Peter...

enjoys the show...

Peter

Grant

Rob

Peter

?!?

Phil

Rob

The audience during "The Old Nickelodeon Sound" ;-)

SAILOR fan Andreas won SAILOR's original Charango at last year's auction...
and brought it to the show to play it during "Vera From Veracruz" in the audience...

...so Phil fetched him on stage to show the instrument once again!

Peter

?!?

Peter

Phil

Grant

Rob

The first day of the tour is over, and Grant is already tired... just like the good old Charango ;-)

Katrin and Phil

A concert review by Linda Welch:

Well, it’s Egmond again, but this time it’s Fall
Icily cold but alive.
I’m freezing to death in a cold hotel room
Just waiting for night to arrive…

My alarm clock going off at 5 in the morning can only mean one of two things – either I’m having to work at our head office in London or I’m catching a plane to see SAILOR…
Saturday 20 November was SAILOR’s first gig of their Holland tour, and I had to be there, so I didn’t mind the early start. The journey went very smoothly. I flew from my home town of Southampton instead of having to drive up to Heathrow, but as it’s a small airport, it was a very small plane. From Schiphol airport I took a train into Amsterdam Central and changed trains to Amersfoort. The hotel was a short taxi ride from the station and I checked in just after midday. I had a lovely big room, the only trouble was it was freezing cold, so I got into bed to keep warm and dozed off... The telephone woke me up around 2.30 – Katrin had arrived with Karsten, Christel and Andy, so I went to their room to say hello and catch up on what had happened since we’d last met in the summer, when Christel and Katrin had come to stay for the Marvellous Festival in Reading.
Timing worked out perfectly and we were able to listen to SAILOR’s interview on Dutch Radio 2 before all five of us piled into Katrin’s car for the drive up to Egmond. Some of the signposts on the motorway were a bit confusing, and we discovered that there were actually three towns called Egmond (!) but we got there in plenty of time (or so we thought!) We decided to have something to eat but although we gave our order at about 7 o’clock, the food didn’t come until nearly 8, so Katrin and I ate at top-speed and went to the concert hall to find the promoter, who had Katrin’s tickets. We went in early, and had a chance to chat with ‘our boys’ before the show, who seemed pleased that we’d all travelled to see them for this first concert of the tour.
Unlike last year’s show in Egmond, when I really didn’t enjoy the bands that were on before SAILOR (I shall never forget the Gibson Brothers making their 2 hits last for 45 minutes!) I liked both the other bands that were on. First up were ZZ and The Maskers. I’d never heard of them, but they played Shadows-style music, which I’ve always liked. After them were The Rubettes, and we made sure we were right in the front so we were in the right place for when SAILOR came on stage. I was a teenager when The Rubettes were big in England, and I remembered all the words to almost every song they did (we’d listened to some of their songs on the way in the car, which had also helped!) I even managed to sing their trademark high notes when the micro-phone ended up in front of me! Katrin pointed out that Phil had come out to watch part of the Rubettes set, and I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty that I was enjoying myself so much – almost as if I was being unfaithful to SAILOR (how daft is that?)
At last SAILOR came on stage to a tremendous welcome. I was aware of lots of people singing along around me and it was obvious that a great many people there were loyal fans. Five of us whipped out our maracas at appropriate songs and shook along – Andy went one better and produced the original Charango and was invited up on stage to show it off. Katrin and I had another ‘accessory’, which we’d planned during our Sunday afternoons in the SAILOR-Chat and as Rob started the second verse of "Josephine Baker" we took out our feather fans and fluttered them in front of our faces. One day we’ll surprise them with something so much that they’ll forget the words, but Rob stayed on track despite bits of black feather floating around (Katrin’s fan was moulting!). "Traffic Jam" is always a huge hit with the audience in Holland - but everything SAILOR did was a huge hit with the audience that night. It all whizzed by so fast, and the boys disappeared for a quick costume change in time for the Full Monty (which was nearly spoiled by the DJ, who thought they’d really gone for good and came back out on stage!) There was one slight snag – and it seems to happen every time – and that’s the tape during the Full Monty. It always jams in the same place so the boys never get to finish their routine. Shame! You’d think Naylorman would have fixed it by now, wouldn’t you? ;-)
After a quick chat with SAILOR after the show, we decided to head back to the hotel, but Karsten had been ‘identified’ by a couple of Dutch women who were convinced he was the Red Indian (or should I say Native American?) from the Village People. Nothing he could do convinced them that he wasn’t and they tried to make him sing YMCA. In the end, he gave in and started signing autographs... I’ll leave it to his discretion as to whether he tells you exactly what he signed!
After another very short night’s sleep, we met up for breakfast, joined by some sleepy SAILORs, before packing our cases again and checking out. We didn’t have to leave for a couple of hours and one by one the boys (including Graham) came out to talk to us in reception before it was finally time for Katrin, Karsten, Christel and Andy to drive back to Germany, and for me to get a taxi to the station. It had been a very tiring 36 hours for me and I didn’t know how SAILOR could possibly do it all again that same evening, and the next, and the next, and the next...
Thanks for a wonderful show, guys, and for spending time with us. I’m looking forward to the UK tour next year and Katrin and I will have to get our thinking caps on and plan some more little surprises…
Linda Welch ©