So the “final” tour by Guano Apes. It was a bitch of a schedule as they did a couple of dates then took a few days off, but, i HAD TO see every show on this tour as i’d been with them so long. A bunch of the “Usual Suspects” also did multiple shows. There were many mixed feelings for sure.
Great organisation at this festival. The way it should be. They actually gave me a pass for the whole festival, but, i only stayed for a day. A Good day as well ! Great to finally see Die Happy. After the gig a bunch of us hung around on this very cold night waiting for early morning buses. P.S. Thats Sandra back stage on the quad bike, having a driving lesson (At the time, she couldn’t drive)
I filmed the show. Afterwards we went to Amsterdam for some beers in Teasers. Michel filmed one of the girls. Then as we stepped out onto the main street, some guy asks ” Do you want cocaine?” !
Backstage, before the show, Dennis did his little party trick with Kirsten 
There was a cool after show party where band& crew attended.At the time,it looked like this would be the “last” GA gig.
Myself & Michel started partying in Amsterdam. We then took a train to somewhere ( ?!) where “Johnny Playboy” picked us up. As we pulled in, he had a sign which said something like “Garbage Travel” 😉 Edit : Michel sent me a photo & it was in fact “Trash Travel” on JPs sign.
Once we got to festival site, they hadn’t opened & it was getting very boring & tiring. Then the beers & other things came out 😉 Gotta say, people just don’t seem to sleep at this festival. 24 hour partying. One of the worst/strangest memories was in the early hours 3/4 am, some dick head was wandering around with a megaphone trying to sell weed ! A funny memory was in the morning, when Guano Apes arrived at festival, Henning phoned me to arrange a meet. Johnny Playboy thought this was kinda funny…not everyday you’re in a tent at a festival & a rock star phones you 😉
This was a really strange one. It was obvious things were just not right. Not the best of performances. Sheffield was originally booked at the Corporation & some how it was moved to the University. Cannot remember why that happened. Of course, no one had left any indication of the show changing venues at Corporation. I told Kirsten about it so at least the few folks who’d booked their tickets were not on a wild goose chase. The Sheffield gig was pretty strange. Not very busy & there was a tension within the band & crew. The following day the remaining UK dates were cancelled. Everyone was left in the dark as to if/when they’d be rescheduled (They never were rescheduled & it sucks that their last UK show was this poor tbh) . Fortunately, i hadn’t took my flight to Edinburgh…i was in departure lounge Nottingham when Henning phoned me to say the shows were off. I was so disappointed (Lol but nothing like the bigger tour that was gonna get cancelled in 2011 lol). Didn’t fancy going up to Edinburgh, i think i hadn’t even booked a hotel, so drove back home & watched the shit storm unfold. To think they were so close to playing Rock City….& it didn’t happen 🙁
If i ever get to see them again, i must remember to take Hennings video tapes that he filmed around Sheffield & Edinburgh ! (I just keep forgetting to take ’em. Sorry my friend)
2nd night in Munich. Better than first night…?
After Sandras onstage meltdown a few days earlier in Oberhausen, there was a strange atmosphere in the GA camp…. Everyone seemed far apart.
Updated thought Feb 2017 :
The main (good) memory i have of this date was chatting with Olaf before the gig. I was interested to find out about I.E.M.s as i realised so many bands had been using them for years & surely, that source could make for an interesting live recording if you could tap into it? Well, it’s not so straight forward as firstly, you needed a licence to use them. Then the different musicians have their own personal mix. I never did try to follow through with the idea (because of costs mainly) but it’s obvious i’m not the first person to think of this as over the years a bunch of I.E.M. recording of different bands have turned up. There’s some pros out there now. A typical example would be Iron Maiden Tokyo 2016. They used multiple IEM feeds + an audience recording for ambiance & it’s one of the finest Maiden boots ever !
As to my memories of GA at this time? Cannot really say 😉