"We had the fortune to be asked by the Rollin' Stones to support them on the European leg of their voodoo lounge tour:
Schüttorf, August 13th, 1995
Leipzig, August 17th, 1995
Berlin, August 18th, 1995
Hockenheim, August 19th, 1995
Mannheim, August 23rd, 1995
Wolfsburg, August 27th, 1995
Luxembourg, August 28th, 1995
Rotterdam, August 29th, 1995
Rotterdam, August 30th, 1995
The stones people used to film every night so they could show the band on their jumbo vision screens. They filmed us at Wolfsburg to do a trial run before filming the band and were very kind in giving us the videotape after the gig. The sound you hear is a stereo mix straight from the out-front desk and no ambient mikes were used. This is why there is a lack off audience noise.
The Stones were very good with us as we shared the same security people and agent. We had our own porta-cabin as a dressing room but the stones people said that we could use their backstage facilities, which included snooker table, arcade games and the best catering I have ever came across. The shepherds pie with hp sauce was to die for.
On meeting Keith for the first time, he simply said (referring to our close friend and security man Joe Seabrook) "hey, Big Country. We made an ol’ Seabrook a happy man. Welcome"
The Rollin' Stones are the only band I have supported I wanted to watch every night. Sometimes we would go out-front and sometimes we would watch from behind Charlie, or next to Keith and Ronnie's amps. I remember having a chuckle when Charlie scolded 'Keef' and 'Woody' for not using ashtrays on stage. One highlight was singing the backing vocals to Sympathy For The Devil with Bernard Fowler side stage. Charlie and Mark got on well and Charlie would sometimes check him out from backstage.
In Leipzig our manger Ian Grant accidentally set fire to our dressing room. I think one of Woody's kids managed to put it out. This was to happen on a daily basis and by Rotterdam we were becoming a bit suspicious that Ian was up to no good.
In between Leipzig and Berlin we came across Colditz.
Here is an extract from my diary at the time 'it's not just a job, it's an adventure'. So the brochure says. Travelling on the Rolling Stones 'Voodoo Lounge' tour we found ourselves 'bored and out of welding rods' on a road trip between Leipzig and Berlin, high on yonder hill there stood a castle that looked a bit familiar.
As usual, being the global nosy bastards that we are, we decided to investigate. It turns out that 'Yonder Castle' is none other than 'Colditz' castle, world famous for being the castle that is known as Colditz, slap bang in the middle of a small town, known locally as Colditz. We made our way into the 'bad boys camp' and found ourselves in the imposing courtyard. What a effin' grim place to be incarcerated in I thought. It was a glorious sunny day on the outside of the castle walls but inside, the high walls ensured that no light got in. A scruffy looking chap approached us and in his best English told us that we could wander free around the court yard but to be reasonably quiet as the former pow camp was now in use as a mental hospital.
'Home at last I thought' this would be the perfect place to spend an afternoon that would usually entail sitting on a tour bus with the same people that one has spent the last fifteen years sitting on a tour bus with. I decided to leave the group to get a smoke then some shut-eye. I wandered of into this room which I found out later was where they kept the Dutch prisoners. I don't know if it was the effect of the 'welding rods' or maybe I was just too tired but I was awakened an hour later by our scruffy friend. Seemingly I had wandered into another part of the castle and got my self locked in a wine cellar. The only way out was through one of the ill-fated tunnels that were partially concrete'd up.
I was told that luckily I was still in the non-hospital side of the castle because if I was caught in the working part they would have kept me in thinking I was a patient trying to go 'walkies'.
"Broken String Blues" not a song as such, more of a happy accident we had this incompetent guitar tech who shall remain nameless. Let's call him Kenny. Kenny was new to the job and a bit prone to stringing the guitars wrong. One night in Freiberg we did an acoustic show between 2 Stones dates the gig was going great until Stuart broke a string. Kenny was to busy either eyeing up some fraulines or picking his nose that he didn't act quickly and find strings. Stuart being very spontaneous found some and restrung his guitar onstage.
Tony, Mark and I started up a blues in the vein of howling wolf and Stuart ad-libbed how the string had been passed down generations of players. All the way from the blues guys to Mick Ronson and Steve Jones. This was then passed on to Rusty Egan then to Stuart who formed The Skids then Big Country. This song was completely spontaneous and only played once in our career. I hope you have fun watching it".
- Bruce Watson. November 2005
I had the luxury of having a live video to refer too whilst mastering the sound for the Das Fest CD, the audio for which we have used on this DVD. It also jogged my currently, perforated memory as to the events of the evening.
I do not find it easy to remember individual gigs and the surrounding atmosphere, but seeing and listening to this gave me a pleasant surprise. Like the 'Stones', we were sometimes tighter than a duck's rear but on other occasions, looser than a flag on a pole in the wind. This gig had both. The rain and wind was a factor that made the adversity factor even greater.
As for the Voodoo Lounge Tour and in particular the Wolfsurg concert, I had never seen or played in front of so many people. So many people, all looking at us. I had never been on such a big stage, such a big stage, and we played on it. Our music filled the stage, all the way out to the middle-distance. It was effin' great.
I originally wrote this after the tragic loss of our Stuart Adamson for the Das Fest CD sleeve notes. On this DVD, you won't hear him playing his absolute best, you will hear him having a large time. Now you have the DVD, you will see him looking as much a rock star as he ever did.
For those of you who braved that wet evening in Karlsruhe, this is a cool aural memory..... for us all.
- Tony Butler. November 2005
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