May 9th 2002
Beursgebouw
After a lot of pushing, my brother Rob finally got me
to join them for a Sweet gig. Especially because besides Sweet there would be
other bands playing as well, such as Boney M, Middle of the Road and most
importantly, the Rubettes. In the seventies there was always some argument going
on between Rob and myself concerning music. As I would be trying to listen to my
Rubettes records on my little mono record player, he would always drown out the
sound with his noisy Sweet records. Despite my outgrowing the Rubettes
fascination in later years, the roots of the argument between us would always be
there… And so now the big moment had arrived. Rob has been frequenting Sweet
gigs for years and on occasion he had also seen the Rubettes perform live. He
had even remarked they aren’t half bad, but of course I already knew that!
Six of us were having dinner on a pavement café that
afternoon. On the next table Sweet were enjoying
their meal, the Rubettes were sitting inside, as Rob pointed out to me.
‘Leave those people to have there meal in peace’, I said 'You don’t want
to go and bother them do you?’ Luckily for once Rob listen to me.
I was planning to sing along with all the bands. After
all they were all bands from the seventies with songs I can dram by now. But
that turned out to be more difficult than I had thought. The sound quality was
absolutely horrible. Middle of the Road suffered from this, as did Abba Gold.
When it was Sweet’s turn some adjustments were made so we hoped things would
improve. In the afternoon we had heard there sound check , and that had sounded
just fine to us. But still Andy Scott was ‘not amused’ with the sound, as a
certain amount of feedback could apparently not be eliminated.
The Rubettes were the last act for this evening. It was
a strange feeling seeing them live for the first time after 28 years of
listening to their music. Sadly they too suffered from the poor sound quality.
Although that didn’t bother me too much. To be honest I was pleasantly
surprised by the band. I had never expected them to play so well. The sound was
slightly better than in the beginning of the evening (and so was the music!).
When the Rubettes finished playing, the evening was
over. We got our things together and made way for the exit. After all it was
half past one and we had to drive all the way back to The Hague. Rob came up to
me and told me to get my Rubettes CD (which I had bought earlier that evening)
out and to follow him back stage. I gave him a surprised look, but my sister
Anita (who had been visiting gigs with Rob before) immediately
did as we were told. ‘what are we going to do?’ I asked. According to
Rob we could just go backstage to have the CD’s autographed by the band.
‘Don’t be stupid’ I said; ‘that so childish’. Anita however, just
grabbed my CD out of my hands and said in that case she would have it signed for
me. There they went, the five of them with my CD, to the Rubettes who were still
backstage. I stood there slightly bewildered, thinking I was in a bit of a
stupid situation. Me, the only Rubettes fan, was being left behind while they
were going to meet them. I took a deep breath and went after them. Just before
we entered the dressing room, I grabbed my CD back and (however childishly)
asked Alan, John and Mick to sign it for me. Mark was nowhere to be seen. When I
told Alan this was the first time I had seen them perform live, he said I should
come and see them again, because the sound quality had been so appalling this
evening. I answered I liked that idea. We all had a little chat , and I am sure
I must have said some stupid things, if only because my English had not
had a polishing up since high school. It was getting late
and Alan said they had to be up early the next day for a TV show in
Hamburg. We were making our way towards the exit , when suddenly a white suit
cam rushing past us. That must have been Mark, but by the time I realised this,
the suit including its owner, had vanished.
All in all it was a nice experience and on the way back
home we played the (autographed) CD on my car stereo. To be quite honest I must
say that Sweet’s performance wasn’t half bad. I think I can say that Rob and
I have finally buried the hatchet
after 28 years. Despite my not liking concerts, I was pretty disappointed when I
heard the next Rubettes gig would be in August, when I would be away on holiday.
But the time after that I will certainly be there again!
Lucienne