October 26th 2002
de Stoelemat
We had planned it all so well. We wanted to be in
Bergen Op Zoom in plenty of time to be able to speak to Alan and the other guys
before the gig. I was going to ride along with Rob and Nannette and everything
had been arranged. The night before Nannette gave me a call to announce some
changes of plan… Rob had been asked if he wanted to go and pick up the
Searchers from the airport. He was taking Nannette along with him. So I had to
make my own way to Bergen Op Zoom. When we got there it appeared all the artists
were delayed due to the bad weather. This also affected the Rubettes.
After we had had dinner at the hotel, Rob was to drive
the Searchers to the venue. I decided to leave my car at the hotel and got on
the bus with Rob, Nannette and the Searchers. All the artists had had their
dinner by then and were making their way to the Stoelemat. All except the
Rubettes that is, there was still no sign of them… Somewhere during the
evening we finally got word that their plane had landed. Four hours later than
planned! Now they had to be driven to the hotel and have their dinner. It was
going to be a tight fit. Luckily they were the last act on the programme. They
had to go on at 00.45. At 23.30 I finally saw the door open. Thank goodness,
they had arrived!
I had spent most of
the evening with Nannette in the artist’s lounge, but when it was time for the
Rubettes to go on of course we went to watch the show. We were standing at the
side of the stage and were able to enjoy a wonderful show (of course!). A
pleasant surprise was their choice to include Baby I Know in a vocally particularly strong version. The audience
joined in enthusiastically, but not quite enthusiastically enough to the
band’s taste, for they gave a shortened version of the Sha Na Na Song. Shortened by comparison with other concerts, that
is. At one moment I spotted someone holding a rope. I followed the rope with my
eyes and saw it was connected to three buckets hanging directly above Alan, Mark
and Mick. I was wondering what those buckets contained. Surely it wasn’t
water? It turned out to hold confetti. After the last notes were played, the guy
holding the rope released it. A couple of sad pieces of confetti drifted down on
the stage. After the guys left the stage they finally got it to work and the
confetti showered down on an empty stage! Mick was standing next to me and we
had a good laugh about it. It looked ever so silly. While they were playing the
encore (Sugar Baby Love) the bucket
over Mark’s head turned out to still hold a considerable amount, so he was
showered with confetti after all.
After giving the boys some time to get changed, we went
into the dressing room for a chat. John and Alan were being interviewed by a
local tv station. Mark went to sit with Nannette and the two of them had a
lengthy conversation. After that she went to talk to Alan. They spoke about the
website. They agreed to keep our activities “under water” for the time being,
because Alan is busy with some other business until the end of this year. He
wants to have his own website in order first so we can link up all our sites at
once. They also talked about the tour plans the Rubettes have for next year. Of
course we will inform you about those plans via this website as soon as things
are official. In the meantime John
was waiting for us all to make our way back to the hotel. He was absolutely
exhausted. But it didn’t look like he was going to get his way too soon. I
tried to explain to him that the clocks were going back an hour that night
because of wintertime. I didn’t get the impression that the message was
getting through to him, though. He politely said “Thank you”, as if I was
making it up just to please him!
Rob was “searching for the Searchers” and mentioned
that we had some room left in the bus, so John could drive back with us. As soon
as Rob had all his passengers together we piled into the bus and I went to sit
next to John. The Searchers were sitting in the back. They had spent most of the
evening in the bar and some of them were all the worst for wear. I tried to look
at my watch. It was 3.15. Once we got to the hotel it appeared that all the
buses had arrived there, so the other Rubettes joined John. John and Mick each
went into their rooms and gave us a last wave goodbye. Within two minutes John
reappeared from his room and asked in a very puzzled manner if it was correct
that the time was 2.25. We told him it was. “Are you sure?” And then he
finally got the message that the clock had been turned back. We said goodnight
to Rob. He had to drive the Searchers back to the airport the next day, so he
was staying at the hotel. I drove Nannette home and crawled into bed at 5.30.
Luckily I too could turn the clock back…
The next day was the Sunday of the by now legendary
storm and we heard later that the Rubettes had to wait until Monday afternoon
before they were able to fly back home.
Lucienne