Manfred Mann's Earthband - On The Road September 2001
Friday - Sunday, 6-8 September, Nürnberg-Krefeld-Bünde
Posted by Thomas and Karin Hi,
Sorry that we are so late but we couldn`t get any access to the Earth Band homepage yesterday night - no chance! All other websites worked,
but not the ONE we wanted to go to! Mike, it seems now we`ve got the same problem you had during the last time! We wanted to see another 3
gigs on the last weekend and got - I know, there are always the same words, but how to describe it. We got not only another 3 gigs but 3 absolutely great nights with a top band, some very nice surprises, a lot of new and old friends...
Nürnberg 6th September We didn`t get free from work as ever :-(( but I could manage it to finish my work already in the early afternoon and drove to the south. There are
about two hours to drive from us to Nürnberg. On the way I wanted to pick up Thomas who came just from his job, too. And as ever nothing
happened like we had planned it, but finally we had found each other and started together to Nürnberg - it was already late enough, and those
who know me do also know how terrible it is to me to be not on time :-) A short check in into the hotel, then we walked to the "Hirsch" which lies
just around the corner - it started to rain and we had been - oh yes, early enough! After a short Hello to the band and the crew we prepared our
stand and just some minutes later the first visitors came in - because of the rain the team of the Hirsch opened the doors earlier; very nice gesture!
The "Hirsch" is a not so new, but nice hall, estimated for 700? people. To me it was a bit too dirty there in all of the corners, (hey Earth Band, when
do you play "Dirty City" again?), but the team of the hall was fantastic. And the stage had no fences :-) Soon the hall was very well filled and there
waited a lot of people in front of the doors - when the gig started the Hirsch was overcrowded and the audience stood so closed that I couldn`t
manage it to get a bit closer to the stage - in the middle of the hall. I gave up and returned to the further back... And I thought that was one of the
most overcrowded halls we ever had - but I didn`t know what would happen the day after in Krefeld! You can imagine that this audience was
very, very good - they sang fantastic, celebrated parties there in front of the stage after each song and let in Mighty the hall shake. And the
reason for all that stood there on stage and played one of the best gigs we saw this year - full of power, very funny and with brilliant solos on
guitar and keyboards. Noel sang in Redemption Song new lyrics - Noel, you should do that not only one time in life! The setlist was the same as
later in Krefeld (sorry Martin, you had a little mistake in your report there): Intro-Shelter-Castles-Martha-Carol-Dancing-Father - and then
Redemption Song. Demo Man (wonderful keyboard!) and a new version of She Was followed (very nice), then of course Blinded. And Davy/
Mighty as the encores. We must say we can live without SOS, although it was very well done by Noel - but may be it was simply time to return to
Earth Band music - ABBA is not the taste of everbody who wants to see there MMEB on stage... Okay, okay, now you all can lynch us, but that is
only our poor opinion... The gig was over as ever much too soon - they had played around 90 mins. The air was cooking in the hall as well as the
mood but the Earth Band stayed hard and didn`t give another encore after Mighty - we wonder if that will happen sometime :-) We used the
chance to talk to lots of enthusiastic fans at our stand - it is always interesting and very nice to listen to other opinions and points of view - and to
see how much the people had enjoyed the concert. These are the moments we feel that we are right and not our parents who always say - Oh,
why do you drive such long distances, stay home and work in your house, or stay home and relax. :-( We don`t want to relax, we want to see
our band on stage, and there are so many people at the gigs who feel the same :-) Happy but tired after that 22-hours-day (we had got up at 4 in the morning) we returned in the early morning to our hotel - what a start into a great weekend!
Krefeld on 7th September
The mood was fantastic, it was one of the few gigs where the people sang already Mighty before the band came out... But because of that lots of people the last rows couldn´t see anything and disturbed each
other during the gig - that`s why we have still the Klam/Austria-gigs on the first places in our private gig-hierarchy... A funny moment was the collapse of one of our tables during the concert (we had saved
the CDs already when the gig started), when one demolition woman sat down on that table - peng, she went down and everybody turned round to look at her ... :-) BTW, Roland, we didn`t stand on the tables,
we had found another solution to see the stage :-)) It was for sure an outstanding concert with a band who could top their own show from the day before again. And it was so great to meet you all there before and after the gig!
Bünde on 8th September Another hundreds of km, across the Ruhr-area - the first time to me - and then the check in into a very nice and new hotel near Bünde, our usual afternoon break - and we were ready for another great night :-)
The Stadthalle in Bünde was the biggest hall of that 3-days-tour, estimated for 3000 people, new and nice, well filled and NOT overcrowded
(around 2000 people).Percy Pur, the support band, did a very good job, we liked especially the Deep Purple- songs. And the best of that part of the
evening was Pat`s duett he sang with Thomas in the back (sorry, Tom, but Pat sings much better :-))I enjoyed then the fact that Reinhard II and me
could get to the front rows after the support band very much - a gig in the front row is always the best what could happen to me and even if the
sound and the light show may be better in the further back - the mood and the feeling there in the front row cannot be topped by any other place at
a gig! And I want to thank Thomas that he is always so nice to let me go for the first part of the gig... :-)) I liked this time especially the Shelter solo
as well as the days before. Mick plays it in the moment not too complicated, but with a lot of feeling and as ever a bit changed from gig to gig.
Great! On the other hand I miss the former Carol solo a bit - what he plays in the moment is to me good but not so superb like the old version... And
this time the Earth Band had another surprise for us: They played Dancing and then - no- still not Father, that was ANGELS AT MY GATE !!! Now
our second favourite is back, what a present at the end of the summer gigs in Germany! Thank you very much for that - Angels is such a
wonderful song and we had really missed it (and the Chevy :-)). After that a fantastic Father, still without the best solo of the whole gig, but
fantastic, and after the Demolition Noel another fine She Was - another one of my favourites on the set. Redemption Song followed later in the
encores on it`s old place in the set. During Blinded I returned to Thomas and the stand and we spent the rest of the gig watching the people infront
of us. We must say it was another kind of audience on that evening, a bit older, not so many "hard" fans, but more of the "upper 10000" of the
town - the mood was very good but couldn`t reach the Krefeld gig. But it was all very well prepared in that hall and the local organizers were very
nice, we had some very interesting talks to them - as long as there are such enthusiastic people who always try to find some good bands for their
halls - we all will get such great concerts also in future! It was to us another one of the better gigs of this year - but who wants to compare them
all? They are all good...The night ended to us with some cocktails in the hotel bar (mine was called "Sex on the Beach" :-) ) and then we had to
return home in the Sunday morning - it was heavy raining, it was stormy, but we had enough to talk about - and we seem to fly still somewhere
over the clouds although we had worked today like on every Monday... o we can only greet all people we met at this tour, it was great to see you,
and we have to say another big Thank you to the band and the crew for that fantastic weekend. Please, don`t let us wait till the winter for the next
German gigs - that IS TOO LONG TO ALL OF YOUR GERMAN FANS!!! But stop - in four days we will take our last chance for the moment :-) And,
sorry Mum, we will be once more so mad to drive to Switzerland and Liechtenstein only for two gigs... Looking forward to see you there K & T 
The next morning - rainy weather, a lot of traffic and some jam on the Autobahn, especially around Cologne
- but after 400 km we reached Krefeld. A wonderful meal in our hotel, a break then - and then followed the gig you had described already so well. Let us say only that one in addition: That was the very first time that
I was glad to stay in the very last row with our stand! So we were so lucky to have our tables infront of us and so one meter of space between the tables and the wall - that was the only free space in the whole
hall and we had to defend it during the gig. Not because the people would have been very aggressive or so, no, it was simply much too overcrowded and there had been much too much tickets sold for that hall!
Saturday, 7 September, Krefeld, Germany
Posted by Martin
Hello to you all, I´ve just returned from the concert in Krefeld, and i can say it has really been a fantastic evening with the Earthband. For me it was a special
evening, cause it was the first time I could visit a MMEB-Concert by bike. I´m living only about three kilometers from the concert hall at „Rudolph´s auf der Rennbahn". But now some words about the concert:
As i arrived there at 20 minutes to eight the concert hall was already much crowded. You could get still some tickets there, but i think it was at
least sold out. Perhaps 1000 people (I will correct this later if i´m wrong) were in a very good mood when the local support band „Venus" started a
45 minutes gig with good funky cover music. I think they really warmed up the people. After a break of 30 minutes MMEB entered the stage.
The set list today was the following: Intro/Shelter, Castles, Martha, Carol, Dancing in the dark, Father, Demo Man, Redemption Song, Blinded. As encores they played Davy and Mighty. About 95 minutes all together.
The mood was really good from the beginning, but got better from song to song. Especially from Redemption on the people sang a lot and Noel gave them the room to do so.
As I saw the Earthband the last time in Cologne last year, still with John Trotter, I can say that i liked very much the drums of Richard. He gives the
Earthband a harder sound which i enjoy very much. It´s more rocking. Especially Carol i liked very much this evening, cause for me the versions
with John were always so soft. After the first song there was a little problem with the bass and Manfred corrected Micks excuse with „Say it in
german: Wir haben ein technisches Problem"; this was funny. I only wondered that Manfred or Noel didn´t welcome the people to the show in that
moment. But nevertheless the gig was great. Dancing was surprising for me and most of the people i think, hearing it for the first time from MMEB,
but they got great applause for it. The solos were superb and very much different from the ones they played in the last years with John, also
some new arrangements made it very surprising to me. It´s really never boring to hear the same songs, they change from concert to concert it think. Great !!
As I read so much about S.O.S in this message board I wondered, why they didn´t play it. So I went to Thomas and Karin and their little shop after
the show and Thomas told me that they cut it out of the show since this week. There must have been not so much singing at other places, but in
Krefeld it would have been great I think. So Manfred: Come back soon and play again. I think the band and the audience enjoyed it very much here,
including a little boy sitting on his father´s shoulder during the whole gig. Mick started an extra applaus for him at the beginning of the encores.
I think this is enough in the moment cause it´s getting late. I´m sure some of you will write on the board, what i haven´t mentioned yet. Greetings to all MMEB-Fans, hope to see you all soon. Martin
Posted by Gerhard (the pastor) Hello Martin, hello all! I've been to the Krefeld concert too. I meet good "old" Roland in front of the hall. He was so kind to get some tickets for me and a friend. The last
time, I saw MMEB here in Cologne only some months ago. Both concerts were excellent and it was very nice to meet some people of the message
board (Roland, Wolfgang and all the others) We missed some at Krefeld, who had been there in Cologne, but the concert was wonderful. The hall
was too small and we couldn't really see very good from behind, especially the girl, who was with me. But the music was as excellent as ever. I
had the impression as if some arrangements or soli were different from Cologne. But I really can't say, which were the better ones. Perhaps Mick
was in top form at Krefeld, may be. In "Castles" there had been a very, very wonderful finefeeling solo from him. And perhaps he also played
faster than in Cologne. The organisation for the drinks and food in Krefeld was very bad - only one bar and a bloody -coinchange-system - chips like in LAS VEGAS. Krefeld you are too small for that!!!!
But apart from that, the mood was very good, singinmg and clapping people the whole time. When the band left the stage after the enore "Davy's
on the road again" the people began to sing the chorus line of "Mighty Quinn". It was a pitty that Mark the drummer didn't improvisate a little bit.
When the band came back on stage and the whole crowd was singing, he hit all away and they began immediatly to play their thing. Okay it was
good, but it would had been nicer to give the people a little background/echo by accompaning them by some drumming etc. This way, we see
everything is planned and well organized in the music of MMEB and Noel is fantastic (I don't believe Chris will ever come back again. Noel has
conquered the throne), but not very spontaneas, although they are excellent musicians. By the way, in Cologne Noel sang in "Mighty" a very much
longer duett with the people, which pleased me more, although the ambiance in Krefeld was very close, very special because of the small hall.
I'll come back. And thank you PINK PANTHER for the nice Buttons, Roland gave to me and the girl NATASCHA - her first rockconcert, she is
russian-german. And it was the right concert to beginn. She enjoyed it very much although she couldn't see very much. She greets every one here, as I do too, especially to Roland! Gerhard, the pastor Posted by Roland
Hi to all the real Earth Band-Fans out there, first of all thanks to Martin and Gerhard for their detailed and fantastic reports. I don't wanna bore you with repetitions so I'll try to make a different report...
On this rainy Friday I had the honour to distribute the meanwhile well-known BUTTONS that Pink Panther made. Unfortunately he and his very nice
wife Sigrid couldn't be there but they were there with their thoughts :-)) they are the best parents you can imagine ! ----- YOU ANGEL(S) YOU ----- Between 5:30 p.m and 6.45 p.m. many of the "family" arrived. THE FANLIST ARE:
After the support (good funky-music) was ended (8:45) and a break, the boys enterd the stage at about 9:15 and abou 10 minutes before I have
arrived the second row after fighting through the crowd from the last row... There was NO BARRIER between the fans and the stage so you are
very near to Mick and the others- amazing feeling. On the stage there was not so much space for the boys but they solved it, of course !
THE SETLIST ARE: Joybringer - Shelter - Castles - Martha - Carol - Dancing - Father - Redemption - Demo Man - She was - Blinded - Davy - Quinn (SOS was canceled)but already the gig before like Karin said.
The bass has had some problems until Carol was ended, but they could solve it - thank God it seems to me that Steve was near to an explosion...
My opinion is, that the hall was a little bit too small and pretty overcrowded so also the sound wasn't so brilliant as ever but nevertheless it was a FANTASTIC gig.
Mick was in a great form - he "strokes" the guitar and enlarged his solos, especially in Father after getting a feedback from someone out of the
front row - great, amazing. Before the first encore (Davy) Mick welcomes DAVID (holding his drumsticks)who sat on the shoulders of his dad
Dietmar. Mick asks the audience to applause him and a great cheering of the people and the band followed - a nice gesture ;-)) maybe the next time he could play alittle bit on the drums...
Some words to Manfred: It seems he is getting younger during the tour He was dancing and hopping behind the keyboards - incredible and his German is getting better and better.
After the show about 11:00 p.m.(too short as ever)we stood together until nearly 0:15 before going home. It was nice to meet you again and
Thomas A., Karin + Thomas, Dietmar, Heike and David, Natasch and Sabine for the very first time but I hope not for the last time. You're wonderful and friendly and I'm glad to belong to this Fan-Family :-))
For some of yours I hope you've enjoyed Bünde tonight and I hope you're all healthy arrived your home - especially Sabine with your motorcycle - a long distance to Berlin. Keep on rocking with MMEB !!!
Roland ("the small panther")
Me (the "donkey" at first haha), Wil, Thomas, Sabine, Reinhard u. Erika, Reinhard (from Niedersachsen), Wolfgang with friends, Annette, Dietmar,
heike und David (with his drumsticks), Gerhard "The Shepherd", Natascha and of course finally Karin + Thomas(they sold the rest of the shirts an
d some CDs)and did their best like ever - but they couldn't be in the front row and have to jump on the tables to see the gig.
Saturday/ Sunday, 15/15 September, Pratteln, Switzerland and Schaan, Lichenstein
Posted by Martin Retzbach on September 16, 19101 at 11:34:51: Hi all MMEB-Fans!
After refilling my sleep-tank some words to the gigs in Pratteln and Schaan. On Friday, Sebastian had to choose between his football training and a MMEB-gig. Without hesitation he decided for the last one (normally football
is his favourite). So we started at about 3.30 p.m. to Pratteln, about 175 km from here. At 6.45 p.m. we stood in front of an old hall, called Z7. There
was a gig last year, but we weren't there. Uschi, Susi, Pink Panther and his wife were already waiting, a little later Ewald with wife and Karin and
Thomas arrived. Paulchen made another great button for the oncoming gig, thanks again, and a big THANKS again from Sebastian for his special
birthday button! A few minutes after 7 p.m. we entered the hall, inside it was very dark, everything was painted in black. At 8 p.m. a woman from
the organization took a micro and inquired for a minute of silence cause of the terrible moments we had last week. I think, all intelligent people feel the same seeing these pictures…
A few minutes later the supporting band entered the stage, the music was not bad, the female singer had a good voice, but it doesn't change my
opinion about supporting bands. At about 9.30 p.m. the one and only Earth Band entered the stage and another wonderful, very professional gig
started. Intro, Shelter, Castles, Martha, Carol (with a new ending of Mick's solo part, very sudden), Dancing, Angels (wonderful that this song is
back, of course with Mick's 'Chevy'), Father (of course with wonderful solos from Mick and a wonderful duet with Manfred), Demolition Man, She
was, Blinded, Redemption song (perhaps the most important song this week, the whole world should sing it!), and finaly Davy and Mighty. Perhaps
this is the best setlist, the songs fit perfect to another. After Mighty I learned how dangerous it is, standing behind Mrs. Panther, I got the most of
Noels water he splashed in her direction. It was difficult to estimate the number of people, I think about 1000-1500. As I could see it from the first row, it nearly was sold out.
After some conversations we started on our way back a few minutes after midnight, at 3.15 a.m. I reached my bed, really tired. So thank you
Ewald for your report, I wasn't able to do it until now. The next day I had to work, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. After stealing away from a birthday
party, at 6 p.m. we started to Schaan, only 75 km from here. We arrived at about 8 p.m., the gig was not open air as announced, it was in a tent.
What a luck: it was heated. Karin, Thomas, Uschi, Paulchen with wife and Gorodish with wife were already standing in the first row. After a little
search we found a place on Sebastian's sweat shirt for another nice pink button. Thanks again, you always have so different ideas for the layout!
Another nice surprise: no supporting band. So at exactly 9 p.m. the Earth Band entered the stage, after some words in swiss-german
(Schwitzerduetsch) of a man from the organization. Karin and Thomas seemed to understand my "swabian" german (Schwaebisch), but with this
dialect they had to give up… The Band played the same setlist as yesterday, but of course with different, wonderful solos. The same isn't the
same with this band! The tent was really good filled, I think nearly sold out like the day before, perhaps about 800-1000 people.
Some minutes before midnight we drove back, today I found my bed even at 1 a.m. Not much sleep for me the last two days (Sebastian slept in the
car and before we started our journeys), but as always it was worth it. Especially if it was the last gig this year (still hoping, minimum one
Christmas gig will fit). So Sebastian's peacemaking-tour was over (he really was disappointed not to see the gigs in Bad Krozingen and Karlsruhe).
I wish all of the fan family a good way home and hope to see you all soon. Have nice gigs in Holland, especially you, Wil. Bye Martin
Some pink additional informations ;-)
In Reply to: Gigs in Pratteln and Schaan posted by Martin Retzbach Hi family-members :-)
just at the moment we come back from our MMEB-tour to Pratteln and Schaan which was really worth :-))) The distance from our home Haigerloch to Pratteln is 200 kilometers and so we decided to take a hotel at
Pratteln (Swiss Chalet z. Krummen Eck). On Friday at 6.15 p.m. we started a ten minute walk from our hotel to the Z7 and when the hall opened we tried to smuggle our camera through the security-check. We had no
chance as it was really a professional security and they commanded us to deposit the camera in our car.
"We don't have a car with us" we answered and all they said was "No discussion". So Mrs. Panther took the camera and tried to deposit it at the
ticket-box outdoors. Five minutes later she came back - with the camera - and a special photographer-licence for the concert, signed by Dane, a very nice and friendly girl of the Z7. Thanks Dane, we love you :-))))
Then we enjoyed the fantastic concert of MMEB at Z7, which is really a very specially hall, best sound and atmosphere - and lots of photos (may
be you can see them on the website of Thomas Altebäumer - what do you say, Thomas). As you still read in the report of Martin he had a three
hours drive back home. But not me, we had a ten minute walk back to our hotel. What we didn't know was, that there was a discotheque in the
cellar ouf our hotel which closed at 3.00 a.m. and we were happy that is was getting silent now. And what's that, starting at 3.30 and finishing at
5.00 a.m., the hotel room below as. There was a groaning like an elk of unbelievable 90 minutes, with small pauses of ten minutes and then again and again ... ;-))
On Saturday the gig at Schaan was starting at 9.00 p.m. and first of all I want to thank again the youngest MMEB-fan Sebastian who made me a
nice present: a 16 cm pink-panther-baby with a 8 cm tail - proportions like the pink father ;-)) Now we are four :-)
The stage at Pratteln was a very small one but the mood was again a great one. And there was a fantastic show, more details you will get from Karin's report later.
After the concert there was a raffle and the first price was a Peugeot 206. So I decided to buy one ticket of all in all 1111 tickets to win our new MMEB-family car - what a pity ... a young girl of Schaan caught "our" car.
It has been a great weekend with the family and we hope to see you all soon :-))))) 
Posted by Pink Panther
Pratteln and Schaan
Posted by Thomas and Karin Hi Martin and Panther and all the others, were are back now, too, from that weekend, and, Panther, what details shall we add to your and Martin`s
nice reports??? We see it all infront of us again while reading your descriptions. So here only some personal additions from us. We had to drive this time in all around 1600 km and like you
already wrote, every km was it worth! And it seems we were in Pratteln more lucky with our hotel than the Panther family, it was good and very silence and we got a good breakfast there in the next morning :-)) The
Z7 - gig last year had been very good, but this year it was fantastic. One of the best sounds we had this year, a mood nearly like last week in Krefeld, but the hall was not so overcrowded, and so the people in the
very well filled Z7 could really enjoy their gig. And they did! They sang like a professional choir behind us and had no problems to answer Noel already in Shelter and later in the other songs. And there were some
nice little mistakes on stage during the concert, the wrong pedal, some wrong lyrics and so on, but the band
commented it with a lot of humour and just these little mistakes made the gig very funny and unforgettable to us :-) That`s what we like so much in live music - every gig is different and it`s never boring there!
The next one in Liechtenstein surprised us first with a nice construction of the tent - it was built up in front of the town hall and directly connected
with the doors of the hall, and so people could reach the stage passing the town hall and use all the big rooms inside, especially during the party
after the gig. The band played this evening another wonderful gig. You should have seen Steve there, he was in top form. We got another great
keyboard and guitar solos and of course a wonderful Father, but, excuse us, Ewald, we still miss the best solo of that song - listen to the Mann
Alive and you know what we mean; that one live on stage just in front of you and you forget everything around you! When we heard it the first
time in 1997 we managed it to get to the second row from our former position in the last rows, passing around 2000 people, in only 1 minute :-) The only problem I had in Schaan was to know: it will be the last gig for a long time... :-(
The Schaan audience sang even better than the Pratteln one, they started to sing Mighty already after Blinded - the fan family in the frontrow
smiled and enjoyed it and wondered what would happen now - there was Redemption Song planned as we knew and still not Mighty... But the
people behind us were going to sing louder and louder! Then Mick came out, took, smiling, his acoustic guitar and needed only one gesture -
suddenly everybody went quiet - another gesture - a big applause started - and another one to stop it again - so that funny game went some
minutes and the audience was warmed up now for another great choir in Redemption Song... In the break after Davy they started in the last rows
"Mighty" again, this time not so strong, but everybody could hear it, and the band came back very quickly to give them what they wanted - what a final song of our last gig!
So it was even more difficult to me to believe that it was over then, and we are already thinking about - how to survive now the time till the next one???
It was a pleasure to us to spend these two gigs with the members of the fan family we met there. Panther, you are the greatest with your buttons,
and Martin, special thanks for the photos :-) We hope we can meet you all soon again, it is a fantastic feeling to be a part of that enthusiastic group
infront of the stage! And of course the next big Thank You to the band and the crew - you gave us a weekend we will remember for a long long time... Best regards to everyone K & T 
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