Last week as I came back home after the show in Dusseldorf I checked my letter box and found two tickets for the German Cup Final in Berlin on May 21 between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. I really didn’t expect those tickets to arrive so I was very lucky.
On the one hand I was very happy about that, cos’ it’s like winning the lottery when you get tickets for a final in football. But on the other hand that demanded a tough decision: Go to Berlin for the football match or go to Munich for Rod??
So finally my decision was: Go to Berlin first and put the Sunday Leipzig show (which is only 200 km away from Berlin) instead of Munich. And so I did.
On Friday afternoon I drove down the 500 km to Chemnitz. While sitting on Mandy’s balcony that night I received many messages from the guys in Munich – mostly pictures of the show. And all those attending the Munich gig talked about a great night, Rod in a very good mood, a very good setlist and a enthusiastic crowd. Even if there were very negative reviews in the papers I only got positive feedback from our friends in Munich.
Silke who attended the Munich show that night said afterwards: “Munich was a great show. Rod changed the setlist a little bit. He sang “Please” and added a wonderful version of ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. The crowd was out of the seats from the very beginning and the atmosphere in the Olympiahalle was amazing.” About 10.000 people came out that night to see Rod.
Wish I had been there too, but I made my decision. So no need to complain….
On Saturday Mandy and I drove down to Berlin, we had a brilliant night at the Olympic Stadium winning the title (sorry Dortmund, but we were the much more better side and therefore it was well deserved) and went back home to Chemnitz right after the game.
Then Sunday came up. The week before Lucy Woodward and I arranged a meeting in Leipzig to talk about some website related topics. At 2 pm I met Lucy at the band’s hotel and we sat down for an hour and talked about God and the world and the website.
Then the band left the hotel for soundcheck and I jumpd into the car and drove down to the Airport where my friend Marco was already awaiting Rod’s arrival.
At 4.30 pm THE MAN arrived. Again a Mercedes van picked him up right at his plane. But – we learned from the Dusseldorf failure – this time we waited at the airport gate. As the van passed the gate it suddenly stopped and Rod – sitting in the back – signed our items. What a day!!!
After that – not surprising that we were in a very good mood – we drove back to the City and waited in front of the Arena for the beginning of the show. First I went to the box office and got my ticket (thanks Lucy).
At 7.30 pm Rod opens the show with “Having a Party” followed by “Young Turks” (love that song, in my eyes the perfect opener for every show). The setlist was quite good, Rod was on his highest level, perfomed brilliantly and to express it in one word: it was amazing.
The crowd was better than in Dusseldorf, they were all singing along with “Rhythm of my Heart”, “Forever Young” or “Downtown Train”. Some of the guys sitting next to me were mostly flashed by the old Faces songs “Ooh La La”, “Stay With Me” and the great “Rolling & Tumbling”. Unfortunately he left out “Angel” this time, but okay, he did it a few days before in Dusseldorf.
“Love Is” was the only song of the new album, the acoustic set (Rod announced this part of the show by saying: Please sit down you paid a lot of money for your seats, so you should use them) contained “First Cut, “Don’t Wanna Talk” and “You’re in My Heart”. The brilliant version of “Maggie May” made the crowd get up from their seats again. The show closed with “Sailing” and “Sexy” as encore.
Right after the show I made my way back home. 4 hours drive to Dusseldorf on a rainy night in Germany….
All in all: Leipzig was a great night, sad that I missed Munich, but even without that the whole weekend was absolutely fantastic. I wanna say thank you to Mandy, Lucy, Rod and FC Bayern Munich for making it so special….
Cheers SMILERS
M
Review: by Martin Heidt
Pics Munich: by Roland Maute
Pics Leipzig/Berlin: by Martin Heidt
Montage Tommy Kevitt
