Manfred Mann's Earthband - On The Road July 2001

Tuesday, 2 July, Konstanz, Germany

Posted by Martin Retzbach (In Reply to: Report of the gig in Konstanz yesterday posted by Roland)

Hi Roland and all others,

sorry for the late report, but I arrived at home last night at 1 a.m. and I was just to tired to write something. And the impressions were so wonderful, I had to take some more time to write it down.

We, my son Sebastian and my friend Kalle reached Konstanz about 7 p.m. (the first journey with my new car, only 4 hours old, what a beginning of a cars life ;-)). We parked the car on a big parking area in the centre of Konstanz and went to the quarter called "little venedig", where the Zeltfestival Konstanz took place. We entered the tent and met Uschi already standing in the middle of the front row. A wonderful place, direct in front of Noels micro. First of all I noticed tiny percussion instruments, two guitars and a bass on the stage not belonging to the Earth Band - oh no, a supporting act. A few minutes later Uschis brother reached and we had some time to talk till a few minutes after 8 p.m. the supporting band entered the stage. I don't remember the name of the band, but they did a good job. It was funny to watch the guitar player, he played solos, not bad, but he always had to concentrate on his fingers and his stroke was to hard, so he had to do a hard job to reach perhaps 1/4 percent of Micks great sound. And comparing an hour later, seeing the worlds greatest guitar player how easy it can look, making such a wonderful sound with a guitar. Mick, you are the best!!! The supporting band played till 8.45 p.m., then the technicians prepared the stage for the world best band. Noel entered the stage and fixed a "Wackel-Elvis" on Micks amplifier, perhaps you have seen this Elvis already in the Audi commercials on TV.

At a few minutes after 9 p.m. the Earth Band entered the stage and the audience was great. I thought, the wonderful audience from Ulm was brought to Konstanz and they continued the good mood which was stopped in Ulm because the gig was over. It was unbelievable, I never thought it is possible to top the audience from Friedrichshafen last year and Ulm this year. But this audience was absolute great from the first song on. I can't describe it in words… So the band started the usual set, Intro, Shelter, Castles, Martha, Carol, Dancing, better and better every time I hear this song. The mood was cooking, I have no words. Then Spirits, my new favourite song. Mick's and Manfred's solos are incredible! Really the premiere league what they play with their instruments! After that SOS, I have still no words, I feel with everyone missing this evening, more I can't say. Then blinded and the demolition man, after that the band left the stage for the first time. The loudness of the encore shouting: minimum 140dB! Then Noel and Mick entered the stage for the Redemption song, I know, I always write the same, but it was gigantic! And the special: during Redemption song Noel gave Sebastian a cup of water to drink from the stage. After that they played Davy and after the second pause as last song Mighty. Before Noel left the stage he gave Sebastian his towel, Sebastian was very proud! Thank you Noel!!!

After the gig we sat near the "Sonntagshop" without the Sonntags and drunk something before our way home and Simon gave the youngest fan a MMEB-poster. Thank you Simon, that was great. So after all Sebastian went with bright eyes to the car.

We reached Meckenbeuren at 1 a.m. (aha, a diesel isn't as fast as an Audi Turbo :-)) and went to bed without any detour, I had to work the next day and Sebastian had to go to school. Sebastians first instruction to his mother the next day was never to wash this towel!

Bye

Martin

Monday, 8 July, Cologne, Germany

Posted by Roland

Hi Gerhard, Thomas and all the other Earthband-Fan-Family-Members out there, I'll try to give a report of the fantastic gig in the E-Werk yesterday. Actually Gerhard wrote the right comment, so I wanna give you a few details more.

Iarrived at the E-Werk at about 18.15 after suffering in a traffic-jam just like some others of us too, because of CSD an AC/DC at the same time. It was also raining cats and dogs - so what ?

First I saw the preacher gerhard with his friend Siebo ("crazy for Mighty Quinn"), then Wolfgang and Dieter and there were also Reinhard and Erika with Graham and his wife (sorry I've forgotten the name) and Graeme and Lois Paylor from England and Annette ! I met you for the very first time and all of you are very, very nice ;-)

At 19.00 the doors were opened and our way goes to the first row (where else ?)in this nice hall. Only about 3 Metres in front of the stage. First we noticed: No Support - Thank God !

The hall was filled with people till 20.00 so that nearly 1.200 or a little bit more in there (maybe anyone could correcht me if i failed). The youngest fan was 10 meters on our right side on the shoulders of his dad I guess (about 9 year old boy). He was clapping his hands and knows nearly all lyrics. Maybe it was David ?

Wolfgang has taken photos of the audience and the band. Then the band entered the stage and immediately the mood was up. A great and wonderful audience in Cologne.

The well-known set-list: Intro, Shelter, Castles, Martha, Carol - then the new song what a bombastic arrangement ! This could become a new hymn one day. Maybe the high-point at Spirits with a little bit of Father, great solo of Mick and Manfred (most time without his hat) - Mr. Mick Rogers you're a Magician on the guitar - incredible - the best I ever heard; and the audience was great too, knows nearly each word of the songs.

Great support at SOS - Noel and the other boys were happy and enjoyed it, we too. Then a surprise for me; I guess the solo of Manfred whilst Demo-Man (please correct me, if I failed)sounds to me like sequences from "Tumbling Ball" - sounds very nice. Another great moment: Manfred talked in German to the audience (after Demo and before Mighty Quinn)- it sounds good. Manfred: Maybe on one of the next gigs you tellus one of your jokes in German ;-)

Before performing Redemption Song, Noel asked the audience some questions about Mr. Marley (quiztime in Cologne) and then he said to the people, that he would sing Redemption Song one day in the original with jamaicain akzent. Yes Noeö we're waiting for it. After performing he confessed: "I'm Not Bob Marley"

The mood was cooking whilst playing Blinded, Davy and Mighty Quinn and about 22.00 the gig was over.

Thank you Earth Band for that unforgetable performance. The Band gets better and better.

After the gig we stood together a little time. Then we have to go home - very lucky !

Hope to see the most of you on one of the next gigs.

;-) best wishes

Roland

Posted by Graeme (In Reply to: Report of the gig in Cologne posted by Roland)

Hi Roland

Nice to have met you and added another name to the growing list of new friends acquired in the last 2 or 3 years. No doubt we will see you again in the not too distant future.

I have a few words and comments to add to those you have written but I think you have covered it pretty well. I agree 'thank God - no support' - there is nothing worse that the assault on ones ears so often inflicted by support acts who pump up the volume to disguise the fact that they are crap! Before anybody admonishes me - yes I know not all support bands are crap - the first time I saw MMEB they were a support to Uriah Heep and had I ignored them then I wouldn't be here now writing this.

The gig was excellent as always - the 'new' songs of course were the highlights but I miss Angels and the complete Father. Another 'newie' would be nice but that's my opinion. I feel I can not finish without some words about the experiences we encountered on this trip - forgive me if I continue the theme that 'Something Always Happens'. No - we didn't get lost - Reinhard's perfect directions and Graham's perfect navigation got us to the autobahn service area where we met Reinhard, Erika and Iris. After the gig we travelled into the city of Cologne in search of food which was rewarded with a delicious plate of ravioli followed by Iris's leftovers and then Lois's leftovers. How I love people with small appetites! The 'incident' happened on the way back to the airport at Hahn. We followed Iris who would signal to us the junction to leave the autobahn which we expected to coincide with the same junction that we joined the previous day. However, having just noticed junction 42 was the next one, I relaxed in the knowledge that there was not too far to go. I'm not quite sure how the next sequence of events panned out but suddenly Iris was in the inside lane, us in the centre when the sign 'Hahn' was noticed atop the exit sign. The 'signal' I got from Iris was in the form of a horrified look which was interpreted by me as 'Oh sh*t sorry I forgot to point out the exit'. I cut across the front of Iris's car and on to the slip road at God only knows what speed and as luck would have it the gradient of the bend was less than gentle. Control was just about kept at the expense of several millimetres of rubber and several minutes of life expectancy of driver and passengers. A calming cigarette probably took a few more minutes off my life but I sure did feel better.

The flight back was delayed by 40 minutes, which in itself is a minor irritation as several factors can combine to increase the delay. But upon arriving at the stand at Stansted an announcement was made to the effect that there would a short delay in disembarking as ''we are waiting for a representative to escort passengers to the terminal building''. What amazes me is firstly that the terminal building was all of 20 feet away from the steps of the plane and the fact that this person wasn't there to do his escorting. Surely the arrival of a 150-foot long tube of aluminium full of passengers had not gone unnoticed. Perhaps it's a rare event at an airport for this large piece of noisy equipment to creep up and surprise the unwitting escort. Then of course there is the extended wait at the baggage carousel all contriving to make the departure from the airport actually take longer than to fly to!

Many thanks are due to Reinhard & Erika for procurement of tickets and hotel rooms and to all our friends for being there. Thanks once again to Ryanair for making the trip possible and to Gra-ham and Chris for making such pleasant travel companions. Thanks to Mercedes Benz for building a car with such efficient brakes.

Graeme

PS Nice to see Wolfgang again and if he reads this would he send some pictures?

Sunday, 14 July, Tuttlingen, Germany

Posted by Martin Retzbach

In Reply to: Back from Tuttlingen posted by Pink Panther

Hi Pink Panther and all others from the wonderful fan family!

Karin meant, that I should write the report from the gig yesterday in Tuttlingen, and who can contradict Karin. ;-) First of all a big THANK YOU to Uschi, Susi, Karin, Thomas and of course Ian for their help!!!

We (Sebastian and me) arrived in Tuttlingen at 5 p.m. and found a nice parking place for the car just at the bottom of the Honberg. We decided to be hard to ourselves, passed the shuttle bus and climbed the hill by foot. On top of the Honberg is a nice ruin and a wonderful view. A few minutes later we met Uschi and sat down in a beer garden, by and by Susi, Paulchen with his wife and Karin and Thomas arrived. It was nice to have some more time to talk, but it was still to short. The "Pink Panther" made some wonderful buttons for the fan family, thank you Paulchen, great idea! Additionally we had to look for "Gorodish" who wanted to come, too, but nobody knew him. So after some wrong Gorodishs we found the right one.

About 6.40 p.m. we went to the tent, from outside sure as Fort Knox, from inside observed like Alcatraz. On the ticket it was to read: entry 7 p.m. And like a post office, it wasn't possible to enter 1 minute before 7 p.m. Next problem: god only knows, but children under 10 years weren't allowed to enter the tent. So after a long discussion and the nice help of Ian Sebastian was able to enter Alcatraz. (Thanks to the organisations of the other events not making such stupid rules, especially to the Ulmer Zelt were children under 11 years could enter the tent without a ticket!) Karin and Thomas opened the "Sonntag-Shop" witch was under a small party tent outside the big tent, but inside the Alcatraz-Area. After a few minutes standing there we went in the direction of the stage. Oh, what a big mistake, a had a bottle of water in my hand. But not in Alcatraz. No guns, no children, no bottles, no photos (ha ha, we made some), I stop here, the list is much longer… So I returned to the merchandising shop and deposited my bottle there and now I fulfilled all restrictions and was able to enter the tent and walk to Uschi in the front row. Thank you again for "reserving" a top place, I know I used this service too often the last gigs! I hope, I can do something for you in the future! The next bad surprise: a supporting band. They started playing at 8 p.m., a band from Switzerland called Vance Garden. Nothing more to say, surely a good band for a beer tent or a party, but I'm here to hear the one and only Earth Band! Fortunately they stopped playing at 8.30 p.m. and at 9 p.m. the Earth Band entered the stage. Thanks to the band for the special greetings to Sebastian, every time he sees something like that he is very proud! Now the usual setlist started: Intro, Shelter, Castles, Martha, wonderful like usual. The last gigs I stood more on the right side and could enjoy Manfred, now we stood a little bit more on the left side and could better watch Mick's guitar. Every time I see this I'm enthusiastic, unbelievable what he is able to do with a guitar, although Matt had to solve some technical problems during the gig. The audience was very good, not as good as in Konstanz, but it was OK. Carol, Dancing, Spirits, again with wonderful solos. Sebastian made some photos, I saw the watchdog standing next to the stage scanning the hole audience when he recognised the flashlight. At the beginning of spirits he reduced his scan to the front row and a picture later he got the outlaw. He run to Sebastian, I saw this a took the camera, so he only could place his order "Photos are not allowed!", after that he went back to his place. A few minutes later, Uschi put some chocolate out of her bag, the watchdog sprinted again to us, wanted to take the chocolate, and as he saw what she held in her hand, he stopped and went back to his place. A word to the organisations: This was my 12th gig, but I never saw something like this! OK, they have to care for the security of the band and the visitors, but that's the wrong way. I don't know, what the security guys do in their normal live, but I wonder if it makes much sense.

SOS got a great feedback from the audience, then Blinded and Demolition Man. Thanks to Mick for the special part of his solo he played to Sebastian! After the usual pause the first encore, Redemption Song and Davy. A nice joke from Noel at the end of Davy, he stood near Mick, sang the part "…wearing different clothes again…" and pointed on Mick's T-shirt which was full of sweat. As second encore Mighty, Noel gave Sebastian a cup of water from the stage, thanks again Noel! Such are wonderful moments! I still wonder, why the watchdog not prevented this. After that another great gig was over, however to short for me… After some family pictures from Paulchen we left the tent and outside it was raining cats and dogs. So we searched not shelter from the storm but shelter from the rain under the party tent of the merchandising shop. After a few minutes Noel came, too, so it was a nice and another special ending of this gig. Thanks to Noel for being so close to the fans! After another family picture from Pink Panther we climbed down the Honberg and went to the car. A final thank to Uschi for sharing her umbrella with Sebastian. When do we learn that in the south of Germany you never should leave the house without an umbrella…

It was wonderful to meet some "new" faces, looking forward to Bad Krozingen, hope to see some English fans there!

Bye

Martin

Message Added: Now we are back, too...

Posted by Thomas and Karin

Hi,

Great report as ever, Martin, I knew why I asked you for writing that... :-)

We are now back home, too, after another 1300 km (in all) for our car and another 13 hours on the road (in all, too) on that weekend. But it was it worth, every km and every minute, because we met you all again there and had another wonderful MMEB gig! And our journey was nothing against the long trip the band had the whole night before from France to Tuttlingen. Our respect for the drivers of the band bus and the MMEB-van, especially for Pat who left just in the night after the Tuttlingen gig the venue to drive to Luxembourg! Your buttons are really great, Paul!

I just want to thank Ian for his help in that bad discussion we had with the security when we tried to get in my "son" :-) Sebastian. I guess it was only because of his help possible to let our youngest fan in to that gig, and even with Ian the security discussed a while before they let us go! It was really a shame! We agree with Martin, and we think the security of that night should drive to Clam in Austria. There they could learn how a gig at a castle could be organised without such a trouble! Inside of the tent, where I stood during a part of the gig on the left side of the stage in the second row, I had that "watchdog" just in front of me. And all people around me couldn`t understand what happened when he always sent his friend into the audience when there was only one photo made! They really disturbed the audience in their concert, and that cannot be. There was absolutely nobody who wanted to do something bad there, they had been all nice and enthusiastic people in that tent. Only the security was unnecessary there! So we must say the whole evening could have been really nice, because the Honberg is a wonderful concert area and it was built up with so much love, but the security spoilt the flair completely.

The next point was the tent itself - it could have been a bit bigger and higher. So it was much too small for the 1300 people and the air, especially near the stage, was very hot and bad. Outside, on the other side of the fence, waited a lot of people in front of the area doors who couldn`t get in. But they all stayed there and tried to listen to the gig the whole time...

Of course the concert was great, and the mood in the audience, too. What a fantastic performance in Spirits, Mick, and what a great guitar solo! And I liked Manfred`s intro of the DemoMan this time very much, could we have this the next time even a bit longer, Manfred?

Just like the other fans also we want to thank you, Noel, for taking the time to come out and talk to the fans after the gig - we had a wonderful little meeting there in our party tent, in the middle of that heavy rain. And you got a lot of new fans there in that short time! :-)

Greetings to the "Panther-family", to the

"Gorodish`s", to Susi and Uschi and of course to Martin and our best MMEB-fan Sebastian - we hope we can meet you all soon again!

Best regards

K & T

Sunday, 28 July, Rengsdorf, Germany

Posted by Thomas and Karin

Hi,

We are back from another weekend-journey, happy and tired as ever and also a bit frustrated - the Earth Band plays tonight in Salzgitter but we cannot be there because we have to work in the early Monday morning and didn`t get free... :-(

But yesterday we had another wonderful day and an even better night in Rengsdorf, near Koblenz! After a journey without any problems - we took for the last part not the Autobahn, but a route across the Westerwald, a nice countryside we always like very much. It looks just like our Thuringian area home... :-) The only point which was not so nice to me was the weather - I don`t like those hot temperatures, but most of the other people I met on this day enjoyed the heat, including Thomas; so different is the taste...

However, we started after a short but needed break in the hotel around 5 p.m. to the Festival area just in the neighbourhood. We found it without any problems, already on the main street of Rengsdorf there was a big sign - turn to the left! - and infront of the Open Air some guys from the fire department showed the visitors how to park their cars - everything was well prepared and already some hundreds of people were inside. The "21. Rengsdorfer Rock & Blues Festival" (as we could read on the tickets and the posters) took place at a very nice place called "Waldfestplatz". It lies a bit outside, there are old trees all around - and what a pleasure to me: SHADE! :-) And a bit of wind, so it was not too hot there. After our experiences from the Tuttlingen gig two weeks ago we enjoyed this time the security work as well as the other guys of the organization team very much: nice, always ready to help, always keeping to the point but never being too hard - a big compliment to the organizers and a big Thank you from us for your nice help in the beginning of that evening!

Inside of the area you could find everthing you needed: something to eat, something to drink (in BOTTLES, Martin!), a lot of benches where you could sit down... And there we discovered Erika and Reinhard, who had been there as ever before us :-), together with two other fans we met already last year in Bonn - sorry, we had talked so much together during the evening but still don`t know your names! :-) It was a pleasure to spend some time again together with our friends from Cologne, and it was very interesting to meet some other fans we already know from former gigs - and it was very nice to meet there the fans with the longest journey of that evening: Greetings to our new friends from France! I had not the chance to talk to you once more after the gig, but I´m sure you enjoyed it as well as the Disney one, didn`t you?

And another greetings to the very nice merchandise team of Birth Control which was working next to us, especially to you, Eckhard: It was very interesting to talk to you and to get an impression what`s going on in the fan clubs of other bands!

So the time was over very soon and Birth Control started to play. I couldn`t remember so well their first gig I saw as a support of the Earth Band in Hannoversch Münden in 1998. But this was because I had met so many interesting people there in 1998 and I didn`t listen to the band while talking in the back... May be they are going to be better and better from gig to gig - however, yesterday we saw a really good concert, and we liked it! Professional made, good rock music. I think they played their gig in full length.

The second act of the evening was Alex Olivari & Band, also from Germany, but a Blues-Jazz-Band. Also not bad... But not my kind of music to be honest.

Meanwhile also Armin had arrived at the place, time for another nice talks, and then - the last break, on stage the MMEB-equipment was prepared... UFFF, it was already 22.30 now! The place in front of the stage was meanwhile well filled, but don`t ask us how many people had been there - 1000, or more??? It was a big area, and they stood or sat all around, not only in front of the stage...

I decided to see the gig this time from the first song in front of the stage; Tom was so nice to stay at the stand but he could see the gig very well from there because it was built up not far away on the left side of the stage :-) When I arrived in front of the stage it wasn`t possible to me to get to Reinhard and Erika (as ever in the middle of the front row), so I stayed in the second row on the left side of the stage, in front of Mick`s micro. To us the left speaker tower was very loud there, but that was only because we stood so close to it. As I heard from all the others and as I could hear myself later fom the further back when I returned after "Davy" to our stand, the sound was okay and not too loud. I had another security guy just in front of me, just like in Tuttlingen, but what a difference! He only watched the people and smiled a bit when they had been very enthusiastic or took some photos ... :-)

We saw another great performance. I must say it is meanwhile difficult to us to say it was better than the last one or not so good - we got so many deep impressions from all those gigs, from every night you remember something you liked so much... It was just another typical MMEB concert: You had heard two good bands before, but then the Earth Band appears on stage and has no problems to top them all. It was also yesterday just another level!

We saw the usual setlist, and to me the absolutely highlight was "Dancing" - if it would be possible to record it anyway, Manfred, you should do so, please! It was fantastic to watch how all the people around me enjoyed that song, most of them didn`t know it of course, but all of them said after the show - what a brilliant arrangement, what a wonderful combination of the guitars and the drums pushing the rhythm ahead and the soft melody in the keyboards! And the same in the voices - combining harder and softer elements, but in a way which cannot be done better! (Okay, you should be glad that this is only in English and not in German and I´m better in German! :-)So I will stop here...)

The audience seemed to be a bit tired in the beginning - may be the heat and the two other bands had left some traces. But they woke up during the gig, oh yes! In SOS for example the beginning was not so enthusiastic, but already in the second chorus they knew what to do, and during Blinded there were only clapping hands and singing people around me :-) As ever Mighty was the great final song, and as ever the gig was over much too soon! And the band left a lot of enthusiastic and happy fans there when they said their last "Good night" of this show... What shall we say, they played and sang wonderful as ever, and we could see that also in the faces of the people after the show - even some men in Birth Control- T shirts said - whow, what a performance! (And bought some MMEB- T shirts! :-) )

We are sure all of you who are so lucky to go to Salzgitter tonight will see the next great gig there - have a nice evening there and enjoy an Earth Band on the top! (We are a bit jealous of you...)

Best regards to everyone

K & T

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