Peter Hammill and Stuart Gordon Posthof, Linz Austria



TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2001

Bossendorfer Grand Piano:



Easy To Slip Away
Siren Song
Touch and Go
Tango For One
Unrehearsed

Guitar:

Amnesiac
Out of My Book
Nightman
"Hope we don't awaken to this".....
Like Veronica
Ophelia
Last Frame
Referred to the previous 3 songs as "the doomed trio"



Piano:

Autumn
Bubble
A Way Out
[SG staring straight ahead/hands over the violin/waiting for his first part]



Still Life


Encore:

Traintime [very quiet and slowed down / even the first break 'Relatives speak.....on... the ...phone.....']





I re-joined things in Linz after sitting out Karlsruhe/Ebensee/Wein missing the first playing of 'House With No Door' in 16 years.

Was informed at the concert hall that I wasn't the only American there and I thought my distance record might be in jeopardy [coming from Arizona] and expected to hear of someone from California that had made it over, but it turned out to be Rick Chafen from Kansas City Mo.

He's the voice introducing Peter Hammill on the Kansas City '78 concert and responsible for PH playing KC in '78/'79/'81 and Oklahoma in '79 where he said he was one of 6 people in the audience.

Once entering the hall, I had a good idea that this would be a more dramatic concert, in look more than anything.. The red velvet curtain at the back and the well polished Bossendorfer Grand Piano in front of it. This concert went by much too fast; A 2 hour concert in what seemed like 20 minutes

ONE OF MY BETTER PHOTOS:



Very quiet but enthusiastic audience. Nice hall with seats....

Great flood light colors of purple, green and as Dagmar41 described it 'blood red on velvet' were breathtaking:

HERE'S a LESS THAN PERFECT PHOTO--




THERE were no disappointments this night...it was awesome, and up to this point my favorite SG/PH concert....

Excellent if not perfect sound by Paul Ridout



Unrehearsed, Amnesiac, and Traintime were highlights for me

Before Amnesiac --tuning-- then" very difficult...if only everything in life were as simple as that... with just a bit of acoustic..and a machine to help you.....but it's not........

before "A Way Out".... serious turn this set has taken, but more....."

"We intend to not go quietly into that good night"...and then.... Still Life

[at the end pH raised his right hand over the keys/head down ,maybe a slight smile, and seemed to gesture thanks to the piano]
Making an incredible night even better....

Traintime as the encore

Someone from right side of stage shot a flashlight to the powers that be and the house lights went on and that was it---best pH/sG concert to this point that I'd seen



FROM STEFAN L [PH7 LIST]

On the spur of the moment I also drove to Linz, where PH was "concert of the month" meaning that if you didn't enjoy and got out after 15 minutes you got your money back. I was definately enjoying this one! (After the show a woman from Hungary who I had seen in Vienna as well told me that 4 people had left, and looked very disappointed :-)



Linz was definately one of the best concerts ever witnessed by my humble self. Peter played on a Bossendorfer, and both sound and light (which was very disappointing at all 4 PH shows I had seen so far in Vienna) were extraordinal. The only thing I could think during the whole show was "incredible" and "unbelievable"!

After the show I really felt very happy and content - and like someone dear had given me birthday and christmas at the same time (Dagmar remarked that it was myself who had given the presents - sure I stocked up my CD collection quite a bit) But I feel that I have kind of changed the last couple of days.

You would be, too after Hammill playing perfect and very intimate songs, with all his heart (and he was definately moved, too!

After moved "A Way Out" there were tears in his eyes). "Siren Song" "A Better Time" and "Unrehearsed" have aimed right at my heart and they have hit it with absolute accuracy...

Other things: I also think that Peter's voice gets better with age. - Gordon was at his best! They are a perfect pair! what an enhancement!






Updated my site at Lentia 2000 in Linz for free
And had an excellent dinner here



The last day at Lentia 2000, I had two kids on each side of me, smoking up a storm. They were about 10 and 11
Everyone seems to smoke here. They must start in pre-school. They even have ash trays in the bathroom. These kids would smoke and then look at porn on the web!

The one on the right of me had a crowd after a while, looking at his screen [including me]

I did have a very hard time finding the Posthof. No one could give me intelligent directions, and had a very hard finding anyone that spoke English. The bus schedule made very little sense. It turned out to be a very simple 6 block walk and then 1 bus to the Posthof.

I kept asking on the bus [attractive blondes of course]if anyone knew how close the bus would stop to the Posthof and no one seemed sure. Most thought I was looking for the post office.

Two women up front were of no help, but as I was getting ready to worry again, a man behind me, said in broken Engish.... 'Posthoff...I'll show you where....Peter Hammill right?' - And led me right to the door.

Had a great seat about 9 rows back--

Afterwards Dagmar drove me back to the room

And agreed to drive me to Darmstadt the next day

MANY THANKS!!

10 HAMBURG

12 KARLSRUHE

13 EBENSEE

14 VIENNA

17 DARMSTADT

18 HALLE

19 DRESDEN

20 BERLIN

21 KOLN