Ralphy's Concert Reviews

Bospop 2002 Rockfestival at Boshoven in Weert Friday 12-07-2002

featuring

Wealthy Beggar, Fools Fatal, Di-Rect, Van Dik Hout, Rosemary's Sons, Venice, Def P & The Beatbusters, Willy DeVille, Dan Baird & Friends, Toto, Fish and UB40.

A mix of styles can be very entertaining

For the 5th time I paid a visit to the small festival called Bospop, I already wrote a review of my visit to Bospop 1999 in which I also mentioned my first 2 visits in 1994 and 1995. I was also present last year, but because I went on vacation the day after that visit I did not write a review of that year. The main performers I saw last year were the female Dutch country-star Ilse DeLange (good performance), Venice, Anouk (who was much more into it and therefore played more spirited than at Pinkpop 2001) and The Black Crowes, who were back for a return engagement at Bospop. I liked their act in 1995 better, but they are still a cool band to watch playing live and I'm glad I did, because sadly enough they split up in the past year. Bospop is a 2 day festival for a couple of years now, this year there were even 3 days of music at Boshoven, because the Dynamo metalfestival would be held the next (Sun)day at the same location, but I have never visited both days. Mostly because usually only on one day I am really interested in the program that they have to offer. This year was no different in that area. We chose to go on Friday and ignored the Saturday, although on that day there were a couple of bands I did like such as Kane and Bush, but I already saw them during Pinkpop 2002. The other big name programmed on Saturday was Therapy?, but I don't really know their music, except for "Diane".

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We (Maurice and me) left home around 2PM, because Maurizio was late as usual, to pick up the others (my girlfriend Monja, Astrid and my cousin Alex) and we were on the highway at just after 10 past 2. It takes about an hour to drive to Weert and there was a line to park (ridiculous price of EURO 2.50), so it was 15.20 hours before we were on the festival-grounds. At that time we already missed the performance of Wealthy Beggar (intentionally, I had never heard of them, so we did see no need to go early to catch their act) and Fools Fatal were in the middle of their show when we walked in. Like Wealthy Beggar they are also a Dutch band and I did not know them either, but had considered catching a glimpse of their thing, but as we were a tad late, I decided (as natural leader of our group) to venture to the second stage in the tent immediately, because in about 10 minutes Di-Rect were scheduled to play there. While we were waiting for them we tried to buy some beverage tickets, but the register in the tent wasn't open yet, but luckily Astrid was kind enough to stand in (the long) line of the outdoor register. They were still soundchecking when we came into the tent, so it was no surprise that Di-Rect started 10 minutes late. They are a young Dutch punk/pop-rockquartet from The Hague, who I had seen perform once before at the Pinkpop 2002 festival. The band members are Tim Akkerman (vocals &guitar), Spike van Zoest (guitar), Bas van Wageningen (bass) and Jamie Westland (drums). They played a setlist that was very similar (if not totally so) to that of Pinkpop. Since that performance I have come to know their music a bit better, because I obtained an mp3-version of their debut (and only) CD "Discover" from a friend, Marcel Vanhommerig (ut ääpje). I like the album and they started their show rocking with good songs like "Revenge" and "Confidence". Following that they played "Follow" the only song that is not on the before mentioned album and than "Just the way I do", their first single, which apparently now is doing very well in the charts of Indonesia of all places. By the way Astrid spotted a genuine Dutch popstar in the audience, right behind us was Martijn from K-Otic, the popband that grew out of the Dutch tv-show 'Starmaker'. I'm not a fan of that band or that program, so I won't waste any more time on that. Next up was "Discover", the titlesong of the album and according to Tim his favourite, I very much liked the drums(intro) on that. After that they played their biggest hit so far "Inside my head" and I noticed that they did not get very much response of the crowd, in fact quite a few people were already leaving the tent. The following song "Free rider" has Spike on lead vocals and I don't really like his kinda feminine voice, it has some Sid Vicious/Johnny Rotten-likeness, but we all know that these members of the Sex Pistols weren't known for their vocal-qualities. I liked the next song, the latest single "Free", with a piano-intro of Jamie much better and the remaining audience even showed some enthusiasm. The 2 last songs we heard were "Getaway" and "On the farm", but we did not stay for the end of that. Because Di-Rect had started late, we had to leave before they were finished. We did not want to mis the start of the performance of Van Dik Hout on the mainstage. I liked the act of Di-Rect better than the one at Pinkpop, but as they were off to a good start, the quality decreased during the show and I wasn't even that disappointed to leave early. The green songs I liked best and the red songs worst and the total thing I rate with a 7.0.

As stated the next band to perform was Van Dik Hout, which literally means From Thick Wood (it is part of a Dutch saying). As you probably could gather from the name this band writes and plays songs in Dutch. In 1994 they had their major breakthrough in Holland with the single "Stil in mij" (look for a complete setlist of their show and translations below), which is still the most popular Dutch language song of all times in The Netherlands. The following debut album, simply entitled "Van Dik Hout", made them an instant success in our small country and they won several big awards in the following years. I regarded them as the best thing Dutch language music had to offer for the second part of the 90's, but in the meantime I think they have been surpassed by Bløf, who I watched playing live a week earlier. Nonetheless I had never seen Van Dik Hout perform live before and I still like their stuff and therefore I looked forward to the show. It included 3 previously unreleased songs, if you count the new single "Stip aan de hemel", from the new album that is due in September. I was happy to hear 4 songs from the before mentioned debut album, which is still their best work in my opinion. I forgot to introduce the members of the band, they are Martin Buitenhuis (vocals), Sandro Assorgia on guitar, Dave Rensmaag on solo guitar, Ben Kribben (bass) and Louis de Wit on drums. I counted 6 men on stage on this day, but I have no idea who the 6th guy is. During their act I also learned another important life lesson the hard way: "Never shake no with your head, while you're carrying a plastic cup of beer with your teeth" :). Also during this act Astrid was somehow inspired to confess some things she does not like sexually (we joke around like that all the time), but I promised her not to reveal anything in this review. I liked the set of Van Dik Hout O.K., although singer Martin Buitenhuis sometimes seems a bit pretentious, in fact the music they try to write/make seems to be somwhat pretentious. Especially during that new single "Stip aan de hemel" I got that idea. It sounded like they had been trying to write a rock-epic or rock-classic and most of them, I think, actually get written by not trying so hard. A pleasant surprise during that song was the appearance of the chick singer Kirsten (I'm not putting her down, she actually named her album "The chick singer"). The single also includes her (it's sort of a duet), but that does not necessarily mean that she is present during live performances. In this case gladly she was and I only felt sorry for her that she had to leave the stage after only one song (only part of the song actually). If I would have had something to say about it, I would have made more use of her. She looked great moving around on stage (Maurizio stated that he would be eager to spend an evening entertaining her). I also heard frontman Martin (who shouted out "Bospop" a bit too often) proclaim that "Dichterbij" was his favourite song. The whole set did not urge to much response from the crowd, which was a bit tame, that is until the last song, the obligatory "Stil in mij". This song is so popular in Holland, it gets every audience going and this day was no different. It must be kinda frustrating for them that their first single is and will always be their biggest hit. On the other hand they still seem to enjoy playing it, but at times an evergreen like that must feel like a bit of a burden (if not a pain in the ass). All in all Van Dik Hout was O.K., they could have made things easier for themselves by playing some more of the older hits like "Laat het los" (Let it go) or "Mijn held zijn" (To be my hero), but instead they chose the more unconventional (and harder ) way. You have the give them credit for that. I rate them with a 7.5.

When Van Dik Hout was finished we went straight back to the tent, where Rosemary's Sons had already started playing. Like their predecessors on this stage Di-Rect, they are a new and upcoming Dutch band. The difference being that the music of Rosemary's Sons is more smooth and poppy, but it's still guitar-oriented rock. The bandmembers are Martijn Hagens (vocals, guitar), Ad van Halteren (bass), Bart Herber (drums), Thomas Lina (keyboards) and the latest addition Maarten van Damme on guitar. The first song I heard them play was their first single "Fall from grace", which barely reached the Dutch Top 50. Next up was "Stand still", I liked both these songs. Following to this they played 2 ballads, the latest single "Up all night" and the titlesong of their debut album "All in hand". The same friend who had provided me with the mp3-version of the album of Di-Rect also gave me a (mp3-)copy of this debut album of Rosemary's Sons as well as 14 other CD's, so I knew their stuff a little. The 2 ballads didn't really impress me much and I noticed that the 2 males in my group also paid more attention to a girl with ponytails behind us. The tent was not very crowded anyway, but I don't think the guys on stage could be blamed for that. They are not that well known yet and the nice weather outside did not invite people to go into a hot tent neither. The people, who were in the tent did show some enthusiasm in regard to the next song. It was the song that really did put Rosemary's Sons a bit on the map of Dutch artists. It was their second single and biggest hit so far "Shine", on record a duet with the before mentioned Ilse DeLange . I really liked that single, but Ilse wasn't present here and I must admit I missed her contribution to the song. I remember thinking that they could have made use of Kirsten, who had done a similar thing with Van Dik Hout an hour earlier. The last song they played was "Head over heels", which was O.K. All in all the part of the performance I saw wasn't bad, but wasn't mindblowing either. Maybe I missed the part where they played cool songs like "Jealousy" and "Cheyenne", but what I did hear I rate with a 6.0.

After this performance we decided to grab something to eat, make a sanitary stop, drink some more and meanwhile enjoy the sunshine and the act of Venice on the main stage from a distance. The girls grabbed a hamburger and a chicken burger, the guys each ate 2 (!!) portions of french fries and I myself treated me to the Turkish delight of Döner kebab, which was yummy. Small anecdote: For going to the loo, you had to pay EURO 0.20, every time or you could buy a card for 12 stops for EURO 2.00, which we did. The card got punctured at the entrance as you went and both me and the girls had already gone once, so the numbers 1, 2 and 3 were punctured. Next Maurice had to go and when he came back the whole group was wondering if Maurizio always counted 1, 2, 3, ... 7, because that was the number he had punctured. During all of this we were still enjoying the show of Venice. As you could have seen in this report, they performed at Bospop for the second year in a row. Last year we paid more attention to the activities of the 4 Lennon brothers and cousins and I reasonably liked their stuff, although their style in the tradition of vocal groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Mama's & The Papa's is not really up my alley. I remember them doing a song with Ilse DeLange (she gets mentioned a lot for an artist not performing this year) last year, for which she was very nervous, because she was a huge admirer of Venice. This year they again gave an entertaining performance, I don't really know their songs very well and I did not even attempt to write down their setlist, but I did hear them end their act with a medley of famous songs of other artists just like in 2001. For people, who do not really know their own stuff (like me), this is obviously the most exciting part of their show. In 2001 they did songs like "Feelin' allright", "You can't always get what you want", "Stop (hey, what's that sound)" and "Take a walk on the wild side" and in this years medley I recognized "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" and another Rolling Stones-tune "Sympathy for the devil". I rate the show of Venice as I would have last years with a 6.0 .

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After "dinner" we went to take a look at the shopping booths on the grounds, where you could buy stuff like rare CD's (first time at Bospop I did not buy a CD, nothing I liked), clothes-stuff and funny t-shirts for adults (I wanted to buy Monja the B.I.T.C.H.-one, subscription: Beautiful, Intelligent, Talented, Creative, Horny, but she had some problems with the Horny-part) and babies (I liked the one that stated in Dutch "now I'm gonna put a nice load of shit in my diaper"). The only one, who ended up buying something was Maurizio, a cool pair of purple-lined sunglasses at the price of 5 Euro. In the meanwhile Def P & The Beatbusters were performing in the tent, but because nobody in our group is a fan of their Dutch rap-style music, we chose to ignore them entirely, just as we did earlier at Pinkpop 2002. After our shopping "spree" we needed some r(est) & r(elaxation) and we found it in the middle of the grounds. The women and I laid down, while the guys roamed around looking for glimpses of the more beautiful gender walking this earth. After a while I went to buy some more drinking tickets (yes, we were on a roll once again) and when I came back Willy DeVille & Band entered the main stage. I already wasn't a big fan of Willy, best known as the lead singer, of 80's act Mink DeVille, but what he did on stage today was somewhat horrifying to me and my friends. There was maybe one song I liked a little bit, but the rest of this jazzy kinda thing they were doing was totally out of place on this festival and to describe it in the most simplest of fashions, it was shit. Rate: 1.0.

We were glad to escape this torture and ran for the tent were Dan Baird & Friends were due at 8.15PM. They were a bit late, which led to my memorable mixed language phrase, "it's viedel oop eight and you're too late", good for some laughter. The tent was again mostly filled with hot air, so we stood at an arms length of the stage. The first thought crossing my mind when they did start playing was, yeah, this is it, this is way better than what we had just been treated to on the main stage, this is good old fashioned rock, American style. Dan Baird and his drummer Mauro Magellan are best known by the general public as frontman and member of the 1986 hit quartet, The Georgia Satellites. It must be a lapse in my musical education, but I had never heard of them. I was familiar with a small solo hit of his called "I love you period", which was the only song I recognized in the set. Nevertheless after a couple of songs I walked to the back of the tent were the other 2 guys had already gone, in need for some more r&r due to lots of beer and sun and while I was on my back in the grass, I got another thought: 'this is the best music I ever heard, while lying stretched out in a huge tent, totally relaxed'. Not that I do that sort of stuff a lot, but you get my drift, this band was kicking ass. As mentioned I cannot give you the titles of the songs, but I rate their performance with a 7.5.

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Again we had to leave during an act, because the next one was already due to start. In this case I was very eager to leave, because the band due was my main goal of the day, Toto. Once before I had the pleasure of visiting a concert of this legendary band, founded way back in the 70's, during their past-to-present tour in 1990. I look back to that concert with very fond memories. It was at the time of the short interlude of singer Jean-Michel Byron with Toto, who I liked back than contrary to most fans, but it could be that I was just impressed by the quality of the band on that evening. The line-up than was Byron on vocals, Steve Lukather marvelously on guitar, David Paich, and if I remember correctly all three Porcaro-brothers, the much missed Jeff on drums, Steve and Mike on bass. The venue was a convention center in Maastricht, about 50 miles from this place. The venue was well known for its bad acoustics and has been dropped as a concert venue long since. I only saw great performances there, besides this unforgettable show by Toto, there was also a super gig of Simple Minds, during which frontman Jim Kerr fell and got injured, but after a short break he let the show go on (in a splendid manor) anyway and I also saw another band, who later had to mourn the loss of a very significant member, namely Michael Hutchence's INXS. But back to this day, after more than 11 years I was very excited to see Toto again. The performing musicians on this night were the backbone 3, Luke, Mike Porcaro and David Paich on keyboards. Besides them the successor of Jeff Porcaro for 10 years now, Englishman Simon Philips and the returned singer, who had helped form the band, Bobby Kimball. Next to the current members there were also 2 additional musicians, John Jessel (keyboards) and Tony Spinner (guitar), who both also played a vocal part in the show. They started off with a song from the cover-album "Through the looking glass", which is to be released in September. As I later found out it was the Steely Dan-tune "Bodhisattva". During the next song I saw a giant balloon in the sky who seemingly also wanted to reap the benefits of hearing this band play. The entire setlist can be found below, but "Africa" with a great bass solo by Mike, was dedicated to Steve (Porcaro?) and the new single, the Bob Marley-cover "Could you be loved" was announced as something that all UB40-fans in the audience would especially enjoy. What I noticed during the first part of the show was that the sound was not that loud. Most bands just turn the volume up, when they're playing, so the false notes seem to fade in the loudness of it all. Not these guys, who are musically still as firm as a rock and besides that were moving about the stage like young puppies with wiggling tails. Next came the first highlight of their act (at least for me) the instrumental piece "Jake to the bone", which was dedicated to all musicians in the crowd and Jeff (Porcaro). I immensely enjoyed the craft of playing a guitar that Steve Lukather displayed during this song (and others) and the finely tuned equilibrium of light effects and sounds outthere. "Stop loving you" was sung by Tony Spinner and the next highlight arrived with "I won't hold you back" in a new mellow arrangement, inspired by the use of the intro of this song by New York DJ Roger Sanchez in his hitsingle "Another chance" (don't like that single btw, I always want to hear the rest of "I won't hold you back" when I listen to it). During the next song I got talking with Sjimmie from Velden, who wanted to know what I was writing down. I explained that it were notes for this review and I gave him the url for this website and he asked to be mentioned, well herewith. The ending of the show was spectacular with 2 of my favourite Toto-songs, "Rosanna" and "Hold the line". During the first Maurice & Monja left us, heading for the tent, where the next artist Fish was about to start. I don't think they were tired of this act, but they are/have become huge fans of the 'man with a gift for words'. I also should mention the masterful way of playing by David Paich during "Rosanna", well all these guys were good and even more very much enjoying themselves on stage and by that they ignited a flame that sparkled over to the audience. The last song played was "Home of the brave", understandably after the events of 9/11. but it's not my favourite song, though beautifully performed once again. While they played that we also had started moving to the back, because than we could enter the tent before the main stream, but we did stay there till the end. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate the performance of Toto with an 7.9.

Afterwards we rushed into the tent, because I'm also a huge fan of the Fishmeister, as can easily be derived from the fact that he is the most reviewed artist on Ralphy's Reviews Pages. Due to the overlapping time schedule I already missed 2 songs, one of them was "Internal exile" according to Monja. Alex and I moved towards the stage and met up with duo M&M at the great sounds of "Brother 52". Previous to the next song "Tiki4" Fish asked and got a joint from an audience member ('he hadn't had time to visit a coffeeshop'), but after inhaling maybe once are twice he threw it back into the crowd. Next up was "Kayleigh", undoubtedly the most famous song of Marillion, the band that Fish used to be part of. For more background information on the man and that band I refer you to the other reviews I wrote about them. Although the song is so well known, he does not play it regurlarly at concerts and in the introduction he now referred to the first European (continental) convention he ever held for his fans a fortnight ago. Fish played 2 concert at that convention in Enschede, the night of the jester with special attention for his Marillion-era and the night of the companies focused mainly on his solo-career (although I've read he did the entire "Misplaced childhood"-album both evenings) and therefore he had to rehearse a lot of the older songs. By this time (if not earlier) the atmosphere in the tent had exploded. Lots of fans of this artist were present and very enthusiast reacting and participating with and to the show and the people who weren't familiar with him, like my cousin Alex were flabbergasted and thrilled about what was happening here. Not that Fish was in exceptional good form vocally, on the contrary I have heard him sing way better, but the aussem stage presence of this balding giant with the small beerbelly can make up for a lot of things. Especially during "Pipeline" he missed a couple of notes, during "Credo" the crowd sand along so hard, you wouldn't have been able to catch a false tone. In that song someone threw a shirt on stage and our man caught it in midair. The band, consisting of Robyn Bould (on guitar), Steve Vantsis on bass, John Martyr on drums and a new guy, whose name I didn't catch (maybe Irvin Dogood or Duguid, he did the convention?) on keyboards, always took a bit of time in between songs and before the next one, the big Scotsman said 'Are you ready, gentlemen? Let's start this fucking thing!'. Than came, again under loud cheers, the opening tunes of "Market square heroes", the first Marillion-single ever and a song I had not heard being performed live since 25 November 1985, when I first saw them in concert. The public went ballistic once more and I totally flipped out, yet at that point of the song, the man had no problem in calming them down with a few motions to speak/sing the immortal words: 'I am your Antichrist show me allegiance, Are you following me? I am your Antichrist pledge to me defiance, Are you following me? Suffer my pretty warriors, Suffer my fallen child, Are you following me? The time has come to conquer and I'll provide your end. We march', a moment in time I will not soon forget. The great Floridian guitar player John Wesley, who has been supporting Fish a lot in recent years was not present for this show. I missed his virtuosity on the guitar, but the band sounded very compact, and the absence of Wesley's solo's, made for an entirely different sound as the Fish-concerts I attended before. The following song was announced as the last (under booing), because 'the UB's are coming up'. It was another crowdpleaser "Incommunicado", not my favourite, but fitting perfectly in this set. After it the audience did not let our man go like that, they literally demanded his return with cheers and ovation and the organisation let him do one more (like they had a choice :)), it was the obligatory "The company", the song after which his fanclub is named, sung and danced along to in a huge manor as always. What more praise can I give to this man, that I haven't already given in the several reviews I wrote about him? Today he proved he can entertain and even blow up a venue without it being one of his great performing days. I mean, musically Toto was better, but still Fish gave the best show of this Bospop-festival, no doubt in my mind. I rate it with a 8.1.

The last band of the evening was UB40. When we came out of the tent it was raining. Some drops had already been falling during the end of Toto's performance, but while we had been rocking inside the tent, outside a big shower had comedown. It wasn't raining hard now, but we did put on our raincoats (the forecast had been mentioning rainshowers). Monja didn't close her raincoat, Astrid and I therefore joked around about her entering a miss wet T-shirt contest. We were still recovering from Fish's performance and we stayed in the back for this concert, which once again had already started. The first song by UB40, that I heard was "Here I am". It seem they started with "The way you do the things you do", but I missed that. UB40 and me also go way back, their album "Labour of love" was among the first 5 albums (LP) I bought, in a time where I was still searching for my musical likes and dislikes. Reggae turned out not be number one on the eventual list, although I have always remained a fan of this band, but the only other thing I have that they put out is a tape of "Labour of love II". Other songs that I recognized in the first part of the set were "If it happens again", "Kingston Town", "Don't break my heart", "Rat in mi kitchen" and "Maybe tomorrow". In between they apparently also played "1 in 10", "Come back darling" "Homely girl" (can't believe I missed this one), "Reggae music", "Love when you smile", "Rudie", "Cover up" and "Since I met you", but I have to admit that I wasn't focused on the band during the entire time. After the high we experienced in the tent the mellow reggae sounds just could not grab our attention like Fish could. We used up our last remaining food- and drinktickets, Maurizio was very busy talking to some women from 'Voelender' during the whole UB-act and afterwards, the rest of us were dancing around in the rain on the tunes from the nicely decorated main stage. Monja's musical taste is as far from the music of UB40 as it could possibly be, Alex, who in part came along based on the reputation of this band was also not a happy camper. As thrilled as he was by Fish, he was disappointed by the UB's. I explained to him that it is the nature of reggae-music to be very similar in all songs. I referred to a 3-week-vacation that I had taken near Mombasa (Kenia), during which I had regurlarly visited dancings there and they hardly play anything else than reggae (by Bob Marley), so I know the mindnumbing effect it can have if exposed to in an overdosis. Still I for myself like the occasional reggae-tune and was prepared for this dosis. Astrid and I enjoyed the show and we helped the other 2 party along (as stated Maurice was too busy), we even did a polonaise and some sort of reggae-sirtaki. The last part of the show was best btw with the songs "Johnny too bad", "Wear you to the ball", the classic "Red red wine" and to finish with their version of the Elvis Presley-tune "Can't help falling in love". The overall performance of UB40 was not bad, although Alex kept saying that a band like that wasn't right for a festival like this, but as I said in my opening statement a mix of styles can be very entertaining. "Can't help falling in love" kept roaming around in my brain for hours later. I rate the UB's with a 7.0.

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Conclusions regarding the Friday of Bospop 2002:

The one big complaint that I have about this year's Bospop-festival are the overlaps in the timetable. I saw 2 bands in their entirity, Van Dik Hout and Toto, and sadly missed some songs of all other bands I wanted to see. While one (great) band was still playing at one stage, the other already started on the other stage and therefore you always missed part of one of the acts. On the other hand first time visitors Astrid and Alex were very pleasantly surprised by the casual atmosphere of this event and the fact that they could walk so close to the stage, when the bands were performing. The smallness of this festival is a breath of fresh air compared to mega-festivals like Pinkpop or Werchter, although it seems more and more people have discovered that also, since it was a bit more crowded than during previous years. I read they had about 9,000 visitors on Friday (12,000 is the maximum capacity). Musically the mix of styles was refreshing although I would have placed UB40 before Fish and Toto. Obviously Willy DeVille was totally out of place (the North Sea Jazzfestival would have been better for him), but otherwise the presented line-up performed as could be expected and at times even better. We went home tired, but satisfied and had some more fun at the expense of Alex, who was expected at work only 4 hours after we dropped him off at home at 2.30AM. My rate for Bospop 2002 (Friday only): 7.3.

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