Manfred Mann's Earthband - On The Road May 2000
Friday, 12 May, Hofheim, Germany
Posted by Jens In Reply to: Hofheim Gig posted by Jens Goetzke on May 13, 2000 at 08:17:16:
Here is the report for the gig in Hofheim on Friday, 12.05.2000: When I arrived at the venue (Stadthalle Hofheim) at 6 P.M. after nearly getting lost due to some diversion the first thing I saw was the nice little
beergarden just beneath the entrance. Thomas & Karin were already sitting there enjoying the nice weather and we had some beer an pretzels
(ok, Karin did not but I took her share). After a few minutes Uschi did join us and soon there after Armin (The video man) and finally Mick, Noel and
Richard entered the scene. Richard joined our table and Noel came by for a quick "Hello" whereas Mick gave a short interview to a radio station.
Unfortunately I do not know which one it was. Richard showed us his wounds on his fingers which resulted from the heavy practising the songs
and chatted with us for about 15 minutes and I think he is a really nice guy. It seems he feels very honoured playing with MMEB and Manfred in
particular and enjoys it. After a while he left for dinner with the band and Thomas, Karin & Armin left for preparing the video equipment for
recording the show (Yeah, some of our fan colleagues are somewhat priviledged right now and are doing little jobs during the concerts). But
please: Don't ask them for copies of the video material (They will kill ME if you do, and I will kill everyone who does!). I promise, they don't have
anything like that. All material is strictly under the control of Manfred himself and sooner or later (I guess later) we will possibly have the chance to
see some kind of video tourbook, at least I hope so. Uschi and myself entered the queue at the entrance or better opened up the queue as #1 and
#2. At 7 P.M. they opened the door and we were able to make it to middle of the front row. The hall filled slow but constantly and at 8pm the
supporting act, a band called Nanda Zip entered the stage. I survived the following 45 minutes somehow. I have to say they weren't really bad but
they weren't really good either. I was very surprised that their bass player did not knock down all their equipment as he was hopping around on
the stage like a rubber ball sometimes. The kind of music they played seemed to me like a mixture of Pink Floyd, U2 and the Guano Apes.
After a short break the long-awaited MMEB gig began. The hall was filled to 3 quarters, aprox. 1200 people. The first impression I had was that
Richard played the Intro (Joybringer) to Shelter not as "rolling" as John did. He seems to be more a kind of a rock drummer, playing somewhat
harder than John. It is not worser or better but different, giving more drive to some songs but other songs seem to loose a little bit of their ease
which was especially noticeable during the first two or three songs (I hope you can follow me, please let me know what you think if you already
heard him). The set continued as follows: Nothing - Castles - Martha - Carol - Angels - SOS - Father - Demolition Man/She was - Blinded, and the
encores Mick's acoustic guitar solo, Redemption Song, Davy, Bicycle performance & Mighty Quinn.
The first highlight of the show was Martha as the crowd got really enthusiastic for the first time during this song. The spark really jumped over and
everyone was singing and clapping, simply rockin'. The band and in particular Manfred seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a lot of fun
by the very positive reaction of the audience which was rewarding every song with enthusiastic applause. "Carol" drove the crowd almost crazy
and it was a really fantastic version of that song on that evening. I never heard it in a better before. SOS was very surprising to the people but
they accepted it instantly and the "SOS" was added by the crowd during every refrain. Personally I heard it for the first time and I liked it right
away. It really shows that Noel is a great singer who is sometimes even better than Chris, although some people (only 2 or 3) from the audience
shouted Chris' name wanting him back. Not my opinion! If he comes back: OK, if not: I would be fine with that. Father was good as ever as the rest
of the show. After Redemption Song a funny scene appeared. Just before the show we already saw Manfred leaving the hall through the back
entrance with a "folding up" bicycle. Now Steve entered the stage riding this funny thing with it's little wheels. He drove it to Manfred who laughed
and then they played Davy. and Manfred left the stage carrying the bike. Then after the crowd demanded very loud another encore Richard
entered his drum set playing a beat and Manfred drove onto the stage and folded the bicycle into a small package to the beat. It only took him 30
seconds and the crowd was bawling and laughing a lot. Then he entered his keyboards and the rest of the band appeared and they played
Mighty. The intro for Mighty was different from the ones I heard before and i liked it very much that way. And this was the gig and the band rushed
away to their hotel rooms because they had to stand up very early (4 A.M. I believe) for the flight to Greece. The audience left the scene very
satisfied without one person: It was a young boy of about 8 years who overslept most of the gig just in front of my feet in the security area. I don't
know how someone can sleep just 2 meters from the stage, because I can tell you: It was not one of the softest gigs in terms of volume.
Another highlight of the show that I did not mention yet was the lightshow. It was brilliant. Often I think that lights are underused during MMEB concerts. Not on this evening. In fact it was very striking. Thank you, Simon.
I hope this gave you a little insight what you've missed there. Regards Jens
Thursday, 25 May, Nürnberg, Germany
Posted by Reinhard Dahms
Hello to you all, dear Karin and Jens,Here is my report with a little delay. You know Karin I'm some years older than you :-)) and so I have to take
my day of rest after the gigs, especially when it's two days running. My wife Erika and me started our tour from Cologne to Nürnberg and Blankenloch on Thursday noon. Nurnberg
We managed the first 450 KM in 4,5 hours, so we had time enough to freshen up. At 7:00 p.m. we stood a little bit sad before the entrance of the
music hall 'Hirsch", because this should be the gig that nobody of the fan family would join. But at 7:30 p.m. Iris and Angela come up unexpected,
what a fine surprise! Although we have excellent contacts, they didn't told us their plans. It was a little tit for tat because of my secret of Graeme's
coming to Hettenrodt :-). The doors opened at 8:00 p.m: and the Earth Band started at 9:15 p.m. - as usual in the "Hirsch" there was no support
band. Approximate 600 –700 people filled the hall well. The Band played the usual playlist in fine form although it was very hot. Especially Manfred
(without hat!) plays one fantastic solo after the other. Unfortunately his keyboards sounds for the front row again a little bit quiet (in Blankenloch it
was okay). And Noel has definitely left the shadow of Chris. His powerful voice sounds perfect in the slower pieces of music like SOS (Karin, the
audience sang the refrain too). During the Intro before "Blinded" he took off his shoes and shows us his very individual style of dressing – one
grey sock and one red sock! Mick really kept on his jacket until the first encore. Perhaps he was still frozen by the Prüm gig the week ago :-). It
was the same extraordinary gig as 1997 when I saw the Earth Band at the same venue. Lucky and perspired we went back to our hotel looking forward to the next day. Blankenloch
After sigthseeing and shopping in the beautiful downtown Nürnberg we started off to Blankenloch together with Iris and Angela. But after a few
minutes we lost the leading racing driver Iris with her copilot Angela :-)) in the heavy traffic ... and met them after another 350 KM and 4 hours later
in Blankenloch. There we met also Heiko, Christiane and Uschi – and the first time Alex, our reporter of the Blankenloch gig! Altogether we were driving 1100 KM and therefore it's necessary for an "old man" to take his timeouts :-).
Cheers Reinhard
Saturday, 27 May, Reutlingen, Germany
Posted by Thomas and Karin Hi,
we are just back from Reutlingen - another 450 km - and saw that we are the first with a tour report of this weekend. Reinhard and all the others:
Where are yours??? The gig in Reutlingen was the last of the weekend and we heard the other two had been really fine...
But the concert yesterday was very good, too. We had to fight against a heavy rain on the freeway but finally we arrived in Reutlingen - and there
the sun was shining! So we could leave our car at the hotel parking lot and walked to the List-Halle. It is a very nice hall for estimated 1000-1500
people, and we guess there came around 1000 visitors to see the Earth Band. Already infront of the doors, where we met Uschi, Heiko and
Christiane, we saw lots of older fan-T-shirts. And later during the gig we could heard that, too - many of the people sang very well and most of
them knew the lyrics. That was a fine basis for another great gig, and we got it! Another point we enjoyed very much: Smoking wasn`t allowed inside of the hall and so the air was not so bad as we had often in the past.
There wasn`t any supporting band and we stood just in front of the stage without any fences. The gig started just on time at 8 p.m. And from the
first bars the mood was great on stage as well as down in the audience. Like already in our last gigs the Opener sounded very fresh and quicker
than the 1999 version. We like that because the audience started dancing already during that song. Then the well known new setlist followed.
The whole sound was really great, may be the microphones where a little bit too soft sometimes. Mick`s guitar was a bit louder than usual but that
can be our personal impression because we stood just in front of him. Heiko and Christiane who stood in front of Noel and Manfred said after the
gig from their place the guitar was okay. However, I enjoyed that fact very much because the guitar was really great that night! Of course all band
members played as well as we know it, it seemed to us they had much fun on stage and enjoyed the enthusiastic reactions of the audience.
After a fine Castles ("from no album" :-( ) and a wonderful Martha, the first question for us was: Will the audience sing the refrain of SOS or not?
In Berlin they didn`t, in Hofheim they sang very well - and tonight? Yes, they sang, Noel did wonderful vocals on stage and the audience thanked him with a real big choir.
The highlight of the gig was in our opinion Father Of Day - we saw that song so often live but it is always in a new fashion and so convincing -
we could see it another 40 times and it won`t be boring! We are always waiting: What intro and what solos will Mick play tonight, because he
every time changes them a bit but plays them always in the excellent quality we know from him. And the people around us celebrated him with a long long applause when he ended the song.
Manfred announced the Demoltion Man Noel with "Reutlingen ist zu sauber..." and then he came out -masked like a bank robber! The great songs
like Blinded, Davy and Mighty were as good as ever. Redemption song was a bit quicker than usual but sounded very good and the audience
enjoyed it very much, including the intro Mick did in the old way but this time very long - we like that very much.
So the gig was over much too soon as ever. This time it`s not so hard for us to wait for the next because we will get it already on Wednesday in Altenburg - hope we can meet many of you there! Best regards Thomas and Karin
Wednesday, 31 May, Altenburg, Germany
Posted by Karin
Hi, Andreas, our unlucky person, like we already said last night: You got our whole sympathy! We really missed you when the "supporting Earth
Band" played their short gig! But let`s go back to the start into the last night: On the tickets we read: The doors will open at 5 p.m. So we drove the 65 km to Altenburg and
found there, just like you, Andreas: nothing! I turned one circle after the other driving through the city, driving that one- way street, then another
one-way, then another... No posters, no signs, absolutely nothing! Thomas had warned me because he had already have the same problem when
he had to drive sometimes at his work to Altenburg - but such a chaos like there I never found before. It was only luck that I turned after my third
circle to the left into another one-way street and came to a pond where people sold grilled sausages at their stand. We stopped and asked them -
and suddenly we heard it: " Two, Two" - the old wellknown soundcheck counting of the former Earth Band mixer-technician! Yes, that was his
voice, may be he was back now after a long while of being absent? We were right, he was back, and no one else does such a sound-check
counting like he - so we found already the second venue (last year the same happened in Klam/Austria) only because we had heard him from a
distance. :-) The guys at the sausages-stand said we had only to walk 300 m around the pond to the other side. So we left the car there, walked
through the park - and found a big tent similar the Hexenrock - one of Hettenrodt! Ufff - the first hurdle was taken.
The second was the closed door. There were about 50 visitors waiting, it was already half past 5 - in the tent behind the fence we could hear the
soundcheck of Chris de Burgh and then the Earth Band again - it was half past 7 and there were waiting about 1000 people when we at last could
get in! Around us of course lots of de-Burgh-fans, but interested in the Earth Band, too. We had enough time to talk to each other infront of the
door, and many of them asked us if they would get such famous songs like Father Of Day, Davy, Blinded or Mighty live on stage tonight. We answered: "Yes, all of them" - we didn`t know that we were wrong!
However, I won the run to the front row against all these de-Burgh-fans :-) so we could save our places just infront of the stage. We were
looking for Andreas and Armin the whole time, but at last we knew: We will be "alone" this night.:-(
The Earth Band started at 8 p.m. infront of the well filled tent (4000 people?) with their "support" - it was a bit strange for us, the Earth Band is
much too good for being a supporting band like all the others we all had seen during the last years! So the people around us got a problem as they
told us after the MMEB - gig: Most of them came for Chris de Burgh, most of them wanted to take the support gig easy because they wanted to be
fit enough for the main act - but the Earth Band was great as ever and so the audience needed all their condition at this long night!
I knew the band would play a short version of the list, only an hour, like it is usual when a band plays as support. So we were not surprised when
they started with Shelter (without intro). Wow, what a great sound, you could hear that the professional "old" technician was back - wonderful
keyboard sound, the keyborad loud enough, great guitar, well mixed drums, fine microphone tuning - the best sound we had this year. The same
happened to the lights. I´m not sure because we could not leave our places in the front row before the gig started, but I guess that was Simon`s
lightshow, supported by Pat on the spots! By the way - the sound of the Earth Band was better than the sound of Chris de Burgh later...
The short setlist continued with a fine Castles, a great Martha, SOS (without so much singers in the audience) - and then the big disappointment
for us: not Father of Day, but Demolition Man/She was! I needed the whole Demolition Man to recover from that shock, and the people around us
asked us after the gig where Father had been... Nobody knew the Demolition Man or She was. Okay, there was a good mood during the Demo
Man as always during a "harder" song, but in our opinion you cutted the wrong song, Manfred!!! The people in the audience wanted to get
wellknown songs, not harder rock or ABBA from you! I guess about my own view I don`t need to write any more... :-(
After She was we got Blinded, Davy and Mighty Quinn - great work as ever - I wish we could go to Budapest and Austria! We wish the band and
their technicians a very succesful weekend and a good next week there and we hope at Whitsun we will get the same wonderful sound from you.
The Earth Band -hour was over much too soon, the band said goodbye, followed by a long applause, then Ian had broken his own record in taking down the keyboards - he worked so quick that the Chris de Burgh - technicians couldn`t follow.
The following gig of Chris de Burgh was very good, too. He played about two hours and the audience celebrated him very much. After his last
encore we were really shattered - we had waited since half past 5 for the gigs and now it was midnight... When we left the tent we met Andreas
who told us what happened to him. We had a nice talk together but then had to leave for driving home. Apart from the missed Father it was a great night - looking forward to the next, we hope this time WITH FAther of Day! Best regards
Karin
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