Only Entertainment
NEVER JUDGE A RECORD TOURREPORT 1999/2000
The kick-off of the Never Judge A Record-tour took place on Saturday 11 September 1999 at the Noordwijkian club Join. Only Entertainment had the releasepartygig of their debutcd Never Judge A Record By Its Cover(s), which came out the previous Fridaynight. Accompanied by The Simpsons and racecarcrashes, with comment of sportsprogramme-host Harry Vermegen (luckily the sound was muted), projected on an big screen-stagebackdrop, there were good vibes from the start. Only Entertainment played their gig while enjoying a keg of Hertog Jan-beer to celebrate the cdrelease. The party was audiovisually recorded by Cynthia. Bartender-on-stage Dick took good care of the band by serving them a cool glass of beer ev'ry now and then. With a crowd of over twohundred Join was sold out as it got 40 degrees centigrade. A temperature only measured in the shade! While Only Entertainment were playing, the audience did some entertaining stuff with daring dives from the p.a.set and the stage. A disorientated crowdsurfer, Terror Steef, ended his long journey eventually behind the bar breaking about 60 beerglasses, where the high temperatures undermined the beersupply. The Only Entertainment Dave (vocals, bass), Jack (guitar), Daan (guitar) and Richard (drums) witnessed several pogopits while they were playing their covers. The band did about all of their punkrockin' versions they have on their setlist: California Dreaming, Greased Lightnin', Suspicious Minds, Help, In The Year 2525 and many, many more. New songs were Great Balls Of Fire and the hit from The Sound Of Music, which ended a great gig with a great cheer from the crowd. "Have we really deserved this much applause?" the Only Entertainment members asked theirselves, and they played some more songs, like (I think) Summer Of '69 or Denise (I thought). Before and after the gig DJ Bass played the best hits from the seventies and the eighties, resulting in a swinging mass at the sounds of It's Raining Men from The Weathergirls and many, many more.
Only Entertainment left Noordwijk and arrived Friday 17 September in Katwijk, at a venue called Tripodia. That weekend the two-days-during and annual Haringrockfestival was organized. Starting off in 1986 it is the oldest still excisting rockfestival in Katwijk. Only Entertainment opened Haringrock '99 with Walking On Sunshine. Coincidentally (haha) this happens to be the first song of their cd. To be the first band to open the Haringrockfestival at 21.30 uur in most cases isn't a really good idea, but luckily enough the audience showed up in time. Only Entertainment did a greatest hits-show (as they more or less always do) with songs like Sealed With A Kiss, Time After Time and Who Put The Bomb. At times one of the guitars gave no sound, but that's the fun of playing 'live': things can go wrong. The much thanked crowd didn't leave the place without hearing some more songs. Only Entertainment were just in time to play a sort of encore, after which the four made room for the bands Five-2-One and Cheyenne playing rock- and grungecovers the way they are.
By that time the four dudes from Only Entertainment were on their way to the next gig, on Saturday 25 September at Ex-Voto in Voorhout. Only Entertainment was supported by the grlpunkband Golly! Golliwog from Noordwijkerhout. The Gollies did a show with only songs of their own. The Ex-Voto club was quite filled with people and Golly! Golliwog had a nice pogopit at times. After a pause Only Entertainment entered the stage. It consisted of unconnected blocks, so a Noordwijkian 'hopie' (a pile of people) on stage didn't occure too much because the stage would disintegrate. Keeping that in mind, during the gig one of the biggest 'hopies' in written history took place. But only once. The first part of Only Entertainment's gig appeared to be quite tight. Along the way the band relied on their abillity to improvise. That brought the audience unique versions of (among others) Wonderful World and Fire. The Mamas & The Papas-classic California Dreaming also was remarkable, for being played mainly in the dark. The amount of false notes increased, but nobody cared (including the lightguy). Only Entertainment played only twenty songs and the guys clearly needed some rest. Luckily for them the next gig was thirteen days later.
So on Friday 8 October 1999 our friends arrived in Leiden, where Only Entertainment did a show at the Zoldercafé (the topfloor) of the L.V.C.-club. As usual the crowd of coverpunkers showed up much in time, so Dave, Jack, Daan and Richard took the oppurtunity to tell jokes to a couple of them. Yeah, these Only Entertainers are always in for a good laugh. Well, almost always. At some time around 23.45 hours they took for the stage and opened yet another gig. I'm not sure which was the first song but it wasn't one of their own, I bet you. It probably was Help from The Beatles. The audience had much fun with pogoing, having a fight with cushions and doing some of their famous 'hopies'. Because hiphop's totally back in Holland Only Entertainment also organized a breakdance-contest for members of the audience. While Dave sounded like a human beatbox, a couple of B-guys ruled the dancefloor. It's a shame no-one was able to perform a good rap. Rikky Bedijn however gave a perfect impression of Enrique Iglesias' Bailamos. Only Entertainment played almost all of the songs of their Never Judge A Record By Its Cover(s)-album. In fact, they did some more. Being a request of much people the band couldn't get off stage without having played Denise, the song Blondie got famous with. Since Debbie Harry is back in the charts again this cover is the most requested Only Entertainmentsong ever. For a change the bassguitar during this song was played by Siebe, while Dave was just singing. And so the party went on till the first rays of the Saturdaymorning sun shone across Leiden.
"Well, this was your worst gig ever," Krush-singer Ronald told the members of Only Entertainment when returning from stage after their show at The Flatertheek in Naaldwijk. And Ronald should know, 'cause he used to sing in The Titfaces and therefore experienced a bad gig many a time. So he knows the ins and outs of doing such a gig. And Only Entertainment indeed wasn't at their best when they played Naaldwijk, on Saturday 16 October. As tradition would have it the band went to The Flatertheek with a busload of friends. For reasons of entertainment they decided to hit the stage with Dave being a singing frontman, Jack playing the bassguitar, Daan as the only guitarplayer and ofcourse drummer Richard. Much to their own surprise they started off with the old Black Sabbath-tune Paranoid (being requested at the beginning of the show), but Only Entertainment only played a part of it and moved on to their regular set. Having had a party overnight, as a matter of fact there were almost no regular things happening on stage. But it was fun, and it was entertaining in a special way. Only Entertainment did songs like Eye Of The Tiger, Help, Stand By Me, Summer Of '69, I'm A Believer and Rivers Of Babylon. The Flatertheek is as big as a livingroom, so some people bumped their heads against a guitar while having a pogo or a stagedive. That was fun as well, for Only Entertainment likes that kind of interaction with the audience. Not even willing to stop, however the band had to after the vocal-amplifier had enough of it and refused any further cooperation. Nevertheless Only Entertainment stood for like one hour on stage. After some dozens more beers the band hopped on their bus to Gouda, only to arrive in time for the next show.
Saturday 23 October Only Entertainment eventually made it to the So What-club in Gouda. So What is one of the best places to play when your in Holland. The guys overthere serve you a decent meal and enough beer to get you through the night. With bellies filled with Mexican food and a well filled club Only Entertainment had no choice then to play a good gig. The band kicked off with Suspicious Minds, a song from their Vinally-single which was earlier performed by Elvis The King. The sound was allright and the band was complete so nothing did or could go wrong. Much of the audience wasn't familiar with the Only Entertainmentmembers or with their setlist. The crowd therefor didn't get into it from the very start. Later on during the show they got somewhat more into the band's wellknown covers in a punky way. Dave, Jack, Daan and Richard did a complete gig again with about all of their tunes. Songs included were Great Balls Of Fire, Fame, Who Put The Bomb, Love Is A Battlefield and a version of California Dreaming which was welcomed with much cheering from the audience. A great medley with vocal bits of Dutch songs from André Hazes, Vader Abraham and Arie Ribbens ended the regular set of Only Entertainment and made the crowd yell for more. After some discussion the band played a trilogy: I Want You (To Want Me), The A-Team-tune and Denise. Afterwards So What turned into a discotheque so most of the Only Entertainmembers and their friends decided to stay, drink and dance their asses off. It was great fun which ended at about seven o'clock in the morning, leaving the band far enough hours to make it to the following gig.
And that show took place in Oud Ade at the Meddle-club on 30 October 1999. At this point Only Entertainment had only left a few cd's in their possession which got sold in Meddle. Due to that the Vinally-splitsingle with The Titfaces was doing better then ever. Meddle (named after the Pink Floyd-album) is a nice small club in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless quite a few people were able to locate it. Only Entertainment was the only band playing this night and begun their show around 23.45 hours with Sam Cooke's classic Wonderful World. Dave, Daan, Jack and Richard played a tight gig with great vocal harmonies. Thanks to the Noordwijkian folks who showed up there again was a breakdance competition going on on the dancefloor. The Entertainmen did some great versions of songs of among others Boney M, Survivor, Ben E. King, The Beatles and Katrina & The Waves. That Walking On Sunshine-tune contained an improvised vocal harmony part from which Only Entertainment hardly managed to return to the regular songstructure again. Near the ending of the show the Noordwijkians The Great Cas and The Great Rick did a whistle act on stage. That was much fun making Only Entertainment spontaniously striking up the Elektronica's hit De Vogeltjesdans. Songs performed by Cheap Trick and Blondie ended the Only Entertainment Meddle-show. Being the night the clocks in Europe were put back the band was pretty soon back on the road and heading for Sliedrecht.
