SOULSEC - ROCKARDINAL, BRUSSELS 15/05/05 The Soulsec weekend This was going to be the longest, strangest and funniest weekends of all times… 4 countries travelling to see our favourite band: Soulsec in Belgium. The English (band), the Dutch (me), the Germans (Alex) and the anglo-aussie Cheryl. Must have asked Alex if she was excited at least 300times, sorry! I was ;-) Hadn’t seen the band since they were still called the Faithband on the acoustics people tour. So excited?, me? Nah ;-) We set our way to Brussels, it was a smooth trip past Antwerp, which had me worried because of the works on the ring, but no problems at all until we were supposed to see the ring of Brussels, well we only got lost 3 times this trip, but made it eventually. Later at night we would realise that the basilisk we’d seen from afar was actually where we should have been going…ok enough of that.. We arrived at the train station, parked our car, had some lunch we brought with us and took some photos of us under the sign of Jette, which I thought was funny, We then went on to look for Ruth, Paul D. and Phil J. and some sight seeing. From the top of the hill we could spot the Atomium and as we set out later to go see it it was gone….erhm yeah gone…mirage I believe… Anyway we met up with Aurelia and Fred and Hans, we had a great time in the sun, which was a pleasant surprise…it always rains on this weekend you know. Sitting on the grass we were when the band arrived, Paul came over, hugs and kisses, and then the gig. I’ll say it right now, I don’t remember much of it, except it was fantastic, the band enjoyed themselves, and although the set was way too short, it was a great gig… I think we witnessed the fastest change of guitars in the history of guitarchanging...hehe. Took a zillion photos and most of them of Andy, cos I missed out on a few opportunities before? I dunno…He “shoots” well though. Brad looked overly relaxed, as usual, Richard was superb, as usual, and although his hair has reached his toes by now I managed to get a few shots of his face… Noel I’ve seen before as the percussionist of La Vida Santana and was really good. In fact the whole band sounded tight and harmonious. I can’t remember the details of each songs, like some do, you know, Paul was late, Andy was out… who cares… the numerous people in the crowd seemed to warm up to Soulsec, maybe a bit late, but they loved them too and I hope Soulsec gets to come back soon. They are all brilliant musicians and they love the job and that shows on stage as well as on my photos ;-) Soulsec started with chasing rainbows and she gave it all away, and then in no particular order: wrong connection, postcard, new mourning town, lady grinning soul, fried, 8days, shame of the father. 8 days is one of my favourites as is Shame of the father…which had a new meaning now as one of the festival presenters turned from a priest (his day job) into something of a hells angels biker dude…nice contrast tho… Cheryl won the challenge from Cork to shoot Paul mid air, and a cool shot it was too, sadly I missed that ;-) hehe… Some idiots kept calling Stranglers songs, dunno why, i think Soulsec material stands proud on it’s own, although Sinister would have been nice too, but 45 minutes is over in a heartbeat. After the gig we set out to find thé Cathedral we couldn’t miss…hehe ok needles to say we found like 10 of them until finally arriving at the right one: le Sacre couer, which was the one we saw from the mini ring and well didn’t get off there…it all makes sense afterwards…we sat on top of the stairs watched the nighttraffic, that was cool… We met up with the band in a pub, had a few drinks and talks about gardens and vegetables, and then we had to leave for Holland which should have been a 2,5hour drive, but did it in 2 ;-) hehe… It’s now Tuesday and all day I’ve been trying to remember, it will all come back to me eventually, I’m sure… All I can say: it was great having friends over, even for four days ;-) and meeting up with others again, especially Soulsec and Paul…I hope there’ll be more gigs in my area (way down south) soon, can’t wait… xxx Maaike Click here to see photos of Soulsec in Brussels