Slade in Skanderborg, June 8, 2006

This was a trip with some delays, not when it came to the concert, but in connection with the transportation, thanks to the Danish rail, DSB.
My daughter Tea and I were going to the gig in Skanderborg on June 8, and we were to catch a train here from Odense at 12.30 p.m. The train was already 10 minutes late before it left Odense and the delay had increased by 30 minutes before we reached Skanderborg. As there had been a lot of change of plans anyway, instead of driving with Don and Hanne from the station to the venue we ended up in the company of Danish hard-core fan Per and his son Michael. Luckily they had a map, so we could find our way to the venue, the Sølund Festival.
We reached the festival an hour late, but at least there were no difficulties in getting backstage or finding Don. Hugs and kisses all around and even Dave came over to give me a hug and a peck on the cheek, so I thanked him for his birthday greetings last month. A bit later we also found the rest of the band, the crew and of course Hanne.
We spent an hour or so at the backstage patio, having a bit to drink, a good chat and a lot of sun. As usual I had a lot of "business" to conduct with Don. A never-ending story, I guess.
Then the guys had to change for the concert. The dressing rooms fronted the patio, so you had a clear view of all the bands of the festival in their birthday suits! Tea was very fascinated by all those semi-naked men (and a few women), so I had a hard time keeping her away from there! When Don had changed, he came out to me and said, "I'm almost 60 and look what I'm wearing…If my Dad could see me now!" He shook his head and laughed. But I guess that anyone who can drum his way to international fame hasn't made the worst career choice in the world…
Then it was out front with Per and Michael for the concert that started at 5.15 p.m. I must admit that we felt a little out of place, though. You see, the Sølund Festival is a closed festival for mentally handicapped people. It is the largest festival of its kind in Denmark with 16,000 handicapped people attending. But what can I say? They made out a wonderful audience, all very happy and very responsive and Slade went down a storm. The set list was:
We'll Bring The House Down
Take Me Bak 'Ome
Lock Up Your Daughters
Far Far Away
Everyday
Red Hot
Look Wot You Dun
'Coz I Luv You
Run Runaway
My Oh My
Hear Ya Callin'
Gudbuy T'Jane
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Get Down And Get With It
and for the encores:
Cum On Feel The Noize
MXE
When introducing Everyday, Mal said, "Here's another one to sing along to but before we do that Dave's gonna get his gear out for you. Don't get too excited, though! Show them your muscles, Dave!"
And Dave did to the audience's delight. This audience was obviously easy to please! (Sorry, Dave!) The crowd went bananas over everything from John's Union Jack jacket to Dave's Superyob guitar and they danced and sang and clapped to every single number. The only thing they didn't really get the hang of was the business with the drumsticks. Whenever Don threw a broken drumstick out into the audience, they immediately threw it back on stage, because "the poor drummer lost a stick!" But it was so much fun.
During Run Runaway John only played the violin for the intro, then he was back on bass for the rest of the song. Meanwhile Dave offered my daughter some really old, dried out cotton candy that was placed as decoration on the stage edge along with loads and loads of begonias. No way, Tea was to eat that!!
It was really, really hot that day and Don was dying of heat on stage. After My Oh My, he even used one of his cymbals as a fan! It took some time before Tim of the crew realised and came to his aid.
When we came to Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Per and I were talking about how Mal would introduce that. Usually he yells, "Are you crazy?", but that wouldn't really be suitable with this audience. But Mal got around it elegantly by shouting, "Do you feel like going crazy?"
It was really a wonderful concert and both audience and band had a great time and many good laughs. Some were a bit involuntarily, though. Especially when it came to Get Down, where Mal sang let your HER down. Robin, the sound engineer, later told me, that because Mal is from Liverpool he pronounces hair as her, and when on stage he sometimes forgets to pronounce it right. This time Mal realised as soon as he had said her, and he laughed so hard, that it was almost impossible for him to go on singing. It didn't matter to the audience, though, and after the concert the band was showered with hugs and kisses.
We then spent a little more time in the patio and I had a good talk with John before the band minus Don left. Don and Hanne stayed a bit longer and Tea and I had dinner with them at the backstage buffet. Tea was then off to explore the festival, leaving Don, Hanne and me on our own. We sat around talking for a couple of hours in the wonderfully warm evening, enjoying the light summer night.
At 10 p.m. Don and Hanne drove us to the station where we caught the train at 10.15 p.m. Usually it is a 90 minutes drive, but this one ended up taking almost 4 hours! Only a couple of miles outside Odense, the train came to a stop and that was it! There were problems with the signals, problems with the tracks, problems with some other trains that had to be coupled together with our train. Oh man, we waited like forever and the poor woman selling food and drinks had the busiest night of her life!
It was one tired little girl that I had to drag from the station and to our house when we finally reached Odense, but as usual it had been a perfect day in the company of Hanne, Don and the rest of Slade.