Event: Radio
WSW Oldienacht Photos by: Katrin Wagner, Radio WSW
This was the first SAILOR concert with Nick Parvin. Welcome aboard to our new captain!! Grant Serpell was injured around the time of this event, so that he wasn't able to play. He was replaced by Henry's son: Thomas Marsh. Thanks Tom, great job!! |
Phil, Henry, Tom and Nick (courtesy of Radio WSW © - www.radiowsw.de)
The stage... (courtesy of Radio WSW © - www.radiowsw.de)
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Could I please get this photo,
Henry?!? ;-)
Henry and Nick during "La
Cumbia"
Henry and Phil during the Half-Full-Monty
(courtesy of Radio WSW ©
- www.radiowsw.de)
A Glass Of
Champagne
One Drink Too Many
Give Me Shakespeare
The Old Nickelodeon Sound
Vera From Veracruz
Girls Girls Girls
Mack The Knife
Karma Chameleon
The Secretary
La Cumbia
encores:
Tom's Moment (Drum Solo)
The Full Monty (Phil and
Henry only)
Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Champagne Reprise
Girls Girls Girls
After the show...
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SAILOR and their new Nick... - A concert review by Katrin Wagner:
What a day... After a long and
exhausting drive on many bumpy roads to the very East of Germany,
Karsten and I arrive in Weisswasser at 2.30 pm. Today will be the
first SAILOR concert with new singer Nick Parvin. Also, Grant's
injured hand still causes him problems, so that he can't play and
will again be replaced by Henry's son Tom Marsh.
As my brother and I want to check in at the hotel (a small one
with only 18 rooms, the other bands all stay at a different
hotel) we find the main entrance closed and the reception empty.
There's a bell outside. We ring it. No reaction. Two phone
numbers on the door. We dial the first number and can hear the
phone ring inside. No reaction. We dial the second number. No
answer. This goes on for quite a long time. Nobody to be seen or
heard anywhere. Bloody annoying! Finally, after about half an
hour, two others guests kindly let us in, saying they have no
idea where everybody is, and suggest that we should wait inside.
That's what we do. Nobody to be seen or heard. A piece of paper
on the desk tells us that, at least, hooray, this is the correct
hotel, as it says that there are six rooms booked for SAILOR. The
same piece of paper also says that two people named Wagner are
supposed to stay in room 117. Hey... that's us. Yet, nobody there
to check us in. After yet another half an hour of waiting we
eventually decide that we're fed up with this and check ourselves
in, leaving a note on that piece of paper that we've taken the
key. Ridiculous.
A few minutes later, back downstairs, I find several other guests
waiting outside who say that they can't reach anybody either and
couldn't earlier in the day. Then, finally, a guy appears at the
reception, looking rather confused to find us there. We express
our anger and explain... He says we should have called the phone
number instead of just getting in, that he was only away for two
minutes. Call the police because we got in here without
permission? Great idea! Which doesn't come true in the end.
Ridiculous.
We check in officially at last and wonder what to do: Wait here
for the SAILORs to be able to welcome our new captain before the
concert? Drive to the venue in case they might stop there first
for a soundcheck? We decide to stay here.
6 pm. No SAILORs anywhere. The doors at the venue will open in
one hour, so we should probably get there soon to pick up our
press tickets. But this probably means that SAILOR will get to
the hotel just when we've left. And this is exactly what
happens...
Yet, now we're at the venue to find that the information from the
local promoter about admittance at 7 pm was wrong. People are
already getting in. And to make our day even better we're told
that there's an unusually strict photo and video prohibition at
this concert so that we can't take photos or record anything on
video. The promoter allows us to go back to our car when SAILOR's
show starts at about 10 pm, get the camera, and then bring it
back to the car after the third song. Er... no.
So, while Karsten returns the cameras to the car (mine is still
in my handbag!), I get to the stage and manage to get to the
front row. Just in time before lots of other people have the same
idea. I keep a place next to me free while my brother walks
around a bit, gets a beer and a bratwurst. Then, when I try and
quickly find something to eat too, somebody tries to get on my
place in the front row without success. This is why I usually
NEVER leave my place.
Then... the first good thing of the day: We're surprised that the
first band, starting the show at 8 pm, is Middle Of The Road
featuring Sally Carr, replacing The Rattles who can't play here
today. Wonderful. At 9 pm it's time for Christie and Band, better
than expected. During their performance we see SAILOR's van
arrive behind the stage, to be recognised even it in spite of the
darkness and the black curtain blocking our view.
Things get really exciting after 10 pm. The carboard
kind-of-Nickelodeon is only half of what it used to be. And
then... after this horribly annoying day... we don't care about
it all any more, because all of this results is a great
entertaining SAILOR concert in the end. And with a nice new lead
singer who does a great job! Of course it's slightly strange to
get used to a new voice at first. But that new voice is really
great, and Nick seems to be a fantastic singer and guitarist.
"Vera" will forgive you ;-)
Tom also does a stunning job at the drums again, and even though
we terribly miss Grant and can't wait to see him again, he
couldn't have a better replacement anywhere.
Anyway... Welcome aboard Captain Nick! To all SAILOR fans: Please
go and see one of the next gigs if you can. You won't regret it!
Other highlights of the day - apart from Captain Nick and
drumming Tom - are Phil singing "Karma Chameleon" plus
Henry and Phil doing a Half-Full-Monty. And as it's my 90th
SAILOR concert, Phil dedicates "Mack The Knife" to me
and says that I should get a medal (while Henry suggests:
"No, she needs help!"). Thanks!
The audience truly enjoys the show and even requests an
additional encore. Marvellous!
Before we leave we watch a bit of Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.
Then, back at the hotel, we're finally able to welcome the
SAILORs and have a glass of champagne to celebrate Nick's first
concert. Not easy to find a place to sit down together, as the
hotel is dark and abandoned again and the bar is locked, but
sound engineer Mark finds a way! ;-)
The night is short and the breakfast is bad (knowing that some
components were already standing at the breakfast room openly
last night without cooling). Also, it's not too easy to check out
when a hotel accepts no credit cards. Especially if somebody
wants to pay for four band members, a sound engineer and a
driver...!
I should have written much more about the concert instead of
going on about these hotel stories. But honestly, they were just
too "special" to not be mentioned!
Better luck (place) next time, eh?!
Katrin Wagner, 26 May 2009
A concert review by Karsten Wagner:
Katrin and I
spared neither cost nor effort to see and hear SAILOR's first
live gig with new singer/guitarist Nick Parvin near the Polish
border. Therefore we had to leave Kassel early to handle the long
journey and arrived over there, passing funny towns like Muskau
or Brehmen...
Thanks to my "new" used car and its strong horsepowers
we arrived in Weisswasser already a few hours before SAILOR got
there. After a good shake (due to the suspension of my
"new" sportscar, as well as the "Erich
H.-Memorial-Roads", real concrete slabs :o) we finally stood
in front of the "hotel" that SAILOR and we had booked
rooms in.
Unfortunately all doors were locked and none of the two phone
numbers helped. No human being could be seen in and around this
neat "guesthouse". The business cards of this hotel
showed the ludicrous remark: "Dignified hospitality since
1923". Well, apparently nobody wanted to change anything
about the style of this estate since then.
After more than half an hour an older couple appeared inside this
"ghost-hotel", desperately trying to leave the
"dignified house" through the locked doors. The man
finally managed to get a key and open the door. I immediately
insisted on going inside to not have to spend another couple of
hours waiting outside. Meanwhile several telephones at the
reception kept on ringing and I rang the bell which - as an
adornment - stood at the reception. What happened was: NOTHING.
This once-in-a-lifetime experience is also available on video,
because: Incredible!!!
At the reception we found a piece of paper with our names, the
names of the band and all room numbers. As there was no human
being to be seen anywhere after almost two hours, we eventually
checked in ourselves, took the key to our booked room and went
there. A little while later our webmaster went back to the car
and - incredible but true - met a real human being at the
"reception", who cursed at us (not to be repeated
here). My appearance "downstairs" (after yet another
perilous ride in the non-maintained elevator) calmed the young
man down a bit, who kept on assuring that he had only been away
for two minutes (!!!)... To make a long story short here... the
guy eventually told us that the reception was occupied all day
and night (ha...).
Having spent a long time in "the streets of Whitewater"
near the "hotel" to maybe open the doors for SAILOR, we
drove to the venue of the concert. The well-known concert-chaos
expected us there. Nobody really knew what was going to happen
where, why and how. At least we found out that the Rattles
couldn't play so that they were replaced by Sally Carr's Middle
Of The Road, as we could guess because they had just finished
rehearsing when the doors were opened. The chaos continued
without a break, until I got fed up and brought all cameras etc.
back to the car. Sally and her boys started the gig, a huge
thankyou for Sally and co. for a great show! Then we saw
Christie, who, thanks to his band, was bearable this time.
Then it was time for SAILOR... this time with the front part of
the photographic Nickelodeon-thing in the metal frame with
adhered cardboard. It simply looked miserable. In other words:
SAILOR need a new Nickelodeon again or something like that.
Then: The boys entered the stage featuring their new guy, Nick
Parvin. He had a dark sailor's hat pulled deep into his face,
with a blac jacket, a black/red striped sailor-shirt, black
trousers, black shoes, with Pete's marvellous blue guitar...
that's how Nick wildly jumped around on the stage. He sang very
well, although, of course, we have to get used to a new
lead-voice again, lyrics need to be learned, and he plays the
guitar very well too. Unfortunately only 6-string again, but he
can also shake the maracas.
Considering that the band only had one rehearsal together (!) the
performance went so well that SAILOR were the only band to give
an additional encore. Their funny stage show and Georg's songs
are always worth the journey. And we gave Nick an mp3-CD with all
SAILOR songs, which he seemed to like. :)
After SAILOR we watched three songs of Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich,
whose singer Dave Dee had sadly passed away some months ago.
"Back to the "hotel". There was one thing to be
noticed: Hotel dark, locked, reception deserted, bar locked... so
that Katrin and I waited for our SAILORs for about 15 minutes and
opened the door for them when they arrived. I had a certain
precognition (er...) and had therefor brought a six-pack of beer
for the first "SAILOR-thirst". SAILOR's driver was sent
back to the venue to get something to drink from the dressing
room. At the hotel of "dignified hospitality" there
were no minibars in the rooms, only empty cabinet for these.
Thanks to SAILOR's driver we could drink to the first concert
with Nick.
After a little chat, looking at photos etc. we slept for a couple
of hours.
Next morning: Hotel breakfast. Not much to say, literally, as
there wasn't much to eat. After some talk about our website the
SAILOR boys had to hit the road again, and Katrin and I also left
this "lovely" place.
At least our two new SAILOR cars now have air conditioning so
that these concert journeys in the summer are more comfortable.
Recommendation to all SAILOR fans: Go to see them and have fun.
Nick Parvin is great !!!
See you soon, Karsten Wagner / Cap K ~~~
Concert Photos |