Finally, I made my way into an internet cafe today - the day of the Berlin show. A lot has happened since my last entry so I’ll try to catch up with everything as good as I can.
Last Friday I started my 2-weeks long journey kicking off in Paris and lasting until Rome (July 15th). On this trip I will see every Genesis show except from Amsterdam, Leipzig & the Live Earth appearance. So Friday evening an Air France baby-Airbus A318 brought me to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Very nice flight. Arrived in Paris in a rainshower (of course…) and took the bus from the airport to the city. It was around midnight when I finally arrived at my hotel which is just a stone’s throw away from Parc des Princes. As I was pretty tired I went to bed immediately and got up early the next morning to queue for the next show on my list (#9 BTW). I arrived at the stadium at 8.45 and there were already about 20-30 people queueing! A french friend had told me before that the fans are crazy with queueing and it proved that I did right to start queueing as early as possible. About 1.5 hrs later a security supervisor came to the gate and the mess began… We were told to leave the gate and walk down the road to queue there. Problem was that he didn’t give us a certain spot where to go and by the time this happened there were about 100 people queueing already. After a long time of uncertainty, the security staff finally managed to put up the fences in a serpent and the nervous crowd became a proper queue. Luckily enough I ended up in the front of the queue with just about 10 people ahead of me.
During the wait we could hear the soundcheck shaking the old concrete stadium with bits of Los Endos or Mama. When the gates opened it all went way better than expected and after a sprint across the field I arrived in front row once again. I met a lot of people in the queue and inside the stadium. Too many to mention. But I want to make an exception for 2 French and one Mexican (!) fan I met again. We all had queued together in Nîmes on June 30th, 2004 for Phil’s concert there (the one with the power blackout). And now we met again by chance exactly 3 years later! Inside the stadium we got to meet Annie & Geoff Callingham while we were waiting for the show.
The concert was excellent once more! I hate to repeat myself and as the setlist didn’t have major surprises I don’t have something special to say about the show. Oh, one thing was a little special: During I Know What I Like Phil added a line of I Love Paris (”I love Paris in the springtime…”) maybe because of the weather being warm and dry - FINALLY! If memory serves me correctly he had added this line on former Paris concerts before especially in the late 1970’s.
The day after the concert was a “day off” for me. I had never really been to Paris before so I decided to do some power-sightseeing - Paris in a day. Looking back I have to say it worked! It took me about 8 hours but I saw pretty much everything and even had some spare time to visit the Palais Omnisport de Bercy. The most impressive thing was Tour Eiffel, no doubt. And what I also liked very much was Montmartre. A really nice quarter. The weather was dry and mostly sunny the whole day which made for a very successful day.
On Monday I had to go back to the airport to continue my journey to Berlin. When I arrived at the Les Cars Air France bus stop a little note told me that drivers were on strike… Brilliant! Fortunately two other people were waiting at the bus stop and we shared a taxi. The airport itself is a bit of a “controlled chaos”. But the flight to Berlin was ok and -again- we landed in a rainshower at Tegel Airport. During the final approach I could the band’s aircraft resting on the apron already. First time I saw the jet with my own eyes. A beauty really!
I’m currently staying with a friend of mine who lives in Berlin for a few years now and we also spent the evening together having dinner and a few drinks.
Today, for the first time ever I have a working pass for the show. I’m helping the German Fanclub to hang up some banners and then we hopefully have time to see the soundcheck and get access to the standing area before doors open. Weather is good here at the moment but forecasts say it might rain towards the evening…
I hope to add the next update sooner than I did before. Promised!
Ulli
Loading ...