagyobb tekintélyű kulturális menedzser a kontinensen, éppen ezért megtisztelő számunkra, hogy elfogadta felkérésünket egy könnyed, heti, angol nyelvű tárcarovatra. Minden pénteken Cor Schlösser az A38 Hajó blogján.

When a live music venue is called A38, you know there was a problem. How shall we call the club then? All kind of names are suggested and none of them is satisfying. Something wrong with all of them!

So in the end the idea comes up, why don’t we call it after the former life of the ship on which the club is going to be based, as an Ukrainian stonecarrier, Artemovsk 38, A38. Does that mean anything else? Not that I know. Sometimes that is the case, like for instance when a group of black and white kids in England decide to call their band, in the middle of the Margaret Thatcher era, UB40. That is the name of the form that a jobless Englishman has to fill out to apply for unemployment money and to make it clear for everybody they used the form as the cover for their first album, Signing Off.

But, A38 is excused, it is not easy to find a good name for your club and lots of other things seem more important in the beginning. So also P60 in Amstelveen, The Netherlands is excused for naming their club after the square were the club is, Plein 1960.

But it can be worse. When in the Dutch city of Tilburg in the mid-nineties a new live music club was built, with a very large 2200 capacity main concerthall, a local and even national competition was organised to find a name for the venue. In the end the organisers decided to chose the name 013. What can that be? Indeed the telephone areacode for Tilburg! So this was before the time of the mobile phone; one day nobody will know what the name stands for anymore.

Also in 1970 some young enthusiasts opened a new club in Amsterdam. Of course, they also needed a name for it. In the spirit of the times they searched for a somewhat cosmic name, especially because an already since two years existing club was called Paradiso and another one The Kosmos an inspirational name was needed. After rejecting a long list of spaced out names that are all forgotten by now the name The Milkyway, Melkweg became the winner. Just like in the case of A38 the former life of the venue as a dairy, a milkfactory was the inspiration for the name; the milk is (a)way, in Dutch, de Melk is Weg, the milk is gone, the Milkyway, Melkweg!

As it turns out, all names, or shall we say, nearly all names are good names if the venue establishes a good reputation over the years, like A38 after ten years and the Melkweg now for forty years, but I am not sure of 013…

Best example of course is the worst name that a band ever chose for itself which did not prevent them to become the most famous band of all times. Luckily they changed one letter in their name, so that it is less obvious how stupid the name was.

Yes, of course, The Bogarak!