You might start to wonder if that's the reason why I relocated to the Netherlands six years ago... *grin*

Yes, or early 1995...

walk this world on MTV. great song, great video.

Save a little Piece of Tomorrow
London Rain
Higher Ground
I miss my sky
I wanna be your light
Winterblue
Beautiful Ride
Moon
Fool for you
Do something that scares you
All I need
Like lovers do
Stay
Island
Turn the compass round
Make you mine
Heart and shoulder

Encore 1:
Everything changes
Maybe Tomorrow
Truth and Bone

Encore 2:
Walk this world
Sugar

it's her facebook status.

exactly!

Bernd: yes, that was only at soundcheck.
Cassander: I have that show on a CD which is in storage. In the current spirit of "sharing is caring" started by Heather opening her vaults, I'll dig it out for you. Much easier than the cassette tape.

Glad to finally hear it. I remember Felix telling me about this recording, the afternoon before the start of the <i>South</i> tour...

The box set might still be a dream, but the virtual archive seems more and more like a reality these days. I guess I must start pledging.

And just because every dream is just a dream, after all:

the cover the band played in that bar in Basel in 2001 was "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Tony Joe White (such a great song - I must have it somewhere)

+

I actually have a pretty good recording of Heather and guests singing "One Love" by Bob Marley at New Years' Eve 1999... is that what you were looking for?

M.

not a bad song! And it's not the first time either...

no further developments on this project yet - tape is with me in Amsterdam, hopefully I'll soon have time to bring it to the audiolab.
M.

You'd might be interested in this...

http://soundcloud.com/beritfridahl

I agree with Felix on this one...

FYI - I found the original tape with the Lahr soundcheck. :)

There are two rather complete versions of "Drive Away" on it. (beginning of "Take One" is missing, "Take Two" is complete). Sound is bad, can't quite figure out the lyrics, but hey, this is the closest to a studio recording you can get...

Just for fun, I'll bring the tape to a THX Certified Studio I have access to (this one: http://www.cineco.nl), and see what happens! Stay tuned!

M.

Again: they have CNN on the tourbus too, you know? :)
We're talking about professional people whose job is to travel internationally. I am sure they're fully aware of the situation, and in touch with local promoters should there be any further developments on the strike.

Do you really think they don't know about this?

good job, Heinz!

And I honestly think that when Taylor Rankin's going to leave the tour, Gloomy Sunday and I Miss My Sky won't be the same... it's just pure magic with that trio on stage.

yes, All The Way!

She also played 'Everything Changes'. I think Gerd forgot that.

I personally love 'Talk to Me' way more than 'Motherland'. Especially in the acoustic arrangement.

excellent. great crowd! And she played 'Light Years'...

I'll look for the tape, then maybe send it to Gerd.

No, I haven't requested All The Way. But she played me Grow Young for my birthday once (what a great party!).
I am sure there's a recording of Drive Away from the soundcheck (several versions) and a recording from the concert (with way too much bass if I recall correctly, distorting everything).

Yes, here's to hoping! You never know with a true artist like Heather. But to be honest with you, I think that "I walk..." has always been a complete poem, while possibly "Drive Away" was just two verses and this chorus... and felt like it was maybe 90% complete, but not the full thing yet. Which I think it's the reason why it got left behind. But, I know that at least a demo had been recorded, and Felix confessed me that he worked quite hard to get that guitar intro right...
But then again, remember "Days and Nights"? Such an amazing song. What happened to that? It never even got played once (that I know of... prove me wrong!).
I just hope one day Heather makes a gigantic Box Set with everything (or a metadata searchable virtual database, or whatever the music industry will be at in 20 years!).
PS Gerd, nu Ik ben een Amsterdammer!

It's my fault. I am sorry.

If only I had known that my weakness would have led to such obsession, I'd probably would have refrained. Or maybe not.

Too bad that my superb Sony Walkman had just been stolen. It had a fantastic separate stereo microphone. Control for bias. Hiss reduction. Even a counter. A perfect machine.

I had just replaced it with another Sony thingy. But more of a dictaphone and less of a high-quality bootlegging machine.

Anyway. I arrived in Basel on a train, and while on my way to the hotel, I realized I had just passed in front of the club where Heather was playing that evening. The whole gang was there, ready for soundcheck. I stopped by.

I had enjoyed several times the pleasure of being the only audience member at soundchecks. Sometimes it's just multiple hits on the bloody snare drum, some guitar strumming, light positioning and that was it. But that afternoon in Basel... quite the opposite.

Not only did I get three full songs in full band attire. But all three of them were unreleased at the time. "It's Only Love", "Drive Away" and a cover of ***** ***** ** ****** which I had never Heather play with a full band before (and never afterwards, for that matter!)

Wow. The prefect appetizer to a fantastic evening show (which included an incredible version of "Blessed", and also "It's Only Love")

The day after, I went to Lahr. But a day off in the Black Forest resort seemed boring to me. I couldn't wait for the show on the following day.

I showed up early. Bastian had to go back to London and Paul Sandrone flew in for this one gig only. This meant an extensive soundcheck, in this booming, empty building. It was me, Maud, and a few other friends in there. The bloody dictaphone always on, just in case.

That night, on top of "It's Only Love" we also got "Tested" (which still had no title!) and "All The Way", and a few others.

Such great memories.

On the train ride back home, I listened to the tapes. That guitar intro to "Drive Away" kept ringing in my ears. How could that song not be the next top single of Heather's new album?

I always kept my recordings private. Just notes and sketches on the endless favorite topic of mine that is Heather's music. But that time I was weak.

I copied the shows (or what was audible from those tapes) as a present to a "friend" far away. And then she leaked. Oh well.

Ten years later I still can't believe that people still talk about that song, just because of that tape. But then again, it's a pretty good song, right?

But those were the days. Check today's shows. Isn't "Talk to Me" great? And what about "Someone New", "Like Lovers Do", "Gloomy Sunday"? They all popped out around that time.

And some people still say "South" is a weak album. Go figure!

Anyway, last night I realized that there was only one way to make Heather's songs better: let them age like good wine.

Especially if you were lucky enough to be there and remember the days when she picked up the grapes.

M.

(apologies if the rambling's too long. If anyone has a great tape player and wants to give it a try to clean up that muffled sound, let me know!)

just stumbled upon this, looking at this man's great portfolio of animal pics...

http://www.schlijper.nl/portfolio/portraits2/28.html