Slade in Nordborg, June 10, 2006

This concert at the Nord-Als Festival in Danish town Nordborg was quite hectic, as Slade had had a horror-weekend transportation-wise, playing Denmark Thursday, then Holland Friday and Denmark again Saturday noon. They only got 45 minutes of sleep between the Holland-gig and the Nordborg-concert so it was completely mad.
But, anyway, let me start with the beginning. On this trip I was accompanied by my sister as she was going to the Nord-Als Festival anyway, as some of her friends worked there as volunteers. Her husband drove us to the ferry and then her friends picked us up on the other side of The Little Belt waters and drove us to the festival. We reached the place at 10.30 a.m., two and a half hours before the Slade-gig, so we spent the time having a beer, listening to music and enjoying the hot summer weather while my sister's friends showed us around the festival area. It was such a beautiful place, as the festival took place at the Nordborg Castle. A wonderful white castle with a moat and a park. The stage that Slade was to use was situated in the park with a delightful view over a lake.
Slade didn't reach Nordborg until 12.40 and there was no way they could go on stage at one o'clock as scheduled. They went straight on to doing the sound check in front of the 6,000 people strong audience and with only a 20 minutes delay they were finally ready to go on.
The set list was the same as in Skanderborg 2 days before, but it was quite a different show. Due to the lack of sleep they were all fooling around more than usual, and the audience loved it! The energy on stage was amazing and you wouldn't believe for one minute that the guys hadn't had any sleep. The energy among the audience was fantastic as well, they were all up and going, some even sporting mirror top hats! It was great! But as I'm not very tall or very strong I had to give up my place among the audience halfway through the concert, as it became impossible for me to take decent pics let alone see the stage, because of the enthusiastic crowd! I then went backstage and stayed there for the rest of the concert with Hanne.
It was a hilarious concert. Before they did Everyday, Mal said, "Now we're going to show you a bit of English porn," and then Dave came out, jacket off, to show us his muscles. That was very much appreciated by the audience! During Gudbuy T'Jane Dave and crew member Tim got into a fight over a megaphone on stage and that caused some nasty feedback, but the audience was rolling with laughter. Mal later used the megaphone while singing Merry Xmas Everybody. The guys were just so outgoing on stage, laughing and joking. When the show was over and Don got up from behind the drums for the applause, he went to the stage edge and by pointing to his temple he made it clear to the audience that the guys were crazy.
The boyz had to change in a tent next to the stage and as the tent flap wouldn't quite close the fans waiting outside behind a fence really got value for their money! Don then came out and gave me a hug and a kiss. We hadn't had the time to say hello before the concert, so he had just been waving to me from stage. Anyway, he signed some autographs through the fence while I was holding his cup of tea, which made a little boy ask if I was his girlfriend. No, little boy, not at all! We are both happily "spoken for", but I got Don to get the boy the drumstick that he'd been wanting, anyway.
The fans of which many were actually very young girls kept shouting, "We love you!" to Don through the fence. And Don kept answering, "No, you don't!" It became quite a mantra, "We love you! No, you don't! We love you! No, you don't!" until Don expanded by saying, "You're just using me to get to somebody else!" And they were! When Dave came out from the tent, the crowd went crazy. Dave went to the toilet, one of those movable ones, and to the delight of the fans, Don shouted at him, "Leave the door open!" but of course Dave didn't. Don told me that once he had seen such a loo tip over while there was somebody inside. Yuk!!
Anyway, all the guys came out to sign autographs and Hanne handed out post cards with photos and autographs of the guys as well, before we went over to the Nordborg Castle to eat. Very pleasant, I must say, as Dave did Ave Maria for us on guitar while we were eating.
John grabbed a quick bite, then he was off to see the American Bruce Daigrepont who played cajun music on the park stage. My sister discussed wine with Mal as she's quite a wine connoisseur and then Mal asked me what "mad" means in Danish. He'd noticed a tent on the festival grounds with the word mad on it and he just didn't get it. So I had to tell him that in Danish mad means food. Don showed off by speaking a bit Danish. He understands more than he speaks, though. We then had a nice chat about hotels, my daughter Tea, sweets and whatever. In English, mind you!
As the guys were really, really tired they left after an hour, so when we had said our goodbyes, my sister and I hooked up with her friends again. We had a glass of wine and at 5 p.m. her friends drove us to the ferry. Although it had been short and hectic, it had also been a hilarious experience. And a fantastic concert!