The Streets Luxembourg 2006

Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 16 July 2006

After our gig in Amsterdam, we were very excited and wanted more gigs. We checked the internet and we found the France gig, that the girls we met in Amsterdam, were going to. We googled more and we found a gig in Luxembourg.

I got a ticket for the Streets in Luxembourg for my birthday from Ozzy, an early present, as my birthday isn’t until July 24th.

July 15th 2006

The day before the gig, we went from Hillegom by car, to Luxembourg, to the camping Kockelscheuer. We set up the tent. The ground was very hard, we needed a hammer. We forgot to bring one. We could borrow a hammer from our lovely English neighbours.

We also had German neighbours. The woman sat on her ass all day long and her hubby was working really hard. She didn’t do anything. They didn’t stay in a tent but in a caravan.

When we set up the tent, we had dinner. We placed our disposable BBQ on the street. The German lady got annoyed and asked if we could move the BBQ. The wind was blowing the smoke towards them (sometimes). No we can’t, but if it annoys you, go ahead move it, anywhere you like. Obviously she didn’t. Her husband wished us a lovely dinner, so did our English neighbours.

Then, when that was done, we took the car to the Centre. We went to look for the venue. We walked through the street about 6 times, that means we walked past the venue about 6 times and we couldn’t find it. We even asked some locals, they told us that we were in the right street, but we already knew that, but we still couldn’t find it. Until I looked up at a poster, cant remember what exactly caught my attention, but Ozzy looked up, and he said, “OH MY GOD! Look at this” and pointed up. I looked up and saw “Den Atelier”

Oh my…. guess we just found it. hahaha. (Can’t believe we missed this… it was pretty clear, I feel so dumb).

That afternoon and evening we went into the old part of the town. We walked down hill for miles, crossed bridges and little alleys, it was very picturesque, after a few miles we reached the old town. It looked so lovely! We were looking for an Irish pub and it happened to be a blues and jazz festival. NICE! Great timing we have! We also found a couple Irish pubs. We took an aftershock. The red one is the best. It tastes like cough syrup, but it’s my fave!!

July 16th 2006

The next day. The day of the gig, we woke up at about 7am… Why so early? We’re on a holiday?! ‘cos it was 30 degrees, and we were floating out of the tent, it was so warm, in our tiny “dome” tent. We had breakfast. Our English neighbours came over to us to say goodbye, ‘cos they were going home. Then our female German neighbour stared at us. Why so hostile? We haven’t done anything to you, she was like this from the start. I decided to stare back at her. I won, she turned her head. Her hubby waved at us and we said good morning to each other. Again, the lady was sitting on her ass and the husband was running around working hard.

Later that day we took the bus and arrived in the centre at 2pm. Way too early, the gig  won’t start until 8pm and doors won’t open until 7… but we saw the tour bus already.

(I look like an innocent little school girl)

Have we been looking for this place for nothing? Did we walk by the venue 6 times for nothing?! The bus would have told us where the venue would have been.

What to do in Luxembourg when everything is closed on a Sunday? We went to the venue and asked at what time the doors would open. A security guard told us that the doors would open at 7pm. At about 4 pm we found a bar/cafe, that was open, we had a few drinks there. It was so warm outside, about 33 degrees by now. I loved it, but too warm to do anything in a city centre.

I wouldn’t mind this heat, when I could go to a beach or a swimming pool though. Anyway… we went to a bus stop across the street from the venue, and waited there for about two hours. Felt like a stalker really, but we couldn’t do too much anyway. (We were opposite the tour bus… that’s why we felt stalkers).

At about 6.30pm, it started getting busier at the venue, so we decided to join the other people who were waiting to get in. At 7pm the doors opened.

It wasn’t too busy when we were waiting… but just as in Amsterdam, the gig was sold out. We stood at the front again. We met Martine there with her boyfriend Frédèric…

I brought the same banner with me, as I had in Amsterdam, only I added the word “still”, so now it says “Still fancy a date in the Grasshopper?” and this time I was wearing my Union Jack bikini top (became my fashion trademark at this gig) I bought this in Scotland last year. I was wearing a normal top, on top of the bikini though.

There was a fence this time, so I could hang the banner over the fence, no more foot steps on my banner… and Mike couldn’t fall because of it.

Mike came on… started reading my banner…

I think that he started to think about where he had seen it before… he came back and asked me: “Are you from Holland? From Amsterdam?” I nodded my head “yes”.

He gave me some alcohol…….

Later I took my normal top off, to show Mike my bikini… Mike said “Nice one” and gave me more alcohol….

There was a guy, he was very annoying at the start of the gig. I mean you have to jump at a Streets gig, you can’t stand still (unless you have no space), but be careful with the other people around you, especially little girls. He wasn’t careful. Guess Mike noticed it.

(not my video)

(not my video)

Then he came over with the bottle of Smirnoff and poured it down my throat… “Open your mouth” he said, I had to show the others what to do.

Also when he sang “War of the sexes”  He sings the line: “Pretend to listen staring at her tits”, he pointed at me (my bikini).

This time it was no longer Leo the Lion on stage, but Kevin was back. I loved Kevin much more then Leo. Leo made his own show, while it should be Mike’s show. Kevin is very polite and he’s there, you can’t miss him, but it’s still Mike’s show.

Mike said to me: “Say something bad in Dutch” I didn’t, I was to shy, I pushed his hand away. Mike smiled.

Later that gig, with the encore, Mike sang an English Football song (Football is coming home) which that annoying guy (from the beginning) didn’t know the words of, when Mike said that to him, he put up his finger. Mike thanked him LOL…

With “Fit, but you know it” he said to me: “come here, come here” and he took me on stage (again)… (unfortunately no pictures of this, as the new disposable camera had no flash) and four other girls and that annoying guy. This time it was more personal. Actually being asked by Mike, and not so many people.

Mike asked that annoying guy to crowd surf. He said to him: “Can you crowd surf?” The guy said: “yes”. I saw Ozzy “going low” and as soon as the guy jumped in, the crowd divined down the middle and he fell with his face on the floor. So funny to see this all from the stage. Mike was laughing as well, haha. That guy took a girl down with him though. Poor girl. The guy run away LOL Guess he felt embarrassed :p.

We all got a Brandy when we left the stage. I was so excited… I got the playlist as well from a security guard.

After the gig we were waiting outside, next to the tour bus… We had a chat with Wayne, the bass player. He signed my ticket. He wrote my name wrong at first, but that made him never forget about me, he never forgot my name again 🙂 Bless him.

Then Johnny Drum Machine the drummer walked by with 10 girls walking with him, “Player”! 🙂 he signed the playlist for me.

We went over to the “backstage area” but we stayed outside on the square. There was Eddie Kid. I told him how great he was. He wanted to go back inside, but took some time to thank me and went back inside after that.

Then we saw Mike through a window. He saw me as well and he waved. He said “hello” I waved back. At least I got a wave, I thought. We went back to the bass player and asked him if Mike would come outside as well. He said he should be, we just had to wait.

After about 30 minutes Mike came outside… and we had a photo taken, Mike saw that there was no flash, so we tried a second photo under the street light, but that one didn’t work out either 😦 Then he gave me an autograph on the playlist as well…

We had a little chat for about half an hour…. I had a few drinks at the gig, thanks to Mike, and dared to ask him: “What about the date in the grasshopper?” He said: “Yeah, why not?!” hmmm ok… I was shocked!! (didn’t expect him to say yes, I thought that he would laugh at me) I didn’t want to show him that I was shocked, so I asked him what the next time was, that he would be in Holland. He told me that, that would be Lowlands (nowhere near Amsterdam or the Grasshopper though…)…. He said: “I won’t be that drunk this time” (remember 2004?) I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, as I was never there at Lowlands in 2004. I found out a little later from Mel the Bell. (Mel sent me a CD + DVD with loads of early Skinner stuff. It had a mp3 from Lowlands 2003 & 2004 on it). And he said: “if you wear that bikini, I’ll recognize you.”

(This date never happened though. 😉 Never really expected it to happen anyway, but it was nice of him to say 🙂 ) Between now and Lowlands Mike and Claire hooked up.

A new mission, I need a ticket for Lowlands. We went back to the camping. We took a cab.

July 17th

The next morning, when our German neighbours were ready to leave, they drove past us and she looked very angry at us again. Why? Her husband waved and smiled. He was lovely. We didn’t like her much.

On our way back we stopped in Antwerp. I had never been there before. We went to some Irish pubs. I had a thing with Irish pubs at the time, I guess it had something to do with my love for Ireland and Colin Farrell. After an hour we continued our trip back home. Back to Hillegom.

I wanted to see them again, so sad it was all over for now. Hopefully see you guys at Lowlands!

In the meantime Never went to Church was released on June 5th 2006