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The Hollies on 11th of May 2002 in Bad Segeberg, Germany, Kalkberg-Arena,
Radio-Nora-Oldie-Night-Festival
It was a whole day full of sunshine. But from
16:00 to 17:00 the sky became more and more
cloudy. The festival started at 18:00 after a big
thunder-shower of 30 minutes. But from now on only
a few
raindrops were felt from time to time. An audience of
13,000
people
filled the arena which was sold out!!!
The German Joe Cocker Illusion Band opened the show, followed by
The Lords
(a German Band too), The Searchers, Slade, Smokie and The
Spencer Davis
Group. During the roadies did their work between the gigs a man
called Dave
Ashby took always his acoustic guitar and sang some hits of the
1960s. My
photographer and I arrived backstage during the Searchers' set
at 19:00, because the Hollies performance as headliners was
announced for
22:15. After the moderator Helmut Radermacher had welcomed
me he
said: "What's on with the Hollies? They are so hard to handle. They
made a
lot of dispositions: Dave Ashby may not sing before their set. The
planned
fireworks after their show shall be cancelled. The press may
only make
photographs since the first three songs, but always without flash,
what is
difficult at 22:15. After the third song all the
journalists and
photographers have to leave their places directly in front of the
stage...
Oh man, we never have had so much problems with a group while we
organize
this festival and it's more than 10 years now!" Hmmmmm, I didn't
understand
some of this dispositions too but I couldn't really help that man.
The Hollies arrived at 21:00 from their hotel and went
straight to
their dressing room. I was the only one who had the chance to talk
shortly
to Bobby Elliott. I told him about my book of the band which I
wanted to
give to each of it's members and asked for the possibility to
shoot some
photos for the book's second edition. I got his okay for doing it
after the
show.
The performance began as punctual as clockwork. The moderator
tried his
announcement but the intro for the gig was put so loudly into
his words
that he broke up. He must have been near a nervous breakdown. The
following
show was really great. All the other bands played 20 to 30
minutes, The
Hollies did it for 45. Here is their set list:
Intro
01. I'm Alive
02. Sorry Suzanne
03. Jennifer Eccles
04. Bus Stop
05. Stop! Stop! Stop
06. Carrie Anne
07. The Air That I Breathe
08. Blowing In The Wind
09. He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother
10. Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)
11. It's In Everyone Of Us
Outro
The whole audience was very pleased with it. It was
absolutely the
highlight of the festival. Carl did a great job on lead vocals,
all songs
worked very well, only "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" I think had
not the
magic power and feeling like in Allan Clarke's version, - sorry!
After the show and some glasses of wine (I took the time to have a
talk to
Suzie Quatro who visited the festival
without having a gig) The
Hollies
came out of their dressing room to leave the arena quickly. We
made the
promised photos. The boys were very friendly and helpful. When
this was
done I gave the band the copies of my book. I was very surprised
nobody of
them had heard anything about it so far. Their management had got
a copy
from my publisher some month ago. But all the boys were very
pleased about it and thankful. All in all our communication was much too short
because
there was always a guy called Lars who'd driven them forward. Who
the hell
is that man? It seemed to me he could be the road manager of the
band and
maybe he's also the one who made the dispositions I described above.
At the end it was a good feeling to be sure the fans have heard and
seen a fine show of the Hollies, but what happened around the gig gave
me some
mixed emotions. The band had never been really integrated into the
festival
and the closed contacts of the other artists to the
fans/audience. There
was always a distance. But maybe that's the way they wanted it.
Thanks to Manfred Schwanbeck
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