Johnny Depp in Munich: cheers, lingerie and whistles after the Tollwood concert
Created: 07/14/2022, 14:59
By: Michael Schleicher
No concert photographers were allowed at the performance of Johnny Depp (right) and Jeff Beck in Munich.
Our archive picture was taken in May 2022 in London.
© Photo: Raph Pour-Hashemi/PA Media/dpa
Johnny Depp in Munich.
The Curse of Kabarik star appeared at Tollwood as a very special guest of guitarist Jeff Beck, with whom he recorded the album 18.
Read our concert review here:
Munich - It takes a while, but finally he speaks.
When Jeff Beck goes to the microphone for the first time after four tracks and a good 25 minutes to say a few words to the around 6000 people in the sold-out music arena on the Tollwood, the technology is apparently completely perplexed - and forgets that push the slider up.
Who cares?
After all, the 78-year-old Brit is not exactly known as a chatterbox on stage, a pleasant exception in the rock circus.
So it doesn't matter what he says this Wednesday evening (July 13, 2022): Beck speaks with the guitar - and tells a lot with it.
Jeff Beck once played for the Yardbirds
The musician, who briefly played the guitars for the Yardbirds together with Jimmy Page in the sixties, shows at the start of the concert in Munich that he is rightly regarded as one of the most important, influential and experimental guitarists of our time.
Wearing a white shirt, light blue trousers with a white belt and aviator glasses, he wanders through rock, jazz and funk with his Fender Stratocaster (white, of course anyway) in a very rousing way.
He plays without a pick, which allows him more feeling on the strings.
It fascinates how he lets the tones bubble, float and blur into one another.
Munich: Johnny Depp comes to the Tollwood stage after 35 minutes
Jeff Beck never forgets that, despite all his brilliance, he is dependent on a band that builds the foundation for his solos.
On this evening, his new drummer Anika Nilles was particularly impressive with her dry, seamless playing, which does not allow any compromises - as well as bassist Rhonda Smith, who really sparkled the funk and made the temperature in the warm Tollwood tent rise even more.
These 35 minutes by Beck and his colleagues are musically the most interesting and also the best of the evening.
But of course many people came mainly because of him: When Johnny Depp entered the stage - the strands of hair hanging picturesquely in his face, the cigarillo smoldering in the corner of his mouth, the leopard-style guitar hanging low - there was a loud burst of cheering.
Loud cheering for Johnny Depp in Munich
As reported, the musician and the Hollywood star, whom most of the audience probably knows and loves as Captain Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, became friends a few years ago.
Beck, it is said, recognized Depp's talent for writing songs - on Friday, July 15, 2022, the first joint album "18" will be released.
The actor, who was in the news mainly because of the defamation lawsuit between himself and his ex-wife Amber Heard, wanted to be a musician when he was young.
He dropped out of high school to have time with his band, The Kids.
Then his acting career got in the way, but ten years ago he founded the Hollywood Vampires with singer Alice Cooper and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.
Now the two men are back in town together.
Depp introduces himself as the songwriter right from the start: "This is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr" is a truly wonderful ballad and a deep homage to the largely forgotten Austrian-American Hollywood diva and inventor Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000).
"Erased by the same world that made her a star," Depp sings, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar: "Erased by the same world that made her a star." The John Lennon cover "Isolation" follows - and later a powerful and impressive version of "Death and Resurrection Show" by the Killing Jokes - Depp here mighty with voice distortion and a lot of Deadnote scrubbing.
The actor smiles at his fans again and again, waves to them – and otherwise leaves no doubt that
that this evening Jeff Beck is the real star and expert.
Good this way.
also read
Alicia Keys in Munich's Olympiahalle: Girl not quite so much on fire
Johnny Depp at the Munich Tollwood: "Maybe there will be a short exchange"
Sebastian Horn from the Bananafishbones at Tollwood.
© Paul Kemp
Depp has been announced as a "very special guest".
A guest who comes to the party late and leaves early.
For this quickie there is not only cheering and red lingerie from the audience for the 59-year-old in the music arena, but also disappointed whistles.
Because after 75 minutes it's over.
Too bad, especially Beck, one would have liked to have listened longer.
Johnny Depp was on stage for hardly more than 40 minutes - and thus only slightly longer than the Bananafishbones.
As reported, the Tölzer opened the evening.
"We're here to sweeten your time until it really starts," said Sebastian Horn in greeting.
Of course, only those who know that they don't have to hide can say that.
And so it was.
(Parallel to the performance of Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp at the Munich Tollwood, Alicia Keys played in the Olympiahalle. You can find our concert review here.)
