Who's
Got The Last Laugh Now Tour - Vienna & Mannhiem - March 2006 |
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Early Monday morning it was back to Stanstead airport, to fly to Vienna. This time I flew with Niki (an Air Berlin partner). It was a very good flight, and on-time. I arrived at my hotel late in the morning - Vienna was very cold and there was a strong wind. After checking-in at the hotel I decided to look for venue, the Gasometer, there was a train station there, so it was easy to find. It looked a very impressive complex. The complex is made up of four gasometers which were built in 1896 as part of the gasworks at Simmering. After the gasworks were closed down, the four historic towers were renovated and reopened in 2001. |
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Gasometer, Vienna |
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I spent the rest of afternoon walking round Vienna. I went back to the hotel just before it got dark, had something to eat and decided to have an early night. When I awoke on Tuesday morning I found some text messages from Christiane saying that she was in Vienna as well. She asked where the hotel was and then came to see me with an Austrian fan called Marcus. It was to be Marcus's second concert and I don't think I have seen anyone so happy and excited! H.P. gave a short TV press interview at the Grand Hotel in Vienna. I decided to go to the hall at about midday - Imre, Zita and other Hungarinan fans already there. Then 2 more Hungarians I have met a few times arrived. Imre and his friends had a special "Happy Birthday" banner that they had made for H.P.'s birthday in 2 days - they all signed the back of it - it was very nice and looked good. I had to go back to hotel in the afternoon for a couple of hours and went back to hall at about 17:00. I thought that by arriving this late I would have no chance of getting to the front row - but there were not very many people outside the hall at all there, I assume because it was so very cold.
We were allowed into hall at about 19:15 - when we got in there was a bit of confusion about which way to go to get to the hall the concert was in - I followed Christoph, and got to the front row. Franky was good as the warm-up - I enjoyed it. Scooter were great as before. The whole concert was great, although it was 3 tracks shorter than the first two concerts I was at. The missing tracks were See Me Feel Me, Take Me Baby and RAMP. |
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Rick had an accident on stage in Vienna, but I am not completely sure what happened - from posts on the Scootertechno.com forum it looks like the platform Rick was on was melted a by a light, and he fell through it. It was hardly noticable to anyone - he got back and continued very quicky like the true proffesional he is, although I did notice him and Jay shouting to each other, and Rick pointing downwards. I spoke to him for a couple of minutes after the show and he asked if I saw his little accident, but luckily he seemed ok. I hope he was not hurt - he certainly put on a great performance 2 days later in Mannhiem |
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This is Imre's track-list from the concert - more accurate than I could ever remember: WGTLLN intro
+ Lights Out
*** Although
Imre recognised this track as "I'm a gabber baby" I remember
it from a track called Looser by Beck (I'm a looser baby so why don't
you kill me) |
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Imre and the other Hungarians held the banner they had made at the concert, and at the end of the concert it was given to H.P. |
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After the concert, Chris and I were walking outside the hall and we saw H.P. and Kai getting into a car - H.P.stopped to talk to us and he hugged me for the first time - I was very suprised! Rick and Jay came out later and talked to us for a while - Rick asked if I saw his accident. Jay made some suggestions for camera settings to take photographs in the concert. It was very very cold - and very nice that Rick and Jay stopped for a few minutes to talk. Then I went back tothe hotel - Christiane and Marcus decided to go out for a while - they thought they might find the club where Scooter had gone to after the show - they wanted me to go with then but I was tired, so I went to bed - after telling Chris not to wake me when she came back later, or with phone messages in the night! .
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Christiane and I spent the next day in Vienna - Chris had bought us cheap over-night train tickets to Frankfurt, so we spent the day walking in Vienna after we checked out of the hotel. Chris was also worrying a lot about how she would get to the concert after Mannhiem, and hoping she could find someone to drive her there. We got on the train at 19:30, it was due to arrive in Frankfurt at 03:50. Breakfast was served in the train at 03:30 (very early!! I like to imagine that such times don't exist). When we were standing in the corridor in the train waiting to leave the train just before we arrived at Frankfurt - who should come out from the next compartment - Christoph - and greeted us with his usual (very loud!) Dub, Dub, Dub..... !!! Meeting Chrisptoph is always a pleasure, and makes me smile. We then had to catch another train to get from Frankfurt to Mannhiem - I finally arrived at my hotel in Mannhiem at about 06:30. The hotel was very convienient - about 3 minutes walk from the station and 5 minutes walk from the hall. After breakfast and a shower I went to find the hall. It was easy to find. When I first arrived at the hall some of the crew were trying to get one of the very large Music Data lorries up to the door at the back of the hall - at first it didn't look possible to get such a large lorry along a narrow street into such a small place with so many cars around - watching this provided a bit of early morning entertainment - but is was very skillfully carried out. I thought that we would need to be at the hall earlier than usual for rhis concert as it was H.P.'s birthday and I thought maybe a lot of fans would be there early. After something to eat I went back to the hall just after midday - there was already a Hungarian fan there. |
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Early in the afternoon a couple of French fans arrived, a few Germans, and a liitle later Christoph and Markus. Christoph bought Happy Birthday party hats and party "blowers " for us to wear in the front row - he also had a special T-shirt for the day!
Its Party Time!!!! |
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A little later 4 Czech fans arrived, I had met them before in Prague last year. I think there were a lot of people at this concert because it was H.P.´s birthday. By the time the doors opened the queue was very long - down the street and round the corner - I could not see the end of the queue We queued a long time to get a good place for this concert - I think I stood in one place without moving for nearly 7 hours - much longer than other concerts on the tour. There were also Hungarian, French, Austrian and Czech fans as well, of course as German fans, in the queue a very long time. We queued in 3 lanes - unfortunately the gate at my queue line stuck when opening for a few seconds so about 20 fans got into the hall though the other lanes before me - also had to run quite a long way round the hall and down some stairs to get into the hall - its quite hard to suddenly run after standing still in the cold for a long time. |
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When the fans went into the hall we were given cards to hold up that said Happy Birthday H.P. When we got into the hall we all got to the centre of the front row. I noticed there was a "Happy Birthday" banner stuck on the inside of the barrier in line with the centre of the stage where H.P. would be able to see it during the concert - I recognised it as the banner that the Hungarian fans had made for H.P. - it was great that the crew had taken Imre's banner after the Vienna concert and had put it in souch a good place for H.P. to see on his birthday. During the warm-up Frankie got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to H.P. to the tune of Dub, Dub, Dub from Maria. When Scooter were on stage Frankie came onto the stage after the firat track and got the crowd to sing to H.P.: Ha - ppy - birth - day - to - you - H.P. I took a very, very big pair of panties to throw during Panties Wanted with "Happy Birthday H.P." written on them - unfortunately there was a big gap between the barrier and the stage and when Christiane unexpectedly took them from me and threw them they did not quite reach the stage. |
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The concert was great - the lasers seemed better than ever - I think maybe because the position I was in the centre of them, and the effect during the intro was indescribable. H.P. was great, the instrumental with Rick and Jay seemed better than ever. There were a couple of fights in the crowd, but the security guys were very good, and removed anyone causing trouble from the crowd quickly. The hall was very, very hot, and the crowd crazy. It was great! I hope H.P. enjoyed his birthday. |
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The tracklist was the same as Vienna. H.P. came down some steps and leaned into the crowd at one time during the concert. I managed to get Rick's towel that he threw into the audience. I think it was a bit special to be at a concert on H.P.´s birthday. The crowd sang for him and called for him a lot and the atmosphere was great. I think Mannhiem was the loudest and hottest concert I have been to. The concert in Mannhiem was great! |
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After the concert I talked out side with the Czech fans, Christoph and Markus and of course Chistiane was there. Jay had told me a few days ago that Mannhiem was his home town, and his family would be at the concert. I was lucky enough to see his parents briefly outside the hall and say hello to them (2 of the other fans I was with recognised them). They were very nice - and it was an honour to meet them. When Rick and Jay came out Rick's beautiful wife Nikk was with him. She is a lovely lady. The concerts in Vienna and Mannhiem were both great - it was a good week. I was a bit sad to be gong home on Friday as some of the others were going on to the next concert - but I was also a bit tired and looking forward to going home to see my family. I had travelled all night on Wednesday, and queued for many hours in the cold on Thursday before the concert - but it was worth it. It was also great so many fans on this trip - the Hungarian posse, the Czech fans, some French fans, Austrians and of course a lot of German fans. I had a great week - the last problem was to get home - when I booked my Ryanair flight from Frankfurt I had not thought that there would be more than one airport in Frankfurt - luckily I decided to check when I arrived in Mannhiem - good job I did! it turned out that I was not flying from the main Frankfurt airport, but a smaller one out of Frankfurt. I spent most of Friday travelling - not so much because I had a long way to go - but because of the train and bus timings, I took a train from Mannhiem to Mainz, and then a bus to Frankfurt-Hahn airport for my late afternoon flight home. The flight to Stansted on Ryanair was nearly an hour late, but this is not too bad I guess. I was home late Friday evening for the weekend with my family, then a week at work before flying to Bremen next Friday evening for the last two concerts of the tour. This was the trip I thought I would not do - even when I went to Hannover I was 90% sure I would probably cancel this trip, because the travelling and needing a full week off from work seemed to much for 2 concerts - but it was a good trip and I had a great time - and also of course the concerts were just great!
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