Yesterday, we did some rehearsing for our performance tonight, and I inexplicably thought back thirty years.
On October 30, 1989, we played at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin, Germany. During our stay in Berlin, a lot of us piled into a bus and went to dinner at the Grand Hotel in East Berlin, as it was called at the time. It was just a few days later that the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.
Of course, we took pride in being among the last people to be hassled going through Checkpoint Charlie, headed into the Eastern zone for an evening of wining, dining and stogie-smoking at the Grand Hotel—then an island of luxury in an otherwise-drab East Germany. The Grand was only open to foreign guests, as it did not accept East German Marks, only Western hard currencies. 
About a week after our little party there, the Berlin Wall began coming down. Coincidence? I think not. I defy you to prove that we had nothing to do with this bit of history.
Parts of the 2004 film The Bourne Supremacy were filmed in that hotel. Famous guests included: Peter Falk, Peter Ustinov, Larry Hagman, Pamela Anderson, and Plácido Domingo—so give them the credit! But don't forget the touring folks who dined at the Grand Hotel when it was really grand
We have officially outlasted the Grand Hotel—it’s now known as the Westin Grand Hotel Berlin—but, some of us have changed our look just a bit, too. I’m sure there’s no need to identify any of these people—you know who they all are, don’t you?