06.07.08 - Fiesta all ippodromo alle capannelle - Rom (IT)

Soundcheck

Diese Arschlöcher.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Updates coming in…

It’s mayhem. Fans broke down some fences, squishing other fans who were first in line. Waiting for police.

Since I am taking texts, it is hard to update the blog too, so check this thread?

Our friends that were there had to leave because there were 9,000 fans, 3 security guards and everyone was in danger. No police yet.

Well, I´m sorry to say that, but I thought of things exactly likes this to happen, when they announced the Offical Fan Clubs!

People thinking to be something better from others.

If it comes out, that those people, where from the new official fanclub, I´d know what to do, after the concert.
It cant be, that the play they own rules, thinking of beeing the king and queens in front of the venue, and treating others just like shit.

Hope all the people, who are not involved, and not planned such a stupid thing are OK, and noone gots hurt.

And for Zillah and Onerva, its surely sad, that they had to go out, but its the best they could do.
I saw one concert in Italy, and I will never do that again . . . . sorry, most are just insane there


http://forum.universalmusic.it/forum/showthread.php?t=40956

Es ist sehr schlimm in Rom.... leider bestätigt sich gerade alles...

SMS von Valentina:

Ich schäme mich dafür, Italienerin zu sein!!! Und ich werde nie mehr (!!!) in Italien an ein Konzert gehen!!! Es ist einfach nur lebensgefährlich.... alles ausser Kontrolle.... und wir hocken hier unter der brennenden Sonne - alle sind am durchdrehen - Leute, die eben erst gekommen sind, befinden sich bereits vor uns... Bill soll gesagt haben, wenn nicht viel mehr Security auf den Platz kommt, werden sie das Konzert nicht geben....


Ich weiss leider haargenau, was da abgeht.... Und ich hoffe inständig, dass heute NICHT der Tag ist, an dem es den ersten schlimmen Unfall oder gar Todesfall an einem TH-Konzi gibt.

Wieso nur 3 Secus am Morgen und tausende von Fans...??? Ganz einfach: die Italiener sind schlichtweg NICHT fähig, sowas zu organisieren.... die holen die "Secus" von der Strasse - die sind billiger.... und jeder macht eh, was er will .... und wenn du da was organisieren willst, stehst du auf verlorenem Posten, weil jeder auf sein Recht pocht, dass dies ja schliesslich öffentlicher Grund ist, und er die gleichen Rechte hat wie du, eben genau dort zu stehen wo er will .... Und wenn man denkt, dass dies nur die Jungen so machen: weit gefehlt.... ob Eltern, Carabinieris, Polizei - scheissegal!!! Die sind einfach nur chaotisch.... (und mir kommt gerade die ganze Scheisse von Mailand wieder hoch.... sorry.... !!!)

Genau über dieses Hooror-Szenario habe ich mich in Hollywood sowohl beim Roxy - Gig wie auch - noch viel ausführlicher!!! - vor dem Avalon mit Tobi unterhalten. Er weiss bescheid und ich bin mir sicher, dass dies nicht der Fehler vom VSD ist!!! Aber die haben ja faktisch ein Arbeitsverbot im Ausland!!! Die dürften eigentlich keinen Finger rühren.... Die Verantwortung für die Organisation liegt einzig und allein beim Veranstalter - das hat arbeitsrechtliche und versicherungstechnische Gründe. Der VSD kann nur Wünsche und Vorgaben anbringen - aber umsetzen dürfen sie nicht.

Starshin von tha:

Review part I

So after having slept a bit now here a basic review of the weekend.

We arrived at the airport in Rome on Saturday at 11:15 p.m. and after collecting 2 girls and travelling by train and cab we were at the venue bout 01:00 a.m.
The Ippodromo Capanelle is a harness racing track and after spending there quite a time I can say, that this place was not developed to host concerts. Anyways, an Open-Air discoteque/music fiesta was held there the day before the concert.

And I can tell you one thing: people come up with the weirdest things in order to get into first section. While standing in front of the entrance to the disco and looking for the place to camp, a group of italian girls came up to me and tried to talk me into the nonsense that all people who have camped there for TH have left and that we should leave too and come back in the morning. (and while doing so they carried 6 bottles of 2l water - so here my question: do italian people go to disco with 12 litre of water??)

Of course we just continued on our way and went to the girls of the "official italien fanclub" (which isn´t official for real, they just call themselves like that) and got our numbers. A group of 5 people always shared a number, so we all were #121.

This would mean that there would have been more than 600 people at the hayfield. It didn´look like that. (And the fact that a lot of people arrived in the morning, but had lower numbers confirmed our suspicion.)

We set up our "camp" (no tents, only sleeping bags) on the hayfield beside the supposed "to line up" and waited for the loud disco music to stop. It stopped somewhere around 03:30. a.m. and then I was able to get some sleep. Not much.

At around 04:30 or 05:00 something happenend. Someone was walking around with a megaphone (btw: all italien people we met who were using a microphone did not turn it on.. so only those 10 people around him/her were able to get what was being said)and within a few seconds the whole camp rushed to pack your stuff. This was incredible. Someone started and everybody joined. There was NO stoping it.. never experienced camping for a band and so it surprised me a lot... it felt like we had to leave by the second cause of air raid warning or something equally bad..
As the actual lining started after 09:00 a.m. we could have slept a few more hours...

We packed up our stuff and waited... few people there spoke english (or didn´t want to speak english with us) and so we always were looking for information.. they told us that lining up will start at 06:00 a.m. and that it would follow the number system. We waited and waited.. somewhere at 05:30 a.m. the sun set up and soon it became warm and at 08:00 a.m. it became really hot. Some security arrived and erectecd a barricade, but let more people in nevertheless. Before the actual lining started there were people wearing a 4...-number.. so we doubted that the number system could work out, especially as you have to multiply that number by 5 (people).

Anyways, it was really hot already and we had to put on sun blocker and use umbrellas to avoid getting a sun burn. We looked at security guys setting upt the wave breakers and toilet(s?) for queing. At 9 a.m. they finally started with the lining. one security guy (who didn´t know who to turn on the microphone either) shouted the numbers and people walked in to sit/stand inside the wavebreakers... we were inside the sluices at 09:30 a.m. (12 hours before TH entered stage) They distributed water and ice-cubes. We sat down and intended to wait for entrance in a relaxed way, but it was really difficult with those girls.

three girls washed away the "1" of their number 145 and wanted to get to the front cause they were now being a #45.. This really pissed me off, cause they were standing next to me and saw me watching the action. And when I didn´t let them pass they played out the "I don´t understand you - I don´t speak english... but what do you mean, look I´m #45 and therefore I should be in front of everybody here" card... The #1" they´ve tried to washed away was still clearly visible but they just played dumb.

Anyways... After 20 minutes of us being inside the sluices there was a panic. Someone was shouting that the band has arrived (which doesn´t make sense at all.. why would the band arrive 12 hours in advance at the venue? they were still at the hotel at that time, probably sleeping or having breakfast)
So people from outside trampled down the wavebreakers and crowded the queing place... it was insane. people were pushing to the front and you had to fear for your life.... if you would have been pushed down people would have trampled over you without any consideration... It was insane and given the fact that there would be almost 40 degrees in the afternoon, we decided that we simply cannot line up under such bad conditions for more than 10 hours.
It took as a bitto get out, but when we left there were only like 100 people behind us.. so I don´t want to imagine how many people rushed by. The pushing was that insane, that Onerva and I both lost part of our camping equipment without even noticing it.
We went in wits th number 121 but when we left there were a few thousand people inside the sluices and in front of us.

Outside we went to an aidmen who admitted that there were only 3 security guys at the venue.. we couldn´t belive it:
3 security guys for 20.000 fans...

Then we went away to grab something to eat and sit in the shadow. Right in front of the venue there were numerous stands with faked TH-merchandise, sold by poeple who have no right to make money out of TH.. but proabably this seems to be an italian thing too, cause nobody cared and even the VSD who arrived later walked by without any consideration.
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Weiter geht's:

Review part 2

We stayed next to a shop the rest of the morning and arrived at the back entrance just in time to see the tourbus arriving.
The boys did not show themselves.. but everytime the fans saw Saki or any other VSD guy the girls went insane! And considering the fact how many times Saki and his men ran from one place to another and how stressed the looked gives me the impression there was not only big trouble bout organising the fans but BIG intern trouble as well.
In the afternoon there was not only police at the venue (thank GOD those guys helped out the 3 security guards of the venue!!!) but guards from 2 other security companies as well. And organizing venue security with people from 3 different agencies gave Saki a hard time for sure!!

We spend the rest of the day in the shadows of a tree. At 06.00 p.m. we got back to the venue. I was rather surprised to see they were even selling the fake merch on the hayfield where we camped!!

We were inside the Ippodromo at around 07:00. We were in the back but from where I was watching the concert I had a perfect overview of the stage and could see the screens in a perfect way too!!

The official merch was inside the venue - I´d really like to know how much less they sold in comparison to usual TH gigs.. cause every 2nd fan had already bought fake merch... I was standing next to the merch shop during the gig and I didn´t see them sell much before, during or after the concert (at least not compared to what the sell usually.)

There was a one hour break between the opening act and TH, but that was alright.. the concert was supposed to start at 09:30 p.m. (the ticket says so) and so I didn´t get why all people were so confused bout the starting time. Quite the contrary: TH entered stage without any delay!!
You´ve all seen the setlist, so you know that the gig was in english besides those songs that don´t have an english translation.
I didn´t saw Gustav falling (so I don´t know if it happened or not), but I´m quite sure Bill was not lifiting his shirt.

All in all the concert was really good! One of the best TH gigs I´ve been so far!! The boys have been in an excellent mood and were teasing each other.
The sunglasses were just for the showeffect.. cause it was already quite dark at the time they started

In one of my text messages I wrote that the sound of "1000 oceans" and "Sacred" was quite weird. And yes it was.. the sound seemed totally different from the other songs... there was an echo and so on, but from where I was standing I wasn´t able to figure out the reasons..

I left Onerva and Zillah before TH entered stage cause I´m a bit shorter than them and didn´t see much from where they were standing. So I just got a few meters back and a few meters ro the right side and there I had PERFECT view. I was among a lot of adults who were there by themselves or with their children. I met a father with his two buys, who were utterly adorable.. The boys (about 6 years and 10 years old) were so happy about each song and were jumping, singing along and cuddling each other... They really had the time of their life and their exitement jumped over at me!!

The father was cheering on the band the whole time!! He also was able to sing along every song and they had a poster saying "Eure Musik - unser Leben" ("Your music - our life")

I always think it´s such an enrichment to your own concert experience to see the reaction of people who´ve never been to a TH gig before.. The enthusiasm of those people gets me every time!!

Now to the encores: I´ve noticed it before, but italian people don´t travel to other countrie´s TH gigs as much as fans from other countries do. There was an incredible amount of people who didn´t know they were doing encores at all and left right after "Monsoon".
The one family was about to leave too but I called them back and told them they were doing at least 3 more songs (we didn´t know whether they would do "Forgotten children" as well) And the boys were so excited that they were about to see a performance of rescue me and By your side

Those people were really nice.. the father asked me why I know this and they were utterly astounded when I told them this was my 6th TH gig... that guy was not the usual "I accompany my child to a TH-gig"-dad, but he was really interested in the music and asked me how I rate today´s performance in comparison to the other ones I´ve seen. I was glad to tell him that the Rome gig was one of the best!!

The father even gave me candy for sharing my insider information (= the encores) with them And after seeing them cheering on to the encores and the fireworks I´m sure they´re glad they stayed!

And I have to admit that I really liked the 1st encore this time!! After hearing it the first two times live I was always bored to no end of "In die Nacht" and "Rescue me". But in Rome I loved those two songs!! And I think Bill was "missing" singing the last line of "In die Nacht" in time on purpuse... just to tease Tom and piss him off cause he had to play the guitar accords much longer.. and Tom´s grin told me he got the joke

Bill introduced the band - I´m glad he just introduced the band and NOT the guest musicians. I really hate the joke about the guest musicians and I think it´s very lame to tell the same joke on every gig.. but if he just introduces the guys I´m fine with it!
It was obvious the whole concert, but you could tell at that point for sure: Tom is the one who has the most fans in Italy.. The people went CRAZY over Tom... even all those adults were cheering on him like mad

So, on to the 2nd encore:
I´m quite sure "Forgotten children" was live this time!! ) And it was a really excellent performance!! So, Bill can do this and doesn´t need to rely on whatever they pulled off in Dortmund. And the 6 year old boy started to cry during "Forgotten children" - incredibly cute!!

I like the pyro-show they did in Rome much more than the one they did in Paris. The one in Rome fitted the music and the show imo way better than the one in Paris... and the fireworks were great again!! (but in comparison to Paris it was already totally dark during the fireworks!! AND we had standing tickets and I have to say the fireworks are MUCH more impressive when you see them from the ground!! In Paris the seats were too high and so the firework looked rather "small")

But yesterday was PERFECt!!
Such a great atmosphere!! I don´t regret going to this one at all!!

So, Modena and Geneve will have a hard time to give me such a great time as the Rom gig did!!
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und noch mehr:

Review part 3

After the concert the girls and I met at the point where we left our luggage. It was just a one and a half days trip but because of the camping we all had a sleeping bag, a blanket, a pillow and an isolation mat with us. This needs a lot of space and added to the usual stuff girls need for a TH gig
So we all sported big bags/suitcases and didn´t want to take them to the concert.

Usually at a TH gig there´s like a place where the campers can leave their stuff and usually this big pile is even guarded. But not so in Italy. Even though the area was HUGE there was no place for us to leave our stuff.. so we had to take it inside the venue... Because we didn´t want to have it next to us during the show we bound our bags and suitcases to a rail.

We´re thankful that after the gig everything was still where we left it!!

So we picked up our stuff and went outside to grab a taxi. let´s just say that the venue was somewhere in the NOWHERE of Rome...

Because it was already late (concert ended at 11:15 p.m. - show lasted 105 minutes!!) and the ongoing strike of the public transportation system it would have been VERY complicated to get to the airport in any other way. And all of us just wanted to catch a bit of sleep at the airport!

One should think that after SUCH an huge event (as far as I know it was not sold out - but I estimate that there were 15.000 to 20.000 people ) there are masses of taxis that are waiting to get customers. It would be like that in Austria.

But not in Italy. After a big event taxis don´t drive there at all, cause there will be too much traffic anyways. And they are right. After the gig EVERYTHING was stuck.. it was unbelievable how the italians drive.. SO insane!!
So we were standing there, completely tired and just wanted to grab a cab.. we waited about 20 minutes, but the trafic situation didn´t get better at all..

After 20 minutes we decided to simply start going in some direction and out of simple accident we got a taxi !! The taxi driver spoke english quite well and told us he wants to kill TH for doing such a gig at THAT place... The Ippodrome is simply not made for that many people. The infrastracture in the area is way too bad to guarantee smooth approach and departure. He told us a random story of a concert of an italian singer. There had been 100.000 people in the venue and it took until eight o clock in the morning (!!!) until everybody was on his way home!!

So, after sleeping like 2 hours at the airport we woke up at 05:00 o´clock and went to the check-in. Out of accident (we had to leave the building to get to our checkin-terminal) we saw the boy´s tourbus.

First we freaked out a little. Cause after one night of camping, one day spending in insane heat and another night sleeping at the airport you don´t look exactly your best... Lucky for me I was wearing a cap and a hoodie so it was OK. (who´s th VIP here?? I was only a bit ashamed of my big yellow plastic bag that obviously contained a sleeping bag.. As much as I´d like to meet Bill out of accident, I was really glad it was the G-boys this time and not the twins.
(But onerva looked like she dressed for meeting Georg

After we discovered the parking tourbus, Georg, Gustav and a security guy came out almost immediately. They had to check in first and then they boarded at the same gate as we had to.

So it was REALLY cool to have the boarding pass and just stand next to the guys NOT because you wanted to stalk them BUT because you had to be standing there too..

Gustav was ignoring us all the time, but Georg was STARING at us! I´m not joking.. he was looking directly at us the whole time until the bags got X-rayed... we were the only three fans on the airport so the whole situation was pretty cool!!

All in all they looked both really tired - but it was a short night for them - they probably didn´t get much more than a few hours of sleep too!!

Then our ways seperated - the guys went to another gate as we. So we were sitting in our gate (no 16) and were giggling and having a great time. Zillah was joking how funny it would be if the guys were called out.

A few seconds later it indeed happened!! : "Boarding for flight X to Y is almost completed. Last call. Mr. Listing, Mr. Schäfer and Mr. (name of security guy) process IMMEDIATELY to gate no 15"

So the guys had sort of lost their way on the airport and now they just had to pass by. We were sitting at our gate and the boys once again passed our way (THEY ´re the stalkers after all!) They once again looked at us astounding and then immediately got on the plane.

If not the concert than at least THIS experience made up for the trouble!! So in my memory Rome will not only be the one gig with the insane camping but the one with the AMAZING concert and the one where we met the guys at the airport!!
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Tobi war wirklich nicht in Rom - da haben sich einige Mädchen vertan.

Und Bill und Tom sind erst am Nachmittag weggeflogen. Ihr Ziel war nicht das gleiche wie dasjenige von Gustav und Georg. Die G's standen morgens um 6 schon auf dem Flughafen....... ziemlich zerknittert....

Noch eine Beobachtung von Zillah.... und die passt ja sowas von gut auf Italien!!!!!!!!!

Da, wo die ganzen Mädels anstanden, waren tatsächlich gestern nur 3 "Secus"..... Zillah ist dann mit ihren Freundinnen von dort weggegangen und setzte sich unter einen Baum an der Strasse. Auf einmal sprangen zig bis auf die Zähne bewaffneten Polizisten mit Schlagstöcken und Schildern usw. quasi aus dem Gebüsch..... der Tourbus nahte..... es waren nur ganz wenige Fans genau dort - vielleicht 20 - auf jedes Mädchen kamen praktisch 3 Polizisten und noch Venue-Secus...... Nur um sichserzustellen, dass sich niemand dem Tourbus nähert...... Und dieser war eh innert 2 Minuten hinter Schloss und Riegel....!!!!!!!!! Einfach absolut lächerlich!!!!!!!!
Und nachher war wieder keine Sau da..................... DAS IST ITALIEN - WiIE ES LEIBT UND LEBT.....

Noch ein ausführlicherer Bilder-Link.... stelle ich rein, wenn ich Zeit hab - oder zumindest das, was hier noch nicht ist....

Wusste gar nicht, dass der so gucken kann....


viiiiieeeel besser....






Aber das finde ich .... ähm.... hässlich....