July, 17th 2010 -- Bielefeld

[HANS33]

Part 2: The Sunday, before the concert

The life of a reporter on the road is not always easy. After only some hours of sleep, and a quick call home, we had to pick up our friends in their hotel, they were waiting already. When we arrived at the Ravensburger Park, you could still walk around freely. So we could see how they were setting up the stage and everything. It had been raining the night before and we were looking at each other and saying: "do the people have to stand here?".
After hanging out a bit in that part of the park, we went to check out the Museum Huelsmann. The guide (Sailor Charon?) was giving a very comprehensive explanation about all the Scorps memorabilia that were shown there. There was also a flying V shown, that had been used by Michael Schenker, if I'm well informed, and everybody was invited to pose with it and have pictures taken. There were also special posters made for this concert (in very limited edition), with a nice Scorps photo from the seventies, and Marta got one of them because it was her birthday.

After that I was walking in the park with the 2 Bauwens ladies, but felt a sudden weakness coming, probably because of not having eaten anything yet that day. So I said goodbye and went to find some food. It started raining while doing that. I got an sms from Marta and thought "aha, she can't miss me already" but it was to ask if we could put the poster in the car, so that it wouldn't get wet. . After having sheltered the poster, fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty and clothed the ones without rain-clothes, we were ready to join the cue at the entrance. The Bauwens clan was already there, occupying the first rows, and also a German and Polish girl, that I also had met in Dortmund 2010 (and again I have forgotten the names...). Marta started talking to the Polish girl and it appeared like they knew each other for years already. I could recognise some Polish swear words, but for the rest it was difficult to follow the conversation, I'm afraid I only remember the swear words Marta learned me, and not the other ones. We could hear the soundcheck of the support band (Scorps had already checked the sound earlier) while waiting and some people were wondering what kind of band it was going to be. We could hear some growling vocals, but also a female voice. nobody knew which band it was we were getting as support.

When the gates were opened we started running to the stage. When I arrived there I was a bit lost because I didn't immediately recognise "my people" at the usual place. But then I heard "hey Hans, here!". It was Marta. It was a stage setup with a "little T" (short "vertica leg" of the T of only some metres) and she was at the RS-side corner of the T. Well, not completely at the corner. At the most left part of the part that is parallel with the main stage. Untill there, there were some metal plates on the ground, behind the barriers, that made that you didn't have to stand in the mud. I took a place at Marta's left, and Adriano and Marco took a place at the beginning of the part that perpendicular with the main stage, that part also had the metal plates on the ground. There was still place at the oblique part next to me, but it seems that they didn't want their Italian shoes to get dirty. At Marta's right were Patrice (foot) and Bruno(scorps) from CS. At the MJ side of the parallel part were the 2 Bauwens ladies, and the 2 fans "from Dortmund". Maybe a little sketch is easier to understand how the positions were taken:


main stage RS side.........................................................................................MJ side
___________________________..................................................................__________________
......................................................|.................................................................|
......................................................|.................................................................|
..........................Adrian & Marco...|.................................................................|
..............2 people + your reporter \________________________________/
.......................................................Marta, Foot, Bruno,...,Alizée,Mline,...


While waiting, we saw the stage being prepared for the support band.

[HANS33]

Part 3: My Inner Burning

The support band was a gothic metal band, My Inner Burning. I thought they weren't bad at all, but I probably was the only one in the first row who thought so. Several people were closing their ears not to hear anything, and some people were even sitting on the ground, back against the barrier, and head between the knees. Maybe this was a little too loud for the average Scorpions fan. I liked them a lot better than Karelia, but some people did not agree.

But I think thay were giving a decent performance, and the frontwoman was not really a torture to the eye. Her voice was not like an opera singer (like Tarja), like many gothic metal bands, but more a husky kind of voice, like Doro. And the growling of the guitarist was not too much and fitted within the songs I found. Although some people close to me might not have been able to enjoy his growling to the full.
I also found them quite brave in the way they kept playing and continuing their show, even with such an apathic audience.

But like I said, maybe not the best choice for the majority of the people coming to a Scorps show.

Part 4 tomorrow or later. Good night.

[Deleted User 13688]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!! I FELT AS THO I WERE THERE!! Thanks my sweetie friend!! You are indeed a journalist!! woot woot

[Gabi6912]

Hans,

I so had been looking forward to your review, and I see that it was worth, you didn't cause a disappointment to us.
Your review is entertaining, full of wity notes, as always, and yeah, you can make us see everything perfectly, me too, who phisically am not able to.

Am so waiting for the continuing.

[Guest]

Oh man, you hungry wet wandering souls... Happy to see you got to the right place : the first row !

I definitely agree with you (surprise surprise) about the supporter band. I listened to the song before reading your opinion on them, and was thinking those exact words ! I liked the Analize, at least, a lot ! And we, who are used to different kinds of growling styles and bands by now, this was very light and short-term growling, which fitted the song perfectly. The girl is a splitting image of Mary the Bunny, btw...

But still, since so many Scorps fan are on the soft romantic side (those teddy bears! ), choosing a band like this was a bit risky, too far away from the Scorps ballads. Melodic power metal like Edguy is the best choice in my opinion.

Thanks for the background story. Now, let´s get to the core !!

[Marta]

Wow, Hans, you're much better reporter than the guide. Trust me, if Han says to go one way, choose the opposite

So the Bielefeld part started with the journey by car. I changed with Adriano so that I was on the back seat hoping I can get some sleep but unfortunately I'm so compassionate that I couldn't stand the thought that Hans and Adrian must be awake. Marco didn't have such a problem, he was snoring next to me After all, I got the DJ's job

I don't know all the details about our meeting with the polizei, but they had such an angel faces that I believe it must have been nice
Next day [or rather the same] I woke up way too early so I was full of energy and rested. At least I had enough time to paint my nails We went together to the Park, first to see what it all looked like. First thing - we were completely we could just entered this place and nobody asked us about anything. The second - MUD. Mud everywhere.Ok, never mind, such things won't stop us I thought.
Later we went to the Museum where Heiko (Sailor Charon) told us some really interesting things, both in English and German and I don't know how but I undertood some of the German he told. i don't know how you did it Heiko must it must be kind of talent We saw some old vinyl sleeves and half of them were verious editions of the Lonesome Crow. There were also some old ohotos, articles and the guitar we took some photos with. We wrote in to the book showing the support of people from different countries and I got one of 10 [?I believe] posters so it was a really limited edition in the full meaning of this name. Thanks Hans There were one guy who was at the concert in 76 if I remember well. He told nobody would expect at that time the Scorpions'll become so popular. We also met there Bruno and Patrice who later standed next to me during the show A, I must add there was playing the music, 70s of course. Fly to the rainbow, Life's like a river, The Sailor of Charon. Perfect soundtrack for these stories

After this we went to eat something (old good McDonald's is always ready) and then standed in the queue. This girl from Poland was Agnieszka and yes, we talked a bit so that the time pas
sed faster. Unfortunately we weren't standing later together but mam nadzieję, że ci sie podobało:D I udalo się, zahrali Always Somewhere, tak jak chciałaś
...let's come back to the story when the gates were opened we started running of cours. All I can say is that I'm quite proud of myself, in Bielefeld it was much harder to get the first row for me, cause in our gates there were about 89 people before me and as later Patrice and Bruno told me, there were also 2 more gates on the side of the Park which were closer to the stage. So..finally I know that going to the gym for the whole year wasn't pointless
Good to know what was the name of the support band. The inner Burning. Great name, in fact everything was burning inside of me when I heard it. It was quite funny to see people faces when they were listening of them and the face of the security guy in front of me - PRICELESS Fortunately it didn't take too long and than the Scops show started. Honestly, I liked much for the one from Schweinfurt. The audeince was much louder and one could really feel they took part in the show. There was the same setlist, with Always Somewhere at the end - thanks God!], pyrotechnics and piramid.I got the towel from Pawel and pick from Rudolf. Adrian passed me later Matthias pick cause he has many of them
Aaa...I forgot to add that before the show came Sarah and Niko and it was really nice to hear their wishes for me. Niko hugged me in such a bear-like way so that I could hardly breath One woman surprised me [which later appeared she was Karin? do I remember well?] cause she also wished me happy birthday as her was on the next day anyway we didn't understand each other at all cause I don't speak German and she almost doesn't speak English but still she was quite nice During the show Torsten Hilse took some photos, I didn't see him until he smiled at me Maybe he'll add them later to his FB of somewhere.
After the show we saw Wolfgang Dziony so we took some photos with him. What a pity he didn't come to the Museum, after all it was his era
Later we also met David Cz. again, unfortunately I didn't see Lars though he wasn't that far from me.

So now I'd like to thank all of you: Adriano, Marco, Hans, Alizee, Milnee, your friend Arthur [did I write it correctly? did you finally find him?:D], Agnieszka, Bruno, Patrice, David, Heiko, Piotr, Janna, Sarah, Niko. Lars, sorry i didn't see you. Alfred, sorry that I didn't recognise you. I mean, I knew I saw you somewhere before but I had no idea where So it might have lookd a bit tactless Did I forget anyone here? I hope not Schweinfurt part will come later.

[Rūta]

AMAAAAZING REVIEWS!!! Thank you so much Hans and Marta!!! I enjoyed reading it so much...

And Hans... you even started doing sketches... that was so funny

[Guest]

Great great great review, Marta !!! Thank you so much for taking the time

Btw, I didn´t recognize Lars on some pictures on Facebook either, I realized it was him from the tag, only. His has let his hair grow SO MUCH - well, it was barely existing before

[Nadin]

Heyy, Hans, Marta! Thanks a lot for your amazing reviews!!! I really enjoyed reading them!!!!

[Guest]

Look at this video on BCN and the pyramid after !!

Watch on youtube.com

I simply love the daylight in the background! It gives the concert such a different feeling - more real, in a way ...

[therocker]

Hans I have to say that reading your reviews is very funny..... I am sorry about your ticket. You have to know that me, Adry and Marco had the same experience in Strasbourg last year, but we were lucky enough,.... Here is more or less the story......

There were also another couple of guys with us in another car, police stopped this car because they didn't have a light in the front, it was after the show so after midnight or so.... Reasonabily we also stopped by, marco was driving, after a quick look inside the car they wanted to make me pay for not having fastened the seat belt on the back...... I said, sorry we are italians, he said here is France, but in french which has never ben my favourite language, he also said at least want you fasten it now, always in french and I not understanding what he was saying didn't make a move.........so then he replied would you fasten your seat belt now....I was like oh yes sure, I amsorry I didn't get you officer !!!!

Marta I am very glad you had a good time with these guys and I am sure it couldn't go differently

[HANS33]

Part 4: Scorpions

So, the last band were the Scorpions, also from Germany, just like the support band. Do I really need to give a review about them? I mean, it's always the Same Old Setlist.
But the opener SITT stays impressive, and it's cool with the pyros. I mean, hot, when you are in front (disclaimer: video is from Schweinfurt, I didn't find one from Bielefeld).

Like Marta said, there was less participation from the audience than in Schweinfurt. I also preferred the Schweinfurt show. I think the band was equally good in both shows, but it was the audience that made the difference. In Bielefeld it was really only the first row that was actively involved in the concert. This was the last of 3 concerts I saw in one week, and it was the best singing of Klaus I heard of all the concerts I went to so far. Especially in Berlin the vocals were awesome from where I was seated, almost like you were listening to a DVD, but more about that in the Berlin topic.
Because of the daylight, and because of the 1st row, it was possible to take some decent photos, even with my cheap camera. I will upload some photos to FB when I find some time.

It was touching to see how happy Marta was with those small signs of attention from the band. It was for example clear that Pawel wanted to give his towel to Marta, and not to that other girl that was trying to grab it. But nobody should underestimate the clutch power of those red-nailed fingers, there was no way she was going to release this towel.

After the nice welcome in Bielefeld, I had to economise a bit on the cell usage, and didn't do any livestream. Except a call with a special song that failed due to technical reasons the day before. It's not because I don't dislike heavier music like the support band, that I can't appreciate all those beautiful ballads the Scorps have made. And Always Somewhere is one of my favourite ones. So I was very happy to hear it 2 times in 2 days, even if, objectively spoken, this audience wasn't really enthousiastic enough to deserve such an extra encore. But we in the first row have made it quite clear what we wanted (I had also tought the Italians and Marta the word "Zugabe" in the mean while ), and I think the band even recognised some of us from the day before, and couldn't not do it. Really really nice of them. I had already heard the song live last year in Mons, but this time it was different, because I was closer, and because I was sharing it with someone I like. It's always so nice when you manage to do that.

And now I have a question for my readers. Are there people who want to read a very short "part 5" about the afterparty?

[HANS33]

Wow, Hans, you're much better reporter than the guide. Trust me, if Han says to go one way, choose the opposite

What? WHAT? WHAT?

I was on the back seat hoping I can get some sleep but unfortunately I'm so compassionate that I couldn't stand the thought that Hans and Adrian must be awake

Ha! As if you didn't get some sleep. I even heard you saying "Judas, Judas" in your dream. But it sounded much nicer than the snoring of Marco, yes.

[Marta]

I was on the back seat hoping I can get some sleep but unfortunately I'm so compassionate thcouldn't stand the thought that Hans and Adrian must be awake

Ha! As if you didn't get some sleep. I even heard you saying "Judas, Judas" in your dream. But it sounded much nicer than the snoring of Marco, yes. [/quote]

That's not true! I was just so weak it could hear like this But I didn't sleep...almost

Don't even try to write about the afterparty, I will lose my good name Remember, I can blackmail you now. Fortunately I was the one who was taking the pictures

And what the hell has Churchill to do with my nails?

[HANS33]

I don't know how it is for your good name if you do so secretly about it, Marta. Maybe it's better if I write some short lines about it, so that people don't start guessing and speculating. And don't worry, I wouldn't write anything about things that might have been on the edge of legality (why don't we have an innocent angelface emoticon here?).
And if you are really concerned about your good name, I would be a bit careful with the blackmailing. There must be some interesting photos of you on Marco's camera as well.

And what the hell has Churchill to do with my nails?

Your determination to grab that towel made me think of the "we shall never surrender" line.

[Marta]

sounds so serious

[HANS33]

sounds so serious

You know that's how I am. It's not the first time concert organisers offer me a job as security man because of my dead serious look and not-being-able-to-smile.

[Guest]

A-F-T-E-R-P-A-R-T-Y !!!!!

[scorpic]

Vielen Dank Scorpions!
Vielen Dank liebe Klaus!!!
Ich bin aus Russland auf das Konzert angekommen. Und es war toll!
Für mich ist es sehr wichtig, dass Klaus meine Fahne gesehen hat.
Danke groß für allen!

[Rūta]

sounds so serious

You know that's how I am. It's not the first time concert organisers offer me a job as security man because of my dead serious look and not-being-able-to-smile.

I want the part 5!!!!!