December 11th 2002
Discotheque Locomotion
This was a “Derby” for me, as Discotheque
Locomotion is only 10 minutes away from my home! Nannette couldn’t be with us
this evening, as she had to go into hospital the next day and wanted to be well
rested for her operation. Her daughter Martina however (she’s a dedicated
Rubettes fan by now) didn’t want to miss this evening, so she came to pick me
up together with Rob and Anita.
Edvard Niessing was in charge of the disco show for
Radio 192. Around 21.00h the first set was announced. It was a Dutch coverband
called the Pigtails. They played songs from Golden Earring, the Motions and
ZZTop among others, and they were good! After a (dance) break they played for
another hour, after which the stage was set for the Rubettes. We in the meantime
had installed ourselves right in front of the stage.
As soon as they got on there was trouble; Alan’s
guitar didn’t make a sound, so John’s drumsolo was followed by a deadly
silence. The audience started calling out “We want more” and that’s just
what they got! After some fussing around the guitar was fixed and they got
underway (again) with Foe-Dee-O-Dee. Alan told us that they were all
suffering from a bad cold, so their voices weren’t up to standard. Mick’s
voice was affected especially badly, so they were unable to do the a cappella
version of After the Goldrush. Instead John was dragged away from behind
his drumkit and put in the spotlight to sing Under one Roof. Very nicely
too! During Ooh La La Mick held his mike in front of Martina’s face,
but she was shocked into silence. The Sha Na Na Song (one of my personal
favourites) was next and I had decided to keep on singing the “sha na na”.
So when the whole disco was screaming “Give peace a chance”, Anita and I
were bravely sha na na-ing along. Alan noticed us struggling and had to laugh
because of course no one could hear us above the racket of the rest of the
audience. The soulmedley also sounded fine this evening. I always think
the end of the show comes way too soon. When they were doing the encore (Sugar
Baby Love) Mick once more gave Martina the use of his microphone and this
time she did sing into it. Mick gestured she had to keep going and do the high
part, but she couldn’t manage that.
After the show we wanted to go and have a chat with the
guys. But besides wanting to give them a chance to catch their breath, our
throats were in serious need of some lubrication, so we went to have a quick
drink before entering the dressing room. They were as friendly as ever when we
met up with them. Mick said a young girl like Martina knowing all the lyrics to
their songs pleasantly surprised him. With Alan I had a conversation about our
website. We exchanged information and e-mail addresses and decided to meet up
somewhere soon in the New Year. He was very curious about the website and wanted
to know how it was coming along. At the time we were not online yet, so we had
nothing to show him, but he was very interested and offered us his full
co-operation. Rob took some nice backstage photos and Alan gave us a new picture
postcard, which all the guys signed for us with an original Rubettes ballpoint
pen. This pen was then given to Martina as a special present to take home with
her. We also talked to Mark about his website and then it was time to go home.
All you can say after all this is “Thank you guys for yet another lovely
evening”.
Lucienne