"No-Name" Singer Fills Olympic Hall

Against all odds, Bavarian folk-rock singer Barbara Clear attracted around 8,000 people to a solo concert she gave at the Olympic Hall in Munich on Saturday. Only a month earlier, the 40-year-old had played for a crowd of just 20, but that was just one stop on the way to realizing her dream of playing in the Olympic Hall, Bavaria's legendary venue. Clear, who has neither a manager nor a record contract, has never had a hit, nor are her songs played on the radio, booked the hall in 2001 and has spent the last two and a half years on a promotional tour to recoup the roughly €60,000 ($70,000) she spent renting the venue for one night. Tickets for Saturday's show cost €10. Clear's audience nearly filled the venue, coming from as far away as Berlin and Düsseldorf. She entertained them for three hours by singing her own songs and cover versions, including Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," accompanying herself on the guitar. She said she wanted to show that there still is a market for the kind of music she plays. Nevertheless, the record companies haven't yet come knocking, Clear said after her successful concert.