Re: OT: Golden Earring
Posted by:
dead.flowers
()
Date: March 19, 2009 13:07
I love them. Great Dutch band. And, yes, they are still touring a lot.
I remember, some years before my neighbour from the apartment above, every night at 02:30 when he came home, like a clockwork, pumped up the volume of his stereo as far as could go, and shook the house with a drumming Radar Love. Well, because it was this song he chose, I could'nt be angry with him.
And then, I saw them once, at the infamous 2nd Scheeßel Open Air. In early September 1977 damage to the worth of millions occurred at the “First Rider Open Air” at Scheeßel (to the south of Hamburg/ Germany), which was originally planned to last three days and billboarded to feature world famous bands like Steppenwolf, Ray Manzarek and many more. When the organizer couldn’t or didn't want to pay the bands, most of them bands didn’t even show up there. The organizer then buzzed off with the cash and by the night the (unpaid) Hells Angels security guards and angry music fans went wild and began to riot, burning down the stage, plundering the food and beverage stands and containers and infested also the village of Scheeßel. The festival had begun at fair whether with Long tall Ernie and the Shakers, Van der Graaf Generator (Hi Holland!) and Colosseum II, and ended with Golden Earring. Myself I was basically having a good time and hadn’t noticed too much about all the trouble aside from that most of the announced bands were apparently not going to play. When Golden Earring started somebody told me “come on, the hells angels are gone, the stage is open”, and I went up on the stage with a group of people and we stood round the band in a semi-cicrle, feeling rather cool and enjoying the gig from that unusual angel. After Radar Love (!) the band left, leaving all their equipment, and I left the stage as well. Being back down in the crowd again I saw the stage going up in flames. Later I was told that people had taken guitars and all kind of equipment with them, aand that when the handful of local police tried to have a look at the place, they were treated with a shower of beer cans that they retreated and never returned. Those were the days. Anybody else happened to be there?