Smukkeste Festival
Skanderborg, Denmark - August 11th, 2001
by Emi


Next day we drove from Copenhagen to Skanderborg. I felt a little bit tired, cause I was so exited that I couldn`t sleep at night. Or maybe it was because of the cold? Anyway, we checked every bus during the way, hoping to see Texas' tourbus - of course we didn`t. We came to the festival about 5 pm. I mean me and Monika. The girls - Nina, Sandra and Alison were already there. Mats and Julie weren`t comming to this one. Monika and I came a bit late, cause we had to find some place for the night. I was going mental when we looked for it, cause I knew that the girls were waiting for us, I received the sms saying "where the f*** are you?" and I thought that there was no way for us to be in a first row this time. I imagined the whole festival like: one giant stage and about 20 000 people, and no chance to get closer to the scene when you come that late. But when we arrived I learnt that there is nothing like that. There were two big stages and the bands were rotating: when one was playing, the next one was preparing. So the people also moved from one to another. What a relief! Texas was supposed to play at midnight. So first we saw a Norwegian band, Briskeby - they were really very, very good. They have such a funny guitarist... But we prefered Ally anyway - especially Monika :) After that concert we went to grab something to eat, then we came back to see Eagle Eyed Cherry, who seems to be very popular there, so all the people had great fun. We also did, but still waited for Texas, they were supposed to play at the same stage. So when Eagle Eyed Cherry finished, all the people moved to another stage, and we calmly approached the barriers. First row again! Monika, Alison and Nina stood at the left side, I and Sandra chose the middle. Sandra wanted to see Johny, as to me - I felt extremly happy that I ended up just in front of Sharleen again, and I could see Johny and Tony very well too...

Now there was nothing else to do but waiting, so we sat down and talked. On the second stage some heavy-metal band was playing. OK, call me an ignorant but I can`t remember their name. It was some Scandinavian band... Anyway a few people approached "our" stage. There were more and more of them, so eventually we had to stand up. We talked with the guy who stood just behind us. He was Danish, his name was Uffo and he was veeeery nice! He talked German and - what was a huge surprise to me - also a little bit Polish. In a meantime, the people kept coming, and about 15 to midnight there was such a crowd that we could hardly breath. People were pushing, although the concert hadn`t started yet. Uffo helped us a lot, he was watching ours backs.

I wasn`t so anxious as the day before, but still I just couldn`t wait to see Texas. So I was more and more exited, and the band didn`t show up at midnight, and ten after. We thought like "what the heck?"... And then, 00.20, the first tones of Zero Zero started and all the people went crazy! Us too... we couldn`t exactly jump, but we stood on our toes, shouting and clapping our hands.

From the start I knew that this gig was going to be special. First of all, they were wearing different clothes then the day before...:))) Secondly, Shar was in "one of these moods". She started to swear as soon as IDWAL was over. The reason for it was the tree which grew (!) on the left side of the stage, so the people from the very left side couldn`t see what was happening on the stage. During IDWAL Sharleen walked (crawled) under this tree, so the people could see her, causing enormous clamour on the left side. When they finished IDWAL, she said something like "What is this fuckin' tree doing here???". Later she joked about the flowers which grew at the stage... So it really felt as it was going to be a fantastic concert:)

The setlist was: I Don`t Want a Lover, Black Eyed Boy, Halo, Guitar Song, In Our Lifetime, Tired Of Being Alone, Pull Up To The Bumper, In Demand, Summer Son, When We Are Together, Say What You Want, Inner Smile and Suspicious Minds.
We had some nice conversations with Shar. She said that thay were in Copenhagen the day before, so we went like "YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH". She told us to shut up, saying that it doesn`t matter when one is from. Well, I don`t know... If you travel through the half of Europe just too see Texas, doesn`t it really matter? Anyway, she started again, that they were in Copenhagen... so we shouted "YEAAAHHH" again... so she told us that the next one who'd go "YEAH" can fuck off...:))) And so on. She said that after Copenhagen she would never dance with a policeman again.:) And she started choosing... For a moment I thought that she was pointing at me (oh my God) - she was standing just in front of me and pointing exactly in my direction. But it was impossible, so I tried to think (it`s really kind of hard when you see Shar pointing at you before Pull Up To The Bumper) and I thought of Uffo! Yes, she ment him - he was standing behind me, and there wasn`t even one millimetre of free space between us. So we (Sandra and I) pushed him forward... a moment later he was standing beside Shar! Funny feeling, really, one moment you feel the guy lying at your back, the second he is talking to Sharleen Spiteri! She chose another one, and passed him to Charlotte, and then she noticed the boy on the right side of the audience. She lifted him up, and when he came into the lights it turned out that he was 13 years old! We had a great laught watching him dancing with Shar. Poor boy, he was doing everything not to touch her! But she was great, made him feel pretty comfortable in front of all these people (Shar talked about 40 000). Anyway, he didn`t faint or die, just had some troubles speaking:))) After the dancing competition Uffo came back and we pushed him back at his previous place.

Then there was In Demand - I was really waiting to hear it again, and again I was totaly blown away. It was just perfect. During Summer Son something happened at the right side of the audience, some bigger crush, and when they finished the song Shar showed the rest of the band (Steve especially) not to start another song. She approached the right side of the stage and asked if everything was OK, asking us not to hurt each other. Then they started "another crazy song" as Shar said, When We Are Together. It was really crazy. She and the girls (Charlotte and Nicole) were running from one side of the stage to another, and the crush in the audience was just unbelivable. We were all jumping, the crowd was moving from one side to another. Madness. It was like that to the end of the concert. After WWAT Sharleen said they would do only one song... We shouted for more - at least 10 - Shar said that she "was sometimes asked to do a couple of songs, but 10?!". Then she said that they would do some more if we go crazy, so we started to sing - something like "woooo oooooooooo", which was pretty cool, and the whole band was listening to us and laughing, and after a while Sharleen thanked us... And they started Say What You Want, we sang loud I guess (Shar sat down for a moment at the loudspeaker just in front of me, but she was still tossing with her whole body, as if she just couldn`t sit still). It was all going so quickly, I thought "only two left and that`s the end" - the end of the concert and the end of my trip. And after that I won`t see them again in about two years time, or hell, maybe never? For a moment I felt like crying or something - really strange, but when I saw them back to do Inner Smile... I started to jump desperately (poor Uffo, or maybe his feet). And then - Suspicoius Minds, a few words like "Thank you Danmark, thanks for your support", a promise that they will come back with a new album, not now, but soon... - and it was over. So I stood there for a moment, feeling completely lost. Then I went to get something from the stage - the guys gave me Shar`s setlist, now I have also her footprints:)))

So I`m back at home in Poland and I don`t know what to do with myself. But it was fantastic, it was like a dream. All the people I met - Sandra, Nina, Alison, Mats, Julie, Ida and Jarbel - you were wonderful. I`ll never forget that trip and those two concerts. Thank you, and huge THANKS to TEXAS, for making such a fantastic music and for staying a band for such a long time. See you in a two years... ehhhh...


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