Golden Earring - new boxset "The Complete Studio Recordings"

Good luck

 

Golden Earring at Culinesse festival Aug 25 2018: since the band do not visit England, I had to go to them! Having watched the Earring perform on the beach at Scheveningen via a YouTube video from the 80s/90s I really fancied that type of gig. Unfortunately due to work commitments I couldn't make this years September gig. Thanks to forum members I was able to find about this beach gig instead so the wife and I scheduled it into our Dutch holiday. Culinesse takes place inland near Rotterdam on the beach at the side of a lake & is easily reachable by public transport. There was plenty of rain around both on the day of the show (this was day 3 of 3) & before it so I was praying it would go ahead. Miraculously the sun came out at about 5-30 & stayed out! There were other bands in festival tents & a fine family atmosphere with ages ranging from 5-80 I guess. Great food from a variety of restaurant tents & of course great beer!!Majority of audience in 55-65 range. Spoke to many diehard Earring fans & its obvious how much love the band still receives. Golden Earring took the stage with about 7-8000 people in the audience. I had a great view about 25 feet from centre stage. Opening with Vince Taylor this was to be a no no-nonsense live set withe band rocking up a storm. Sound was good but could have been a bit louder.Bertus Borgers joined them for Identical & then George led the crowd through a singalong of Another 45 miles which was quite something! Spine-tingling stuff! Barry's song intros were in a mix of English & Dutch & he was in good humour. Next up Twilight Zone which was fabulous, Devil Made Me Do It, Going to the run ( dedicated to Aretha Franklyn by Barry - she passed on my birthday he said). When the lady smiles got a huge cheer as did Long Blond Animal - although Barry's hipthrusting was a bit too pantomime! Johnny Make-Believe gave the crowd another sing along and then the band waved goodbye for Rinus to do his bass solo. At this point some people in the audience lost interest slightly but of course this led to Radar Love. Well, I've heard this song loads of times but live, whoa it does deliver. It sounded fantastic. This was a long version and during it George played a really fast and long guitar solo as if to remind everyone that he can match anyone. Thrilling stuff! Set proper lasted 70 mins & then Strange Wings was the first encore. I absolutely love this song especially the transition into part 2 - the woke up this morning part. Holy Holy Life closed proceedings and the guys went off to thunderous applause. Great show & pretty dynamic. Would love to see an indoor gig with some more longer songs but if I never see them again this was great!! Unbelievably, Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer was due on afterwards & people were teeming in to see her! A lot of people headed for the bar though, we headed for a train!

 

Wow, great setlist. Glad you got to see them live and it sounds like they didn’t disappoint.
Thanks for the review.

 

The indoor shows have the same setlist and last about 80 minutes. I saw them last October and I thought the show was rather short. I am going to see them again next month. They're still great performers.

 

Just glad to have seen them. The DVD of the Ziggo Dome show is a great memento of a live performance. The audience love them & its tough to argue with that

 

Cool writeup thanks!

 

Thx again for that tip. I just got an email from ImportCDs that it has been shipped!

 

Bah, no luck with Grooves. Gonna try amazon.

 

Grab It For A Second: I have wrestled with this CD for a while now. I just can't love it. There's maybe 4 tracks which are OK. Tried it twice yesterday. Hmmmm. Read a review of the follow-up 'No Promises No Debts' of which the critic said it sounds 'unfinished'. Well to my ears, despite the many takes the band did with Jimmy Iovine, 'it' sounds unfinished and not as good as NPND in my opinion.
How could the 'Grab It' album be the studio follow up to 'Contraband' which is one of my favourites? Hard to believe it's the same band they sound frayed and as if they have been neutered (sorry pet-lovers ).
You really have got to hand it to the band to carry on after this mis-step.
Go the Earring!!

 

I agree- Grab It for a Second just feels ‘unrealized’. I hardly ever play it. They had such a good run that there’s bound to be a dud. That said, Prisoner of the night and Cut more than make Up for it, so they bounced back quickly.

 

Prisoner Of The Night: good album! I do play that one quite a bit. However, must play Cut again soon, I am a bit iffy on that one, Twilight Zone apart of course. Maybe there are some hidden gems I've missed. That's the great thing about this boxed set, it keeps on giving!

 

Cut is a solid album. Devil Made me Do it, Future, Baby Dynamite, Lost and Found, Secrets... all good to great (along with Twilight Zone, of course)

 

Just got my ImportCDs G.E. live package today. Have not opened the boxset but comes in a cool "roadie case" type thing. I honestly don't remember what is on this that I do not have, just a couple songs I guess (I can't recall what is on the Naked B-sides or ALIVE Through the Years discs), but the price wasn't bad, couldn't resist. Interesting that it has all 3 of the Naked releases (plus the "B SIDES" thing), I 4got about that, for those that don't have them this box could be a good way of getting them.

 

Have now ordered from Amazon, looking forward to receiving it.

 

Thanks, must investigate further - like tonight!

 

It's odd that Grooves has it listed as "In Stock"...

 

Exactly. I paid for it & then received 4 emails saying it was out of stock/ or was no longer available & sent a refund!

 

You're right Cut is a really solid album. The synth & drum sounds are of their time but there are enough good songs on it to make it a good listen. Not crazy about Baby Dynamite but it may grow on me . Lost & Found sounds really good with the synth pulse, must play this album some more. Now for N.E.W.S.

 

NEWS was OK, not as good as Cut but way better than The Hole. I just can't like The Hole despite Quiet Eyes & Why Do I.
The trouble with this period of the band's repertoire is their albums have a couple of singles but a helluva lot of B-sides if you know what I mean.

 

I feel like they ran out of gas after Cut. That said, I’ve invested less time in their late 80’s- present catalog, although Millbrook was a nice surprise. I should go back and invest a bit more time.

 

Yeah, the 80s stuff lacks something. I like most albums post - Bloody Buccaneers though because they sound more like a band playing together rather than the synth & drum machine jigsaw approach of the majority of 80s recordings.

 

Did you ask for any sort of explanation or just gave up on it? Seems very odd!!

 

Yeah I sent 4 emails back! Very confusing , in the end I gave up!

 

Just had a good listen to 'Together'. Good album some excellent tracks, I really like Brother Wind & Thousand Feet Below You ( apparently they opened their shows with this track back in the early 70s, wow!).
Then put on the European Moontan. Incredible to hear the progression from one album to the next.
Hard to get used to the tracklisting on this version but the album works. Suzy Lunacy & Vince Taylor sound very 'British' if you know what I mean. It occurs to me that the likes of Radiohead may have been listening to Are You Receiving Me in particular. Some Radiohead sounds there I think.

 

Anyone seen any GE live shows recently? Let us know how it went