Munich 13. July, 1998
Here's what
I wrote after the show:
There's
always something similar to Munich shows: It rains!
It was a
beautiful day yesterday when we all gathered before the gates long before
showtime. Dieter Hoffmann told me he was waiting there from 10.00 in the
morning. I did arrive around 3 pm., having flown in from Dortmund. Without
my wife, because she and our daughter Nessa Nuisance were leaving that
night for our flat in Spain. So I got an early flight and tried for the
front area again. While we were waiting, the weather got real windy and
dark and the opening of the gates was delayed and delayed, due to technical
problems (they said). We heard the soundcheck, bits of Thief in the night
and riffs from the end bit, but no proper songs were played.
Gates opened
close to 6 pm at last and then the other Munich problem struck again: Security.
They are only there for you, that's what they tell you on their T-Shirts,
but they sort of want to make the world a better place without anyone asking
for it. What they did is keep everybody from running. You have the front
gate, where youweren't let in when you pushed, then you have the second
gate, where they controlled your tickets. I could run 30 m after that,
when they had another entrance for the pitch, controlled every ticket again
and only let people in one by one. On the stairs down to the pitch there
were guards every ten steps or so that kept you from running. Down on the
pitch I could run for another 50m, when there was another ring of guards
and so on and so on. I crossed about 5-8 rings of guards to make it into
the inner section, Keith side this time. It's a stupid thing to control
a crowd, but it's the Munich way of doing it. The same with fireworks.
Fireworks are not fireworks in Munich, they are little blobs and spits,
that's all. The confetti machines for Brown Sugar had to be installed on
top of the stage sound system, the end-firework was barely seen, and the
one that goes off when the Stones have left was seen by nobody, as that
took place on the ground behind the stage and they were not allowed to
have that higher than 2 m or so.
The rain
set in right before the Hothouse Flowers were going on stage and what a
bit of rain. Everything was drowned in a minute. I had that once before
in East-Berlin 1990, 2nd show, where the stage was nearly falling apart
and of course in Munich 1982 and 1990 (1995 was different: I orderd pitch
tickets but got bad seats high up, so it didn't rain at all then). The
Hothouse Flowers couldn't win under those circumstances. They tried, but
the audience was trying to get not as wet as they already were.
After some more warnings
about the show possibly being interrupted due to extreme weather conditions
and the promise, that the full show would be played, the Stones came on
around 8.40 pm (maybel as in Wembley). Richards
wore some outrageos green shoes, Jagger wore a hat a lot of the time, Even
Ronnie did wear one when it got raining really heavily. The rain didn't
stop the show, but we could see some outrageos stage wear by Jagger (that
one coat with the fur round the collar was brilliant), no glimmer jacket
for OOC, but a leather jacket & hat. Keith had a sergeant's jacket
from the dutch army he wore for his songs and during the end bit and Charlie
even wore a rain jacket, when he had to cross the bridge.
The show
was good, but not brilliant, Jagger missed his bit in Tumbling Dice, Keith
had to save that song and Love is strong (web choice) was another rehearsal
version. they seemed to play it safe as well last night. During Miss You
Jagger dared to kiss Lisa's inner thighs, but she was still laughing about
him. It was good to see that right in front of you this time, but all in
all, you can see more and better on Ronnie's side. There's more eople
over there on stage than on Keith' side. You do hear much more of Keith
on his side, though.
Best bit:
the ending of Wanna Hold you, where the guitars where really battling,
great version.
Odd bit:
Jagger coming on stage for Sympathy (fromt he catwalk). He gave Ronnie
a strange look about not playing correctly or not at all. Ronnie got eye
contact with Keith and complained about Jagger's complaint. Keith tried
to calm Ronnie down, who seemed pretty upset, because he was not supposed
to play at all, as this was BEFORE the guitars set in. The guitarists then
went to Charlie's drums and planned for revenge: When going over to the
chorus, all three hit an offbeat note, that had Jagger looking back in
amazement and everybody was laughing again.
Other strange
bit: Jagger going out on the catwalk again for "Brown Sugar" and Charlie
alone on the stagefront, going left and right and thanking the crowd with
the other three in the back. Mind: I bet Charlie now likes what he does
and on the next tour we see him do his own solo bit as well. There's Bernard,
who can sing, we have a piano and there's brass as well, so let's all vote
for a Charlie solo song, ok?
The set list:
1.Satisfaction
2.Let's
Spend The Night Together
3.Flip
The Switch
4.Gimme
Shelter
5.Anybody
Seen My Baby
6.It's
Only Rock'n Roll
7.Saint
Of Me
8.Out
Of Control
9.Love
Is Strong (web choice)
10.Miss You
-- Introductions --
11.You Don't
Have To Mean It (Keith)
12.Wanna Hold
You (Keith)
13.Little
Queenie (center stage)
14.You Got
Me Rocking (center stage)
15.Like A
Rolling Stone (center stage)
16.Sympathy
For The Devil
17.Tumbling
Dice
18.Honky Tonk
Women
19.Start Me
Up
20.Jumping
Jack Flash
21.Brown Sugar
(encore)
So this was
the first of the cancelled shows. If it would have taken place in May,
we would have been around staying with a friend, who now had moved to our
area. So I had to find a hotel, which was not a big problem, but was quite
expensive, and I was on my own. I was missing my wife a bit, but on the
other hand could be at the Olympiastadium very early. Walking around it
I met Dieter Hoffman again, who was right in front of the gate for the
pitch. We chatted quite some time as the opening of the gates was delayed
and delayed again. It was nice to see how he got the security women into
a conversation and with his charme he even persuaded them to let him be
the first to get in when the gates were opened at last. Of course he got
his postion on Ronnie's side again. :-))
Axel, Birgit
and Dirk came to that gate as well, but they came 40 minutes after me and
it was crowded then. So we all met in Keith's side. Birgit was overwhelmed
to be in front row again as she had that about 20 times in 1990, together
with Dieter Hoffmann (and you can see her in the opening shots of Start
Me Up in "At the Max" as well). Nico was still in his office in Berlin,
taking a late flight in, when we were at the gates. I think that was the
first show where we all found out how useful mobile phones can be. He arrived
during the Hothouse Flowers and we got him into the front section well
before the show. Gerd was with us as well and Werner Dwenger (from Stoneware)
was a couple of rows behind us, for obvious reasons.
The show was
not that good like the other two before, due to the rain, but spirits were
high, so I enjoyed it a lot. It was a shame that we were all staying at
different places, so we split up after the show, Birgit and Dirk going
back home on the motorway, Werner taking the train to Hamburg, Axel and
Gerd staying with Hans and Nico and me going to our hotels. I did walk
round Munich the next morning, as I had the afternoon flight booked for
leaving, but did not meet anyone from the Stones. I think they had left
early or were still in bed by that time.
Axel did bring his camera this
time, so we have got some pics from there.

Keith during Jumping Jack Flash |

Brown Sugar |

Gerd van der Zee, Birgit Jennerjahn,
Nico Zentgraf, Johannes Delmere |
 |

"Backstage" after the show |

"Backstage" after the show |

Babylon from behind |

Werner Dwenger |

Gerd van der Zee, Birgit Jennerjahn,
Axel Schumacher (& bits of Nico and Dirk Jennerjahn) |
Here's
what other people said about the show.