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GRONINGEN June 2nd 1999 – Charlie’s birthday
After a two hours drive, we arrived in Groningen just before 10 a.m.
The outside gates were still closed and I think about 100 people were already
there. Some even spent the night there.
After the first gate was open, we ran for a good spot in the second gates.
The long waiting began...At least it wasn’t as hot as in Stuttgart last
Saturday.
We met a lot of friends, so that made the waiting a lot more convenient.
Thanks to a "clever" move of the local security, people got on
their feet and pushed forward already at a quarter to three. The gates
wouldn’t be opened before 5 p.m.!! Luckily we were surprised by a short but
heavy thunderstorm so that everyone had his mind at keeping as dry as possible.
At 4.30 p.m. the gates were opened and we were able to show how good our
condition was...we had to cross the racetrack on the long side. And we were
lucky. No security check, so we got the best spot in the house; two places from
the front against the catwalk. I know this is subjective, but what is a Stones
show without seeing Charlie?!
7.30 p.m. Catatonia, a welsh band opened for the Stones. What shall I say?
Not bad, but...nice tits! Shame about the heavy rain during the end of the set!
The Stones started early (9.05 p.m.) luckily for all of us it did not rain
anymore all night. Personally I found the setlist very disappointing, especially
if you compare it to the shows in the States and even in Stuttgart. But there
were other who were very enthousiastic about the songs played tonight.
The songs I enjoyed most were "Thief In The Night" (Leah should pay
more attention to her work instead of to the audience...), "Route 66"
and again "Midnight Rambler" (alright Charlie!!).
Ronnie was doing a very good job tonight. He played well and he had a lot of
fun too. In fact the whole band had fun tonight.
What I did not like was "Angie" (this can be much better, Mick!).
"Like A Rolling Stone" (what happened to the Paradiso version?) and
the encore "Satisfaction". There were other songs to play as an encore,
such as "You Can’t Always Get What You Want" and "Salt Of The
Earth". Both were rehearsed in Amsterdam before the tour! But as we know:
You Can’t Always Get...
What I enjoyed very much were the choirs for Charlie: "Charlie,
Charlie!" or "Happy Birthday", even in Dutch "Lang zal ie
leven! Hoera – Hoera!" This happened about 5 times during the show!!
At the band introductions Mick got Charlie to the front of the stage and at
the end of the show, after the band was gone, Mick brought Charlie back again to
the front of the stage. Very funny! The crowd went crazy!
After the center stage set, we "clapped hands" with Charlie, Ronnie
(thanks to Anny’s banners) and Keith!
At the beginning of "Start Me Up", due to the fireworks, there were
small fires at the front stage speakers. Mick was on the alert...
At the end part of "Satisfaction" the horn section came back. I
can’t remember there were horns in this part of the song?
After the show we were lucky to get out of the city real fast. We were lucky
to have Thursday off. Dirk Snapper.
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