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On tour with TINA - Our summer holidays in 2000
06/29 - 07/02, Zürich (Switzerland)
Well, there were these nice men of the security or construction staff, we really did not know, but what we know was that one of the side gates were open and that we could go inside. Following TINA with Lars means that we do nearly everything whereas Markus e.g. is very reserved to switch the borders between law and TINAformation. As such a situation calls for swift action, we did not hesitate a second and quick as a flash we entered the stadium, observed the stage construction from the seats and then decided that our photos would be better by taking them from the front row. Slowly but surely we approached the end of the field and then crossed it with our hearts beating like big clocks. But nobody was asking us so we could examine which would be the best entrance and saw the rehearsal of the ´We don´t need another hero´-swing before we finally left the holy ground so as to find our youth hostel. Driving through Zurich we could fully understand TINA why she had chosen this city for one of her residences because it is magical and absolutely beautiful. Despite of being Switzerland´s biggest city you cannot find any high-rises in the city center, instead of which Zurich seems to be a huge village of rich old European houses from all centuries and people from all continents rolling in money - except us, of course.
07/03, Monday, Hannover (Germany)Hannover will be remembered as chaotic management.
The security staff decided to install two entrance so that the whole time
you waited outside was melted in a big crowd where you had again to show
your bag. My heart was pumping twice this day because one control is really
enough for me as I did not think that wrapping the mini disc recorder
in a newspaper would be safe enough. But despite all their precautions,
I am quite sure that they will never find the bomb when someday someone
really tries to get one inside. But for heaven´s sake, my friends
had organized me a place in second row. - Apart from all that nerve-racking
security problems and that fight for good seats, we will never forget
the first big rain which started before the show and lasted for nearly
two hours. As the weather was really fine during all the hours outside,
we had left our raincoats in the car. As one may guess, our clothing was
soaked with water which did not dry because it got suddenly very cold
and me being a small boy was shivering all over. I could not even handle
the recorder without shaking and trembling and was prepared for the worst
but both parts turned out in a good quality. If Sony needs some advertisement
for its never - tested - before- underwater - mini - disc - recorder,
they might send me an email and a contract! - So, don´t talk about Hannover.
- Oh, yes, one more time: after the show I only had two new TINA-shirts
and my dry red raincoat in the boot of our car. On the one hand, it was
the very first time in my life that I bought a TINA-shirt in the purpose
of wearing it because I had nothing else. On the other hand, I could not
bear the wet jeans on my legs, so I created a nice skirt with my dry raincoat.
The combination of the red TINA-logo-shirt and my red raincoat must have
been a perfect combination: All people in the motorway service area where
we bought the newest newspapers with TINA on the frontpage must have thought
that we are a very crazy gang of people - especially the lady with the
red skirt and the nice legs! 04/07 - 08/07, Paris (France)Paris - what a schedule: Tuesday, 9:00: I had to register some exams in my university for August, so it was a very short night Noon: 12:55 by train to Paris and finding the hotel in Monmartre Evening: rehearsal for Stade de France, first experiences with difficult banlieue-train-connections because not all stopping at the stadium and some people (who could that be?) had to go the same way back, disappointment: a mega-stadium with too many entrances Wednesday, 8:30: that early and we are not the first ones at the stadium but the first ones at our gates. Then shortly before the opening of the entrances a terrible information was announced: we all should go to gate H. After a revolution at the gate G we were allowed to use our entrance which was printed on the tickets; inside a desaster of mismanagement: the first ones could run exactly without the typical detours to the front row but when they saw me (instead of all the others) they realized how many people were entering the field so they stopped us very aggressively. But as I could spot Lars standing in front row I know that I would have a second chance. Although an obstacle of nearly twenty rows of unfriendly people were waiting for me when I finally arrived, my très chics "Merci" et "Pardon" guaranteed at least the second row which was after all that chaos a miracle. Thursday: As I needed an apartment in Paris for one year of course of studies abroad I had pris rendez-vous for the visit of a 26-sqm-flat in the 19th arrondissement which I rented then later on. Friday: After a sightseeing tour we wanted to go out in the course of the evening but instead of pub crawling we could only sleep because we were tired as bears in the winter. Saturday: by train back home 07/13 - 07/17, London
Proof I: When we came home one day and I had to run one hundreds time from the room to the bath I caught a Belgian couple at kissing in the corridor which hided each time around a corner until it was embarrassing for me to leave the room so I said: "Never mind, go ahead!" Returning for the last time to the room I only heard very strange and suspicious sounds of the couple under me in the next bed…these Belgians.
07/18, Tuesday, Groningen, (The Netherlands)At 5:30 Ralf from Duesseldorf picked me up in a fantastic black Volkswagen Passat with six gears and a very fast and strong engine. As Markus had no ticket, our first aim was to buy one but usually one of the real fans has a spare ticket. But as we realized that Groningen was nearly closed for the TINA-show we knew that something in Groningen would be different. And when we walked across the autobahn after having found a parking lot, this suspicion was totally clear. As there were only general admission tickets, nobody had a spare one. Apart from that, the whole venue was so covered by trees and bushes that nobody could see the stage or estimate if the entrance where all people we know were already waiting when we arrived was the best entrance to get to the stage. For having been told by a TINA-relation of ours that a Dutch radio station was giving away tickets for free for telling them a fine TINA-story and a reason why you simply had to see her tonight, I accompanied Markus to this radio man and indeed - after one hour of waiting and more and more people gathering around him - we got two tickets, one more than we needed so we could sell it. When examining with Ralf if there would be any hotel having rooms to let for tonight because we did not have any accomodation, we found out that not only complete Groningen, but also within a distance of 30 km no hotel had rooms to let. Therefore, I agreed finally that we really would sleep in the car which was not one of my aims during the tour. On our wack back from the city centre we climbed a barrier next to a traffic light to catch a glimpse of the stage. And indeed: we could see the stage … and another much bigger entrance with much more people waiting outside and a much shorter way to the stage. We were completely shocked and move immediately to this entrance as we were not in front row at our first entrance. After all, it was a mere miracle that we managed it to get in second row as there were about 8 rows entering the venue before us. Once more, we were totally impressed by the Dutch audience which can really party and are always clapping hands - and made even TINA says that she had to go on when suddenly everybody before ´Whatever you need´ starts singing ´Olé Olé. 07/19, Wednesday, Hamburg (Germany)
After the show in Groningen we had no accomodation
which was clear to us during the whole day but we first realized that
it would be an uncomfortable night as all other cars were leaving the
car par except the TINA-fans. And crouching alltogether in our car we
fell asleep during the lights of the other cars were flickering across
the road. 07/21, Friday, Berlin (Germany)As we had to catch up on sleep we left the hotel very late around 11:00. Unfortunately, we got caught in a traffic jam entering Berlin so that we put a whole mess in our little hotel because a telefax of nearly 3 metres was waiting for Lars, Kristina who I wanted to meet in Berlin had phoned several times as my cellular phone was off etc. We were curious about the hotel which was recommended to me from a friend of mine, and indeed, it was the best of the cheap ones during our journey: very nice rooms in a manorial style, an oven, the rest like a big flat and very charming staff.
Markus´ evening lasts a long time and when he finally entered the hotel room - just short before the alarm clock was set - he was not even nearly married but it was also exactly 7:20. The Olympiastadion is incredibly huge and even if Ralf and Lars where the first of our group to be there, I spotted them in a little group of other fans when I arrived later because Markus wanted to tell me his spectacular night. Two highlights celebrated by coffee and cake with missing coffee during the long hours can be pointed: first the arrival of Susanne, a telephone-friend of mine from a little town between Leipzig and Berlin, and her mother, second the arrival of our leather-gang Markus, Marcus and Nils who all participated later in painting TINA on their foreheads. Our foreheads were also filmed and interviewed (not the foreheads really but the parts beneath them) by a team from CNN who were all gay so that the hottest place in the stadium was our group. 07/22 - 07/24, Munich (Germany)
07/25,Tuesday, Werchter (Belgium)The show was really fantastic, so I just have to list TINA´s fantastic activities during the show:
This all made all the efforts we had to find, yes, to find Werchter and the venue worthwhile: Apart from the short sleep, that I did not know - as I had taken the car with me at home - if "Super-Diesel" is the same with "Diesel-Plus" and I lost many minutes at a petrol station reflecting about this subject and deciding not to ask the cahier in order to avoid a scandal, the fact that Markus´ sleep lasts a little bit too long for meeting us in time in Essen, mine forgetting of the itinerary which was normally useless as we were driving from one big metropole to the next except today.
We still knew from Groningen how it looks like when a city is completely closed, but you cannot close a city like you can close a village. Driving on the country road towards Werchter, you have to imagine that our car was the only one entering the city and all other cars on the road were leaving it. So it is surely allowed to draw the conclusion that whole Werchter was filled with TINA-fans this special day. In addition, street workers prevented cars from parking on the side of the country road by a tape and ordered us to use meadows to park but as it looked like rain we assumed the soil to get muddy and to create chaos for the wheels. Instead of following the signs, we asked our fellow TINA-fans where they had parked, and again Dave adviced us to park in a side road - there were only side roads, I think - of the church. And indeed, right in the middle of the village was a car park where everybody had parked. During the whole journey, during all these efforts and discussions, our backbenchers Markus and Lars were fast asleep, so that they had to wait at the refugee-camp-like gates while Ralf and me were sleeping in the car. 07/27, Thursday, Frankfurt (Germany)Can you imagine a TINA-concert with raining cats and dogs during the show? Not before or after but during? You can even hear the raindrops on our Mini-Disc-recording during some of the ballads and TINA used every opportunity to comment upon on the rain: "Whatever you need - I´ll make you dry", "When the heartache is over - we are all wet", "no, that sounds all wet". She even omitted ´Twenty four seven´ and performed a fantastic extended version of ´Nutbush city limits´ during which she did not use the crane but came off the stage and making us sing altogether in her microphone. After we were all completely soaked with rain, our shoes were squeaking, our banner was totally wet and I deeply hoped that the Mini-Disc-recorder would be still okay, it took incredibly long for the crowd to get out of the stadium although there were huge stairs at the short end of the oval. But approaching nearer and nearer to these stairs we could hear people sreaming, laughing, shouting. Due to the mass around me I could see it only when I nearly put my foot in it: an immense puddle, no, a real pond right before the whole stairs. So even if your shoes were a little bit drier than during the show they became once more wet like a sponge jumping or walking through this puddle, not counting all the puddles in the little forest where the car parks were situated and which were almost black so that you could not see the puddles and the mud. It was the most terrible weather during the whole tour but the concert was, of course, fantastic during all the changes TINA had done. She is a definitely real tough live performer and very spontaneous. Fortunately, experienced by the weather conditions in Hannover, we had brought dry clothes with us which we put on immediately so that we had only to suffer from the smell of the wet ones in the boot. 07/28, Friday, Cologne (Germany)"And from Cologne, I´m TINA!" The whole first row, all gay and lesbian and all knowing that Cologne is the gay capital of Germany, screamed and shouted so that TINA had to make a little pause before she continued. And during ´Proud Mary´ she even said "Aha" when we shouted altogether "And then!". But the real excitement and adventure of this Friday was the way we managed to get in front row. As Cologne was the nearest city from our home towns we decided that Lars and me should be there very early whereas the rest and our friends Dirk from Kassel and Sandra from Frankfurt should be there around noon. Oh, we were exhausted, tired and angry that it looked like rain again and when we finally arrived at the Muengersdorfer Stadion, we put on like street people right in the middle of the sidewalk our yellow raincoats and grey rubber trousers before we searched for the entrance. As all big stars perform at this venue and as the indoor entrance is always at the same place we planned to go there without asking someone of the security and stadium staff but at an open gate a man asked where we were going. "To the indoor entrance", I replied. But then he told us that we were wrong and that we had to go this way showing directly at the open gate. Luckily, a lorry crossed the way so that he could not see that we were really entering the inner circle of the stadium becoming aware of the fact that some workers had yellow raincoats and grey trousers, too. That was fantastic, so we observed the whole day how the stage was erected. It was even possible for us to go right in front of the stage to take photographs. Meanwhile, we phoned regularly with our friends who managed each to get in: through the main entrance like Ralf with his dustman costume or through another entrance next to the VIP-tent, or even through a hole in the fence. Even Sandra wearing a TINA-shirt walked through the main gate which was closed after her because somebody official noticed that something went wrong with so many people inside the stadium. Me being a very suspicious and careful person, we decided after a long discussion to hide a short time before the opening of the gates into a toilet next to the inner entrance which was the nearest one to the front row. And indeed, when we left our toilet around 15:00, the security staff had compelled most of the other people who were not so clever to hide somewhere to wait outside, but they could not send away the clever rest because it was too difficult or likely impossible for them to explain that to the management of the security company why nevertheless some unauthorized people were waiting inside instead of outside the venue. And when the gates went open we were let through without being controlled and could take fantastic seats in the front row observing the crowd enter the stadium. 07/29 - 31/07, Leipzig (Germany)As the last few days had given us sleepless nights, we drove to Leipzig very late after noon and arrived there shortly before 23:00. Without having a good map of the city we was forced to make a detour around the city. We could not even buy newspapers as even the shops in the main station were already closed. And when leaving the building we met John Fogerty on the sidewalk but he did not even turn his head when I recognized him.
As it was our first time in Leipzig, we did not know that it was only a partial success when Ralf really succeeded in finding an open door in a huge fence around a hill of forest and evidently the Festwiese. Then we climbed a lot of stairs to reach a very spooky and weird place: a huge oval hole in the ground which seems to a former arena with a capacity of at least 70.000 people, but now a real wilderness: all stairs where you could once upon a time sit were covered by grass and moss, the whole area was dark and black, only the city lights were illuminating the place a bit. It looked like as if mankind has disappeared from earth and some astronautes from distant planets were visiting Leipzig. Apart from this touristically very impressing view we unfortunately had to admit that the whole walk through the forest and through the fence had been wrong because the Festwiese was situated on the other side of the oval. I cannot estimate anymore how long the complete walk was but when we had seen the stage from a tower we had once more to admit that it would be very difficult or even impossible to manage to get into the venue before because it was a real meadow like in Groningen and Werchter. The next day, we were very instead early at the Festwiese and could possess three single entrances so that front row was nearly guaranteed. Well, Skadi, a friend of mine which studies nearby, must have thought that the whole tour must have been a perfect summer holiday because the weather was fantastic and summer-like. TINA sang twice "Happy birthday" for two crew members, sang twice the chorus of ´The best´ with the audience and made a little speech about this show being "my closing night in Germany". Driving home we were all very sad that this could be really the last time seeing TINA on stage but we will follow her to the end of the universe if she will perform there because she is really the best and the diva nr. 1. |
First
of all, the first concert was like during the US-leg of the tour with
´I heard it through the grapevine´ in the first part and ´The best´ without
the sing-along part but during the second show TINA put ´Grapevine´ there
where it remained for the rest of the European leg and added the sing-along
part to ´The best´. Second, she said "Ich liebe dich" in German and "…and
from Zurich, Switzerland, I´m TINA" which was so cool because the whole
stadium screamed. As Ralf and Markus still had to work, Lars and me were
alone in Zurich and Paris. After an astonishingly short trip across a
very summer-like Germany and Switzerland - and the meticulous frisking
by the Swiss border officials (two guys in a rented Benz , little luggage,
not knowing where all buttons are situated, wishing to visit TINA, that
has to be a fine story about smuggling, dealing and trading with everything
from Norvegian diamonds to South African drugs - to be honest, we first
had to read the manual to know to tank up) - we arrived around noon in
Zurich and as it was me who was at the steering wheel I followed automatically
the signs to the Letzigrund Stadion where we became aware of the very
difficult traffic situation in Zurich. It is nearly impossible to park
anywhere, and even the very expensive car parks are limited to a maxium
of one hour not counting the ones in the real city centre with only half
an hour. But we parked the car at a big supermarket near the stadium and
we took a walk to the venue.
Unfortunately
the youth hostel was that distant from the city centre and the Letzigrund
Stadion that we had to use the car to go everywhere. So we started immediately
after meeting the Scottish boys in our rooms our programme which consists
of finding TINA´s former and present house and visiting a bit of Zurich
itself. With regard to the difficult traffic situation and some exclusive
information by a Swiss lady complaining about the police and regulations
our sightseeing tour in Zurich was limited to the allowed parking time
of one hour but we did not know that we would make a very special sighseeing
tour this evening: After our own rehearsal for the way to the stadium
which was each day a chaos we got caught in a 55-min-parade of Italian
fans celebrating their victory of an European Chamipons League match.
For heaven´s sake, the car was unharmed although they were all very wild
and uncontrollable. Finding TINA´s houses seems to be very easy because
you can simply ask any other resident in the neighbourhood, the real problem
is finding the right street. Küsnacht e.g. where her new house is located
directly at the Zürichsee (Sandra from Frankfurt had even seen TINA some
time ago sitting in her garden during she was swimming in the lake) does
not belongs to Zurich itself so we even had to ask many people in order
to find Küsnacht itself. Susenbergstraße - same story due to one ways
and very small streets everywhere.
After
four days of relaxation and recovery apart from laundry and telling friends
all our new adventures London was again very funny and much less stressful.
Like real stars we went by plane and ended up in the shabbiest youth hostel
of the whole country. My God, the exterior was very nice, but the visit
of the interior designer must have been a long time ago: no mirrors, neither
in the gents´ powder room nor in the ladies´ one (yes, I´ve checked that
- just for the diary), terrible beds and very old furniture. But the people
were very open and easy-going, yes, even sociable: 
Proof
II: I wanted to go out with Markus on Friday before the first concert,
and I just wanted to go the bath and he should wait for me outside the
youth hostel. When I came back, there was no Markus but only laughing
young people who sent me back inside where Markus was said to be. But,
of course, no Markus in sight, and when I finally met him again in the
corridor he could tell me a fine story about one of the guys working in
the youth hostel (the one who could be awarded the Quasimodo-award in
Paris) had fallen in love with him, planning in reality a relationship
(after two days of being in his youth hostel) … that was the part of the
story where I got involved: planning to go out with us tonight. He even
had organized a man for me who was about 50 years old. We went alltogether
to a club in the neighbourhood which was frequented by rather elder people
so I went home very early and left Markus alone with his problem. 
Both
concerts were absolutely fantastic: due to the video-recording and the
special light effects in the whole stadium, due to the organization with
walking slowly and assisted by all the security men into the first row,
due to John Fogerty and TINA singing together. During both shows we were
only interested in getting as many cameras gathered around as as possible.
Well, and evidently, it was not that difficult to get in the official
tour video. On the second day, Christine saw us painting the TINA-logo
on our foreheads during the video check. We could not suppose that her
interest in us would lead to our appearance in the making-of of the concert!
Of
course, we arrived in Hamburg which was still totally asleep at 5:30 a.m.
and much too early for everything: too early for our rooms right in the
centre next to the town hall and too early for going to the stadium. So
we first took a walk across Hamburg and finally arrived at the big central
station where we had a breakfast and examined intensely the international
newspapers.
Both
Markus and Ralf had fantastic ideas: after me having organized two entrances
with an e-mail-friend of Lars´ Ralf proposed to enter the stadium through
a hole in the hoarding so to speak (it was in fact a huge hill of sand
and trees with workers all over the place) and Markus, well, he was visiting
his sister in the city. After several minutes of crawling in the sand
and through the bushes and trees I decided to go back because we did not
know where to run after the opening of the gates and how the stadium looked
like.
Shortly
after our arrival our group exploded: Markus went visiting a friend (his
friends live everywhere) and then had a date with Marcus from Hannover
in a leather bar, Ralf wanted to search for posters and met two members
of Taxiride in the street who asked him where to go out in Berlin, and
Lars and me asked in a ticket shop if our tickets were still available
because the show had been transferred from Maifeld to Olympiastadion.
And then I made a rush to visit Kristina, a friend from my home town who
had been sent to Berlin by his company for three months. Normally, in
Germany like in most countries in the world, I think, the house numbers
in a street are divided in even (right side of the street) and odd (left
side) numbers so that Kristina´s apartment could not have been far away
from our hotel but as I soon realized, in Berlin is everything a little
bit unusual: the house numbers were ordered in another style and I had
to walk for nearly half an hour which meant that I was about 20 minutes
too late. She then presented her nearly empty flat to me and with some
difficulties - as she was still fresh in town - we arrived finally at
this little bar where her colleagues from her bank wanted to meet. 
As
we all wanted to team up with our friends Reinhard and Tom from Memmingen
and Munich, we had made a perfect schedule when to leave, when to arrive,
when and where to go out and so on, but we got caught in the biggest traffic
jam of the day: 22 km, 2,5 hours of lost time. In order to inform our
hotel that we would arrive much later than announced, I phoned the receptionist
who dared tell me in her Bavarian accent that it was not bad at all. Ok,
not everybody can belong to the inner circle of TINA-holiday tours but....well.
For all of us it was also the first time to drive such a long time across
the Eastern part of Germany which are very similar to the Great Plains
- with the only exception that they are not that great. But you could
see wheat fields until they melted into the sky. 
The
arrival in Munich in our big car was like coming home with all fantastic
TINA-memories coming back to mind. Therefore - do you know why? - because
we like Munich! -, we razed our regular hotel to the ground: having a
shower, changing clothes, running to TINA´s typical hotel and coming back
just one hour later to leave again. Unfortunately, we had to draw the
conclusion that she was already in Cologne after we had examined the car
park (see the 1998-cose-della-vita- TINAdventure) of her regular hotel.
Right after the dinner we met Reinhard and Tom in a café near our hotel
and the main station with whom we went to our regular dance club - so:
everything as usual.
After
having solved all little problems I had to phone my mother for the itinerary
because we realized shortly before entering Belgium that Werchter had
to be a small resp. tiny village in Belgium as we could not find it in
our maps. Later on, the staff from a petrol station next to the autobahn
did not know the name; it was not even written in an official map of Belgium
which we found in a shop after having managed to get to the correct first
countryroad - more over, the shop assistant did neither speak English,
German or French. For heaven´s sake, we remembered Dave´s, a Belgian fan,
indications and after a real journey across the country with cows, sheep,
villages and farm houses we saw the first concert sign - please note:
the first indication for TINA and not for Werchter itself. 
Although
we wanted to check in in our hotel but on the one hand the street was
not to found in our map and on the other hand we could not fall asleep
without having visited the venue and estimating when it would be recommendable
to be there and where to wait. So we followed the signs until we first
followed an avenue with a great number of TINA-posters stucked on wooden
boards and hung at the big trees. Second, impelled by the experiences
in Cologne, we wanted to examine if it could be possible to enter the
venue before the official opening of the gates. Therefore, the first part
of our night became a sports event: cutting off all posters with their
wooden boards, running across the street to the car and back, collecting
the boards in dustbin liners, and then finding an entrance for the Festwiese.