10 Aug, 2009 Allez les Belges!
Allez les Belges! I really felt that there was something a bit special in the air during our show a couple of days ago at the festival in Belgium.
Yes, we may have already had some career defining gigs within our past story that have taken place in that part of world, as well as too many to mention – plain old’ great gigs. But occasionally a show comes along when a spell is set and the night takes on a sweet feeling as both audience and band lock into one. Am I wrong in saying that occurred last Saturday? I don’t think so.
For some reason I had an even greater all round view of the crowd and in fact the extended podium, which jutted out into the sea of faces and let me feel that I was in among them myself. From there, I could easily see how the effect of the music was taking over as we rolled out our set that was so much better paced and wholly less frantic than the previous festival in Tienen! (An injury prevented me from engaging in the way I am used to on that night.)
I don’t how many were there could have been 20,000 or maybe 50,000, but the thing I really noticed on Saturday was how much these songs meant to the different generations that had come yet again to see SM, as indeed they have been doing since the earliest days when we bundled into a transit van and took the ferry from various UK ports to Zeebrugge. That recognition was nothing new in itself perhaps, but it was certainly reaffirmed and with a greater force. Putting it matter of fact, it was a great pleasure to have such an audience in front of us.
Our summer shows come to an end this weekend of course and The Pink Pop festival in Holland will, if past experiences are anything to go by, be as good as any a place to finish off this leg of touring. The Dutch are another lot who can easily claim to have propelled SM to heights we never imagined and we will want to give our all on the night in return for their fantastic support throughout.
I feel that after three months more or less playing continuously that this is the perfect point to step back a bit. That comes from lessons learned long ago that complete breaks are necessary intermittently during long tours. It stops any kind of auto pilot creeping in and more importantly it lets everyone spend needed time with our families etc. It will also give us the opportunity to return re – enegized for the end of year Graffiti Soul shows, and that we are all looking forward to.
Finally, and for many different reasons, if I had to choose my own favourite shows so far this summer it would in addition to the last show in Belgium, be as follows:
Hamburg – a beautiful early summer evening in the park!
Cork – our best gig ever in Ireland!
Zurich – laid back, but a perfect amphitheatre up in the woods!
Edinburgh – ok it might have been a bit wet but it was arguably our best ever show!
Taormina – I cannot put it into words!
Then again, each and every show was enjoyable for me as was the reception that we were met with throughout!
Jim Kerr