The Lovely Days Festival (Part One – Friday, July 21, 2006)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: VAZ / ST. Poelten / Austria
Concert date: July 23, 2006
Attendance: 2,107
Ticket price: 15,000

Short and sweet: compared to the venue in Wiesen, where the “Legends Of Rock” festival went down on July 7, 2006, this place simply can’t hold a candle to it. First! You have to park the car at the complete opposite end from the “camp” where you pitch your tent. Second! You buy your ticket again somewhere else, and then you have to join a special queue, which is again at a totally different spot on the grounds. It’s a proper endless column, full of similarly loaded-down martyrs, like “Saxy” and me that day, waiting to be sheared like sheep. Well, that’s what it felt like. When you finally get your turn in that kind of queue sometime in this lifetime, they slap a wristband on you, check what you want to carry into the “camp”, and at long last you’re “free”. In short, I trudged back and forth over two days like a triathlete, not your average music lover.

Another flaw of the festival’s organization is the shortage of toilets and trash cans. Then there’s the lack of benches and chairs where you can sit down at least like a human being, if not humanely, to eat something normally. “Legends Of Rock” had all of that, mind you. And last but not least, friendliness is in much shorter supply here, when I compare it with the staff of the “Legends Of Rock” festival organizer. Damn it! 1 p.m. struck! Ten Years After are already playing. Not entirely my own fault, but a victim of the idiocy of having to go through protocols to verify that my own personal presence at the festival is legit, I got shortchanged on the way in!

TEN YEARS AFTER 13.00 – 13.50:
King Of The Blues had already gone by. And the band was carrying on with the classic Good Mornig Little School Girl. At 1 p.m., can you imagine? But the crowd was already nicely packed in next to the stage. And the stage was high! Too high! I almost went cross-eyed staring up at the sky. Shooting the drummer, for example, was an art in itself, I’d have needed a proper ladder. By then close to 3000 people had gathered and they were visibly enjoying themselves, despite the unbearable heat. Ten Years Afer were once again in unique form. Tight, routine, the performance was flawless. “You’ll be able to tell everyone back home that you had Ten Years After for lunch!” was the wisecrack from a jovial Ric Lee, who came out from behind his drums during one of the breaks, right after Big Black 45! At the same time he announced the next number, in memory of the Woodstock days. That’s where the show grew wings. Ten Years Afer have their aces, plenty of them, and you simply can’t go wrong by even a millimeter when you pick one of them, like the classic I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes. A fantastic lift in the mood. Gooch was unerring in his solos, Churchill’s organ worked mood miracles, the rhythm section was strict and solid, the focus was the most elementary blues. A blues power ballad! Stretched out as far as it goes, and the guys played it with relish. But only after it did the crowd really lose it. That was the peak of the concert. What the crowd had been waiting for. I’m Going Home fired up the audience for good, and it was growing in numbers by the minute in front of the stage. The song had a medley of classic melodies woven into it, including Blue Suede Shoes, and they even remembered to work in the Smoke On The Water riff. That was the cherry on top of an otherwise extremely flammable tune. Gooch was in a great mood, he fired off phenomenal solos, and his vocals served him wonderfully during the set. And when Gooch is good, Ten Years After are impeccable, because guitar and vocals are the engine of the melody and of the communication with the audience, which held true for the band back in the days when Alvin Lee led them, too. For an encore Ten Years After got people on their feet once more with Choo Choo Mamma, and in under an hour, 50 minutes to be exact, which is all they were given, they delivered a wound-up, energetic concert and made a first-rate opening for The Lovely Days festival.

The band was in a hurry to get to Switzerland! They had another gig there that evening. So two concerts in a single day! Still, they came over to the official “stand” where they sell T-shirts and the like… and signed autographs for people. Such a shame! Ten Years After should have played after BAP and before Robert Plant. The likely reason Ten Years After opened the festival is the simple fact that they were in a boundless rush to get to Switzerland. A real shame.

Ten Years After setlist:
1. King Of The Blues
2. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
3. Big Black 45
4. I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes
5. I’m Going Home
—-encore—-
6. Reasons Why
7. Choo Choo Mamma

CANNED HEAT 14.30 – 15.20:
Well, well, well! This was a definite treat too. Things are rolling along nicely. Heat is heat! And now some canned heat on top of it. As if there wasn’t enough of it in the air already, frying us?
Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra and On The Road Again, definitely that trademark “Lilliputian blown-away” vocal and the drums together. The crowd went off. Returnee Robert Lucas on harmonica in the thick of it! The band doesn’t give up! Classic! Of course, Canned Heat, even though they swear by the blues, just like Ten Years After before them, are nowhere near radiating the same chemistry onstage. Their “boogie-infused expression of blues – country carries much more of the black roots of Africa. Blackness! The band onstage also approaches the performance in a completely different way. Far more serious faces (no comparison with the grinning-from-ear-to-ear Leo Lyons during the Ten Years After set), more distance, less back-and-forth with the audience. But that’s just how Canned Heat work. And the approach fits nicely with the music they’ve been serving up for oh – ho,… exactly 4 whole decades now. The legends of “boogie” of course didn’t skip Let’s Work Together either. The sound was clean, the band delivered precise renditions of the classics, and people were seriously steaming under the sounds of that black, one-of-a-kind Canned Heat “boogie blues”. Like I said. Canned Heat very routine, and yet with a warning that even in their 4th decade they come across as a decidedly recognizable legendary dinosaur attraction, wherever they land on the stage map of Europe. The boys aren’t about to give up anytime soon!

THE STRANGLERS 15.50 – 16.40:
The popular and much-loved British punk legends, with a pile of great hits from their big career, were the complete opposite and honestly one of the festival’s attractions! JJ Burnel (bass, vocals), Baz Warne (guitar, vocals), Jet Black (drums), Dave Greenfield (keyboards, vocals)! No More Heroes and All Day And All Of The Night certainly didn’t go missing. The foursome simply offered up incitement to disobedience and disloyalty! What a jump! It’s incredible how the lineup of all seven bands actually added up to a really special experience, since stylistically all the acts were light-years apart. The Stranglers threw a great party, above all a party. No complications whatsoever. And that’s the essence of rock music. You go nuts, you let the energy out, you get all mixed up. Of course the audience was fairly unprepared for the British rebels, but that doesn’t mean it was clueless. The Stranglers earned huge approval and support through their energetic, raw approach, which was flashing with rockerly untamedness. Say it straight, say it without hiding, hit hard from the first note!

DONOVAN: 17.30 – 18.20:
The “wannabe hippie” is with us. Where on earth did he come from? The great, highly esteemed singer-songwriter Donovan. Friend of The Beatles, their contemporary. An acoustic set followed. The crowd was overwhelmingly dominated by the now older residents of the festival, and there were about 5500 people. The sun had eased off a bit, but still nicely fried everyone present! For the first time I got hit with a cold shower at this festival! When I tried to get up to the stage they stopped me: “Photography is limited to a certain number of photographers only!” “Fuck!”, I cursed to myself. Okay! Donovan personally means absolutely nothing to me in the world of music, or more precisely in the world of rock music, but still! This is a report, this is a promised photo pass dangling around my neck. So what am I even afraid of with this lousy piece of plastic around my neck? A born anti-photographer at heart, I still shoved my way furiously into the crowd and shot the “big shot” onstage from the audience.

“The untouchable Donovan” played his biggest hits Geraldine, Sunshine Superman, Guinevere, Wear Your Love, the new song Refugee of Love, Hurdy-gurdy, Atlantis, Mellow Yellow and There is a Mountain. Onstage he had a percussionist, a drummer, a double bassist, a keyboardist, and he himself wielded a green-colored toy, a folk guitar to be exact. People were thrilled that the guy was appearing in front of them face to face. After all, this is one of this performer’s very rare appearances in this part of Europe. His mouth was full of peace-and-love talk, as expected. Personally I was disappointed. Somehow I didn’t feel that adrenaline rush, that energy in the performance. More of a limp meandering. Oh, how I longed for some Status Quo or Motorhead to blow away this monotony, the “acting” was just too obvious. Still, people in front of the stage were thrilled and that definitely counts! Oh well! Even if not! I think most of the younger folks certainly didn’t miss Donovan on the lineup. He belongs only in Cankarjev dom’s evening subscription series.

BAP 19:10 – 20.00:
We experienced a completely different situation again with the set by the seasoned band BAP. They’re Germans with lyrics in German. But with extremely deep poetry. BAP cultivate a special approach to rock music. The easiest thing to call it would be art rock. The songs go down great, yet they don’t sound “flimsy” and phony. They’re distinguished by an energetic seasoning of motifs. BAP flirt with the traditional heritage of rock music, they don’t sing about idylls and chirping birdies, but paint a picture of cruel reality. What makes them especially appealing is their very current, modern “groovy vibe”. During the concert a female violinist joined the guys onstage. It’s a genuine approach. The complete opposite of Donovan’s spirituality, who keeps planting flowers as if it were still the sixties and not a new millennium wrapped in an iron curtain, staring straight at its own self-destruction. BAP showed an exceptional sense of humor, exceptional playfulness, onstage mischief and looseness, and at that moment the first day of the festival got a big running start.

BAP also had considerably stronger sound reinforcement, and all the other festival residents, who at the time were cooking snacks in the “camp” a kilometer from the stage or soaking their feet in the horribly stinking river next to the “camp”, could hear their music perfectly. So BAP once again drew a larger crowd in front of the stage. The sun helped too, having calmed down a bit in its frying, and of course so did BAP’s general popularity. Journalists and photographers were crammed in front of the stage, and BAP pulled off practically everything onstage with great perfection. Sound and tightness, a precise and energetic performance! Everything you demand from a band!

ROBERT PLANT 21.00 – 22.20:
Mr. Robert Plant – the great Zeppelin voice! Who doesn’t know him? For many a definite miracle that he wasn’t the last one on the lineup. Plant’s “management” also banned photography for the “honest world”. So once again the photographers were from TV, radio and the “friends and relatives” agency of Nova Rock, who were honestly proving more and more that they’re pulling our leg. What good is a pass that says “photo” to me? I was in a raging element again! Now I almost “hissed through my teeth” at the P.R. person who had picked the chosen few allowed to press the shutter button down in front of the stage, even though they can’t count to five in “rock” music: “Why didn’t you inform me about that two months ago? Robert Plant is a highlight of this evening! I was eagerly waiting for him! This is ridiculous, you gave me a photo accreditation and I am not allowed to use it!!!” The P.R. person’s answer was short and cold. An answer in “robocop” style! Just drilled: “You can take pictures of Roxy Music!”. Then I realized this was Salla. I apologized to her diplomatically and we both laughed at the funny situation and at the way we had finally officially met. And yet doubt and distrust gnawed at me for the first time. I survived Donovan, but this one will be a bit harder. “Hey Plant, Plant! You won’t get away from me that easily!” Back among the people and furiously on the trigger from 15 meters away, no flash. Of course lightning bolts were shooting out of the eyes of the angry crowd as I shoved my way past them. The story of a leap from fandom into a dirty business. This isn’t me. How I actually personally hate photography.

Until then Plant was surely an upgrade on everything. In fact he’d had no competition so far. I definitely wished Ten Years After had played right before him, but that wasn’t possible. Plant kicks off highly obscure and atmospheric with Tin Pan Alley, where he shines with his singing through exhaling, his recognizable trademark, bordering on narration. Good old Plant. His Strange Sensation are now excellently “in the groove” together with him and as a unit they form a one-of-a-kind live experience! Something that is absolutely worth seeing, or rather experiencing live. Plant also kept in the setlist a cover of the band Love titled Seven And Seven Is? With it he attacked those present in a completely different light compared to the opening. Everything was now going down far grittier and crunchier. We didn’t wait too long for the first peak! The first treat of the evening was served on a platter. Black Dog from the “Zep” legacy, in a completely restructured arrangement, in a semi-acoustic version. This syndrome continued with Going To California, Friends, Four Sticks and Gallows Pole. Plant was brilliant vocally. The man has insane charisma. People greeted him with enthusiasm and sang the songs along with him. The crowd’s revelry itself confirmed the probable peak of the evening. Every single scream that reminded anyone of Plant’s “zeppelin” set off salvos of enthusiasm and applause from those present. They got what they came for. Plant looked like he couldn’t make a mistake. He sang with bravura, and with experience he steered clear of overly high-flying “frenzy” that might have shortchanged the quality of the rest of the material down the line. Plant surprised by including a well-known hit from his solo record “Fate Of Nation” (1993), 29 Palms. In 1993 – 1994 MTV was full of it. The arrangement was once again adapted to the mission and pulse of Strange Sensation and to the very element Robert Plant currently finds himself in as a musician, an element in the sense of a reflection of the evolutionary point Plant has reached at this moment. That’s also the healthiest decision. You live yourself as you feel it. 29. Palms in its renewed version was a real ballad moment of the concert. An extremely welcome change of pace and a shocking point of unpredictability in the set itself.

Hanging out with a legend was passing all too quickly. When he came back onstage with his colleagues, he first warmed up with Enchanter, a song from his latest studio solo record “Mighty Rearranger” (2005), and then gave the audience what it had been waiting for impatiently. But it was surprising! It started from a completely innocent “bluesy” number. More of a joke – a gag! A pure, almost spontaneous bit of improvisation, and then a switch into the familiar motif. In its own distinctive disguise. People jumped into the air when they recognized it! Whole Lotta Love. The acoustic bluesy intro stops dead. Now the real Led Zeppelin sound roars in. The second guitar carried it and it flooded the stage! At that moment we all found ourselves on board a ship carrying us toward an unforgettable adventure. For the finish Plant came on a shade more explosive still and delivered some great screams, in his most intense version, almost like back in his dewy Led Zeppelin days! In the middle of the song, where we know that psychedelic section of the original, the guys, and Plant with them, used it to bring in a pure Arabic motif. Plant spoke some Arabic words in it, it was magical. His vocal was fairly blazing through the “delay effects”. It was an excellent combination of what Strange Sensation bring with folk-ethno elements, the instrumental “exoticism” of the modern Robert Plant, and good old Jimmy Page on guitar. Very sensual and very energetic. Plant glowed most intensely precisely in the parts where a particular song demanded subtlety and softness, when it approached the character of a ballad. 29 Palms, Tin Pan Valley! Delicate feeling on one side and the heat of passionate “rock” eroticism on the other. Plant drew an extraordinary response from the audience. He enchanted those present and then suddenly it was over again. In total he played just an hour and 20 minutes and cheated us out of 10 minutes, since it had been said he had a 90-minute set. Whatever, he confirmed once more that he’s one of the strongest, or in his essence most genuinely convincing performers, not only when he’s onstage, but also given the musical repertoire he’s built in his rich career. “Take care of The Who tomorrow!”, were the last parting words of the one and only Robert Plant

Robert Plant setlist:
1. Shine It All Around Mix (taped intro)
2. Tin Pan Valley
3. Seven and Seven is
4. Black Dog
5. Going To California
6. 29 Palms
7. Friends
8. Four Sticks
9. Freedom Fries
10. Gallows Pole
—encore—
11. The Enchanter
12. Whole Lotta Love

ROXY MUSIC 23.00 – 00.40:
We waited a good 40 minutes for Roxy Music! The stage was dark. But I saw Ferry sit down at the piano. Anyone who didn’t catch that was in for a surprise. Where the hell is Ferry hiding, after lightning had already flashed onstage and Roxy Musc fired up with Re-make/Re-Model! You could hear the voice, but Ferry wasn’t at center stage, he was far right behind the piano. Original drummer Paul Thompson, despite his illness, was on the tour and so played with Roxy Music in St. Polten too, and next to Brian Ferry, Andy Mackay (saxophone) and Phil Manzanera were by no means allowed to be missing either. Roxy Music started grittier than I expected, hard-hitting and debauched! With the first track from their debut, of course, when the untamed spirit and rebelliousness of youthful arrogance was still boiling out of them. Pyjamarama followed. 1975! That was the last year they played it, and then they brought it back onto the live setlist last year. Wow! How beautifully the opening stretch of the concert overflowed. After this song came a synthesized intro. Mackay joined in on that foundation on clarinet (the original is played on oboe). Ladytron! A unique “oldies” stroll back to the very beginnings of this legendary band. Then a jump to the album “Avalon” with While My Heart Is Still Beating, an excellent shift of mood, followed by the standard live version of Out Of The Blue with its recognizable violin solo, then the big hit from the record “Flesh And Blood” called Oh Yeah! After it The Bogus Man, one of the longest songs Roxy Music ever wrote, where drummer Paul Thompson drew attention to himself with his varied repertoire, and then they got the crowd back on its feet more intensely with A Song For Europe.

Roxy Music certainly put on a show of perfect sonic precision. At one point there were as many as 11 musicians onstage in total. Besides the aforementioned foursome also Colin Good (piano & MD) , our good old Pink Floyd/David Gilmour acquaintance Guy Pratt (bass), Leo Abrahams (guitar), Oliver Thompson (guitar), Louise Clare Marshall (keyboards, backing vocals), Me’sha Bryan (backing vocals), the excellent black vocalist Joy Malcolm (vocals) and Andy Newmark (drums), who is filling in for the ailing Paul Thompson. The stage lighting itself was a highlight of the evening, impossible to compare with Plant’s meager “smoked cabaret” flickering light! Rainbow reflections of various colors permeated the stage and spilled over it onto the audience and back. Ferry was the real Ferry. A one-of-a-kind, inimitable singer. His voice vibrated and shimmered especially during the songs that are particularly sophisticated, which meant his “performance” came out more and more as the concert drew toward its end. The setlist was excellent. It contained practically a journey through the band’s whole repertoire and it’s a real shame Brian Eno wasn’t with them! In Every Dreamhome A Heartache was an especially prized part of the surprisingly refreshed setlist! That track appeared only on the “live” album “Viva! Roxy Music” (1974). A superb finish followed through the “evergreens” Avalon, More Than This and Jealous Guy. A few couples danced to the rhythms of “waltzes” and the erotically seductive, softly whispering tones full of romance, for which the distinctive and unmistakable approach of Brian Ferry was most to blame. The regular part of the Roxy Muisic concert closed rock-energetic with another classic from the band’s seventies days, titled Edition Of You.

The encore opened with Do The Strand. Probably the song Roxy Music have played live most often so far. If there’s an anthem anywhere in their music, this is it, and people of course got a fresh burst of energy for singing and jumping, despite the late hour and their long haul through the packed repertoire of seven bands. Next came a new anthem, another song Roxy Music must not forget. Love Is The Drug! Do you still remember the cover of this song by the black panther Grace Jones? The “new wave pop rocker”, the hit that quietly hinted at what was brewing at the turn of the seventies into the eighties, dating to 1975. Roxy Music left the song Virginia Pain out of the setlist, I don’t know the reason. They closed the concert with Let’s Stick Together. This song was originally written by Wilbourt Harrison in 1959. In 1969 Canned Heat covered it for the first time and slightly changed its original name into Let’s Work Together – we heard it the previous day early in the afternoon! Bob Dylan also reworked it once more for his own enjoyment. As for its performance in the hands of Roxy Music, let me mention that this is the song that belongs to the reworking of the original in Brian Ferry’s own solo career. In short, a first-rate choice to close the concert. Plant robbed us of 10 minutes, but Roxy Music gave them back. They played for 1 hour and 40 minutes in total. There were some 12,000 people during the concert. But the revelry wasn’t quite as intense this time as at Plant. What’s more, quite a few people headed back to the “camp” to snore after Robert Plant. The reason was simply that their appetite had run out by the time Roxy Music came on. But the role of the evening’s “headliner” fell to Roxy Music more than deservedly. They set things on fire especially with their own distinctive mood, at times extreme softness, blending with the rock elements of the gritty genre, the psychedelia of the old days and the sonic perfection of their younger (“eighties”) days. A harmonized folding-together of all the instruments surrounding the distinctive, charismatic and unique approach of Brian Ferry. Eleven musicians onstage, Ferry in superb form. Simply, in one word. A great concert, a great experience. Simply like in a movie, a real easy-flowing blend that you chew over with pleasure, and then, charged with that energy, you just lie down for a well-deserved rest.

Roxy Music setlist:
1. Re-make/Re-model
2. Pyjamarama
3. Ladytron
4. While My Heart Is Still Beating
5. Out Of The Blue
6. Oh Yeah
7. The Bogus Man
8. A Song For Europe
9. My Only Love
10. Both Ends Burning
11. Tara
12. In Every Dreamhome A Heartache
13. Avalon
14. More Than This
15. Jealous Guy
16. Editions Of You
—encore—
17. Do The Strand
18. Love Is The Drug
19. Let’s Stick Together