Wilco: 4.00 - 5.00pm: soundcheck/5.00 - 6.00pm: local press/6.00 - 6.05pm: cigarette break

IT'S DARK IN an alley just off Hamburg's notorious Reeperbahn, a faint neon glow filters in from the street to reveal a gaggle of noisy Americans huddled together amid rubble and masonry that has fallen from a crumbling brick wall. There's a sudden blinding flash.