It was also on radio2 , about the repetition…bass players to entrance two …. Or B. Something like that 
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Radio 2 is the best! Radio 1 is for info dandies and radio 3 for muzak!
@Mike_NL will become famous, and we were there when it happened 
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This is so cool!
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I’m looking forward to it. 
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That’s just bonkers!!! But a lot of fun!
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Right, so where do I start? At the beginning I guess. I woke up very early on the day of the concert. Not that I felt particularly nervous, but I guess there must have been some anticipation nevertheless.
Guitar and bass players had been asked to arrive around 11:00 (AM). First, we had to go through registration to receive our wrist band, which would allow us access to all the important locations within the venue:
This hall was also the place were we had our coffee, lunch and dinner, and where we spent lots of time waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more.
Right after arrival we were expected to find a spot on the floor of the arena, which is next to the big hall, and set up our gear. I already posted some pictures of that a week ago, so I won’t do that again. Instead, I’m linking a short video I took from my spot:
I was surprised how small the venue felt, with the lights on and the seats empty. That feeling would change later that day…
After setting up our gear, we had to return to the other hall, because the band and other musicians needed to soundcheck. This gave us an opportunity to grab some coffee and a sandwich, and to chat about the things to come.
At around 12:30 (PM), we were asked to get ready for the final rehearsal, which was supposed to start at 13:00 (1:00 PM). And boy, what a mess that rehearsal was… In accordance with Murphy’s law, pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Especially all the technology involved refused to work as it should. Since it’s such a large arena, everybody had to wear these “silent disco” headphones, that allowed us to hear each other, and to play in time together. As far as I could tell, nobody could actually hear what they were supposed to hear. The coaches couldn’t hear each other. Both them and the band members couldn’t hear the instruments they needed to hear. If they did hear the correct instruments, it was either too loud, or not loud enough. All of us on the floor couldn’t hear the band. At 13:30 (1:30 PM) we were all still standing there, and we hadn’t even played one single note, while we were trying to sort out the technical difficulties.
Eventually, most of the technical problems were sorted, so we started rehearsing the four songs. This didn’t go very well either. People that hadn’t attended any rehearsals were unaware of the arrangements that had been made there. The director for the singers would have them start a couple of bars early or late, leading to chaos amongst the other musicians. In the end, we were able to play most of the songs somewhat decent, before we got kicked out of the arena, because the next group needed to rehearse.
So, at around 15:30 (3:30 PM), we all went back to the big hall, many of us thinking that it would never work out, and that the actual performance was going to be one big mess. Fortunately, we had a couple of hours to unwind, grab some dinner and coffee, and watch the start of the show on a big screen.
Basically, the cover band that also accompanied us played for about an hour, playing old Golden Earring hits with various relatively well-known Dutch guest singers (for the Dutchies: Jan Dulles, Ellen ten Damme, Frédérique Spigt, Waylon, and others). After that, a “rock orchestra” consisting of wind instruments (mostly) played a Golden Earring greatest hits.
Around that time (I think it was around 21:30 or 9:30 PM), we had to get ready, and then walked in four or five large groups to backstage locations in the main arena, where we had to wait for the rock orchestra to finish and leave the podium:
Only then did I start to become a little bit nervous, mostly because I was fed up with all the waiting. When we were finally allowed to enter the arena and go to our spots, I was pretty relieved.
I already posted some videos of our performance, so I won’t do that again. All I can say is that, by some kind of miracle, all of the technology suddenly worked as it should, and we put on a hell of a show, if I do say so myself. As soon as we had finished the first song, we looked at each other knowing, “this went well, we need to keep this up!” And I think we did.
As it turned out, Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk had been playing drums together with all the other drummers. After we had finished, he was pulled on stage, thanked everybody, and asked that we play “Radar Love” one more time. I’ll link a video I took at that time from the exact same spot as the first one:
Looks very different with people in the seats and the lights out! So we played Radar Love one more time, and that was it. It was a truly amazing experience, much much bigger than I had anticipated, and something I will surely never forget for as long as I live. I eventually got home around 0:30 (12:30 AM), and I didn’t go to bed until about 2:00 (AM) because my head was still spinning from everything that I had experienced. Fortunately, I took the following day off as well, so I had some time to sleep in and unwind. The songs we had played kept playing on repeat in my head for a couple of days more…
But now I can truly say: “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!”
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Very cool!!!
That’s truly a cinematic experience. I hope our own Dutch director legend Paul Verhoeven reads this and makes it into a proper movie!
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A documentary about the whole project will air on January 1st, 2025, at 20:30 (NPO2).
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Wow, that was an experience to never forget! Congrats!
Will be looking forward to the docu
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