SLADE at Netherland
for all pictures from this gig is the
copyright@ http://www.oerrock.nl/
Gig Report - Ureterp, NL,
19-05-2006
by Adri and Lidwien
The pleasure of a Slade concert is for us also in the travelling to places
where we normally don't come. This time we had to travel from the south to the north of our country, about 230 km. Yes, we live in a small country. ;-) That Friday we drove to a hotel in Drachten (Friesland), near Ureterp, where the Oerrock festival would take place that night. The name of the festival relates to Ureterp = Oerterp in the Friesian language. The line-up that day: Cuby & The Blizzards, Slade, The Sweet, The Animals, Peter & His Rockets.
Cuby is a well-known blues band from the late 60s and early 70s, while Peter (Koelewijn) is a very successful artist from the 60s-80s area. Peter scored his first #1 "Kom van dat dak af" ("Come down from the roof" in 1960, some of you might even remember his Smokie's cover song "Who the X is Alice" as Gompie, that was also a #1 hit in NL (Netherlands). You probably know the other bands.
After arriving at the hotel, Lidwien and I had dinner there and we noticed an Englishman with long hair sitting next to our table. He phoned someone and mentioned the delay of planes. The weather was very bad with storm and rain. While we were eating three other people arrived one by one at his table and suddenly I recognised one of them: this was The Sweet! When we left our table
we wished them a sweet concert. ;-) One member was glad to hear that their concert would be taking place in a large tent, not in open air. While we walked to our hotel room we noticed two members of Slade just checking in at the lobby. I said "Hi Dave!" to Mr. Hill and he reached out his hand so we could shake his. John excused himself he had yet to shave as they were expected in half an hour and Dave also apologised for not being able to have a longer chat. We were also late and realised that we were missing out on Cuby.
Well, this is going to be a long report. Are you willing to read more?
Good. We went by car to Ureterp and Cuby was already playing. We met two of our friends there, Roel and Richard. Richard said he recognised the hat that Lidwien was wearing. Lidwien was sitting in a wheelchair so she could attend the festival throughout the whole night. Compliments to the organisers who had made a high platform for wheelchairs on the side of the tent.
Don was already soon after Cuby soundchecking, as always. Half an hour later it was "Thunderbirds Are Go!" again and Slade kicked off playing their set.
Maybe Slade had been in a hurry to get to this venue (we heard they missed the boat across the North Sea, or due to the storm the ferry was cancelled) and Dave hadn't been able to pack his glamorous outfits, 'cause we missed his dressing changes; despite this he had his LED guitar with the light effects.
We believe that many saw Slade for the first time and the thirty year olds were pleasantly surprised by this group. The "experienced" part of the crowd eagerly accepted the invitation to sing and clap along, at which they did a great job, taking part in the joy.
This set was somewhat shorter than usual, I missed The Bangin' Man, but... most of all the other songs were there. John played the violin in a few songs
and we saw a big difference in Mal's performance compared to the concert in La Hulpe, last September. He really showed he had found his place in the band.
The audience was also enjoying this gig.
Although the trip to the concert had been difficult for the band, they had really made a successful effort of giving the audience a good feeling that they enjoy playing and just being there for the people!
It was obvious that an encore was needed as the audience shouted for more, and in the last song the obligatory Christmas cap was pulled out and I handed it to a girl sitting on the shoulders of her friend. The party was complete! (There were only two caps in the audience, Lidwien was wearing the other one, while Dave had put on a large red Smurf cap on stage.)
Winding down afterwards we were making new friends and waiting for The Sweet. They did a great job doing their songs, although they were experiencing some sound problems. All their big hits passed by and this girl and I were singing along and really enjoying the set. Another girl was also going out of her head and I very much enjoyed looking at her enthusiastical dancing. Later on, after
The Animals, I got to speak to her sitting in front of Lidwien.
'Cause after the encore of The Sweet it was time for The Animals. To me, they seemed to come slowly alive, to slowly grow on the audience. One could tell from their gig that they have American influences. I think their best song is "Don't bring me down". Lidwien noted that The Animals showed somewhat more appreciation to the audience than The Sweet and she also enjoyed The Animals.
Half an hour late Peter and his Rockets started their set. Despite the drunk people and some bastards bumping around against other people, Peter stood up to the task and we got to sing along pretty much, enjoying his hits. The security people did their job very good, fast and almost unnoticeable, when things almost ran out of hand near the end of the concert.
At three o'clock we arrived at the hotel again. Now all you people who have still the urge to read on about our weekend, go ahead. All the others can stop reading now. :-)
Saturday was just a restful day. Time for being lazy and listening to the radio a little bit, watching TV in the evening. I remember "Fear Factor".
The next day we had planned for a visit to one of the islands. We travelled to Holwerd and took the ferry of 13h30 to Ameland. The passage takes about 45 minutes. There we ran off the boat, while the weather had finally cleared up, Lidwien in her wheelchair. Nearby the harbour we picked up two rental bicycles and went for a ride on the island. Riding to the north of the island you get to see the North Sea. The harbour is in the south. You have to cross the Waddenzee to reach the island from Friesland.
After a few hours of cycling through the dunes, on and off hills, we thought we'd call it a day and so we went back, returning the bikes to the rental shop. I case you wonder, YES, Lidwien can ride a bike, but only when I push her up the hill. ;-)
We rode to the ferry, Lidwien in her wheelchair again, and found a vast crowd waiting to get on. Eager to get on the boat, we asked security people where to go. They pointed us to the bicycle entrance. In a circling movement around the waiting crowd we reached the gate for bikes - but it was already closed. Only a few seconds later a guard jumped out of his cabin and opened the gate for us. As we passed through the gate a voice sounded across the terminal that the boat was full and that no passengers were admitted anymore - they
had to wait another hour. Meanwhile I pushed the wheelchair up the gangway for bikes and cars. As soon as we arrived on the cardeck, the loading-ramp was closed and the ferry took off at 16h30. The weather had been very sunny during our stay and travel from the island.
At 17h30 we left the parking place and started our journey home. Soon the weather changed and it was raining again. We arrived at Lidwien's home in Tilburg at 21h45, having stopped for a nice dinner on the way in Lelystad.
This was a summary of our Slade weekend in Friesland (The Netherlands), congratulating Finland with their Eurovision Song Contest victory (20-05-2006).
All you Slade fans KEEP ON ROCKING!
Adri and Lidwien
REPORT SLADE II in Enschede
Friday 17. June 2005
A poster for Flash-Back event at Go Planet in Enschede, Netherlands on 17th June 2005
Op 17 juni a.s. komt SLADE naar Go Planet Enschede. Entree: ? 17.50, Zaal open: 19.00 uur
Aanvang: 20.00 uur.
Gigreport@ Adri & Lidwien
At the festival site Lidwien and I met four other enthusiastic concert-
goers. They went into the concert hall, while we decided to have an
evening dish.
First let me describe the festival site. I've only seen a bit of it,
but it is a long avenue with several event halls alongside. There is
a karting hall, a concert and movie hall, a Greek restaurant and a
pizzeria and much much more. In the middle of the avenue there is a
huge display on which they showed the announcement of the Slade gig.
We went into the pizzeria and lo and behold, the four other concert-
goers entered and joined us at the table next to ours. We exchanged
some talk about to which Slade concerts we had been in the past.
After the copious meal (chicken pizza and shoarma) we went to the
concert hall. The enormous entrance led to a fence, followed by three
long hallways and a short cave-like corridor into a final hall with the
stage. The support act was already playing their set on a hip-high
stage that was rather small to walk on. So we stood there observing the
act.
Time to describe the hall. :-)
In front of us there was a dancefloor which wasn't much crowded yet, and when you crossed it, you arrived at the stage, obviously. Behind us there was a large mixing console and a Radio 10 Gold (concert sponsor) deejay. To the right there was a bar with beer and drinks and behind it there was a tribune for about 100 sitting people. It seems there was a balcony, too. (Didn't notice that one myself. :-)
The support act ended their performance with the audience choice "When the lady smiles", the famous Golden Earring song. The deejay was there to play some in-between popular rock songs and to interview some people about their relation to Slade. My friends Richard and Roel went to him at interview time and Richard could tell some things about Slade through the microphone.
As usual, Don Powell sat behind his drumkit long before Slade entered
the stage, and he was testing the kit, while some roadies were checking the sound. Don seemed nervous to me, as he managed to get two cigarettes from the audience in between and smoked them during his long appearance on stage before our four heroes all entered the stage together.
Waiting for Slade, we stood in front of the stage, the dancefloor was
packed. Thunderbirds intro, and then there they were! I didn't know
the bass guitarist yet, I think he looks a bit like a young Don Powell
(sorry Don), but I'm afraid I don't know his name, they didn't intro-
duce each other. They kicked off with CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE.
Let's say they did their usual show. The singer's (can't remember his
name right now) interaction with the audience was superb! He made us laugh several times. Of course, Dave Hill is the show-off of our famous quartet, Don Powell is the power drive with his hammering bangs on the drum, and let's say the bass guitarist is the quiet one. Working together? They all do it very good! And the audience was also very enthusiastic. I've seen some people going out of their "head".
Let's skip through the songs.
CUM ON LET'S PARTY. LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS. Everyone recognizes FAR FAR AWAY. EVERYDAY. RED HOT. LOOK WOT YOU DUN. Some songs later there was RUN RUN AWAY, one of my favourite songs live. Another favourite of mine is THE BANGIN' MAN. I'm really glad they did that one, too. Then... It's time to say goodbye. Goodbye! Goodbye? GUDBUY T' JANE! Question time again. Are you crazy? And are you? You, too? Then, turning to Lidwien and me (we wore the same T-shirt) You're crazy to marry him! MAMA, WEER ALL CRAZEE NOW! Then GET DOWN AND GET WITH IT.
Then they left the stage. But the audience shouted "We want more!"
So they returned. MY OH MY. And finally, Dave put on a shiny Christmas cap and then they played and left with MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY.
Like I said, Don Powell is banging the drum, and he is doing that with
so much power, that drum sticks yield to this force. I managed to catch three broken sticks with Don's name on it. After the concert I managed to tear off a set list from the stage. Another set list (Don's) went my way, too, and after the concert I gave that one to an enthusiastic fan - he was very happy to receive the gift - who had brought his son along.
We listened to some more songs that the deejay played, some with smoke effects, and then we decided to go back to the hotel. On the way out we talked to a nice girl and her brother and we gave them two Slade concert posters. They were very happy with it and the girl enthusiastically said to us that she would definitely come to the next Slade concert.
Back at the hotel - after a half hour walk - we went to sleep, satisfied.
Adri
THANKS a lot to Adri and Lidwien, huge Sladefans from Nederlands for this fantastic gigreport.
SLADE at the Knypstermerke Feesttent in De Knipe, Netherlands, 10.10.2004
