Quello che ad agosto del 1978 diventerà il leggendario SO36¹ di Kreuzberg, punto nevralgico della scena punk di Berlino dove si esibirono band del calibro dei The Cure (28 maggio 1980)², Black Flag, New Order, Dead Kennedys, Adam and the Ants, Suicide, Exploited, ecc., nel 1975 era sede di una filiale del Penny-Markt – che chiuse poco dopo perchè gli abitanti del quartiere non potevano permettersi neanche i prezzi di un discount – e ancora prima un cinema, andato completamente a fuoco nel marzo 1966.

Photo: © Hans-Joachim Andree 1975 Quelle: Berliner RockWiki

Per vedere altre foto sullo storico locale, visitate la fotogalleria della rivista Der Spiegel

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1. SO36, che sta per Südost 36, è il CAP che è stato assegnato al quartiere nel 1929 ↩︎
2. “(…) A few days later, we played our 1st gig in Berlin. Keep in mind that in the early 1980s this was a city divided, as the Wall was still in existence, and it was a little difficult to enter the small enclave that was West Berlin, even for Western Europeans.
   The bus stopped at the border and a heavily armed East German border guard got on the bus and asked for our passports. As soon as he realised we were a band, the following conversation ensued.
   ‘You are a musical group, yes? You have T-shirts, yes?’
   We produced two or three T-shirts and gave them to the guard, who furtively, stashed them under his greatcoat with a nervous look. Then he handed back our passports with a flourish and waved us through the border post.
   Our first gig was at SO36, a club in the heart of Kreuzberg, which was the alternative subculture district, because it was in the poorest area of the city and home to the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey. Truly a place where east meets west, which made it very exotic to us.
   The reception we got was very odd: I felt like we were being studied under a microscope. The club was long and narrow, with the stage at one end. The place was absolutely packed with people, but no one talked. The silence in the room was complete. All 600 or so people just stared straight at the stage with tremendous intensity.
   We started with ‘Seventeen Seconds‘- not the liveliest opening song, but it suited this very intellectual and introspective audience. From there we went straight into ‘Play for Today’, and I couldn’t detect so much as tapping foot among the stone-faced crowd.
   I shouldn’t have worried, because by the time we got to the end of the set, with ‘A Forest’ the joint was, as they say, jumping. I think Robert won them over by changing the lyrics to ‘Killing an Arab’ to ‘Killing Kevin Keegan’, an English footballer of some repute.”
   Un estratto dal libro Cured. The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys del cofondatore dei The Cure Lol Tolhurst (2016) ↩︎