Day 3
The weather is
perfect. Warm, sunny, clear and just right for this event. SWR1 is a
massive radio station and they are celebrating their 10th anniversary by opening
up their facilities to the public who will enjoy beer and sausages whilst
getting a close-up look at how a radio station operates (and how their tax money
is spent!).
The All-Star
band, Eric and myself will close the main stage events but the public will have
a lot of other cool things to see, do and listen to…. They are expecting
about 10,000 people to pass through the main gates today, and it's all free!
Besides Eric and myself, the band is Stefan Ullmann (guitar and vocals), Adax
Dorsam (guitar), Chuck Tscheschner (bass) and Armin Ruhl on drums.
And our 60
minute set consists of:
- Easy Living
- Stealin'
- Circle Of Hands
- The Wizard
- Free Me
- Rain
- July Morning
- Sweet Freedom
- Lady In Black/Gypsy (Encore)
Basically a "greatest
hits" selection really but in 60 minutes we want to give people what they expect
and I think this set list will do that. We shall see…
The SWR1
people were everywhere and they were so helpful, everyone right down to the
natural born "schmolz" guy who did the introductions and wound the crowd up (you
have to be special to do this job and he was a natural!). He said the word
and, guess what, they sang me Happy Birthday! How nice! A liitle bit
embarassing but I felt it was genuine and do you know what? Nobody did
that at home!! If there had been 10,000 of them (as predicted) then 8,500
of them were using the rest rooms at this particular time!
After that,
somehow crashing into "Easy Living" seemed a tiny bit wierd but only for a
nanosecond…. We were quickly into our stride and we didn't miss too much.
This had been a "family" day and most of the audience was "mature" and
apparently re-living a part of their younger days, singing, clapping and just
having a great time. They were happy and that´s what mattered.
During the
short "meet & greet" I enjoyed their expressions of affection and appreciation
for the music. They had been a part of the "70s" scene that will never be
repeated and it was very obvious that it had been important to them.
Overall, this gig was very satisfying in its own special way and I was (and
still am) deeply thankful to all involved.
