SLADE at Netherland

for all pictures from this gig is the

copyright@ http://www.oerrock.nl/

Gig Report - Ureterp, NL,

19-05-2006

by Adri and Lidwien

The pleasure of a Slade concert is for us also in the travelling to places
where we normally don't come. This time we had to travel from the south to the
north of our country, about 230 km. Yes, we live in a small country. ;-) That
Friday we drove to a hotel in Drachten (Friesland), near Ureterp, where the
Oerrock festival would take place that night. The name of the festival relates
to Ureterp = Oerterp in the Friesian language. The line-up that day: Cuby &
The Blizzards, Slade, The Sweet, The Animals, Peter & His Rockets.

Cuby is a well-known blues band from the late 60s and early 70s, while Peter
(Koelewijn) is a very successful artist from the 60s-80s area. Peter scored
his first #1 "Kom van dat dak af" ("Come down from the roof"  in 1960, some of
you might even remember his Smokie's cover song "Who the X is Alice" as Gompie,
that was also a #1 hit in NL (Netherlands). You probably know the other bands.

After arriving at the hotel, Lidwien and I had dinner there and we noticed an
Englishman with long hair sitting next to our table. He phoned someone and
mentioned the delay of planes. The weather was very bad with storm and rain.
While we were eating three other people arrived one by one at his table and
suddenly I recognised one of them: this was The Sweet! When we left our table
we wished them a sweet concert. ;-) One member was glad to hear that their
concert would be taking place in a large tent, not in open air. While we
walked to our hotel room we noticed two members of Slade just checking in
at the lobby. I said "Hi Dave!" to Mr. Hill and he reached out his hand
so we could shake his. John excused himself he had yet to shave as they
were expected in half an hour and Dave also apologised for not being able to
have a longer chat. We were also late and realised that we were missing out
on Cuby.

Well, this is going to be a long report. Are you willing to read more?

Good. We went by car to Ureterp and Cuby was already playing. We met two of
our friends there, Roel and Richard. Richard said he recognised the hat that
Lidwien was wearing. Lidwien was sitting in a wheelchair so she could attend
the festival throughout the whole night. Compliments to the organisers who
had made a high platform for wheelchairs on the side of the tent.

Don was already soon after Cuby soundchecking, as always. Half an hour later
it was "Thunderbirds Are Go!" again and Slade kicked off playing their set.

Maybe Slade had been in a hurry to get to this venue (we heard they missed
the boat across the North Sea, or due to the storm the ferry was cancelled)
and Dave hadn't been able to pack his glamorous outfits, 'cause we missed his
dressing changes; despite this he had his LED guitar with the light effects.

Winding down afterwards we were making new friends and waiting for The Sweet.
They did a great job doing their songs, although they were experiencing some
sound problems. All their big hits passed by and this girl and I were singing
along and really enjoying the set. Another girl was also going out of her head
and I very much enjoyed looking at her enthusiastical dancing. Later on, after
The Animals, I got to speak to her sitting in front of Lidwien.

'Cause after the encore of The Sweet it was time for The Animals. To me, they
seemed to come slowly alive, to slowly grow on the audience. One could tell
from their gig that they have American influences. I think their best song is
"Don't bring me down". Lidwien noted that The Animals showed somewhat more
appreciation to the audience than The Sweet and she also enjoyed The Animals.

Half an hour late Peter and his Rockets started their set. Despite the drunk
people and some bastards bumping around against other people, Peter stood up to
the task and we got to sing along pretty much, enjoying his hits. The security
people did their job very good, fast and almost unnoticeable, when things
almost ran out of hand near the end of the concert.

At three o'clock we arrived at the hotel again. Now all you people who have
still the urge to read on about our weekend, go ahead. All the others can stop
reading now. :-)

Saturday was just a restful day. Time for being lazy and listening to the
radio a little bit, watching TV in the evening. I remember "Fear Factor".

The next day we had planned for a visit to one of the islands. We travelled to
Holwerd and took the ferry of 13h30 to Ameland. The passage takes about 45
minutes. There we ran off the boat, while the weather had finally cleared up,
Lidwien in her wheelchair. Nearby the harbour we picked up two rental bicycles
and went for a ride on the island. Riding to the north of the island you get
to see the North Sea. The harbour is in the south. You have to cross the
Waddenzee to reach the island from Friesland.

After a few hours of cycling through the dunes, on and off hills, we thought
we'd call it a day and so we went back, returning the bikes to the rental
shop. I case you wonder, YES, Lidwien can ride a bike, but only when I push
her up the hill. ;-)

We rode to the ferry, Lidwien in her wheelchair again, and found a vast crowd
waiting to get on. Eager to get on the boat, we asked security people where to
go. They pointed us to the bicycle entrance. In a circling movement around
the waiting crowd we reached the gate for bikes - but it was already closed.
Only a few seconds later a guard jumped out of his cabin and opened the gate
for us. As we passed through the gate a voice sounded across the terminal
that the boat was full and that no passengers were admitted anymore - they
had to wait another hour. Meanwhile I pushed the wheelchair up the gangway
for bikes and cars. As soon as we arrived on the cardeck, the loading-ramp was
closed and the ferry took off at 16h30. The weather had been very sunny during
our stay and travel from the island.

At 17h30 we left the parking place and started our journey home. Soon the
weather changed and it was raining again. We arrived at Lidwien's home in
Tilburg at 21h45, having stopped for a nice dinner on the way in Lelystad.

This was a summary of our Slade weekend in Friesland (The Netherlands),
congratulating Finland with their Eurovision Song Contest victory (20-05-2006).

All you Slade fans KEEP ON ROCKING! 
Adri and Lidwien

Pictures on our galerie:

http://www.poprocknews.com/galerie/categories.php?cat_id=306&reload_coolmenus

REPORT SLADE II in Enschede

 Friday 17. June 2005

A poster for Flash-Back event at Go Planet in Enschede, Netherlands on 17th June 2005

Op 17 juni a.s. komt SLADE naar Go Planet Enschede. Entree: ? 17.50, Zaal open: 19.00 uur
Aanvang: 20.00 uur.

http://www.go-planet.nl/

www.ticketpoint.nl

Gigreport@ Adri & Lidwien

At the festival site Lidwien and I met four other enthusiastic concert-
goers. They went into the concert hall, while we decided to have an
evening dish.

First let me describe the festival site. I've only seen a bit of it,
but it is a long avenue with several event halls alongside. There is
a karting hall, a concert and movie hall, a Greek restaurant and a
pizzeria and much much more. In the middle of the avenue there is a
huge display on which they showed the announcement of the Slade gig.

We went into the pizzeria and lo and behold, the four other concert-
goers entered and joined us at the table next to ours. We exchanged
some talk about to which Slade concerts we had been in the past.

After the copious meal (chicken pizza and shoarma) we went to the
concert hall. The enormous entrance led to a fence, followed by three
long hallways and a short cave-like corridor into a final hall with the
stage. The support act was already playing their set on a hip-high
stage that was rather small to walk on. So we stood there observing the
act.

Time to describe the hall. :-)

In front of us there was a dancefloor which wasn't much crowded yet, and
when you crossed it, you arrived at the stage, obviously. Behind us
there was a large mixing console and a Radio 10 Gold (concert sponsor)
deejay. To the right there was a bar with beer and drinks and behind it
there was a tribune for about 100 sitting people. It seems there was a
balcony, too. (Didn't notice that one myself. :-)

The support act ended their performance with the audience choice "When
the lady smiles", the famous Golden Earring song. The deejay was there
to play some in-between popular rock songs and to interview some people
about their relation to Slade. My friends Richard and Roel went to him
at interview time and Richard could tell some things about Slade through
the microphone.

As usual, Don Powell sat behind his drumkit long before Slade entered
the stage, and he was testing the kit, while some roadies were checking
the sound. Don seemed nervous to me, as he managed to get two cigarettes
from the audience in between and smoked them during his long appearance
on stage before our four heroes all entered the stage together.


Waiting for Slade, we stood in front of the stage, the dancefloor was
packed. Thunderbirds intro, and then there they were! I didn't know
the bass guitarist yet, I think he looks a bit like a young Don Powell
(sorry Don), but I'm afraid I don't know his name, they didn't intro-
duce each other. They kicked off with CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE.

Let's say they did their usual show. The singer's (can't remember his
name right now) interaction with the audience was superb! He made us
laugh several times. Of course, Dave Hill is the show-off of our famous
quartet, Don Powell is the power drive with his hammering bangs on the
drum, and let's say the bass guitarist is the quiet one. Working
together? They all do it very good! And the audience was also very
enthusiastic. I've seen some people going out of their "head".

Let's skip through the songs.
CUM ON LET'S PARTY. LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS. Everyone recognizes FAR
FAR AWAY. EVERYDAY. RED HOT. LOOK WOT YOU DUN. Some songs later
there was RUN RUN AWAY, one of my favourite songs live. Another
favourite of mine is THE BANGIN' MAN. I'm really glad they did that
one, too. Then... It's time to say goodbye. Goodbye! Goodbye?
GUDBUY T' JANE! Question time again. Are you crazy? And are you?
You, too? Then, turning to Lidwien and me (we wore the same T-shirt)
You're crazy to marry him! MAMA, WEER ALL CRAZEE NOW! Then GET DOWN
AND GET WITH IT.

Then they left the stage. But the audience shouted "We want more!"
So they returned. MY OH MY. And finally, Dave put on a shiny Christmas
cap and then they played and left with MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY.


Like I said, Don Powell is banging the drum, and he is doing that with
so much power, that drum sticks yield to this force. I managed to catch
three broken sticks with Don's name on it. After the concert I managed
to tear off a set list from the stage. Another set list (Don's) went my
way, too, and after the concert I gave that one to an enthusiastic fan -
he was very happy to receive the gift - who had brought his son along.

We listened to some more songs that the deejay played, some with smoke
effects, and then we decided to go back to the hotel. On the way out we
talked to a nice girl and her brother and we gave them two Slade concert
posters. They were very happy with it and the girl enthusiastically
said to us that she would definitely come to the next Slade concert.

Back at the hotel - after a half hour walk - we went to sleep, satisfied.

Adri


THANKS a lot to Adri and Lidwien, huge Sladefans from Nederlands for this fantastic gigreport.

SLADE

at the Knypstermerke Feesttent in De Knipe,

Netherlands, 10.10.2004

The audience

My Oh My

Steve Whalley "Are you crazee ?" at De Knipe 10.10.2004

"Mama, Mama, Mama,Mama Weer All Crazee Now"

Slade and MM Jones at De Knipe 10.10.2004

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