Oldies

After a great show the day before the night had been just too short – after a fine breakfast in our small hotel we set out on the road in two cars – Anja following us since we were two people and thus one could always look at the map – in short terms: me. This usually works out fine – Anja just had not realized that Necdat and I always have one wrong turn on our tours. Well, it did not matter, we were getting forward without trouble, with beautiful winter sights in the black forest: all those frosted trees with a bit of mist rising – what a beautiful sight – especially when later the sun was shining from a blue sky. Shortly after noon we arrived in Reutlingen – the search for some parking space was not so easy however – until we realized that our hotel must surely provide some for its guests. After checking in I took it into my hands to make sure here the bar would stay open longer – it was incorporated in the main hall and looked very inviting. The hotel manager was really nice and said he would see to it that someone would be down here all evening. So much for that. Guess the bands never realized it might have come differently if I had not asked…

We relaxed in the lobby and when the Rattles arrived it was a funny welcome greeting from us: "See: the chorus travelled along !". They laughed and said they were glad to see at least some known faces. When the Dozies arrived we stayed down there since I still had one package of bisquits to deliver and hoped that Trevor would come down again as well. Tony was the first to join us – for a hot cappuccino. Tich and John came down as well, only Trevor seemed not to show up. When Tich realized this he just phoned him and told him to come down ! After a while he and John even went back up to get him down and that was just great. Actually I always try not to be so pushy, but since it was Tich who suggested this I felt no guilt. In fact Trevor was in a great mood and was so happy to receive such a gift that I even got a thank-you-kiss on my cheek ! And then it all went wrong – for me. Well, not too bad – but just my luck that Anja wanted a photo with him and I shot it with her small camera without trouble – then boasting that I would get out my fine expensive camera for a photo – and Tony mocking I´d better take care of my lens now - only to have a camera on strike when Necdat tried to take that photo of me and Trevor ! I was a bit embarrassed since I never before had any problems like that – so I checked the camera, went back into Trevors arm and – nothing ! Now one failure might happen but this second one was too much for me. Especially with Trevor… Well, I apologized and told Necdat once more to try a different angle and at last the photo went okay. Well, of course we both did not look as happy as we would have at first try…

Anyway, they all drank a coffee and then decided to go downtown since it was only around 3 o´clock. Tony wanted to finish his Cappuccino and then join Necdat, Anja and myself so we waited a bit. It can really be fun going into town with him. We laughed a lot, especially in the department store: Tony taking a look at some suits and trousers and Necdat making eyes on everything green – Tony could not understand him favoring that color, especially the bright greens. Although he had to admit that when he was 17 his favorite color had been pink ! We ended up in the in-house restaurant there since no one could make up his mind. It turned out to be a ba(t)d idea – Tony had taken some kind of chicken wing while Anja and I had some fish. Anja also managed to find the cold drinks – I had futily been looking for them and then settled on a cappuccino – in a very very big cup which aroused Tonys curiosity once he came to the table: "What´s that" – "A Cappuccino" – "That´s not a cappuccino – it´s a bowl of ´ccino !" I guess Tony did not realize how close he was to having my first spoonful of spätzle thrown into his face – it took me some minutes to recover from that fit of laughter !
What an afternoon. And it was getting even better: Tony was protesting about that wing – he said it was so tough that it could not be chicken, must have been a bat ! But when Tich phoned him he boasted about the good food here and just a few minutes later Tich, John and Christoph showed up as well ! I felt a bit guilty but Tony had his fun. Well, we soon went back to the hotel since we wanted to meet two other fans.
We freshened up and then got ready for our walk to the hall – the hotel manager had told us it was only 15 minutes to walk at most, directly through the inner city. Well… Of course it took longer since Necdat barged into a candy shop and I went to get a bottle of sparkling wine to shorten the wait out in the cold before the hall, but in the end it really took more than 15 minutes. But who cares. We did care though that the hall looked not the least bit as if a concert was about to start – alright, from the side windows we got a glimpse of the inner room with a stage and at some point relaxed when we saw one of the Rattles, but the foyer was completely dark and – until half an hour before opening time we were absolutely alone there !
We kept warm by playing football with the plug of our bottle (that I had to kill almost all alone) and just a few minutes before opening time we saw some movements inside. As you can imagine the walk to our usual spot in front of the stage was as comfortable as the day before. Only change this time was that they had put up tables until 2 meters in front of the stage. It was an even smaller hall than the day before, but in the end it was almost completely filled up.
Starters this time were the Rattles. Of course they were glad to see some of us again in the first row. The atmosphere was phantastic from the beginning, although most people remained on their seats (in front of better meals than a bat…).

"Hey look your groupies are back !"

The line-up was the same of course, only Manne was working on his red Strat this evening. It was really nice that everyone had more than enough space to even start dancing during the show.

Manne was doing some great solos again and I already wondered if he would come down again later and walk through the aisles.

Eggert and he worked a lot to keep everyone singing and dancing and shouting. It was a contagious mood !

We mostly enjoyed Eggerts lead vocals, he is really phantastic. Best one surely was when as a last encore he performed a wonderful version of Ave Maria ! Goosebump time.

Manne on the other hand did not care about the tables – when he was left alone again he jumped right down into the mob and soloed himself through the whole room.

They were absolutely great that evening and when they left the stage they even came forward to sell their new CDs – signed of course. Well, I bought one since I had to admit I did not have many Rattles songs in my collection anyway. Then we could only wait again – for the Dozies. Necdat took a few stills of the stage setup in the meantime and the others got something to eat.

When Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich started we had a good view again because of the low height of the stage.

Only one of the spotlights was placed unfavorably and sometimes knocked out the flash of my camera – made good effects though.

After Hideaway the four came together for some nice photos again and then plummeted into Zabadak.	No, Beaky had not forgotten his text – it was the beginning hum of Zabadak…

Mick and Beaky were making their usual raucous shouts and jungle noises all through the song, and of course the audience had no chance but to sing along.

While my guitar gently weeps...

After that their 60s medley sent us back on rocking feet – including Peter Gunn again, which I think was even longer this time than the evening before !

"Na naa na naa na..."

And then it started all over again: the prelude to save me: First Mick was teasing Beaky by making him futily grab for the drumsticks a few times and then Dozy was again a bit surprised he was still the sexy member.

Tich surprised us this time though when he was introduced – when he started to play a nice solo and suddenly even tried some tappings. Not so easy obviously – as Beaky had to come over and actually show him exactly where to tap.

"There Tich, on the 14th fret !"

It was really great. But how sweet revenge can be !...

When Beaky started the drumming for Save me he had no idea the solo would put tons of question marks on his face…

…because Tich just went over, went down on his knees and simply put his arm around one of Beaky´s legs and continued his solo ! What a sight !

Tonys face was phantastic, I laughed so hard it´s a wonder that I was able to shoot three photos – and with each one Tonys face became more desperate !

Tich´s face of course was equally funny ! Hilarious ! What a scene !

Mick already spotted my camera from behind

"Twelve beers please"

"Oh no, you got me !"

Then finally they started with my all time favorite: Legend of Xanadu...

...without the whip of course, but Tich had already put on his bottleneck and would see to the proper whip sound at least.

He really enjoys that song – with a big smile during the instrumental parts.

Those guitar soli sound and look quite challenging. It´s such a fabulous song !

After Last night in Soho (with a few text problems on Beaky´s side), Tich grabbed his Mandola and started Bend it.

Everyone had a great time – most people don´t know the whole text of course but that doesn´t stop them from singing along.

Afterwards Hold tight marked the end of their show again.

They really had been phantastic this night, with a lot of fun on stage. The other fans left then for the hotel, but Anja, Necdat and I stayed since we wanted to see Sailor again. I had seen them in 96 still with Georg Kajanus and Henry Marsh and was curious if they still gave such joyful performances as then. And if their fanclub people would be around, they had always been nice fellows, but I think they had stayed in Holland where Sailor were actually doing a tour at that time.

Unfortunately the first thing I noticed was that they had not only left their fans, but also their famous Nickelodeon in Holland. They had just brought two keyboards along.

But on the other hand Rob Alderton who had taken Henry Marsh´s part was a highlight ! He fit in perfectly – and of course the sound was fine as before.

Peter Lincon is the new man on Lead vocals and guitar - Grant Serpell is another well singing drummer and one of the remaining two originals !

Peter is a fine substitute for Georg. He has a phantastic voice, at some points you could close your eyes and hear the original sound.

Plus he had a decent-looking Godin guitar - Even Tony was watching from backstage and enjoying their performance.

Of course they played all the old hits – That old Nickelodeon sound or Girls Girls Girls as well as their Latino Medley

"Don´t hit me - I´m innocent !!"

Rob was absolutely fun to watch – surely due to his theater experience. They gave a really wild performance – just as I had hoped for.

They even played some of their songs from the late 80s like Vera from Veracruz, the Secretary and La Cumbia – yeah ! Dancing time !

The big surprise was when they played Karma Chameleon –that had actually been written by Phil !

Phil Picket on the - left-handed ! - mandolin

It is phantastic to see the whole band play so many different instruments all through the show, it just adds to their unique sound.

"How come you don´t hit those black keys ?"

The Audience was absolutely enjoying it ! Songs like Give me Shakespeare and Glass of champagne made everyone join in here as well.

That reflected back on the band – they were in a great mood.

The encore was absolutely new to me: In the navy – the best part of that was when this looked like it would turn into a strip !

Oh what a great show it had been ! Really marvellous. Such a shame that Sailor aren´t around on too many Oldie concerts recently. They even came to the front after the show selling some of their new live DVDs (I really wonder why the Dozies don´t produce one) signed by all four of them.

Well, we set out on our journey back to the hotel where we then joined the others in the bar. Tony was as usual already surrounded by some fans but we managed to get a place there as well - with our guitars. Tony was immediately curious and urged us to take them out of the bags a few times - but first I needed something to drink.
Some of the others obviously had spent Tony some wine and he was living it up already. I wondered if it would turn out to be true what he had told us before - that he only needs two glasses to get drunk. Anyway I started with my next autograph tour - since Sailor had to leave soon I grabbed at least Phil with one of the photos I had taken years ago. Then I just had to go over to Tich once more. He he.
I had bought an old and very rare single shortly before - "She´s my lady", one of their best songs in my opinion - and on one of those crazy Carrom-weekends with Necdat I had realized that Tich was looking just like an angel on that cover - with his long blond hair being illuminated from behind. So I was determined to get an autograph on that funny cover - but no usual one - I wanted him to sign 'Ian the angel' - of course I was not sure how he would react to that idea...

But Tich surprised me - must have read my thoughts: when I showed him the cover he blurted "Hey do you know how I look on that picture - just like an angel !" I grinned like hell and told him that that was the reason why I wanted him to sign it that way... Well - here´s the result. So now he´s our angel

- He also showed it to John who was standing next to him and we all laughed a lot about this one. And about those two japanese single covers I had also brought along.
Then it would finally get serious for me - and Necdat. We picked up our guitars and tuned them. I was quite nervous about this, but Tony pushed me again and again, saying he wanted to hear me sing now. So we started into "Je te donne" - well... it was not too good, but since no one except us knew the original song everyone seemed to like it. In fact Tony said I had improved a lot. How good that made me feel !! We three talked about playing and learning and practicing a lot afterwards and he showed me a few things. And I had to promise him to practice every day. But then it was too late - he grabbed my guitar - and that was the end for my playing that evening (hmm, next time I´d better take two guitars with me) - Tony started to play and sing Beatles songs and a lot of other stuff - entertaining the whole bar. He even played the Dozies´ "Here´s a heart" - had not heard that since Heppenheim in June.

It was a great evening - Eggert and Manne from the Rattles joined in as well here and there - and Tony was having more and more fun with each song - surely due to his third glass of wine. He even burst into a fit of laughter when he sang "Let me be your teddy bear" - looking to John all the time ! It was a phantastic mood down there - and nothing could stop Tony: neither the first calls from upstairs to be a bit quieter nor the lost plectrum - that was a sight: first Tony then even Necdat shaking my poor guitar over their heads to get that little thing out ! What a pity I had already used up my last photos...
Well - the only sad thing about this evening was that some of the other fans obviously wanted to get Tony drunk - they even spent him a fourth glass of wine although he was already filled up. I even got into an argument with one of them but some just won´t learn it. Ugh. Okay, Tony could have said no - but then he´s such a good-natured one he would not turn down on that. Especially after the first two glasses. Well, maybe it´s not my business, but I just felt it wasn´t okay. So since I did not want to see this through the end - and since I wanted to get at least a bit of sleep we left Tony and the last few fans and said good night.
Of course it always turns out different than what you thought - Necdat and I kept on talking almost all night - and so the next morning was not too easy for me. I let Necdat sleep a bit longer since he had to drive - but I went down early to say goodbye to Anja and the Dozies. Trevor was quite concerned about our long drives (Anja had to get back to Hannover) and told us to be careful. When Tich came down he asked how late it had been last night and when I told him I even left before Tony he just said that he always would sleep during the day... Well, after Tony finally came down we said goodbye and wished them all fine holidays.