Hannover – Fooyah – Ian Parish

August 11 2026

Hannover Flugzueg

I just like aircraft. I don’t know why. But they are cool and I find them fascinating. On the recent Germany trip I took some pictures and forced Smith to go to the Aviation Museum Laatzen-Hannover. We’ve been visiting Hannover for quite a few years so this was my chance to visit this place which I’d seen from the train enroute to Hildesheim.

This A380 was hiding from us at Heathrow. Smith and I left from Terminal 3 which was a little different to previous years when we used Terminal 5. The parking was slightly more complicated than at T5 but I coped. I had booked Meet and Greet parking and this worked well except for the number plate recognition camera part of it.

This Luftwaffe A400 was doing engine runs at Hannover Airport. It was starting up engines on one side only and running them. I’m not sure of the reasoning for this but I took this picture while waiting in the passport control queue.

This little D028 was sitting outside the museum and, considering we had walked what felt like a long way, was a welcome site. We had got to the museum after walking through some bizarre urban exhibition area.

It was quite nice to see an AN-2. It’s such a proper rugged looking plane and we could also get in and look around. I half expected to see Indiana Jones in the back and some chickens and crates – it had that sort of feel.

The AN-2 cockpit. Lovely.

This engine was pretty cool. In fact all the engines were pretty cool. Smith wasn’t as impressed but he’s wrong. Above is the 22nd ever produced production jet engine. Really impressive to see this.

The F104 is a silly plane. It’s too long and the wings are too small. Impressive to see one this close though and you could also have a look in the cockpit. The instruments seemed so basic, I can’t believe people flew these things and knew where they were going and also trained to intercept or bomb particular places!

D-INJR as recreated here in a 1:1.8 scale model was the world’s fastest propellor powered plane for about 25 years. It held the record from 1940ish until a highly modified Bearcat beat it later. I will say the Bearcat I saw fly at Duxford a few years ago was pretty impressive.

A lovely example of a helicopter. The Alouette looks like it does a great job – excellent.

I saw this B747 while waiting to leave Hannover airport and fly back to the UK. The freight look makes it look quite sinister I think. This particular plane shuttles between Brussels and Hannover mainly, nice to see.

This was our plane for the flight home. I tracked it coming into Hannover and got a couple of shots of it landing. It’s a pretty cute Airbus but not quite as neat as the A318. It was late arriving as, for some reason, the air conditioning wasn’t working properly at Heathrow and they had to delay the flight to make the aircraft comfortable for the passengers. We arrived back in the UK not too delayed though.

August 22 2025

M’era Luna 2025

There now follows a summary of my time in Germany this summer at the M’era Luna festival. This one will be known as the first one where we had VIP passes to the Hannover EBM marquee and beer.

On Thursday we woke early to head to Heathrow. Flight was good. Landed at Hannover and got the train to town. Found our “hotel” which was a box hotel. We elft our bags and headed off to meet friends. We saw quite a lot from the top of the new town hall but the best bit was the lift that took us to the top dome. It curved inside the building so the floor was level at the start but not at the end. It is more of a tourist attraction that actually being at the top. We ate at a Greek restaurant that night after seeing our room which was small (expected) and a very curious design. The floor smelt of piss though. We popped to the Maschsee Fest then headed back to the hotel, I had been up since 0400.

Friday was a train journey to Hildesheim, get wristbands and buy shuttle bus tickets to the site. We had to wait for tickets, wait for the bus and then it took two hours to get to the site and the traffic around Hildesheim was fucked. But, once at the site we found a pre-made tent and chilled. We had arrived in Hildesheim at 1045 and arrived at M’era Luna at 1600. Ants seemed to be attacking our tent but when we returned after the bands they had moved on, maybe we weren’t their correct flavour of person. Strangely for M’era Luna there were bands on the Friday night. I think this was because it’s 25 years of the festival and so a special occasion. Lord Of The Lost played and also released their album on the same day.

Lord Of The Lost – Friday headline set, a good show, lots of fireworks, your man singer from Unzucht (now Oomph!) came on stage to sing a song about M’era Luna.

After the bands I showered. There were no lights in the shower tent and no shower curtains. This is sometimes how things go. Also, definitely not the worst shower I’ve ever been in.

Saturday bands went as follows:

Null Positiv – main stage. Good metal. Female singer. I enjoyed it. Well structured songs. Good audience engagement.

Chris Harms – club stage. He’s the singer from Lord Of The Lost. 80s fucking shit. Good songs I guess but left me really cold.

Tanzwut – main stage. Rock with bagpipes.

Ambassador 21 – club stage. Fucking angry industrial. Great set. Ended with Power Rage Riot Death.

Funker Vogt – club stage. It just misses live. Can listen to their stuff not live. It’s just a little boring live. Good atmosphere though.

Faderhead – club stage. Fucking great. Excellent songs. Good vibe. Really good. My absolute best of the weekend.

Solar Fake – club stage. Solid set. Elliott MF Berlin on keyboards and guitar at times. He had so much energy. Not quite excellent though.

Eisbrecher – main stage. Excellent show as ever. The sound was really impressive.

Sunday things included watching bands, meeting people, checking train times for Monday and having a good time. The train times is a pain as you work from your flight time and keep subtracting time until you find out “get up” time, which was about 0600. This meant there was time for one missed connection but not two.

Beyond border – Main stage. All right. Two farmer dads and their son. Left to see:

Corlyx– club stage. Female singer. Good bass. Hate the guitars, very “The Cure”.

Manntra – main stage. Viking looking but good metal/rock. Classic metal with good audience participation.

Schattenmann– main stage. Metal. Liked the voice of the singer. Good show but left to:

Noisuf- X – club stage. Hard and fast dance. Big crowd for club stage at 1300. Played Hit Me Hard and Hit Me Fast

Sierra Veins – club stage. Electronic. Slow with heavy bass. Little singing and though a chorus box. I enjoyed it. But I can’t classify it. I have since bought some.

Leather Strip – club stage. Damn good. Just Kurt. Proper EBM. Really good. Oddly, given how good it was, I’m not too fussed about seeing them again.

Rotersand – club stage. Fucking great. Loved it. Singer came into the crowd near me and Smith, we pogoed together.

In Strict Confidence – club stage. A bit meh for me. I don’t get on with the deep male voice.

None of the Sunday headline bands interested us and so we went to the tent, whereupon we had the idea of travelling to Hannover Sunday evening to remove a lot of the hassle from Monday morning. There ensued quick investigations of trains and hotels and we left. We walked past the main venue entrance with two bands playing and headed to Hannover. This hotel was much nicer than the Box Hotel, and, with no explanation at all, was next to the red light district.

Monday was the flight home and to chill. It was a great weekend with Faderhead and Rostersand sticking out for me.

August 28 2023

Just (Hann)Over There

As part of the journey to M’era Luna 2023 I had a little less than a day in Hannover, or Hanover as apparently we British spell it. Smith and I flew to Hannover, stayed the night in a hotel room and then travelled to M’era Luna in Hildesheim.

There’s a website that gives information about curios in different places. You let it know where you are going and then the return data are interesting things. The first one we wanted to see was the church with the pentagram built into the walls. In the above picture you can see the pentagram [traditional sign of the devil] and also the Star Of David around the clock. I’m not sure why either are there, but also, I don’t really care. It was pretty nice to see.

Next on the list was the musical manhole cover or drain cover I guess they should be called. Trying to explain manhole cover to a German native was interesting. Their language didn’t have the male-ness of it in their word so English gets called out, quite rightly, for being misogynist.

The new town hall in Hannover was spectacular and very pretty. The whole centre of the city was a delight, even with the mentally unstable people we saw. I found the basement level shopping mall quite a surprise but understandable. It’s hard talking to Germans about their cities when they talk about “it was bombed and we built it back the way it was before”. I’m not sure of the correct response to that. I know when in Washington DC I was almost proud the Brits had burnt the White House to the ground, but these war actions felt different.

Wandering around Hannover it was strange to see emblems of the British royal family. But then I remembered that the current royal family are literally descended from the Hanoverians who ruled Britain in the past. Once I remembered this I felt a kind of kinship with the city and I’m not even a royalist. I’m definitely a not-royalist. But there we go.

I’m trying to upload the musical drain cover to YouTube but am struggling slightly, I think that the music might be missing for some reason, but that’s the main reason for uploading. I will try again in a moment.

August 17 2023August 16 2024

M’era Luna 2023

Another summer another journey to Germany for a music festival. Well, it’s the only festival I’ve been to for a number of years and it’s in Germany so all of that makes logical sense. Smith and I have been going since 2015 to this festival and this year there weren’t really any big bands that drew us there but we went for the atmosphere, meeting people and some of the lower-down-the-bill bands. Other darkness visits are all within this site:

M’era Luna 2015 – the first time. A long drive and exploration.
M’era Luna 2016 – getting used to the journey and enjoying it more.
M’era Luna 2017 – the one where it pissed down and the car got stuck.
M’era Luna 2018 – the one with the Prodigy.
M’era Luna 2019 – The one with Fear Of Domination.
M’era Luna 2022 – The first one post Covid. Faderhead.

I’ll write more about the journey in another communication I think. There’s too much that happened and things to share especially from the time spent in Hannover. On the Friday we took a tram, train and bus to get to the venue. There was a kiosk in Hildesheim bus station handing out the wristbands so we were pretty much sorted and got into the venue quickly and efficiently. Friday at M’era Luna is all about looking around, seeing the merchandise and maybe attending the disco. We didn’t attend the disco. I did buy the t-shirt, a hood and a metal cup. I also got a small bag for the Legend.

Hildesheim Airport - Converted ML2023 — Hildesheim Airport – Converted ML2023

What follows are my notes from the bands I saw on the Saturday:

Antiage – mains stage – pondering slow standard stuff. Nothing exciting. Bunny dancers. Keyboard on a spring.

Intent Outake – club stage – More threatening. A better band than first one. Sun has come out. Good set design. Couldn’t see Mac operator as hidden behind car, mic with camo netting.

Versus Goliath – main stage – good guitars. Good riffage. A cross between Rage and Linkin Park . Heavy. I liked it. Almost rap. Bought their album.

Rave The Requiem – main stage – Good energetic Swedish rock with three singers and a percussionist. Looked like they enjoyed it. Too many key changes but I enjoyed it overall.

Tanzwut – main stage – rock with bagpipes and a medieval feel. Actually quite enjoyable.

Megaherz – main stage – good German rock. Enjoyed it. Proper rain shower. Heavy rain.

Project Pitchfork – main stage – Honestly boring, even with two drummers. Both drummers playing same thing – what’s the point? Walked during song three.

Solar Fake – club stage – Really fucking good, upbeat. Excellent drummer – he really impressed me.

Mesh – club stage – Boring.

Sunday was a better day weather-wise and I was looking forward to some of the bigger names this time.

Dragol – main stage – mythical? Cellist. Male pianist. Female singer. Slow, but quite interesting. Tom Tom player looked like the caveman from Ghosts.

Blitz Union – club stage – amazing. Thrash bordering on excellent rock. Interacted with the crowd really well. Wall of death. Very enjoyable. Had a good energy rather than the plodding of a lot of the weekend.

Heldmaschine – main stage. A bit plodding German metal. Nothing special.

Eisfrabrik – MainStage. Dressed in white. Bit meh.

Gothminister – main stage. Dressed very goth. New German rock. The keyboards were very chord-y. Songs were too long.

Letzte Instanz – main stage – Rock with violin and a cello. There was a cello solo.

Ashbury Heights – club stage – Very enjoyable set. Not really my stuff but got the crowd moving and the songs were excellent.

Subway to Sally – main stage – A very enjoyable set. If you have a violinist they don’t need to play ALL the time. Oddly very heavy at times.

Mono Inc. – main stage – loved it. Was close to front. They played a cover of Passenger. Excellent crowd dynamics. Great.

Within Temptation – main stage -Derivative female led rock music. I guess it was ok. Nice to see. Not bothered about seeing again.

The overall highlight of the weekend was Mono Inc. for me. I missed them play at the Underground in London because I had covid and so it was lovely to see them and really appreciate it.

Within Temptation - The End of ML2023 — Within Temptation – The End of ML2023

So, that’s it for another year. I’ve seen plenty of new bands and also some that I’ve missed in the past because other music has been on in the hangar stage. It was a lovely atmosphere. All I have to do now is wait for my back to fix itself. I’m being reminded that I’m getting older and all the walking, dancing, sleeping on airbeds and travel might not be great for me. So, until I do it all again next year: