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JLT16 nov 97
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Vosselaar 16 Nov 1997
At
20:35 Heartland started playing. Amongst them was Steve Morris, once the
guitarist of Gillan. The former night they performed in the Netherlands,
Rockbitch played there too, Steve said it was a pity that their performance was
not filmed (I wonder why). The small podium was lighted with 4 candleholders.
The fourth song reminded me of Blackmore’s Night, one was expecting any moment
to hear Candice’s voice. I did not know that the acoustic Yamaha could produce
those kind of electric effects. The singer of this trio had a very beautiful and
powerful voice. They were assisted by drum and bass on a tape (something
computer-ish), operated by Steve Morris. This nice little concert ended at
21:15. Afterwards Johan was treated a beer from Morris at the bar. Johan offered
him one before when Steve was playing, he was told that Morris is still in
contact with Gillan, they were on the phone a couple of days ago. 15
minutes later Jeff Paris and his
bassplayer were on stage. He
thanked us for the applause he did not receive. This concert ended at
22:30; it was good, but not my cup of tea, I was even getting bored.
“Luckily” this boredom was a bit broken when the bassist got slightly
electrocuted: “fucking A!” and we got live on stage a
“broken-string-repair-lesson” The
main dish started at 22:43. The person for whom Mechteld Beks has a crush: Joe
Lynn Turner. It started good: Joe Lynn tested the mike: “one, two”. Johan
responded immediately with “three, four”. Joe Lynn Turner reacted with a:
“We have a fucking nice guy! Put the volume of my mike higher, people have to
hear my jokes, not his”. Again to Johan:” How did you get that
T-shirt? I even don’t have one myself”. (Johan was wearing a Rainbow
-Straight Between The Eyes shirt– 1982). Johan riposted: “I bought it.” The
first song was the one I heard during the soundcheck, and thought it could be of
C.S.N.&Y: (even the singing was their style) “Feeling Like A Rolling Stone”. For such a small audience the applause was huge. Mechteld tried to
seduce Joe Lynn with her “magic handgestures”, as she did earlier this year
with Ritchie Blackmore in Vosselaar, and was promptly aped by Turner. “I
expect you are all waiting for some Rainbow-tunes, here is one from “Under
Cover: Street of Dreams”.
Joe also complained about the high prices of the Japanese importalbums. He
promised us he would do something about it. Most of us said his voice was
extremely good, he could easily reach the higher parts. Nikolo Kotzev, the
guitarist with Frozen Abott, played small -for my taste- too jazzy solo’s. “I Think It’s Time To Leave Your Love”
(I thought this song was called: “When The Night Is Falling”), dedicated to the first Frozen Abott singer Glenn Hughes, was swell
played and sung. It was a pity that the sound of Joe’s guitar was louder than
Nikolo’s while the latter was playing solo’s. “Stone Cold”,
again with a jazzy solo, was very well received. And yes, Joe Lynn can play the
guitar! “A Fool in Love”
was the second Frozen Abott song. The next one was announced as “hardrock
acoustic, the birth of a new genre: ”hard wood”: On
The Wings Of A Dream”. Lucky for me Marc Brans, our Belgian
fanclub chairman, stood just beside
me, so I could have a look at his own notes, cos I had never heard most songs
they played that night. For once, I was in the first row, but my view was
blocked by the music stand of the singer. Then we
had a new Frozen Abott song, a balad: ”Love
Is On My Side”. Nikolo signs to Joe (for us too early) that it is time
for the last song: ”A Twist of Faith” The
encores were a jam with the second band Jeff Paris: ”Lord
Have Mercy on Me” interpolating a short bassolo. The last song was “Tush”
of ZZTop. The concert stopped at 23:48. It
stroke my eye that there were very few fanclubmembers among the ± 150 present.
Well, those absentees were VERY WRONG! They must revise their opinion. I think
that this concert was better than Glenn Hughes’ performance last year here at
the Biebob. We then tried to get back stage. It must be true: blondes have more
fun, cos the first persons allowed were all females and blond. Mechteld, who was
calmer than I expected, was of course the first to be there. Every time we -the
old, ugly guys- tried to get our stuff signed, we were removed from the stage.
The other bandmembers were chatting and signing in the hall. At last when we got
“under stage” we did not get to see Joe Lynn, because our chairman was
interviewing him, and he signed my ticket and Cd
cover:
. At the beginning he was not allowed either, so I started to fear for the future of our fanclub (Marc was treated lately like shit by most of the (ex-)Purple members) At 02:30 I was back home, after an hour and a half drive, so I could be half an hour next to my wife in our bed: at 3:00 I had to get up, cos once again I had to go on manoeuvres. Next
appointment in Köln: Blackmore’s Night. I expect very very much from this
one! |
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