"For the first time after many many years, hope it was worth the wait... Woolly Wolstenholme"

and it certainly was. . .

Another band I wanted to see live for some time. The full band doesn't perform together anymore. It had come to an split between Les Holroyd and John Lees after the recording of their 1997 album "River of Dreams". However since then founder member Woolly Wolstenholme, who left the band in 1979, joined John Lees. Together they released the album "Nexus" in 1999, and have been performing ever since. Les Holroyd  is also still on the road with his version of the band. It was however John's version I got to see in Zoetermeer, so Les's band still remains on the wish list. The last time the original band played the Netherlands was in 1984 if I am not mistaken, since then non of the members played here.

The cultuurpodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer is a really nice venue, with great acoustics. Not a big concert hall, but therefore much nicer. You are able get close to the stage and still have room to dance walk around or whatever you please. The opening act, Jenny Weisgerber, was good. She certainly has a great voice. After her performance and some more delay, the band we really wanted to see came to see came on stage.

From the first notes of "Nova Lepidoptera" till "Hymn" I had a smile on my face. Nova Lepidoptera was a magical concert opener, shivers down the spine. Finally the great moment of watching these men performing my favourite songs live. The atmosphere was very good, great interaction between audience and band. The band was clearly enjoying the show, with some great humour as well with the music. There are no doubts many things I missed, lots of things happened on stage and some details I can't remember. Leave it up to Woolly to insert great humour into the show, focusing his attention onto a banana! Responding to fans calling out for certain songs by mentioning Abba and Queen songs. Apparently confusing John also at some point by coming up with his own musical plan during "She Said". However I since learned it wasn't Woolly's fault, but a technical failure. Could have been though.

John was in very good voice, his guitar playing really great. The whole band gave a great performance giving the songs a real edge. There were many highlights, "Mockingbird" was especially beautiful, great three way harmonies. "River of dreams" I also liked in this live version. The song also providing another typical Woolly moment as he urged the band to get on with it as he left the stage and later, as he returned, wondering wheter he had missed anything. Even "Cheap the bullet" sounded fantastic. A real strong live performance, and better then I feared it would be judging from the live cd. "After the day" was another powerful version and it was the last song before the encore.

The only song I prefer the studio version and didn't think worked live was "Loving is easy", but that's such a minor thing. I will never get tired of "Hymn", and this was another beautiful performance. John only let out one Yeah, which wasn't answered by the audience this time. And with the end of "Hymn" a great performance has ended. Hopefully the band are convinced enough to return to the Netherlands once more, looking forward to seeing them again live.

Set list (almost in the right order)

Nova Lepidoptera
Child of the Universe
Poor Wages
Mocking Bird
The Iron Maiden
Cheap the Bullet
Poor Man's moody Blues
Harbour
Medicine Man
Galadriel
In search of England
River of Dreams
Suicide
She said
The Poet
After The Day

Encore

Loving is easy
Hymn

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