Manfred Mann's Earthband - On The Road July 2002

Thursday, 4 July, Lorsch Festival, Germany

Posted by Paul

Hi family :-)

after arriving at Lorsch, a cultural heritage center near to Mannheim, we met with Uschi and Annette at 6.00 p.m. for a welcome drink in the beautiful city. When doors were opening in the huge circus tent at 7.30 p.m. we got our places in the middle of the front row beside the "Vikings". We didn't know the "Viking Refreshment Team" with Thorbjorn, Roar, Ari and Snorre (in the age of 35 to 42) before but two hours later we got best friends :-)) As everybody of you read on the message board some days ago our Scandinavian "stuntmen" had a car accident on the way to Germany - but no of them had been hurted, great luck :-)

The atmosphere in the very nice circus tent with the bad air was very familary, there had been no security check, there was no border to the stage. Great compliment and thanks to the organzier "Musiktheater Rex" of Lorsch! The festival place filled up very fast and some minutes after 8.00 p.m. the local supporting band "Slice" started with a very loud but good concert. When they finished at 9.00 p.m. it needed the obligatory 30 minutes to be ready for MMEB.

At 9.30 p.m. the tent had been filled up with about 1000 people and the MMEB gig started with the typically set list of the last weeks (no working week, no castles) what doesn't mean that each concert is the same like the other. Of course not as the show and the sound differ every time :-))))) After the Intro we all were one and started clapping and singing in German, English and Viking. Our Scandinavian friends enjoyed the gig as much as we did, photographing and singing the whole time.

Everybody of the band was in top form: Noel contacting the crowd from the beginning with his superior voice, Mick fascinating with his guitar solos and sweating like in a Norway sauna, Steve with his typically eye contact to each of the crowd, Manfred jumping behind his keyboard and without hat and last but not least Pete who has got a great member of the band in less than one year. And Pete was it who was aked by a fan with a written message on a sheet of paper to get his druming sticks - and she got them in the end of the concert :-))

After Davy and Mighty each of the thousands was smiling and lucky of another great MMEB concert. Specially thanks to photographer Noel that he contacted the fans after the gig and of course to the nice crew of our family. What a pity that we can't be in the front row today at Heilbronn, we will be live with you in the end of July at Wolfegg, Obergünzburg and Appenzell - this will be a very long time to wait for us :-((

Pink greetings :-)))

Pink Panther & Mrs. Panther ;-)

For more photo's from this gig, click here

Saturday, 6 July, Fuerstenfeldbruck, Germany

Posted by Martin and Sebastian on July 07, 2002 at 10:28:26:

Hi,

we're back from the gig in Fuerstenfeldbruck yesterday. This time I decided, not to write a report … So here it is…

We started at about 5 p.m. and reached Fuerstenfeldbruck at 6:45 p.m. Well prepared for an open air gig with a raining suit and an umbrella we went to the place called "Stadtsaalhof". But the gig was inside the building in the "Stadtsaal" due to the bad weather. The door opened at 7 p.m., in front of it we met the Vikings Thorbjorn, Roar, Ari and Snorre and the Non-Vikings Reinhard and Erika and of course Uschi. Karin and Thomas stood already behind her table full of MMEB-goodies. On the tickets stood MMEB + Special Guest, but what a luck, no supporting band was on the stage. I think the special guests were the Vikings ;-). So the gig started at 8.30 p.m. with the following setlist: Intro, Shelter, Martha, Times, Carol, Dancing, Angels, Father, Redemption Song, Demolition Man, She Was, Blinded, Davy, Mighty. The acoustics in this hall was perfect, the performance of the band was great. One of the best gigs I heard. The only thing I missed was Castles, one of my favourite songs. The audience was good, I think about 500 people. The gig ended at about 10.20 p.m., a full set, but as always for us too short, the time went by too fast. After the gig we met Wolfgang from Austria. It's always nice to meet some people of the big fan family. I hope there will be a Viking-Tour 2003. We wish the Vikings a good trip home without any "Leitplanken" on their way.

Thanks to Pink Panther for the funny button, I'm sure you were with us in your mind yesterday. See you in Wolfegg!

Bye

Martin and Sebastian

Sunday, 7 July, Worgl, Austria

Posted by Karin and Thomas on July 10, 2002 at 17:11:07:

Hi,

while waiting for Thorbjorn`s big report about the Viking tour we hoped there will be someone else writing about the gig in Austria - now we want to do it before tomorrow already the next gig starts :-)

We had to fight very hard to get the Friday and the Monday free from work but at the end we were so lucky and so we were able to see Heilbronn, Fürstenfeldbruck and Wörgl. Fürstenfeldbruck was to us the best in that row, we had a great band on stage, a fantastic sound and a wonderful audience there. Wörgl could not top that outstanding concert, but to us it was something special, indeed... :-)

We stayed in the mountains, some km above the town Wörgl, in the hotel from which we bought 9 years ago our second horse. It is always like coming home there, everybody says welcome and two members of the family had been later also with us at the gig. So we had a feeling like a "homeplay" there, although it was 470 km from our hometown :-)

The gig took place in a big tent near the river Inn. Already when we had parked our car we met Uschi and Wolfgang Brunner again, this time together with some of his Austrian friends. :-) The area opened it`s doors very early, and at the end there had been estimated 700 people in the tent. It was a Sunday and there had been a lot of festivals on that weekend in and around Wörgl, so we had been surprised to see so many visitors there. The two supporting bands had not been bad, but they played Funk (Sugarman 3 from New York) and some Argentinian music (Karamelo Santo) - both not our taste and too loud. To be honest I was happy when I saw the MMEB crew coming back from their hotel! The very nice organizers from the "Komma Kultur" Wörgl had allowed us to build up the merchandise stand wherever we wanted, and so we stood just next to the mixer(the only place where we could get some light). A real good place, because we could see the stage and everybody who wanted to get closer to the stage had to pass us. Thomas decided to stay there, so I took my chance again and made it with some difficulties to the third row, just behind Wolfgang and his friends. We had a fence there which was about 3 m far from the stage - strange in that friendly and typical relaxed Austrian athmosphere! Only one very drunk girl (may be not only drunk) disturbed all the people infront of the stage - during Father the security helped us out then and put her away. But the mood was fine around us and the band as well as the audience had a lot of fun. MMEB played again the same full set like in Fürstenfeldbruck, we enjoyed the fact so much that Angels was back!!! I had to laugh a lot of times, so funny was the band in their wonderful performance. Once more Mick played a new solo in Demolition Man, very interesting, and I cannot tell you the highlights - I would have to write down the whole gig :-) Back at the mixer during Davy I saw the other part of the performance - Pat behind his spotlight played his own gig there and Thomas had enjoyed that already the whole gig :-) Very interesting again to watch Simon playing piano on his light desk - great lightshow also this day. Our friends from "our" hotel stood next to us and enjoyed every minute of this evening as they told us later. So another great rock night was over much, much too soon!

We are sure all of you who are so lucky to see the gigs in Losheim and Cologne will have such fantastic gigs, too. Enjoy them, and we hope to see most of you then in Moyland. Many thanks again to the band and the crew, and greetings to you all,

K & T

Saturday, 13 July, Koln, Germany

See separate report in Yawn August 2002

Saturday, 20 July, Bedburg-Hau (Moyland), Germany

Posted by Torsten & Birgit

Hi MMEB-friends, today it is Mrs G telling you about an unbelievable water-music. We had a wonderful sunny day in Moyland - as Noel said: it IS a absolutely terrific location. Both of the support-bands (the 7 sins, impact) playing in the afternoon didn't disappoint, but you could really feel: EVERYBODY was waiting for MMEB! With the last tunes of Impact the times turned - with sunset clouds came up and it started to rain cats and dogs. You felt reminded to the old song "it never rains in California . . . it pours"

Absolutely perfect announced by David, MMEB arrived on stage. They gave us almost 2 hours of a performance which has never ever been more impressing. I guess it was the audience making a big difference - really everybody - wet to the bones - didn't feel the cold and the rain but only the music. We were a part of it - being an additional instrument for the Band. Perhaps I should tell you about additional solistic parts and new arrangements, but I leave that to those who can do better. In all : an experience which, I am sure, none would ever want to miss.

Anyway I hope none of you, who were there caught a cold afterwards - and to those who did : get better soon! And remember, the next gig is in Bonn next weekend. So : keep on rockin' !

Birgit (Mrs G)

Posted by Karin and Thomas

Hi,

We are meanwhile back home, too, from the gig with the most water we ever had. And from one of the best places we ever had! It was a real pity that the weather god did not like us yesterday, but the people in front of the stage who stayed there in all that water and mud were really fantastic as well as the band on stage - singing in the rain! Many many thanks to Dietmar for that gig and in the name of all of us for organizing our little merchandise hut - one of the few dry corners of the gig :-) And to the band for the best rainy gig we ever saw :-)

Thorsten and Birgit, you forgot your poster - we will bring it to Rothenhain, okay?

K & T

Report from Moyland

http://www.nrz.de/nrz/nrz.kleve.volltext.php?id=160707&zulieferer=nrz&rubrik=Stadt&kategorie=POL®ion=Kl eve  

4000 trotzen dem Regen

"The Times They Are A-Changin´" verkündete Manfred Mann´s Earth Band musikalisch. Das Wetter auch. Stündlich. Aus Camping-Laune wurde nasser Fan-Chor.

TILL-MOYLAND. Das ging ins Auge, in die Kleidung, in die Schuhe. Der große, unaufhaltsame Regen am Samstagabend im Schlosspark zu Moyland. Ein unglaublicher Dauerregenschauer verhagelte den circa viertausend Zuschauern den Auftritt des Hauptakts der Veranstaltung, Manfred Mann´s Earth Band. Viele trotzen dennoch dem miesen Wetter, blieben tapfer im aufgeweichten Rasen stehen, jubelten und sangen gegen die Wassermassen an. Der Lohn: die fast zweistündige Show eines auf dem Teppich gebliebenen, großartigen Künstlers und seiner famosen Band.

Mit Bollerwagen und Wolldecke

Dabei fing der Abend so vielversprechend an. Bollerwagen, Campingtische, Wolldecke - alles, was Mann/Frau/Kind zu einem zünftigen Open-Air-Konzert brauchen, stand auf der großen Wiese zwischen den hoch aufragenden Skulpturen. Und mehr noch: geistige Getränke, Würstchen, geviertelte Kartoffeln. Musik geht schließlich durch den Magen.

Vor der musikalischen Hauptspeise servierten "The 7 Sins" ein Potpourri populärer Rockstandards von Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd und Roxette. Danach versuchte "Impact" die Stimmung weiter anzuheizen. Was anfangs auch mit Funk und Soul ("Superstition") gelang. Der zündende Funke blieb dann aber irgendwo zwischen Bühne und dem Holzpferd von Erwin Heerich stecken. Schlechtes Omen für die Fortsetzung?!

Musik in keine Schublade

Manfred Mann artikulierte es im Pressegespräch im Reeser Hotel vor seinem Auftritt in Bedburg-Hau sehr deutlich: "Ich möchte meine Musik in keine Schublade stecken. Unser Sound entsteht durch die Musiker und nicht sosehr durch die jeweiligen Leadsänger." Und: "Vielleicht sollte ein Detektiv herausfinden, was wir genau spielen." Mick Rogers, Gitarrist der Band seit 1971 (mit wenigen Aussetzern) ergänzte: "Wir spielen jedes Mal eine andere Version unserer Stücke, nie sind sie gleich." Die Aussagen hielten einer Überprüfung selbst im Regen stand.

Viele Besucher nutzten die Pausen zwischen den Auftritten und beteiligten sich an den kostenlos gebotenen Führungen im Schloss-Museum.

Mann von Beuys beeindruckt

Auch Manfred Mann, kurz vor seinem Gig von Johannes Loock durch die Beuyssammlung geführt, zeigte sich vom Kunstangebot beeindruckt.

Je später der Abend, desto mehr Menschen strömten in den Schlosspark. Doch mit dem Menschenstrom entwickelte sich ganz rasant ein gewaltiger Regenstrom. Die niederrheinische Tiefebene zeigte sich von ihrer besten, und das ist die regennasse Seite. Leider behielten die Skeptiker und Wetterfrosch-Gläubigen mit den geschulterten Schirmen wieder einmal Recht. Unglaubliche Wassermassen prasselten nieder und verwandelten das Areal in kürzester Zeit in einen Sumpf.

Die Earth Band, handwerklich außerordentlich professionell, stellte ihre Livepräsenz trotzdem souverän unter Beweis. Am einzigen noch trockenen Platz, auf der Bühne (abgesehen vom Imbisszelt) setzten sich Manfreds Männer gut aufgelegt in Szene.

Natürlich besteht das Repertoire aus teils Jahrzehnte altem Material. Aber es teilt sich eben immer wieder in anderen Versionen mit.

Dancing in the (P)Dark

"Shelter From The Storm" aus der Feder von Bob Dylan oder "Don´t Kill Me Carol" überzeugten besonders durch die exzellenten Improvisationen, die entweder Mike Rogers auf der Gitarre oder Manfred Mann am Synthesizer fabrizierten. Leicht ironisch widmete die Band ein Stück ausdrücklich dem Publikum: "Dancing In The (P)Dark" von Bruce Springsteen.

Sänger Noel McCalla variierte mit seiner tiefen, wandlungsfähigen Soulstimme die bekannten Songs zu einmaligen, wie für den Augenblick geborenen Vokalklängen. Ohne "Mighty Quinn" kam die Earth Band natürlich nicht davon. Das wissen sie. Und gaben dem durchnässt ausharrenden harten Kern das verlangte Zuckerstückchen.

Open-Air-Konzerte stehen und fallen, so ist es nun einmal, mit dem Wetter. Auf Max Yasgur´s Farm, 1969 beim legendären Woodstock-Festival, regnete es mit Unterbrechungen an drei Tagen. In Moyland waren es, ohne Pause, nur drei Stunden. Die Zeiten ändern sich.

Im Toilettenwagen übrigens gab es´ne eine neue Geschäftsidee: Verkauf von blauen Mülltüten - als Regencape.

Thursday 25 July - Saturday 27 July, South-Germany and Switzerland, 25.-27

Posted by Thomas and Karin

Hi,
we hoped to find something about at least the gigs in Wolfegg and Oberguenzburg here on the board, but it seems we have to do now what you ordered last night in Appenzell, Panther... :-)
We first did not believe that it would be possible to us to see the gigs of Wolfegg and Oberguenzburg, but we tried it once more and finally we were so lucky to get the needed free days from work and so we started on Thursday for another trip to the south of Germany.

Wolfegg, 25.7.02

We had still the picture of the rainy night in Moyland in our heads and were so happy when we arrived at the venue of the Free-Willi-Run Bikerfestival in Wolfegg and there stood a big TENT! :-) It rained when we arrived and the big meadow was wet, but the rain stopped later and so also the many stalls and bars outside of the tent saw a lot of visitors. It was a nice biker festival, a lot of great bikes, camping in the back, all over a v

And it was a real good gig. The sound was okay and the lightshow fantastic - another masterpiece from Simon, and we still discuss if he was better in Wolfegg or the day after in Oberguenzburg??? On stage started the wellknown fantastic live show, this time in all three gigs without Times but with Angels. What shall we say - we heard the usual songs in another new version, and we already waited for the Demo Man. We do not like this song so much, but would we get once more the solo of Moyland here? Yes, we got it, at all three concerts Mick played the Working Week - motive in the middle of Demolition Man, very nice and in several versions. They really always find something to surprise even the "hardest" fans :-) The whole set was played (and sung, of course) very well. But to be honest it was to us only one of the many good gigs we already had. It was not outstanding in our opinion. It is of course very difficult to a band to get better and better if they are already so good as MMEB is. But we missed in Wolfegg a bit the real highlights in the set. May be we are now at a point where the set is too wellknown to us and the several songs in their parts, too. So we are always happy when we find some new tunes like we had in Demo Man.
All the people around us did not miss anything (thank you, Simon :-) ) as we could see and hear - they celebrated their festival and sang Mighty really great. And then the gig was over, after another hour it was time to return and to drive back to our hotel - still the music in our heads and looking forward to the next concert...

Oberguenzburg, 26.7.02

The weather forecast promised a better weather for the weekend. Oh yes, I could confirm that, I felt the weather changing in my head the whole day and also in the next morning! It was the same wrong moment for a headache like in Moyland, and I fear I wasn`t too funny in Kaufbeuren and Oberguenzburg. Sorry to everyone who may have wondered what`s the matter - it was simply not my day!

When we arrived in the early evening at the disco "Go In", a bit outside of the little town Oberguenzburg, we were surprised to find such a nice place. The gig took place infront of the building, the place was surrounded by a hill and a very old, castle-like building and the crowd could sit down or stand also on the hill like in a circus arena. It was only a small place, but they told me there had been around 2000 people inside - we would estimate may be 1500. However, it was very well filled, and the audience was one of the best we had in the last time, and so that gig was to us the best of that row.
The clouds in the sky looked very dark, but this time it kept dry. So we did not need the big tent roof which was built up above the whole place.

The supporting band was called Session (from Hungary) and played Led Zeppelin - well done, but much, much too loud. It was simply terrible to me and my head. I saw Reinhard passing our stand (again near the mixer), looking for a place where it was not so loud, and I was only waiting for the end of the concert - but they did not stop. They played very well song after song, the people infront of the mixer enjoyed it, and most of the MMEB fans amongst the audience stood at the end in the back around the mixer because it was so loud... Thomas danced and sung next to me, he liked it very much. But it was the only support band I saw who played longer than 2 hours and longer than the main act.

Finally the Earth Band started belated at around 10.45 p.m. - what a difference. It was loud this time, too, but not too loud, the sound was okay and Simon showed us the difference between lights and lightshow again! I really forgot the headache during the gig :-)The band was great on stage, we got a wonderful Carol, Dancing, Angels and Father, again Working Week of Demo Man and a furios Blinded-Davy-Mighty at the end. (And of course also the wellknown rest of the set.) There seemed to be some problems at the keyboards this time. We missed a bit the wellknown great solos we got so often in the past. But the whole gig was absolute fantastic, the band on stage and the audience infront played really together like a big orchestra and choir and already after Martha the people around us got very, very excited :-) We enjoyed that view on the dancing audience and the band on stage very much from our position, (and we had there much fun with our special guest during the gig - you was great! It was the funniest gig at the merchandising we ever had...)
Much too soon the gig was over and my headache back - why can`t we get some more songs from you, Earth Band? The time of 90 or 100 mins is always over when the audience (and we) are just in the right mood for something more...

After the gig we sold again a lot of T-Shirts and CDs (hey, we have XL and XXL-Shirts again!) and had some chats with our friends from the fan family, before we left to drive back to our hotel. Still disussing the wonderful night we had have in the "Go In" :-)

Appenzell/Switzerland, 27.7.02

We needed a long time for the way to Appenzell - the way around the Bodensee (Lindau/Bregenz) was very difficult to drive because there had so many cars on the streets... When we arrived in Appenzell we found first a completely closed city. No driving, no parking on both main places of the town. Next to our hotel there was a big beach volleyball match going on, and the other place, the Postplatz, was the venue of the concerts. So we needed more than one try to find a way to get the car to the hotel. Finally it worked and we met Panther and Sigrid who had already arrived there. Later we found out that many members of the fan family stayed in the same little hotel there :-)

It was nice to have the chance to return to the hotel just next to the venue during the evening :-) The weather was going to be better and better and my headache, too :-)
On stage at the Open Air on the well filled Postplatz there had been from 4 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. the bands Crushaid (Indie Rock, Switzerland), Tien-Shan-Schweiz Express (something like Folk) and Orquesta Afincando (Salsa, not our taste...). Then we entered the front row, together with the fan family, and spent the Earth Band gig in that nice position. Around us the fans were talking about the band and we had some very interesting chats with guys who love, just like we do, real good music :-) A little bit belated, at around 10 p.m., the Earth Band started their concert, and we saw once again a fantastic show on stage and enjoyed that feeling to be a part of a dancing and singing enthusiastic crowd... Highlights to us this time the guitar solos of Carol and Father as well as the middle part of Demo Man. They played also some completely changed parts in the other songs, as always, never the same version of a song a second time. Also very interesting the powerful duett during Father (may be next time with a bit more melody, please?) and some completely changed nice keyboard solos in Martha, Dancing and Davy. Although I missed the full keyboard sound I love so much at the end of She Was... Steve played a wonderful bass last night, and we got another fine drum solo from Pete before Mighty started. What shall we tell you anymore, Noel did a great job, too, as well as everybody on stage and at the mixers, light desk or at the spotlight - it was one more great gig...
There was another band playing after the Earth band, but we left the place because we had to get up early enough in the next morning.

C u,

K & T

Sunday, 28 July, Free GIG in Bonn, Germany

Posted by Mrs G

What to say about? So much : again we were really wet, this time however because of the heat. Manfrad did us the favour to play some nice jazz figures - and "the man on three guitars" (Mick - so announced by Noel) had a lot of trouble with those, trying "demolitian man" (due to the heat)- so we heard a never heard version with Manfred, who has loudly been called by Mick :"get Manfred up!"
Myself tried to help with the merchandise (missed you Karin!- and Thomas!)
Keep on rockin'
Mrs and Mr G

Re: Free GIG in Bonn and Manfred's back;-)

Posted by Roland

In Reply to: Free GIG in Bonn posted by Mrs G

Hi Birgit and Thorsten and all the other fans,

really a nice little report ;-) let me add some things: Due to the heat Redemption Song without the acoustic guitar and then performed with the great help from Manfred on his keyboards ;-) Just another version sounded great and ther you can see, why MMEB is (for me) the best live band of the world :-)
After the show, when I was going back to my car, I noticed a little gust on the left...I look in front of me and...believe it or not, Manfred runs 2 meters away from me and I saw his back and the nice Summer-Hat he wore in the show ;-)

It was a great show in Bonn thank you MMEB a great beginning of my holidays ...

Keep on rocking !

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