ASH - AMSTERDAM 1996

Amsterdam, Melkweg, june 14th 1996, Holland

attendance: 900
time: 65 minutes
support act: Scarfo
setlist: LOSE CONTROL/ GIRL FROM MARS/ GOLDFINGER/ I'D GIVE YOU ANYTHING/ T-REX/ UNCLE PAT/ JACK NAMES THE PLANETS/ LET IT FLOW/ PETROL/ INNOCENT SMILE/ LOST IN YOU/ SEASON/ OH YEAH/ HULK HOGAN BUBBLE BATH/ ANGEL INTERCEPTOR/ DARKSIDE LIGHTSIDE/ GET READY/ KUNG FU

This was the first show in Holland after the release of 1977. This resulted in a lot of interviews, photosessions etc. for the band. Most newspapers and music magazines were there to cover the show and to see "the next big thing from Britain". Also a LOT young girls were present (i.e. hanging around the venue all afternoon) all this made me fear the worst.
The day before the gig Tim called my friend Menno and invited us to hang around with them. Unfortunately I had to work, but my brother Thorben and Menno went down to Amsterdam and hung around with Tim for most of the afternoon.

I arrived in the evening and found a lot of young girls in front of the Melkweg. when the doors opened they all ran inside to secure a spot at the front row. This was quite funny to see....
The show started with LOSE CONTROL which is really the perfect show opener. The band looked tired and the show really did not go well. The band played very uninspired, but the screaming girls up front did not seem to notice....
"This song is for anybody from Nieuw Vennep", Tim said before JACK NAMES THE PLANETS. This was cool since both Oscar Wilde and Patrick the Brewer (from the Trailer EP) were there! A huge cheer came from the corner where Oscar, Patrick and their friends from Nieuw Vennep were standing. KUNG FU closed this show. Not good, not bad, just a regular gig. Hopefully tomorrow (Rotterdam) will be better.

After the show we went backstage and saw a completely drunk Mark demolish the dressing room. Tim had to go and talk to some people from the record company, Rick was eating (and being creative with....) all the food while Mark was banging his head against a mirror, trying to open a door using a spoon and climbing into the ceiling.
We decided to leave the dressing room and to go with Tim into the tourbus. There we were shown an exclusive preview of the OH YEAH video (they had finished it the week before) and my brother and Menno got the Oh Yeah cassette single and the Oh Yeah cd single, which was really cool since those also weren't available yet at that time!
At three o'clock in the morning we decided to home. We all had to work the next day and could use some sleep.... the next day there would be more Ash!

radio/TV: No radio or TV recordings were made of this show. In the afternoon Mark did a TV interview for TMF @lter 8.

bootleg: One audience recording was made, but it misses about 10 seconds of Oh Yeah!

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