Marillion - The Not Quite Christmas Tour 2005

3 December 2005 - Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands

I consider myself as a 'green' Marillion fan, because I knew them only for about 2 years. About half year back I had noticed that Marillion would perform live in Holland, so I grabbed the chance to watch them live. Initially I got the ticket for their show at 013 in Tilburg because the show in Vredenburg had already sold out. But in the end I got exchange tickets from someone. Personally I preferred to go to Vredenburg because there are seats there (I can't compete with tall Dutch people to stand on the field :)).
Later on the show in Tilburg also sold out, and these were the only shows that sold out during this tour. Long live Marillion fans in Holland!

The Vredenburg door was open few minutes after 7 in the evening, and the crowd suddenly filled in the hall. Me and my wife arrived quite early, and we managed to get seats on the center-left balcony at medium height; it was a very nice view to the stage. The Vredenburg hall is originally built as classical music concert hall, with seats layers and small stage area in the middle of the hall. For the Marillion show they closed about a quarter of the hall, and the stage was set facing one side only, with simple curtain as the background.

The stage was already arranged for Gazpacho, the opening act. They entered the stage some times after 8. I missed the opening because I was still busy in t-shirt corner.
The music style of Gazpacho is quite similar with Marillion, with additions of violin and flute sounds.
In general their performance was good. Especially I liked the bass sound, very deep and dynamic. Steve Rothery performs the solo in one song from their newest album, and the crowd cheered loudly when Steve appeared on the stage for that solo. The rest of the songs were OK, and they closed their act with traditional Irish tune led by the violin and flute. It reminded me of The Corrs, but with much louder and heavy style.

After that the stage was rearranged. The drum set and the keyboard set on the back, a sound mixing table with a chameleon puppet on the left side (from the audience point of view), a microphone stand at the middle with set of percussions. Then the crews brought a keyboard to the middle, complete with a cup for mister H.
After some sound checks, which in my opinion were quite long, the stage was darkened. There were christmas lights hanged on the drums, the keyboard set and the keyboard at the front. Then they entered!
The first song was An Accidental Man. H wore a horse jockey suit, complete with the whip :). Pete Trewavas on the left side was casual and energetic, Steve Rothery on the right side was calm. Mark Kelly was busy with his L-shape keyboard set (reminded me of Tony Banks), and Ian was almost buried behind his drum set.
They continued directly with When You're Gone, Beatiful, Gazpacho, then Enlightened and Genie. After that the beautiful Fantastic Place was played, continued by Out of This World.
Then H sat behind his keyboard, asked the audience, 'What would you like to hear?'. He changed the planned set list :). Yes, he sang the opening of Easter. I think Pete was a bit surprised :). Then they performed The Great Escape. Then H sang Hey Jude, which made the others left the stage, until he asked the audience to shout, 'Mark Kelly, where are you?' :). They played The Party and more songs, and I really enjoyed the sound of Pete's bass when they performed Quartz.
Pete was incredibly energetic in all songs, jumping and moving from side to side. Steve Rothery for few occasions visited the left side stage and his guitar sound was wonderful! H was attractive as usual, played the percussions, some times played guitar, and I really wonder how he managed to maintain his vocal quality. His voice was always clean and I could not notice any mistune or lowering tone technique.

For the first encore they performed King of Sunset Town, Seasons End, and Cathedral Wall. Then they gave the second encore, Separated Out and Neverland. It was already about half past eleven at that time, so we went out from the hall because we need to catch the train home. I knew later on that they performed one more encore, The Erin Marbles. In total they performed for 2 hour and 45 minutes!

In general I am satisfied with the show. The sound was OK, although at some points it was too loud for me. The view was great, with simple but nice lighting effects. The audiences were also incredible, sang in almost all songs (a nice choir in Easter). It's a pity that I did not stay until the end of the show.
Maybe next year!

To see more stories (and lots of pictures) about the show, visit these sites:
* http://www.marillion.nl/
* http://www.askew.nl/marillion/#03122005

Complete setlist:

An Accidental Man
You're Gone
Beautiful
Gazpacho
Enlightened
Genie
Fantastic Place
Out Of This World
Easter
The Great Escape
Hey Jude
The Party
Quartz
The Damage
Mad
Go !
Made Again
--------------------
The King Of Sunset Town
Seasons End
Cathedral Wall
--------------------
Separated Out
Neverland
--------------------
The Erin Marbles

Verrassingsconcert (Surprise Concert)

Eindhoven, 5 November 2005

As a promotion for the Classical Music Week in The Netherlands, there was a free concert held in Frits Philips Music Center in Eindhoven. It was called a 'surprise concert' because we didn't know what songs would be played. We only knew that the local orchestra (The Brabants Orkest) would perform, and also there would be Janine Jansen, the most famous violist in the country (even maybe in Europe) at this time. She was the main mascot of the event, and she would play in three cities in marathon and transported by helicopter between the cities.

We knew the news from the local newspaper about one month back, and there were about 700 seats given free. Few days before 5 November we received the tickets by mail, so it was fixed!

The concert was started at 15.30 in a cold autumn Saturday. When we arrived at the music hall there were still numbers of seats available. We thought that it's a pity that people were not very enthusiastic with classical music, even if it's free :).

Then we entered the concert hall. We got seats in a side balcony, quite close to the stage. The concert was started on time, opened with a speech by one member of the orchestra (after a while we knew that he is the Timpani player). The opening speech was quite interesting, tried to motivate people to understand the music as an art even though music is very abstract. We can many times see the paintings and the sculptures, but a music performance can only remain in our memories. (Well, you can buy the CD's...but that's not a live performance anymore.)

The first piece was the Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 and No. 2 composed by Edvard Grieg. It was a very good choice, since the suites contain popular and easy tunes. For example the opening part, 'Morning Mood', is very melodic and often used in advertisements and movies. Another part, 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' even recognized by the heavy metal listener (like myself) as the tune from 'Walls of Jericho' by Helloween :).
From our seat we had very nice view because we could see the details of the orchestra. Even we could watch the percussions section in the back row.
One drawback from our seat was the sound quality. We felt like we only heard a half side of the sound. We noticed the difference because in the past we had enjoyed other concerts where we sat in the middle seats.

After the amazing piece, the stage was emptied. All the players went to the audience seats, and a grand piano was set in the middle of the stage.
When all were set, the Timpani player was back for the speech. It was a brief introduction about the helicopter trip for the star, and then entered the star...Janine Jansen. She was accompanied by David Kuyken who plays the piano. They played the Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 4 in A Minor Opus 23. This piece also very enjoyable, with a very nice 'chat' between the piano and violin sounds. I especially enjoyed the piano sound, which was simple but pure and solid. Janine's performance was unquestionable. Her fingers were flying on her Stradivarius to produce Beethoven's sweet melodies.
The audiences gave great applause for the duo, made them back to the stage and gave us a bonus. That was a composition by Bella Bartok, but unfortunately I could not get the title that was mentioned by Janine Jansen. The song started with funny high pitch violin sound, like if someone novice plays it. In the end it was transformed to a fast and strong melody.

The Timpani player went back on the stage again after this piece. This time he interviewed Janine Jansen, asked about her busy schedule. On that day she played at 10.00 in Groningen, at 14.00 in Arnhem, and at 15.30 in Eindhoven. A day before she opened the event in Utrecht, and the following day she would play in Amsterdam. What a busy job to be the mascot!

Meanwhile the stage was arranged back for the full orchestra. By then we knew that the last piece would be Janine Jansen together with the Brabants Orkest. They performed the Mediation from Thaïs opera composed by Massenet. It was also quite catchy tunes, with big portions for the violins, harmony session by the harp, and some nice timpani variations.

And that was the last part of the show. We enjoyed about 90 minutes nice performance, and even as bonus, on the way out we could pick up souvenir bag with a nice classical double CD's containing popular classical pieces. So, in the end the performance will always be remained in our memories, and the souvenir CD will always be played to remember the day :).

Maastricht

12-13 October 2005

The second trip in this month was to Maastricht. Maastricht is located in the south east corner of The Netherlands, close to Belgium and Germany. Located in both sides of the Maas river, Maastricht is one of the oldest towns in the country.

My wife and me arrived in Maastricht in a sunny afternoon weather of October. We were really in a good luck to have very good weather during the autumn, when usually the weather is already cold and gray. After a quick lunch in Subway sandwich restaurant, which is located in the street between the train station and the Maas river, we crossed the St. Servaas bridge to reach the old part of the city. We then strolled along the narrow old stony streets of the city, where the buildings are mostly stores and expensive boutiques. Near from the center, we arrived at the Our Lady, Star of the Sea (Onze Lieve Vrouw Sterre der Zee) church, which is located near a square that used by some restaurants. The church is still used for public services and people can pray devotion for Maria, mother of Jesus.

St. Servaas Bridge

From the church, we walked parallel with the river bank, found the Bishop's Mill, an old water mill from around eleventh century. Walking further, we found a part of the first city wall, along the street called 'Lang Grachtje' (long canal). Following the wall we arrived at the city park, which is located outside the city wall. At this corner there is an old building of Faliezusterklooster, a convent from 14th century. Next to the convent building, there is a tower of the city wall called the Pater Vink tower. Next to the wall, there is an old city gate called Helpoort, which was the entrance to the city in the medieval age. From Helpoort, we walked on the wall along the city park, and back to the city center.

The Faliezusterklooster and the Pater Vink Tower

The next walking destination was the Vrijthof, the main city square that surrounded by nice restaurants and cafes. Next to the square we could see two churches, the St. Jan and basilica of St. Servaas. The St. Servaas basilica is the only church in The Netherlands that built on top of the tomb of a saint, in this case St. Servatius who died in year 384. We went inside the basilica. First we visited the treasury room with collections from the life period of St. Servatius. Then we entered the basilica itself, which is an impressive building with beautiful stained glass windows. Beneath the altars we found the tomb of St. Servatius.
After spending the whole afternoon, we checked in at our hotel that located at the other side of the river. In the evening we went back to the Vrijthof and had dinner in the 4Azen restaurant there. After a nice dinner, we walked back to the hotel.

The Our Lady Church with St. Jan and St. Servaas Towers as background

In the second day we did not walked extensively, since we already visited what we wanted to visit the previous day. After breakfast in the hotel we walked along the river bank and crossed the river on Hoge Brug, a new bridge only for pedestrians and bicycles.

The Hoge Brug

The bridge ends directly in the city park near the Helpoort. So once again we enjoyed the view of the city park and the city wall. Then we walked along the streets in the city center, did some window shopping while waiting for lunch time.

The city wall and the city park

We had our lunch in Vrijthof again. But this time we chose a restaurant with an outdoor seat so we could enjoy the weather and the nice atmosphere of the square. We ordered a homemade omelette and a big pan of mussel.
We spent about an hour sitting for lunch, and then we walked to the station to go home.

A short trip but very nice experience.

Middelburg-Vlissingen

5 October 2005

As activities during my free time this month, after finished my study, I had planned to go to places in the Netherlands that I had never visited before. The first trip was to south-west corner of the country, the Zeeland province. I went to Middelburg and Vlissingen, the big cities in the region.

Middelburg is a city with rich history. It was established in 9th century as a fortress to defend the region from the Vikings (Middelburg literally means 'middle fortress'. In the 16th century, with the establishment of the VOC (United East-India Company), Middelburg became an important trading city. The city had the warehouses and offices of the VOC.

From the train station of Middelburg, I walked directly heading the city center, and first I visited the 'Abdij', a big church with a famous tower called 'Lange Jan'. From there I walked to the other side of the center to visit the city hall. The city hall of Middelburg is considered as one of the most beautiful in the country. With detail window and roof ornaments and a tower, it is a beautiful building.

City hall, Middelburg

Walking further from the city hall I found a building called 'Kloveniersdoelen', a concert hall that in the old time also belong to the VOC, and used as military hospital during French colonial period.

Kloveniersdoelen, Middelburg

After a quick lunch in the city center, I walked around the center to visit the canals surrounding the city center. The canals also had been built in VOC era, and the warehouses were located beside the canals. Some old buildings are still exist and most buildings still have a basement storage room. Walking along the canal, I arrived back at the train station.

Vlissingen is the neighbor city of Middelburg, and can be reached only 6 minutes by train from Middelburg. The train station of Vlissingen is located quite far from the city center, and it is surrounded by waters. It became a confusion for me, so by mistake I took a ferry boat (that I thought will go to the city center). Once I sat inside the ferry, I just realized that the ferry could be going to another city! And it turned out to be true, the ferry was going to Breskens, a city located at the other side of the sea. So I spent about half an hour sitting in the ferry, going to and from Breskens. Unfortunately the weather was not so bright, so the view from the ferry was limited by the fogs.

Oranje Molen, Vlissingen

Arrived back in Vlissingen, I found out the walking route to the center. It was a nice walking route, along the coastline. There is a windmill located in the middle of the route, and the route is ended in the harbour for fishing boats, near the city center.

Harbour, Vlissingen

Since I ran out of time, I did not visit the center but walked back to the train station and went home.

Along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, Day 3

Day 3 – Trier and Luxembourg

Trier is the oldest city in Germany and still has Roman buildings in the city. Our walking tour was started from Porta Nigra, a Roman city gate that was still in perfect condition. After collecting guide map from the tourist information center nearby the Porta Nigra, we walked to the main market square. The big square is surrounded by nice medieval buildings such as the Steipe, St. Gangolf church, and the cathedral. From the square, we entered the cathedral. There was a farewell mass for the youth that would go to Cologne so the church was very crowded. Further away from the square, we arrived at the huge building of Roman basilica. The building is still used as Protestant church. Adjacent to the basilica we found Electoral Palace, a beautiful building with very nice and colorful gardens.


Main Market Square, Trier

Still walking further, we visited another important Roman preservation, the Imperial Baths. Some more distance from the Baths we arrived at old Roman Amphitheater. After these walks we really felt back to the old golden Roman era.

After walking back to the city center to get our car, we headed back to the Amphitheater, because we had found out that there was a nice hill beside the Amphitheater so we could look the city panorama. From the top we could enjoy the old buildings that we had visited before.

View of the Basilica and the Cathedral, Trier

That’s it, from the hill we drove away from Trier, crossing the Moselle after passing the old (yet another Roman) bridge, and headed back to Holland. Goodbye to the Moselle and the Rhine.

But wait, we had a bonus trip! We stopped in the Luxembourg City on our way back. The main goal was for lunch, which we had a fast-food style Mexican restaurant in the city center. Quick food, but nice. After lunch we had a short walking tour around the old part of the city. We walked along the sides of the Petrusse and Alzette valleys, the Adolphe Bridge across the Petrusse, the town hall, the city wall beside the Alzette, and the Grand Ducal Palace.

The Luxembourg Valley

And, the trip was really over. We back to Eindhoven via Ardennen area of Belgium, and arrived safely at home.

Along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, Day 2

Day 2 – Koblenz, Cochem, Bernkastel-Kues, Trier

The Sunday morning was started with cloudy and rainy weather in Cologne. We drove from Cologne to Koblenz, the city where the Moselle river joins the Rhine. It was still raining when we arrived at Koblenz. After having a brunch in the center area, we visited the 'Festung Ehrenbreitstein', a fortress on the hill on the side of the Rhine, opposite to the town. The fortress was actively used during the 1st and 2nd world war, and currently the buildings inside the complex were used as museum, restaurant, and youth hostel.

The most interesting part from the fortress is the strategic location, on top of the hill directly across the joining point of the two rivers. The view from the fortress was beautiful, where we could see the color difference of the Moselle and the Rhine, the row of bridges along the Moselle, and enjoyed the great view of the statue of Wilhelm I at the joining point.

View of Koblenz from Ehrenbreitstein fortress

From the fortress, we back to the center area of the city. We visited the joining point of the river, passing the St. Castor church and looking closely the big status of Wilhelm I. Unfortunately because of the bad weather, we did not stay long there.

After visiting the cities along the Rhine, from Koblenz we drove along the Moselle. Not far from Koblenz, we stopped on a small village along the Moselle. We entered a small house that turned into a café. They sold several kinds of cakes and drinks. I ordered a plum pie with warm chocolate. It tasted very nice!

About two hours from Koblenz, after driving along the Moselle with most of the riverside covered with vineyards, we arrived at Cochem, a small tourist town on the side of the Moselle. The city was very crowded, and relevant with the vineyards, it was famous for the wine shops. We visited a small old wine shop, where we could taste the wine before buying, and end up bought ten bottles. Even me that is not a wine lover could say that the wine was very nice, white wine type with sweet taste.

View of Moselle from Cochem

The center area of Cochem also nice to see. It has hilly small streets with shops on both sides. The city was full of tourists, and all shops were open even on Sunday, where commonly shops are closed in Europe.

Continuing our drive, we stopped at Bernkastel-Kues, another small city at the riverside. It also has nice buildings in the center area. We rested in a small restaurant that had happy hour for wine promotion. In the end we decided to have dinner there, and it was a good decision. The food was nice! After enjoying the dinner we still had some times to walk near the vineyards.

From Bernkastel-Kues, we decided to go via highway to Trier because it was quite late already. We arrived at Trier sooner than what we had expected. After checked in at our hotel, we still could visit the center area in the late evening, and enjoyed a big cup of ice cream for our late dessert.

Since the sun was already set, we saved the walking tour of Trier for the following day.

(to be continued)

Along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, Day 1

13-15 August 2005

The Rhine is the most important river in Germany. Several big cities in the west part of the country are existed because of the river, from Karlsruhe in the south part until Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Duisburg in the west. In the past I had visited Dusseldorf and Cologne, and in this trip I visited Bonn and Cologne.

One of the rivers that join to the Rhine is the Moselle. It flows along the valley full of vineyard. In this trip I visited cities along the Moselle, which were Trier, Bernkastel-Kues, Cochem, and Koblenz, in where the Moselle joins the Rhine.

Day 1 - Bonn and Cologne

In this trip I went by car with my wife and three friends of us from The Netherlands. We started in a nice Saturday morning from Eindhoven to Bonn as the first destination. We arrived at Bonn around mid-day, with a nice sunny weather in the city. Bonn has important historical track in Germany. It was the capital of the former West Germany until the country re-united in 1990. Bonn is also recognized as “Beethoven’s city” because this famous composer was born there at 1770.

Beethoven statue, Bonn

Our short walking tour started in Münsterplatz, a square with Beethoven’s bronze statue as landmark. From there we passed Sterntor (Star Gate), a piece of medieval city wall, and stopped to enjoy ‘bratwurst’, the popular German sausage bread. Then we visited the house where Beethoven was born. The front part of the house was changed as a souvenir shop selling things related to Beethoven, from CD and songbooks until shirts and key chains.

The next stop was the Rathaus, the town hall, which still used for many events. It was used for a wedding when we were there. From the Rathaus we walked pass the opera house to reach the side of the Rhine. Strolling along the riverside on the wide pedestrian, we arrived at the university complex. The interesting landmarks inside the complex are the ‘Koblenzer tor’ (Koblenz gate), the main building of the university that in the past was the electoral castle, and the main university park. Heading further from the Rhine we saw the long straight park from the university until the Poppelsdorf castle. Not far from there we arrived at the Münster Basilica, church that built in the 12th century. From the basilica we reached back in the Münsterplatz. We rested for a while in one of the outdoor cafes in the park before continuing the trip. We spent about 3 hours in Bonn before went to Cologne.

In Cologne, we parked the car exactly under the Dom (cathedral) square. The square was crowded with people, since Cologne was hosting Catholic world youth day. Passing the huge cathedral, we walked to the side of the Rhine. After enjoying our homemade sushi, we walked along the old town, passing the crowded old fish market square, the town hall, and arrived at the shopping streets of the city. After buying a cap in Hard Rock Cafe, we tried to find place for dinner, but could not find any interesting place, so we back to the Dom square. We had dinner in a nice Mexican-Italian restaurant.

Cologne Cathedral

The first night we stayed in Holiday Inn, about 6 km from the central of Cologne. The hotel location was very nice, surrounded by small forest with lake. We rested well before the trip in second day.

(to be continued)