EBI PARTY in Holland
THE 2004 EBI PARTY
EBI AUTUMN PARTY - REVIEW !
IN THE NETHERLANDS ON 16TH OCTOBER, 2004
BIGGEST
EBI PARTY EVER; 142 FANS WERE AT SPAKENBURG
Doors
again were open very early at EBI's Autumn Party this year. The signs were there
and numbers before we went up to the center of the Netherlands already were very
promising. It turned out 142 fans were going to attend the highlight of the
Everly year at Spakenburg. Last year's Party maybe showed a bit louder,
sometimes even dancing crowd.
This
year there was hardly room to dance. We saw a lot of new faces this Saturday.
You could see that they all enjoyed our menu very much. Lots of familiar faces
too of course and from the compliments that we heard all through the afternoon
and night, they will turn up for many more years to come. Everly fever sure
lives on and we all cannot do without it. Imagine meeting each other here at
Spakenburg after sometimes 15 years!?
We
have to pay them a big compliment for the discipline of all the fans who
attended in a real jammed place like this. It's by tradition a long, heavy day
for us, the EBI Staff. Especially for Yvonne who does most of the
organizing.
As
always we were welcomed at the venue by the hostesses of Restaurant
't Haantje'. And right after 12:00 we started to arrange seats and tables
and got the stage build up for our
live music acts. This whole procedure is done as a real smooth team effort.
Everybody knows what he or she has to do. By the time Harmony Trail and its crew
and family show up, the stage is all
ready to set up the equipment, till it's time for a sound check.
Rob
Blokland and my son Mark helped me with the big video screen and The Kentucky
Shop.
And
like every year dozens of fans flog around the place before 2:30.....long
before we officially open. We have to let them in and they know it and
they enjoy watching the video
testing and sound check. And of course to tease them we never start at 4:00!?!?
So
many know that I never do an opening speech before 4:30 and they even anticipate
by not sitting quietly before that time. Yes, similar program as so many years
before.....and no one complains, we all
love it.
There
was not much news I could inform the audience about, but of course we talked
about the concert of Simon and Garfunkel and the DVD and CD coming up soon now.
After my speech Harmony Trail did their first block of live songs. They were in
superb form and would render several blocks of 25 to 30 minutes of Live
Everly harmonies throughout the Party. As we said before, staying
fresh and always adding Everly songs to their repertoire.
It's
safe to say the audience especially comes to see them perform. We still have
high hopes Fred and Geoffrey will be successful with this act for much bigger
numbered crowds. They'd deserve that.
The
special attraction I'd say lays in the fact that most of the Everly songs
they sing won't be heard during a show of the Everly Brothers
themselves. Where will you hear songs like 'The Dollhouse Is Empty' done this
well on stage?
All
through the evening we showed Everly clips on a big video screen. We were able
to show very special video material again. Thanks to the help of
Peter Guyken we had it all compiled on quality DVD's this time to make
our work and that of Rob Blokland a lot easier. Rob, as usual
these past years, provided the most professional beamers plus very sophisticated
lap top computers to make the big screen video showings possible.
Of
course the fans were most amazed when we started the show with the
first footage of the Everlys performing live at Madison Square
Gardens, NY as special guests for Simon and Garfunkel 'Old Friends' Tour. We
also had the official video clip of René Shuman's duet with Phil Everly
'On Top Of The World' which we had to show 3 times!?!?
If only René's CD was ever released. Many more clips old and new, followed in
between the live performances and
other scheduled programs.
Yvonne
van Rooijen and John Cornax had put out big tables of prizes to be
won during a lottery draw and later at night of course the Bingo
final. Yvonne prepares to hunt for prizes for these segments months in
advance. She makes a real happening of the draws. Quite a one woman show
she turned out to be meanwhile.
And as you may know by now people who yell 'Bingo' before their turn have to
sing a song, which leads to funny, sometimes very quality results. Thanks so
much to Leonie Kooman for helping her and me out (in more
ways than one).
Harmony
Trail were heavily involved in the making of the new CD of the
Fortunes Producer Fred van Vugt invited co-producer and singer songwriter
Michael Robertson to our Party. Michael sang a few songs before
Harmony Trail went into their second last segment
of songs. He got the crowd going with some nice Irish folk
traditional. After a short introduction by me, Thijs van
Oudenaarde and Rob Blokland burned
CD's of the 'Sleeves and Such' project for the people who brought along some
blank CD's. Thijs was able to explain a little more about the
project to them. Now it's up to the fans again to pass these on to
their friends for free.
A
very good initiative that the fans appreciated.
My
son Mark presented the Kentucky Shop where people could buy very
special vinyl albums and singles, lots of DVD's and CD's etc. As always a
perfect job again. He took some nice photos during the whole
evening.
I
had an emotional speech prepared that was scheduled before the last
performance of Harmony Trail for the night. But I decided at the
spot not to talk much but SING. Fred thanked all the people at the end of their
last series of beautiful songs that had the people standing.
I added a few words of thanks and then convinced them into
adopting me to sing one song with them, 'Walk Right Back'.
I
had a squeaky voice when the Party opened and hardly any voice left when
it ended. This was a spontaneous thing that took Fred and Geoffrey by
surprise......and I am sure everybody else, including my son Mark who I
am sure had never seen his
father doing anything like this before!?! Everybody is entitled to do some
crazy things in his life, right? No we didn't rehearse 'Walk Right Back',
you could hear that. Could not hit the
highs and not always harmonized with these guys who turn all our Parties into a
big success but Harmony Trail and the audience got me through it........ and I
did not forget the words nor did I have to read them from the sheets! If
it was delight (and not pure fear or anguish, hahahaah), that I saw in the
eyes of the fans and one fan in particular (very sorry for
misunderstanding),
I might do it again next year at the start of a real SING-A-LONG. We do not do those spontaneously anymore.
Mostly
as a lack of time by the way!?!? We should.
It
was another very pleasant Party, packed with surprises, many may have
missed this but there was dancing at the very end even. After all there
was some room after some of you
had to take the last train home. Even the personnel was singing while collecting
the last empty glasses.
We
would like to thank the personnel of the restaurant ' 't Haantje', Jacqueline,
Marijke, Jolanda who always look forward to this evening and enjoy it
very much. It's a pity their boss Henk
could not be there but we hope he enjoyed a
well-deserved, wonderful vacation.
Our own Lydia, John, Rob Blokland and Bas Siewertsen, my son Mark, all the people there, thanks so very much, you are a great help and inspiration.
MAKE
A NOTE OF THE NEXT ONE, 22nd OCTOBER 2005