|
Hoorn Blog Firstly let me throw in my apologies for not getting these blogs to you in a more timely fashion, there's a lot of stuff been going on. My last blog was Belgium last year and to continue with part 3 of the What's in your head? tour here are the blogs from Holland and a few other events during the last few months of last year... The date is September 21st and it's the week after the great time we had in Belgium... The shows in Holland had been arranged with a couple of promoters and we were looking forward to playing in Holland again after our successful support shows with Megadeth... All the travel arrangements had been made by the promoters and backline was provided courtesy of Defender (Thanks) whom we had appeared with at the KIT festival earlier in the year.... The day started for myself and Andy (Close friend and Drum Tech) at 1-30am and I think for the other guys it also started early. The reason for the early start was that the promoter had booked us 6-am flight from Stansted airport... This was an ominus sign of events to follow.... I specifically requested not to fly from Stansred as it's a pain to get to...It's 2hrs or more for us from the midlands,,,I was coming down with Andrew from Chesterfield and to get to to the M11 we had to go over the Derbyshire hills and for us it was a 2 1/2 hr journey with road works... We left Andrew's house and proceeded to Stansted...I must admit it felt as if we were part of the RAC rally...Andrew navigated the corners and shicanes of the Derbyshire hills at break neck speed, with his heel to the steel and precise handling managed to get us to the airport by 5am..Yes new underpants were required.. At the time I had no idea why we were on such an early flight however and why we were flying into Eindhoven when the first show was in Hoorn.... it was all to become apparent later during the next 72hrs... Anyway, we all met at the airport and proceeded to the checkin desk... With Defender supplying the back line we only needed to take guitars some merch and a few odds and sods... We were all in fine fettle and looking forward to the show....We proceeded to checkin and make our way through to the gate.... After wondering around the duty free and purchacing food for the flight we headed for the gate... Once aboard the flight we settled down and chatted amongst ourselves... Within no time at all the plane was making it's descent into Eindhoven airport.... And so began the Holland leg of the tour.. Gerjan met us at the airport and loaded us into the van... Now,, we have been in all sorts of vans, buses and coaches and you go with the flow however nothing was to prepare us for the van that was to be our mode of transport.. The rear seats were lower than the front seats and I'm sure from the side we looked a right sight.School kids on a trip... Gerjan explained the plan of attack for the day and it seemed ok.and the reason for the early flight became apparent....We were to crash for a few hours at a Rock and Roll safe house in Eindhoven whilst Gerjan ran some errends, then we would make our way to Hoorn...When we arrived at the house we were shown up to the top two floors where there were mattresses on the floor and the odd bed.. All I can say is that we slept in our cloths and not much sleep was taken.... Gerjan arrived back at the house sometime around lunchtime, we loaded the van again and set off for Hoorn. It was Friday and like most countries in the world with cars the traffic was horrendous, it took us almost four hours to arrive at the Manifesto in Hoorn... Along the way we discussed the set and enjoyed the weather as it was a warm afternoon..Gerjan (aka Gerkin) was driving and driving us crazy with his choice of music...,,As many of you guys will be aware we usually listen to anything but metal music when we are driving ourselves in either of the two Bri-Hire vans Choc Ice or Lollipop and all we had blasting out of the van speakers was metal, metal and even more metal...and as always there was a voice from the back of the van asking "Have you got any Genesis" . By the time we arrived in Hoorn it was dusk and we were all seriously hungry... I personally could have eaten the leg off a scabby donkey and thankfully the venue quickly provided us with refreshments.. A cup of tea was the first order of business followed by sandwiches. When we arrived Defender were sound checking and it appeared that there were more guys in this band than Blue Oyster Cult and Lynard Skynard combined..we later found out they were playing the songs in their set with the original members who played on the albums and only 5 guys played at one time, I think.. Once they'd finished there sound check they helped rearranged the stage and the drum kit with Andrew and we proceeded to sound check.. After sound check we had a walk around the surrounding area.. There was not much to see apart from some very nice looking Dutch ladies playing tennis on a floodlit tennis court...Hmm.... After a while we headed back to the venue to warm up and go through our own pre show routines... We managed to catch the end of the Defender show..They were using flame machines on stage and I must admit to us it looked very Spinal Tap.. I think it was close to midnight by the time we took to the stage and we all feeling very tired however we were here to rock and rock we did... It's very strange playing somebody else's drum kit..You've got to treat it with respect but at the same time do your thing...I think the Defender drummer was very happy we were only doing three shows. It was almost 1-30am by the time we finished our set.After meeting fans and the promoter of the Dokkem festival (Jort) it was time for us to leave. The time was around 2-15am when we all got into the van with remaining food and beverages for a 2 1/2 hour drive to the other side of Holland to our sleeping quaters. Gerjan had the radio on and we were all festive and falling in and out of a comatosed state. Our abode for the next two days was to be.. A Holiday Camp. Stop laughing you lot... By the time we arrived at the holiday camp it was very cold, pitch black and very close to 4-45am, we had now all been up approximately 26 hours.. No time was wasted relieving ourselves of excess fluids and heading to bed. I was sharing with Andrew. Brian with Eddie and Nick with Abbz. What a day.. a 90 minute show with 9 hours of traveling in a car/van and an 90 minute flight..Rock and Roll, you gotta love it.. Deep sleep soon followed.. Stay tuned for Hengelo... Peace. DHQ |