Club 27 –
Songs für die Ewigkeit

When Brian Jones, guitarist and founding member of the Rolling Stones, drowned in his swimming pool on 3 July 1969, he paid the first membership fee for a club that was soon to grow with his life. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and, exactly two years later on 3 June 1971, Jim Morrison followed - all of them 27 years old. This was the foundation of the myth. Since then, there have been regular knocks on the door of the so-called Club 27, with Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse among those seeking admission. A VIP club in a class of its own.

But the notorious members have more in common than just age:

Things have never been so swell, I have never failed to fail.

Many of them were among the most influential and talented musicians of their time and made history even before their death. They lived beyond themselves, defined the cultural heritage not only of the Western world, and were the focal point of many desires. They were perforated and excessive, spurted every fibre of this world and tried to function while doing so - if needed to, that means often, even with heroin. Their lives became a political statement and, with their contradiction to the consensus, shaped the counterculture movements and thus entire generations. They were free beyond measure.

I'm all for you, body and soul.

In the short time that all these free radicals had before entering Club 27, a wildly spectacular, thunderously loud, profoundly tragic and extremely unique concentrate of life was squeezed in, in which there was probably more going on than any of us mere mortals could imagine for an entire lifetime.

Riders on the storm, Into this house, we're born, Into this world, we're thrown.

At the Schauspielhaus Bochum, Club 27 has issued an invitation to a plenary session. Guaranteed is an evening where no explosive feeling and no good song will be left out.

It's better to burn out than to fade away.