It would seem from the feedback we’ve received to date that the concerts in Rucphen went according to plan. That’s great news for us too of course. We aim to please!
Well, the location certainly lived up to everyone’s expectations. Peter & Anneke’s beautiful home [De Witte Raaf] has such a great relaxing, artistic, magical quality to it that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy your stay there.
Peter changed things around a bit in the ‘theatre’ for the two concerts so that more people could attend and by placing the stage in a new location everyone still had a full view of it, so that worked perfectly. There was quite a bit of preparation work to be done prior to the show (on location) and after that Ralph did some heavy lifting by getting in early on Saturday morning to set up all the recording equipment. After that it was the turn of the camera guys to set up their stuff, so it was all systems go on Saturday to get everything ready for show time. We had a pretty long ‘soundcheck’ so that we could check the recording levels, lighting and positioning of the cameras.
You might think because the shows were being recorded that I would be nervous but nothing could be further from the truth. I just felt like playing and as the audience was made up mostly of friends and long-time fans we were confident that we could make it a special occasion. I haven’t heard the audio recordings or viewed the visual recordings yet but judging from the responses during and after the show I think we achieved what we wanted to achieve.
Whereas Saturday’s weather had been drizzle most of the day, we awoke to sunshine on Sunday morning. That really helped to bring the grounds alive and as Sunday’s show was in the afternoon people had the opportunity to take in the surroundings.
We were joined by long-time associate Bas Klein on harmonica for Sunday’s show and it’s always a pleasure to play with him. We’ve played together so much over the years that it’s like putting on a pair of old jeans – comfortable and a perfect fit.
Even though I’ve also known Ralph for ages, we haven’t had as many opportunities to play together but that doesn’t take away from the pleasure I feel when I do play with him. He seems to be able to read my mind and he’s just there with what I need when I need it. Lovely feeling!
I’ll try to write on a regular basis with updates to keep you all abreast of how things are developing with the recordings. I’m really looking forward to it. I hope you are too.