Procol Harum in Zoetermeer, 2002

Bas Möllenkramer's / Max de Groot

Bas Möllenkramer writes to BtP (June, 2002)

Thanks to an email from Frans Steensma I was able to get PH Zoetermeer tickets for the entire family. So I had the pleasure of standing all the way at the front stage centre, with my dear wife (of hand-shaking fame, Utrecht 92!) and my daughter 18 and my son 17. The show was excellent and I never noticed the heat until it was all over.

Since I am quite tall with lots of white hair I am quite easy to spot, and so it seemed that nearly all of Gary Brooker's song announcements were aimed at me. Geoff Whitehorn was also communicating with the crowd using his eyes. But the genius never wavered his gaze from his Hammond keyboard. Matthew Fisher is the shyest rock star of them all, barely able to accept audience applause with a quick glance and a nod.

One of the happiest moments for me was the unexpected appearance of She Wandered Through The Garden Fence. I caught on a second too late while concentrating on something happening in the crowd. During Matthew Fisher's famous organ runs I had a bit of trouble hearing him properly so I gestured to Geoff Whitehorn that I wanted to hear Matthew. He consented to relax the onslaught for a moment so we could hear. Matthew mouthed to climax of the runs ... pom pom!

I was standing straight in the path of Geoff's Marshall so it wasn't easy to hear the organ at times. But I decided to stay rooted and enjoy the atmosphere.

It was a fantastic night. Ten years earlier in Utrecht the band we heard was a little more serious, wonderfully poised and delicate. This concert in Zoetermeer was more relaxed and more intimate. It's nice to imagine that they were playing for friends and in a sense of course they were. And so we all grow old together happily ...

Thanks for text, Bas; thanks for pictures, Max