Jamie's Picnic

Arrow Jazz in the Park
Zuiderpark, Den Haag, 23 July 2006



Last week I got a nice surprise when I checked my mailbox, I had won two tickets for Jamie Cullum concert in Den Haag! So that was my second concert visit this month after Sting in Bospop.

So, there we were, me and my wife, went to Den Haag on a hot Sunday morning. We managed to make appointment with some friends for lunch in Den Haag. After a nice dim sum, we spent some times in the shopping quarter of Den Haag to find some gifts for our trip home next month. Only after 4 in the afternoon we took the tram to the Zuiderpark where the concert would be held.

Zuiderpark is located in the south part of the city (as the name indicates that, 'South Park'), a big green park that really perfect for a picnic with nice jazz music. When we arrived there the Arrow Jazz event itself already more than half way because it had started since 2 in the afternoon. We skipped those parts since we did not familiar with the performers (no offence for jazz lovers :)).
After collecting our tickets at the guest list counter, we queued for the picnic box, and then we were completely ready for the picnic.

The stage was located on a square where already pretty full of people who were enjoying the sun. On the other hand we preferred to stay under the tree shades, so we chose to sit on a further side of the park on a nice grass, reading novels (what a picnic!). We could not see the stage because it was blocked by a tree, but still we could enjoy the music. At that time a band called New Cool Collective was performing some nice dynamic tunes with rich percussions and brass sounds.

About half past six we got up from the grass and took a nice spot at the far side of the square. It was still under the shades and there were line of bushes in front of us, protecting people stood directly in front of us so we had a clear view to the stage.
Some times after seven, Jamie Cullum entered the stage with his band. He directly sat behind his grand piano and played Photograph, a song from Catching Tales, his newest album. He was accompanied with his permanent musicians: Geoff Gascoyne (bass), Sebastiaan de Krom (drums) and two new musicians: Rory Simmons (trumpet, guitar) and Tom Richards (sax, keyboards, and percussion).

They performed nice songs from Jamie's two albums, including the hits Get Your Way, Mind Trick, and of course Everlasting Love. Besides that, Jamie was very attractive on stage. He chatted with the audience, jumped tirelessly..on the stage and from the grand piano, played drums during Frontin' - while Sebastiaan sang the song, played guitar in London Skies, led the audience for a choir, and splashed water to the audience - and of course received some back - during Singing in the Rain. In my opinion he was a good entertainer.

After a nice High and Dry and watery Singing in the Rain, the band disappeared to the backstage, then back and performed All at Sea, the classic I Get a Kick Out of You, and finally Jamie asked the audience to jump endlessly during I Could Have Danced All Night until the show was ended and they bowed goodbye to us.

I enjoyed mostly the jazzy tunes and some calm songs such as What a Difference a Day Made (with bit of Oasis' Champaign Supernova in the beginning) and All at Sea. Nevertheless it was also interesting to watch Jamie tapped his hands on the piano and performed medley of hip-hop songs. In general it was a very nice picnic, relaxing atmosphere, and good performance.

The show was ended around half past nine, so more than two hours of nice music. We went back by the tram, thanks for the extra tram provided by organizer so we didn't need to wait too long.

Set list (may contain some mistakes here and there, I do not know all Jamie's songs):
- Photograph
- Get Your Way
- What a Difference a Day Made
- These are the Days
- Mind Trick
- Next Year Baby
- Don't Cha/I Got a Woman/Golddigger/One Thing - Frontin'
- Lover, You Should Have Come Over
- London Skies
- Everlasting Love
- Seven Nation Army
- High and Dry
- Singing in the Rain
-----------------------------------
- All at Sea
- I Get a Kick Out of You
- I Could Have Danced All Night

Kaasmaken, klompengolf, en TanteLoes

(Translated: Cheese making, wooden shoe golf, and Tante Loes)

15 July 2006

In a very nice summer weather, last Saturday we went to 'De BoerInn', a recreational farm house in Woerden, a small city near Utrecht in the middle of the country. We arrived at Woerden around 10 in the morning and drove through nice green landscape of Holland before reaching De BoerInn. The old farm house was located in a polder surrounded by small dikes.

De BoerInn offers some interesting summer activities that have connection with farm life: Polder competition, polder tour, indoor polder sport, polder challenge, klompen (wooden shoes) golf, and cheese making.
Because there were only 8 of us and some activities require minimum 10 participants, we decided to do the cheese making and the klompen golf.

The cheese making activity was started around 11. We entered a small room and being welcomed by the farm lady herself. She was ready with a big bowl containing 10 liters fresh milk that would be used to make the cheese. During about one hour with her, she explained the process of turning the milk into cheese from the very beginning as well as interesting information about storing cheese, different kinds of cheese available, the difference between farm cheese and factory cheese, and possible side products from the cheese making process.
Naturally, during the same one hour we were also being involved in the process. We stirred the milk to separate the solid from the liquid until we had a nice white soft curd similar to tofu in texture. After that, one of us moved the curd to the cheese mold. The mold then placed under the pressing block to force the remaining liquid out from the curd.
In general those were the steps, and after that the curd would be salted and packaged. We could taste the difference between the curd with the finish cheese in terms of saltiness.

Pressing the cheese

In the end of the activity, we could pick one cheese block for free and we chose the young natural one. Some of us also bought another block for 7.5 Euro, my wife picked the one with Italian herbs. The free one was cut by the lady and was served to us for our lunch, yummy.

After a nice lunch, with the nice cheese, we went to the backside of the farm house to play the klompen golf. The golf field was a block of polder with a narrow dike in the middle and some cows that grazing on the field. Before started the real thing, we got explanation about the techniques and rules. The golf club was a wooden stick with a klompen-shaped head and the ball was about the half size of a volleyball. The rule was the same as the normal golf, we needed to finish 18 holes with minimum stroke. We could practice the swing and chose the best club before start.
The real game was really fun. We got variety of holes anatomy: easy long ones, some with bunkers and hills, few with waters in the middle, and majority with cows (and their residues) around. I hit one of the poor cow that blocked my shot. We finished the 18 holes in about 2 hours and the best of us got a winning yellow shirt.

Klompengolf...hit the cows :)

We spent the hole 19 (I've told you, it was pretty same with the normal golf) drinking at the farm house. Some of us preferred to take a shower for refreshment toward the dinner (yeah, sure, there must be a nice dinner in our activities). Unfortunately two of us could not join the dinner, so there were six of us who drove to Rhenen, a small town besides the river Rhine. The trip itself took about an hour via the highway near Utrecht and passing part of the green Utrechtse Heuvelrug.

The restaurant was called TanteLoes, a nice white building directly on the side of the Rhine. We got a table at the back terrace facing the river, a beautiful view with the church tower in afar. The food selection was quite fine, although not really special. I ordered onion soup for appetizer and a nice thick tender tournedos as the main course. Had no more appetite for dessert, I just ordered a cup of coffee meanwhile the rest were having more proper dessert :).

TanteLoes

After dinner we shortly visited the riverside and afterward we drove back. Me and my wife were dropped at Utrecht and we took the train back to Eindhoven. It was a nice day.

Sting at Bospop Festival

Sting - Broken Music Tour
Bospop Festival, Weert, 7 July 2006



For these two years, 7th of July was a special date for me. July 7 2005 was the evening when I visited Coldplay concert in Arnhem. One year after, July 7 2006, I went to one of my dreams come true concert: Sting!

During summer of 2006 Sting toured in Europe with title 'Broken Music', the tour that was inspired by his autobiography, to back to his basic rocking music style. In Holland the show was part of Bospop Festival in Weert, south Holland. I went there directly from work by train in a nice cool summer afternoon. The festival was lcoated in Boshaven, a nice wide park about 20 minutes walking from center of Weert. I arrived there around 7 in the evening. The park was already quite crowded, people were sitting on the grass, enjoying foods and drinks. First I stopped at the official tour store to buy a Broken Music tour shirt, then I walked around visiting some interesting shirts and CD/DVD shops. I just realised there, in one of the shops, that Pulse DVD was already released officially, finally.

The main festival stage was relatively big for the park, giving a nice view from any spot in the park. I chose to stand on the front, first row, at the left side in front of the huge speakers (later on I realised that it was really loud!). The stage was already set for Fiction Plane, the first performer. Fiction Plane is a British pop rock band, fronted by vocalist-guitarist Joe Sumner, son of Gordon Sumner (aka Sting) himself. Joe and his three band mates were the opening act during his father's Broken Music tour this year.
They entered the stage some times after 7, relatively on schedule. Joe resemblance the look of his father, also bit of the voice and stage act. The songs were mostly in modern pop rock style, pretty similar with Coldplay or U2. It was enjoyable, fit perfectly for warming up.

After about an hour, they left the stage with nice applause from the crowd. The stage was rearranged for the second performer, The Charlatans. They are British band from 90's era with music style similar to Oasis. Some songs were pretty much the same as Oasis' songs with heavy-crunchy riff style, also the vocal style kept reminding me to Liam Gallagher. Some other songs had some reggae style. I was impressed with the bass sound, very deep and dynamic.

The Charlatans performed also about an hour. After that the stage was rearranged again. Being in the front row, I could say that the stage crews worked very good, efficient and fast. The crews from Sting were old guys, looked very experience. It was a nice view on its own to watch them set the instruments and did the sound check.

Around 10 o' clock, when the sky was already darker, I saw Dominic Miller (guitar), Lyle Workman (guitar), and Abe Laboriel Jr. (drum) entered the stage. They directly started with intro of Message In A Bottle, and Sting entered the stage and took the center position, ready to rock with his Fender Precision Bass. As promised, this song was really rocking, very energetic opening. Two thumbs up for powerful drum style from Abe Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney band).
After the blasting opening, Sting directly continued with Synchronicity II, another powerful song. It reminded me to the first time I knew The Police about 20 years ago.

Little bit slowing down, they performed If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, a song that could be easily joined by the crowd. Then back to the old time we got the Walking On The Moon. After a heavier style of Englishman in New York, Dominic Miller changed to acoustic guitar and they performed Shape Of My Heart. This soft song got a perfect nuance by the light rain poured down from the sky.

The rain was getting bit heavier as Sting back to heavier stuff: Driven to Tears, followed by old time favorite Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. Sting really knew how to arrange the setlist, alternating fast and calm songs. We were little bit cooled down again by Why Should I Cry For You and the beautiful Fields of Gold. It's terrific to watch Dominic Miller's fingers dancing on his acoustic guitar.

Not letting the crowd getting too cold, they performed Beatles' A Day In The Life, If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, and some other songs from The Police era, with a nice solo sessions by Dominic Miller and Lyle Workman. I was pretty close to Dominic position and it was a wonderful view to watch his solo. At one point Sting also switched position with Dominic, and that was the time when I was closest to Sting in my life :).

Never enough with the classics, the crowd went crazy when Sting started "Roxanne...you don't have to put on the red light...". The song was getting longer than usual with a nice inclusion of So Lonely at the near end of the song.

After a short break they back to the stage with an additional Arabic percussion player. Yes, it was time for Desert Rose, a different tune from Sting. They played heavier version than the original with Dominic played the eastern melody. The crowd went more energetic after that when we heard the famous intro of Every Breath You Take. We were singing along, clapping, jumping, and shouting during the song because we knew it was almost the end of the show. The climax was reached when they performed another song from Outlandos d'Amour, Next To You.
It could be a perfect show with an opening and ending from the first two albums of The Police, but it was much better when I saw Sting replaced his Fender with an acoustic guitar. It was indeed couldn't be better to end the show by reminding all of us about how fragile we are. With a wonderful ending solo acoustic guitar, Sting ended the show. Four of them said goodbye to the crowd and that was it.

In my opinion it was a great show. The pieces were almost equally selected from The Police and Sting releases, and it was a nice feeling to be able to watch Sting performed the old songs. The sound quality was good (I found that The Charlatans was much noisier than Sting). The stage layout was nice, with brilliant but not overdone ceiling and background lighting. The weather was friendly as well, little rain but still tolerable. Overall, I had a very nice evening.

The complete set list:
- Message In A Bottle
- Synchronicity II
- If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
- Walking On The Moon
- Englishman In New York
- Shape Of My Heart
- Driven to Tears
- Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
- Why Should I Cry For You
- Fields Of Gold
- A Day In The Life
- If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
- Voices Inside My Head
- Solo
- When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around
- Roxanne/So lonely
-----------------------
- Desert Rose
- Every Breath You Take
- Next To You
- Fragile