Andy Shernoff

It was the fall of 1977, and it was an era of conflict. Communism and capitalism were locked in a buffalo stance across the middle of Europe, the Berlin Wall was still standing and nuclear missles were aimed at the heart of every major city............Adding fuel to the fire was this wacky group of German left wing terrorists called The Baader-Meinhof gang. Based in Amsterdam they specialized in kidnappings, blowing up buildings, and general mayhem, all for the righteous cause of a godless, state run economy. To combat this threat, Germany was on constant alert as soldiers with machine guns patrolled airports and train stations.

"...I lent Sid Vicious money to buy drugs, (he still owes me)..."

Meanwhile in England there was an actual revolution going on. It was a social, artistic and fashion revolution led by the British punk music scene. This was an exciting time, that changed the world and the music business forever; and I was experiencing it first hand. At the same time The Dictators were touring England with the Stranglers, the Dead Boys were there with The Damned and Richard Hell and The Voidoids were touring with Elvis Costello. The Sex Pistols album had just come out the week before, I lent Sid Vicious money to buy drugs, (he still owes me), and you would run into The Clash and Billy Idol on the street. Rock and roll was cool, drugs were fun and sex was safe. It was a good time to be alive.

The Stranglers tour ended so we headed over to mainland Europe for a few weeks, planning to return to London and headline our own show at The Roundhouse with 999 and The Stukas opening.

The European shows were going great, we played The Paradiso in Amsterdam but faced a long overnite drive to the next gig in Berlin. It meant leaving right after the show, sleeping in the van and arriving in Berlin in time for soundcheck. Now that's something only a 23 year old musician would agree to do.

The Dictators in Germany, 1977

So we cross the border into Germany around dawn and stop at the first gas station to stretch, piss and eat. We pile out of the van, a bunch of loud, dirty, smelly, hairy guys, with leather jackets carrying Dutch money, eyed very suspiciously by the clean cut German gas station attendant, who will soon become a major player in my little drama. We perform our bodily functions and continue traveling down the Autobahn. I'm fast asleep when I feel the van slow down. I slowly raise my head and see cars stopped ahead of us. I assume it's a traffic jam but as we ease forward I see some police cars and hear buzzing in the sky. I look up to see a helicopter circling overhead....... "Shit!" I think "there must have been an accident", and with helicopters circling overhead I figure it is probably a bad one; that is probably the last thing I want to deal with at 8 in the morning so I lay my head down and try to fall back asleep..............suddenly, I hear screaming in German. I pick my head up only to see a German soldier pointing the barrel of a machine gun right at my face. Actually there were about twenty soldiers with machine guns, two or three helicopters in the sky, a roadblock, tanks, reinforcements and who knows what else. The gas station attendent had reported us as the Baader-Meinhof gang, and now we faced a military operation...........in their minds we were the terrorists and they weren't fooling around. So now it's total mayhem with 20 screaming Nazi's surrounding a van full of New York Jewish kids on their first trip to Europe!!!!! Next stop Aushwitz.

I was in the back of the van so I'm the last out and this is what I see..........8 guys with their backs to me, arms raised in the air, standing in a muddy ditch in the pouring rain: some were barefoot, some had Dictator's jackets on........I'm thinking, "Fuck, where's my camera, great album cover"

They bring us to the local police station, where they unload all the equipment out of our truck, checking every nook and crany. One by one we were brought into a room to be interrogated. They asked every one the same questions to make sure we gave the same answers. We were thoroughly searched; I mean every body cavity in a desperate search for a nuclear bomb or something. This ridiculousness ended when a phone call to the German promoter confirmed the obvious.

Andy Shernoff in the studio

We were still determined to make the show (again naive 23 year olds) but that involved traveling from West Germany into communist East Germany on to Berlin. The problem was, under communism nobody could afford a car so there were no highways. The whole trip through East Germany was spent following diesel trucks spewing fumes on 2 lane roads. We passed through every grey, bland, depressing town on the road to Berlin. Every town had empty streets and every store window was empty. It was the most boring depressing drive of my life, and we missed the gig.

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