Hannover

We left home around 11 am to go to Hannover, keeping in mind that the A2 is a very busy motorway with lots of roadworks. But as summer holidays had started in NRW a day earlier, it was a pleasant 2 1/4 h drive 215 k up north to Hannover. We stayed in the far north of Hannover, the concert was in the opposite part of the town.

After we had settled everything with my wife's aunt and uncle, we left for the tram that could take us to the EXPO 2000 area, which is more or less the area of the Hannover trade fairs. We took the line 1, not the line 8, which was crowded, but ended up south of the field. When we arrived at the concert place, more or less a parking lot for the trade fairs, the gates had just opened. so we ran again. :-)))))

As the people taking the line 8 were let into the site on the right side, there was no way to get into the Keith section, but running 800 m took us comfortably into the Ronny section. This time we were even nearer the stage than in Duesseldorf, only two or three people in front of us and about two to the right where the Catwalk is. Dieter Hoffmann had "pole position" on this side and he wouldn't give up his place.

The concert started late. Tickets said 7 pm, but an annoucer told us, that there were traffic jams outside, so they would start an hour later. Which was not true, because next morning newspapers, which had very large pictures, stated, that traffic was really pretty low, not a lot of jams for people COMING to the concert.

Dave Matthews was on around 7.55 pm, doing about 40 minutes. He did some other songs than in Duesseldorf, was a bit more interesting, but again no band that works outside in the sunshine. The weather was hot, windy after the sun had gone down and the wind was blowing onto the stage.

The Stones came on 9.15 pm, Keith and Charlie coming out together, Keith going to the front, posing until the rockets came out and then the concert got really going. This seemed to be Ronnie's night, I could hear him play clearly from Satisfaction onwards, doing lots of bits and pieces, licking here and there or taking the rhythm part.

Absolutely strong version, Keith and Ronnie doing their "weaving" thing, interchanging notes and riffs. When Richards did the rhythm, Ronnie filled with lead riffs and vice versa. Lisa was not trying to be as prominent as she usually is, but did a real strong version with Mick. Rounds of applause for Lisa.

Back in the set again. I thought they were doing something else first, but then ASMB started. OK by me, some people did not seem to like it, but Bernard and Jagger did a good rap. Ronnie was pretty strong again, his licks could be heard very loudly in the mix and he seemed to enjoy it. Lots of encouraging from Mick and Keith by looking at him smilingly.

We started singing "Oh Yeah" again when Jagger got his guitar, so he knew we knew what was going to come and he smiled again. Some girls around us had taken some spare undies and bras and waved them throughout the song, which Jagger seemed to like. He and Keith pointed at our area at some time during the song. The japanese couple that I had seen in Duesseldorf were in front of us again and held out their notes to Ronnie, he waved back.

The "Oh Yeah" went on for a couple of minutes, so Jagger had to start OOC, to cool it down. Very strong version, lots of spasmo dance around the stage, very delicate trumpet this time, really, really good. Keith did a lengthy solo and moved all over the place like Mick did.

It did win at last. Mind, when I voted on Thursday, I gained 0,5 % with my vote. It had 21 % in the end. Jagger said something like they had to do it now and had to rely on Ronnie, see if he remembers it. Ronnie laughed and Keith set off with the riff. It was a rather rough version, Mick missing out on some of the harmonica bits. It seemed pretty underrehearsed, maybe that's why they did not do it before. But it was a change from UMT and I liked it a lot, I had only heard it a couple of times on the last tour, so I was very pleased.

Jagger, who mentioned Hannover a couple fo times before, introduced Blondie as "Being in Hamburg with us for the first time". Well, Hamburg will see the show in late August, Mick, this was Hannover. :-) The Charlie-chant got under way before Ronnie was introduced, so Mick cut that short with introducing Ronnie and then Charlie. He got rounds of applause, but the cries for Charlie in Duesseldorf were more intense.

Keith told us, that he did mean it when he said he liked to be back in Hannover. TITN was very laid back, Leah was doing backing vocals and dance again, Blondie on guitar and Keith' guitar roadie did keybords with Chuck, shaking hands with him after the song finished. Nice solo by Ronnie. Ronnie kept looking at Leah and she smiled back.

When they came back on the catwalk, the girls with the underwear started throwing panties and bras at Keith and Charlie. Both did not catch them, but Keith got some up and took it with him. Jagger usually comes down the catwalk in his "Sympathy" dress about 3 minutes later, when he is about to start to sing. He got some more underwear as well. In the song you could hear Ronnie again very loudly, licking here and there. Jagger moved out onto both sides, Keith did a very hefty solo, hitting the strings really hard.

I like the bit on the Jumbotron during the solo, where they switch on the guitar camera on Ronnie's guitar, so you get the impression of a guitar neck with everything else around moving. Ronnie did not move that much this time, but Daryll tried to get into the picture as well. Keith and Ronnie interchanged licks again, very good song.

Keith started fast, but slowed down a bit, lots of girls on the video screen this time. Now the rest of the underwear was thrown onstage and Jagger picked it up to bring it to the drumset. He gave a boyish grin and seemed to like it. Keith did his piano bit again (which, having seen it for three tours now, gets a bit boring) and people were singing heavily.

Again three starts to the song, Keith seems to like to do it this way, lots or running and moving around. Very good version, although not as spectacular as before. Jagger went down all the way to stand in front of the front row, roughly one meter away from me, all for the jumbotron.

Keith and Ronnie's showdown for tonight, Keith came round to say byebye to us, Ronnie moved around, Jagger went to both sides of the stage, as did Keith. In the end, Ronnie took off his guitar and hit the stage with it for a couple of times, just like guitar heroes do. Jagger saw that and looked at him in amazement, Ronnie smiled back.

When they came out again, Ronnie went to his side of the stage, where the stairs are and set down there, played on and on. He sat there for about 1 1/2 minutes. I have never seen him do that before. In the end you have Bernard and Lisa with Mick at stage center front, this time they did some more yeah yeah yeah oohhhs than usual. Great ending to a great show.

General remarks: They seemed to be happier on stage than in Duesseldorf, playing was much stronger (again), although the crowd was not going that far as they were in Duesseldorf. My area was ok, but this was a field, more or less sqare, and lots of people did not really see them very good. There was less singing going on generally, although we did sing quite a lot in our area.

Lots of picks were thrown in the audience, I nearly grabbed one, but somebody hit my hand, so I lost it. Got some confetti though. As the wind was blowing TO the stage, all the Brown Sugar confetti got onto the stage, we were covered in confetti and the stage was covered as well, must have been very slippery up there.

If you ask me: Duesseldorf and Hannover were very strong shows. The music was a bit better in Hannover, Ronnie was twice as strong as in Duesseldorf, but the audience in Duesseldorf was better (maybe because an arena has a different sound to a field, I don't know). 60.000 in Duesseldorf, 90.000 in Hannover, both sold out.

T-Shirts: I noticed they have got new ones there. I bought one in Duesseldorf, that had the first dates still on it (MAY: Berlin, Munich, Gelsenkirchen etc). Now they were selling a version 2.0, starting in June with Nurnberg, but still having Milano and Bilbao on it, although all the other dates in right order. For Poland they mentioned Katowice now and Frankfurt, which was on the first version, is gone now.

Hannover was as relaxed to go back and to the show as Duesseldorf. Staying with family makes it so much easier. They know how to avoid the masses and sneak in somewhere, which we did. After being lucky again in Hannover to get into the front section we decided to go for it on all the other shows. It's so exciting to get there when the gates are still close or just opened and just to rush in and to fall down right in front of the stage to make sure you have got your bit of space of the ground. When the support act comes on, everyone rushes up and then it's another reshuffle of the crowds again. if you are lucky, you can even then make it from 10th row to second row and nearer to the stage center, which we always looked for.

The bad thing about Hannover was that we all were coming from different places and agreed to try to meet in the Keith side. As that was closed when we got there, we had to make it to Ronnie's side. So we only met Dieter Hoffman. there was no way meeting people afterwards, as that was the first place were they made people leave the front section and even the place very fast. They just made a line of security people holding lines between them and marched forward. We made it to the B-Stage (always meeting point after the show), but the people from the Keith side were forced out to the right, where they opened the fences. It was a bit of a shame, but what can you do?

It was a field again, but much better than in Nuremberg, much better organized and maybe because it wasn't as cold as in Nuremberg. The Stones did not seem to be too loud, newspapers had reports the next morning, that you could not hear anything of it one km away. Strange. There were a couple of hotels nearby, which all ran Stones-extravaganzas. When we walked down, we could see people in the windows with lots of camera gear. That explained the good pics we got in Hannover's papers the next morning.