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North Sea Acoustic Festival, Hemkade, Zaandam, Holland - 22nd April 2007

Gig Reviews

Review 1 - Edith de Boer, Krommenie, Netherlands

The venue is a 'Hemkade' at Zaandam, near Amsterdam, which holds hundreds of people in the audience. Although the turn out was a little disappointing, it didn't detract from what was a brilliant festival for me. In the early evening I was sitting outside in the sun, waiting for Willemina to arrive, when the van of 4GM came and stopped in front of me. Ian greated me, gave me a handshake and told me he would be with me in a couple of minutes! I was on cloud nine already! The 'Meet And Greet' around 8pm was very special, because there were only 6 of us waiting in the lobby. We had lots of time to chat with all of them. I remember the first thing Ian said when he saw us: “Wow, how tall you all are!” Well, that’s Holland! Smallest country, tallest people! I had a talk with all the guys. So great to finally meet Derek and Mick, because I’ve been a fan since the early 80’s and never had the chance to meet any of the Simple Minds members. And I always fancied these two, spending some time talking and being able to give them a hug, was like a dream come true. The girls were also there, Jane brought her little one with her, slept through it all! The only one missing at the meet-up was Warren.

As the venue was very dark, we all went outside to take pictures. The guys were very joyfull and fooling around. Especially Smiley took a fancy to some girls on the audience poster outside! We had a great time, talking and laughing. It didn’t feel like an official meet-up at all! Just friends having a good time.

The concert was great and the atmosphere was there, Willemina and me were doing our best singing along to all the songs.

And Ian made this evening even more special by dedicating the song Stars Will Fall to me. My heart skipped a couple of beats. I just love his voice so much and he knew that song was my favourite. The gig was over way too soon, but because I won a contest I was invited backstage to receive my signed t-shirt. I had a last talk with Ian, a big hug and went home a very happy lass.

Review 2 - Willemina Snijders, Netherlands

Sunday 22th of April,

I was so looking forward to see and hear FOURGOODMEN in Holland and was happy the day finally arrived.

As I live all the way in the south of Holland, very close to Belgium, we had to drive for one and a half hours

to get to Zaandam, then we needed to find the venue which was somewere on a industrial

estate, and after looking on city maps we did find it.

When we got there the first person I saw was Edith and her husband who said the Van with

the band had just arrived before us and she already talked to Ian. We said our hello's and

it was nice to meet Edith, her husband Bart and two other guys.

We all went inside and sat down near the mechandise stand to chat a little more and

wait for the Meet and Greet. I think we waited for around a half hour when we saw Jane

and Carrie walking in checking the venue out. I went to introduce myself to them both and

then the others came walking in aswell. Jane's husband Malcolm and baby girl Ruby were

there aswell and it was so nice to see them too. Ruby is such a gorgeous baby.

When introducing myself to Ian he said they all knew who I was because when they were doing

some recording at Graeme Duffin's studio Graeme showed them the book I made for his birthday

and Ian said I did a wonderfull job at that. I was very stunned (and chuffed) about that and didn't

know what to say just that I was glad they liked it.

I gave Ian some "Stroopwafels" for the whole band and asked if he could pronounce it and he did it very well.

Stroopwafels are something typical Dutch which you can eat when having your tea or coffee.

We got to take some pictures with Ian, Derek and the others but were missing Mick and Warren.

They said Warren fell asleep, and then went to search for Mick. It was quite funny because they left,

and who came walking in....yep Mick.

As Edith wanted to take some photo's outside we were now waiting for all the others to come back and they did.

Took some great photo's outside and had a few laughs....it was very quiet in the venue

and outside there were big posters that I guess were taken when they had a dance festivity in the same venue

so lots of people on the poster and Smiley was saying...'Ohh look how busy it is on here'.

There was also another poster with some lovely looking girls dancing on it and Ian and Smiley had their hands

all over the poster, I think they were wishing they were real....Ian's tongue was hanging out of his mouth for

some reason hehe.

After taking lots of photo's outside...thanks so much for that guys...we went back inside and I thought of

my CD which I wanted them to sign (I almost forgot). I asked them and they were happy to do that.

The guys went backstage and said see you later and I went to buy myself a 4GM t-shirt and to the loo to

put it on. .

We then got something to drink and listened to the band on stage who were very good.

The next band that came on stage were 4GM because one of the bands didn't show up. When Ian came on stage

he got everyone to stand and sing and clap along right away. The whole band was amazing and the people

that were there enjoyed every minute of it. After Ian introduced the band he then looked at us all and said......

I think I already know half this crowd so I think you all can introduce yourselves and he pointed at us one by one

and we had to say our names which I found very funny. The gig was superb and it was over much to fast in my opinion.

I wanted to say goodbye to 4GM and thanks so much for the wonderful time but as my husband and I

needed to drive another hour and a half back, and we both had to work very early the next morning so we couldn't

wait and had to go. We did have a wee chat with Malcolm who was sat near the stage with Ruby and asked him

to say goodbye to the rest of the band for us. It was amazing to see that Ruby was sleeping with all this

noise around her, Malcolm said she is such a sweet baby we can take her anywhere. So lovely to see how proud

he is and he's such a great dad.

When coming home I just had to look at my photo's first and was glad most of them came out well.

Thanks again to everyone we spoke to and especially 4GM for making that day so very special. Can't wait to

see you again.

Hope you enjoyed reading this review, love Willemina