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LANDGRAAF, June 18th . 1999.
What a great show we had in Landsgraaf (Holland) last night! The Stones were
in the mood...and so were we ;-)
We got "Memory Motel" and "You Don’t Have To Mean It",
so it was a perfect day for a (almost) perfect show. The weather was great, the
organisation looked great, sometimes you CAN get what you want.
After a 2+ hours drive we arrived in Landgraaf, where we parked our car at a
20 minutes walk from the entrance of the festivalsite, called Megaland.
When we arrived at 10 a.m. a friend told us to hurry, there were made three
barriers and the first one was about to be closed. At first I was the last
person allowed in behind the first barrier and so I was separated from my wife (Anny)
and my friends. Of course we tried to solve this problem and after 5 minutes we
all were behind the first barrier. I think there were about 200 people in this
area.
Here we had room enough to spend the rest of the day waiting for the gates to
open.
As always we met a lot of old friends and we had a very pleasant day.
Nobody knows why, but a little after 4 p.m. everyone in our segment rushed
forwards to the (main) gates. Of course there was panic in the second segment.
And where was the security to protect us against the stampede?? As we are in
Holland, everything is done economically, so there weren’t enough security
around. Actually there were 2 (!) at this spot and they turned their backs to
the people in the second segment (so that they couldn’t see what happened).
Is this what they mean by a No Security show...? ;-)
A little while before the gates were opened (at 5 p.m.) the stampede began
and so we were squashed after all... :-(
As the main gates were on the right side of the field, everyone went for
Keith’s side, so we had to rush again for a good spot. Luckily we made it to
the catwalk, at about 2/3 from the main stage.
The stage was put up more to middle of the field than the other time The
Stones played here (exactly 4 years ago, on June 18 1995!) because there were
only sold 50.000 tickets (in ’95 105.000!!)
7.35 p.m. The opening act, Rowen Hèze, a local band (you have to love them...)
played till 8.25. The Stones started at 9.20 p.m. and, although they played an
almost standard setlist, they were very good tonight.
IMHO it was much better show than the once in Groningen on June 2nd
and even a better show than the Wembley shows last week. There was more energy
in the band as well as in the audience and in Wembley there were made a lot of
personnel mistakes, specially by Keith.
The first 5 songs: "Jumpin’ Jack Flash", "You Got Me Rockin",
"Live With Me", "Respectable" and "Gimme Shelter",
were like the No Security shows, fast, almost agressive, great! "Honky Tonk
Women" was played on routine, not the best version I’ve heard.
Then a surprise (at least in this tour), "Memory Motel". Not the
best version, but great to hear in a standard show. "Saint Of Me"
("zingen jullie mee?"), "Out Of Control" (great version!)
and "Paint It Black" were loved by the audience. Everyone was singing
along and dancing.
After the band introductions, (where Mick forgot Darryll Jones, said sorry)
Keith ("Hey, it’s good to be anywhere, specially here") played
"You Don’t Have To Mean It", and a too many times played
"Before They Make Me Run".
The B stage set was known: "Route 66", "Like A Rolling
Stone" and again an outstanding version of "Midnight Rambler"!
Again this was the highlight of the show.
The end part: "Sympathy For The Devil", "Tumbling Dice" (were
Mick was standing above Charlie!), "It’s Only Rock’n’Roll " (how
many versions of this song exist??!) and "Brown Sugar". The encore:
"Satisfaction". At least 49.700 of the 50.000 people went crazy!! ;-)
What a nice day, what a great show, what a perfect sound, what a perfect
audience!
Dirk Snapper
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