October 27th 2007 De Stoelemat

Together with my brother Rob and sister Anita we travelled to Bergen op Zoom. The Rubettes had played here 5 years ago and that evening we spoke extensively with Alan about setting up this website. We had heard that The Rubettes were due onstage at 21.00, so we left Zoetermeer at about 18.30.The road to Bergen op Zoom was closed, so we had to take an alternative way. This slowed us down considerably, but we made it in time to the Stoelemat. We went straight to the artists foyer where only the barman was present. We noticed that the Rubettes gear was in their dressing room, so at least they had arrived.

More people entered the foyer and we chatted with some men from the organisation. We heard that this was going to be the last Back To… festival. This is a great pity, because they always had great bands. In the past they had decided to organise only one Back To… show, but the snowball effect hade made this the 11^th show. I asked if we could expect something of a surprise for this last show and the organiser said “You never know….."

As it turned out the Rubettes were to play at 23.30. The Swinging Bluejeans had arrived and they asked Anita and me if we would sell their merchandise and we agreed. Gino showed us to the merchandising table, which was near the cloakroom.  I asked him how the bands were supposed to reach this place an Gino said he supposed they had to walk through the concert hall. I thought that was not a very smart route, because it would take them ages to reach the table this way. I went to check out if the stairs that lead to the cloakroom leads to the stairs backstage. This was correct but the door was locked and supposed to remain locked. The alternative was that the bands would walk around the building to reach the merchandise table. This was a very bad idea. You could hardly expect the bands, who were all sweaty an overheated to take a walk around the block an then back into the heat of the hall. We explained this to one of the organisers and luckily he promised to unlock the door so the bands could come to our table via the back stairs.

At around 22.45 Edvard Niesing, the MP got onstage to announce the Swinging Bluejeans. Before he had a chance to utter a word the power suddenly went off. Everybody assumed that a fuse had blown or something else that is easy to repair. In the foyer and in the music hall one emergency light remained on. The dressing rooms were pitch dark. Some people went outside to see if the street lights were still working. They were off and also the lights in the surrounding houses was off. After about half an hour the emergency lights also went off.  The barman in the foyer put candles and tea-lights on the bar and tables. The most wild stories went around; all of Bergen op Zoom was in the dark; a transformatorhouse had blown up. After that it was action groups who had put half the country out of power. Just to make sure we made a phone call home, everything in The Hague and Zoetermeer was fine. For now the big question was: is it going to be repaired and if so, how long will it take? The fire-brigade came in and said that if need be, the hall would have to be evacuate on their sign.

Anita and I had gone to visit the Rubettes in their dressing room. They were sitting there waiting for what was to come. We had a chat with Alan about his daughter. Rumours were that the show was going to be cancelled, but minutes later they said it would take half an hour and the show would go on. Alan was not happy. It was late, the swinging Bluejeans had to do their set, so is was to become a late night. If you realise that they had all been up really early that morning to fly to Holland. John came up with the idea to do a little a capella act. The hall was still full of people who were going nowhere. But then we heard that the hall was going to be evacuated and it is not a good idea to go and do anything like a show during this process. The swinging Bluejeans had been doing some songs with just an acoustic guitar, And people had liked that. So much that now they didn’t want to leave. Someone came to ask Alan if they would do a similar thing, but of course this only confuses people, so they decided against it.

John and Mark went about packing their stuff. Mark told us he had heard of terrorist attacks that were planned on power plants all over Europe . I told him no to scare us with these stories in the dark. John could see the funny side of this, but Mark was dead serious.

Alan in the mean time was being interviewed by a local radio station. When they were finished, the interviewer came to me! Rob had spoken to them about my website and the radio people thought it would be nice for Brabant to know about my website, so I was interviewed for radio (in the dark).

And then the word came: the entire show was cancelled and everybody had to leave the building. The fire-brigade had entered the foyer and dressing rooms to oversee this evacuation. We said goodbye to the Rubettes who were going back to their hotel.

In the mean time the emergence light was back on in the foyer. We talked to some of the organisers who were standing in the foyer looking somewhat perplexed. We said that this was not what everybody had had in mind for their last Back to… concert. They all agreed, so we suggested to do it all over again, same bands, same show. They would certainly think about this.

This is an act of God. No-one can be blamed and it is a nasty situation. A nuisance for the bands who had to fly in and were unable tot do their jobs. Also for the organisation who must have had greater expectations for their last Back to… And for the audience who have only had half the evening they came for. We heard some people had come all the way from Germany just to see the Rubettes. At least we had the opportunity to chat to them, that made up a lot for us..

I hope for all these people that the organisation decides to have another go next year. I think everybody would appreciate such a gesture.

Maybe see you next year!

Lucienne                           

P.S.: Outsite the building we talked to a local policeman. He told us that the power only went off in a block around the Venue. 

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