And yes, I've kept my promise: I've started writing down the details the day after I've seen the shows. Now the only thing I need to do is wrap those details into a nice story and my review will be done. It still takes some time though, but it for sure is much easier than when you have to recollect something which happened five months ago.

December 27^th 2001 --- De Meenthe, Steenwijk --- Holland

'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...' Well it was white for a while but not much later it was wet instead. In the afternoon I took the train to Steenwijk. I decided to go all dressed in style, so no faded jeans this time. It was pretty cold outside, but well, I managed to survive it all :) It was pouring but luckily I could wait inside the building before the theatre hall would open its doors. The 'waitingroom' wasn't in the lobby this time, 'cause there was some soccer tournament going on. So I sat down in the hall of the mainentrance and put Christmas With Venice into my ears. Was it cold outside, inside it was warm and hearing those heartwarming voices made me feel even warmer. And then that great news: another sold out show!

At 16:00 Venice arrived. The guys had to take another entrance. But well, Mark and Marty at first didn't seem to know that and they took the mainentrance. With a twinkle in his eyes and a bigsmile on his face Mark said 'hi' and Marty also greeted me. Not many seconds later the guys found out that they had to take the other entrance and went outside again. It went so quickly that I completely forgot to hand over the Christmas presents I created for the guys. But well, that could wait till after the show.

About three hours later we were allowed to go upstairs and after I secured my spot in front of the theatre door I went to the merchandise. There I bought the two items I had on my wantlist for a while: the Do It Yourself 7" single and the Venice racingcap, which looks more like a beret to me, but if they wanna call it a racingcap it's fine by me :) Finally, the door of the theatre went open and although I was so excited that I wanted to run I walked in a normal walking pace towards 'my' seat, right in the middle on the first row. The stage was decorated with lights and Christmas trees, three big ones and two very cute small ones. Before the show started the one and only Jan Douwe Kroeske came on stage to announce Venice. J.D. was the one who introduced Venice to the Dutch people, so you can imagine it was a very nice thing that he was there, both for Venice as for us Dutchies.

And there they were! To everyone's surprise Pat was the first one to talk to the crowd after the guys came on stage, which resulted into funny remarks of Kipp, Mark and Michael. And then the show started! Erm, well, it was supposed to start but... as Michael touched the strings of his guitar there was no sound at all. Time for Kipp to fill up the silence and so he said something like this: 'Do you know anything about soundchecks? I'll tell you how that goes. You go to the woods, pick out a tree, carve a guitar out of the wood, add some chords and then you have to tune them. So now you know what a soundcheck is'. It didn't make much sense, but it was fun for sure! Meanwhile Pete had fixed the problem, so on with the show, but... where did Mark go? He went off stage for some reason, left the other Lennons and us waiting for a short while and came back again. Okay, doesn't matter, Mark was back on stage, Michael's guitar had been fixed, and the guys started with When I Get Over You. At least, you were hearing the chords of that song but lyrically it at first was White Christmas which blended into When I Get Over You. I was so amazed by it, so seamlessly it all did fit together! I can't remember the right following order of the rest of the playlist and I'm sure I can't come up with the complete setlist. The reason is that there were so many songs on the list and also a lot of Christmas songs woven into the Venice songs. So I'll try to tell you something about the hightlights which I still can remember without seeing the playlist. Firstly the Christmas songs which appear on the Christmas With Venice album. Since I've got that album I started daydreaming about how it would be like to hear songs like What Child Is This, Silent Night and Hark The Herald Angels Sing live. And well, now that chance was given to me. The only thing I could do was listen to it with my eyes closed. The voices were so angelic... like heaven-sent! New songs: Father Time, The Sun Inside and Think Again. I loved them all, but Think Again was the best! Among other songs Pete played the bassguitar on this one, he's very good at it! Funny thing is that before the song started Mark walked up towards Pete and said something like: 'And don't mess up on this one. Always wanted to say that to someone'. A major laughing period started when Kipp did his Elvis impersonation on Blue Christmas. I was stunned by the way Kipp sang, the way he moved and I also have to mention that lip-thing he does. And then that story about little Elvis' affair with Mrs. Claus while shooting the movie Viva Las Northpole, it's so hilarious! :) When Kipp asked 'what's so funny?' with his Elvis voice the whole venue turned into a roaring thunder of laughter. Not only the crowd were laughing their asses off. Also the other Lennons were laughing so hard they could barely go on with the show, 'wait, I have to dry my eyes first'. It's a miracle Kipp succeeded in staying in his role although I noticed he had a hard time not starting to laugh also. The song The Family Tree was dedicated to 'our extended family overseas', with which Kipp meant us Dutchies. 'We see you as a part of our family too', wow, those words really touched my soul. If I Were You has always been a sing-along-song. And this time it also was. Kipp said: 'We need you to sing along on this one'. So Michael started with the intro and at the same moment as we were gonna start to sing with 'I would live like a free man' we knew the guys tricked us again. Another Christmas song, Joy To The World, was woven into the song. Man, I swear the guys were laughing at us :) Downside is that the crowd stayed in their seats during the whole show. I wanted to stand up and swing along several times but I didn't dare 'cause then I would sort of force the people behind me to stand up too. Before Charm You started Kipp said: 'Eventhough it isn't allowed to smoke in this theatre I'm really in need for a cigarette. No one?' And then a package of cigarettes flew over my head on stage. 'Ah, Lucky Strikes, but I only need one'. Mark threw the package back, almost hit an elderly woman by it, after which he apologized with 'sorry grandma'. Charm You also was combined with several Christmas songs... we were tricked again :) This evening I heard Pushed Her Too Far live for the first time. Eversince I've got the Venice self-titled album I wished that one day I would be able to hear more than All My Life during a live show and yeah... Pushed Her Too Far for sure was one of the songs on the top of my list! One Quiet Day, now maybe better known as One Silent Night, won't be the same anymore. I'm afraid that during the next tour I still will be singing the lines 'is it too much to ask for just one silent night' :) Michael also surprised me again with an even more stunning footwork than during the Summer tour. The song? Winter Wonderland. Further there were a lot of other things going on like: Mark demolishing his stool and Kipp helping him destroying it even more, Kipp messing up his lines, admitting he was the guilty one by saying 'that was me' which resulted in a 'take two', Michael missing a note 'but hey, that's jazz', Pat playing the wrong note 'but at least he was playing it too high, which means he was trying very hard', Kipp asking us if he should use the big or small maracas after which he used the big ones, when asking after the song 'were those ones sounding too loud for the song or not?' Michael responded with 'well, now it's too late for that, isn't it'. Goosebumps, a lot of laughs, in short I can tell you I enjoyed the show thoroughly!

After the show there was a signing session. It had to go very quickly for me 'cause my last train was about to leave. So I had the Venice self-titled album, the Do It Yourself 7" single and the The Family Tree cd-single signed, had two pics taken with the guys and gave them their Christmas presents. Answering the question 'what's in it?' I told the guys it included a booklet with my review and pics of the Summer tour. As they didn't open their presents immediately, and I can understand why, 'cause there were more people waiting in line, I didn't know what they think of the contents of the booklet, but it really made me feel good that they were happy with receiving it. Five minutes left to catch my train, which was enough, 'cause the trainstation was very closeby. In the train I discovered that Pat hadn't signed two of the three items, but that was no big deal, 'cause there were two more shows to come!

December 29^th 2001 --- Paradiso, Amsterdam --- Holland

One day to come to myself, get some sleep, work on my review and... the day after that I was on my way again! I wasn't able to get home after the show, but instead of booking a hotelroom I could stay at Miety and Frits their house, for which I wanna say 'thank you!' Also this time I went dressed in style. I was planning on taking the train to Amsterdam in the early afternoon, but because of the bad weather report like snow and slippery roads I took a train earlier instead. Arriving in Amsterdam I dropped my stuff in Harma's hotelroom so I didn't have to bring it all along with me to Paradiso.

In some kind of tourist shop we bought a Paradiso membershipcard, which is next to the ticket for the show necessary to enter the venue. You can also buy that card at the venue but they get for sale at the same time the doors will go open. So that would mean that even if you're the first person who arrives at the venue there's a chance you won't be able to get frontrow if others behind you already have bought that card elsewhere. In that shop I saw something very interesting on a whiteboard. I saw the words 'sold out shows' and out of curiosity I started reading the names mentioned. And halfway I saw... wow, this was too good to be true! 'Cause... among other names Venice also was mentioned! It made me so happy and I think the people in the shop must have thought I was completely insane 'cause I was jumping up and down and yelling 'Venice sold out Paradiso!'

Unlike Steenwijk we weren't allowed to wait inside. The wind was pretty cold but luckily there was a roof above the stairs outside, so the snow wasn't able to reach us. In the late afternoon a covered-with-snow Lennon arrived and went inside through the mainentrance. I think it was Pat? It wasn't easy to distinguish, 'cause he looked more like Mr. Snowman to me, but I did recognize his voice :) And then the way Pete was 'worshipping' the falling snow while looking through the glass of the Paradiso doors. Hands up in the air while saying 'it's snowing!' When the doors went open I rushed inside. I saw Michael in the hall but I didn't even say 'hi'. I should have, didn't mean to be so impolite. I don't know why I didn't say a thing, but I think I was much too focused on that one goal... the stage. After I'd took possession of the best seat in the house I ate and drank something and went for a walk.

Let's see... where to start? Eventhough the biggest part of the songs were the same as in Steenwijk, the show wasn't the same at all! Different followingorder, songs replaced by others and a lot of additions which weren't mentioned on the setlist. The guys were less jetlagish and the crowd was very enthusiastic. When during songs like If I Were You and One Quiet Day I looked behind me and saw everybody was standing up I thought 'wow, this crowd are partypeople just like me!' And the band was thinking the same thing: 'Most times when we play in a big city the crowd is less enthusiastic as when we play in a smaller town, but Amsterdam most definitely is an exception!' I found myself singing along during the new songs, which is a good sign. 'Cause in my case it goes like this: the more impact a song has on me the quicker I know the lyrics. And as in Amsterdam I only heard them for the second time... in my opinion it's gonna be a killer album, that's for sure! The Road To Where You Are was replaced by Again. I like both songs very much and I'm glad I heard them both during this tour. Talking about the word 'again', about Think Again Mark said: 'That's three in a row'. For the Venice virgins among you: Again, Starting Here Again and Think Again. Kipp mentioned that Pat wanted to play Pat's Cajamas early so he could get it over with and that while I'm always hoping it would last forever :) Here Comes The Sun was dedicated to George Harrison. The guys were so much into the song and Kipp asked us to sing along, which we did. I think the guitar parts were somewhat complicated, 'cause after ending the song flawlessly Michael was making the wiping-head-with-arm gesture. With The Only Love I Had Kipp was singing with closed eyes and one hand on his chest, like he had to press the air out of his lungs. At first I thought that he was losing his voice a little, 'cause after several shows that can happen. But that wasn't the case. I soon found out that he got emotional. Man, the way he was bringing that song, it touched my soul more than ever! Before the guys played Pushed Her Too Far Mark said: 'This song is from our self-titled debut album which most Americans could buy very cheap', and when looking my way, 'but there are people who had to pay much more for it'. I thought by myself that with those combined songs the guys couldn't fool me no more. And yeah, with songs like Cool Me Down/Christmas Bells, When I Get Over You/White Christmas, We're Still Here/Silent Night and If I Were You/Joy To The World I got it all right. But... still they tricked me with Starting Here Again :) 'Cause unlike Steenwijk the song now did start as Away In A Manger. Damn, I got fooled again :) I also want to mention Kipp's Elvis impersonation in this review although it was the same as in Steenwijk. But still... again it was so hilarious! :) Even when you know exactly what he's gonna say or which moves he's gonna make. I caught myself laughing even before he had even done one single thing. While Kipp was introducing the band something happened. It was so spontaneous, so cool, so much fun! 'And on guitar, suitcase, tambourine and vocals...' Before Kipp could say his name the person he was gonna introduce started playing intros, which resulted into songs like Superstition, Sweet Home Alabama, Message In A Bottle and Waterfall. Kipp constantly was inspecting the setlist with a face like 'this one isn't on the list, where are we?' But Mr. I-am-not-gonna-stop-no-way went on with playing intros. The improvising sequence ended with Kipp's very funny one-line snippet 'fame, I'm gonna live forever...' complete with choreography :) 'Okay, and now it's enough, we have to go on, this is a serious Christmas show'. And then Kipp finally told us who that mysterious guitarplayer was. After several minutes he could finish his sentence with: '...Michael Lennon'. As a final encore, which also was not on the setlist, the guys played the Boardwalk Medley.

About 2,5 hours later it all had come to an end after which I went to the signing session. I told Michael that I thought this show was so much better than Steenwijk and with a bigsmile on his face he totally agreed with me. Further the Lennons and Marty thanked me for the booklets I gave them in Steenwijk. Pat said: 'I'm gonna show it to my girlfriend'. Man, they all looked so happy, which made me feel even better. I had a playlist to sign and I also brought along the two items which Pat forgot to sign in Steenwijk. Mark's remark: 'But... I already signed this one'. Kipp wished me a happy new year after which he asked me: 'Will you be in Hardenberg too?' But ofcourse! At midnight the roads were so slippery I hardly could stay on my feet. Like in slowmotion I walked to the hotel where I had stored my stuff in Harma's hotelroom during the day. When I came back to Paradiso Miety and Frits were waiting for me outside. We made it home safely. In the middle of the night we watched the 2 Meter Sessies video, which I hadn't seen before. Very satisfied I fell asleep, still wearing a huge bigsmile on my face :)

December 31^st 2001 --- De Troubadour, Hardenberg --- Holland

Every year I'd celebrated the new year with my dear ones. This year I went to celebrate it with my other 'family'. In the morning I went to a shop in Heerenveen to buy some sparkling stars and after that I took the train to Hardenberg. This time I wore my faded jeans. The reason is the disco afterwards. 'Cause in my whole life I'd never left a disco without having drinks spilled on my clothes. Not that I mind, not at all. Besides, when it's crowdy and everyone is jumping up and down on the rhythm of the songs and having fun, it's impossible to keep fluid in your glass. But I didn't want my Sunday-best clothes getting spoiled by beer and liquor, so faded jeans it was.

In the early afternoon I arrived at De Pub, the bed & breakfast where a lot of other Venetians also were going to stay after the show. After I had checked in I stayed in the café for a while. It was warm there and the music was good. But not much later the adrenaline completely took possession of my body and so I went outside to make that 200 metre walk to De Troubadour. With a temperature just above zero, snow on the ground, a nice warmth from the sun and not much wind it was a very beautiful Winter's day. Out of curiosity I took a peep through one of the windows of De Troubadour and from what I could see it looked very cozy.

Several hours later Venice arrived. Some guys across the street said to me: 'There they are, don't you have to go there? You're a fan aren't you?' Yes I am, but that doesn't mean I have to rush towards them every time I see the guys. Besides, they were busy enough with all kinds of stuff, so I just left them be. As I was walking around Michael came walking towards me with his arm stretched out to wish me 'happy new year'. It was a little bit too early for that, still several hours to go till midnight, but it's the thought that counts :) Kipp told me in a very enthusiastic way: 'We were here in the Summer, it was completely empty inside, and now it looks so cool!'

While waiting outside fireworks were filling the clear sky. Where did that come from? Ah, the guys of Venice were around the corner of the building firing off some arrows and other fireworks which made the sky look beautiful. After the last arrow went up into the sky I gave Mark some sparkling stars. 'Ah, sparklers! Let's write our names in the sky'. Never thought that Mark's name is spelled like a big 'OOOOO' :)

As in the evening the temperature dropped to -2ºC I felt lucky the doors were about to go open. De Troubadour is not a club, it's more like a café. I really felt like I got caught up in a fairytale castle. Large bricks on the wall, coloured windows, armoured knights, chandeliers and a balcony. The venue wasn't sold out, of the 300 tickets about 150 were sold, but it felt okay. It gave me that show-in-your-own-livingroom kinda feeling. Besides, more people would make it much to crowdy and well, I found out that 150 people can make just as much noise as 300 :) There were about three rows of chairs in front of the stage and so I sat down on one of the chairs on the first row. Hanging on the bar you could see everything quite well too, but I didn't want to do that. I went to the bar to fetch something to drink and not much later we could eat as much as we wanted from the buffet.

About an hour later Venice appeared on stage. And again the setlist was different from the other Christmas shows I'd seen. Several replacements and new additions. The first song on the list was Always. I had missed this song in Steenwijk and Amsterdam and I was wishing very much that it would be included in this Christmas tour... my wish is their command I guess :) Also The Man You Think I Am and Woodstock were back on the list. During this show Venice also played some requests. So good to hear Jenny again. The song Nobody's Girl was completely new to me, heard it for the very first time. It's so beautiful! When the gentleman who was sitting next to me went to the bar to fetch some drinks Pete sat down in the empty chair. The Lennons were performing Hideaway Hill, also a request and another song which I heard for the first time live, and Pete was taping it with his videocamera. I could see he was thoroughly enjoying the song and I hardly dared to sing along, 'cause that would spoil the recording for sure. I also requested Ocean but unfortunately it wasn't granted. But as soon as there'll be a request-round during one of the next shows I'm gonna give it another shot. Other songs I hadn't heard live before, which weren't requests by the way, were Shy Moon and Circus In Town. Yeah, the pile of 'new' songs is still growing. I've heard quite a bunch of different songs live within one year and with every show there were some new additions. Concerning Circus In Town, I liked the addition of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, it did fit perfectly. 'Santa Claus, it's your mommy, it's your daddy'. I think it was during End Of The World, but I'm not completely sure, that one of the chords of Pat's guitar broke. As it was such a loud noise I at first didn't know that it came from a breaking chord. But what I saw was very obvious. 'Where's Pete? Oh no, he's playing the bassguitar. What to do now?' Pete looked like he was saying: 'Sorry Pat, I'm busy, so I can't help you right now'. Pat played on, trying to avoid the broken chord for as far as possible and I must say, having to deal with that broken chord he did a good job! And who would blame Pete? If he would stop playing the bassline would be gone. 'Cool Me Down is a drinkingsong, so everyone raise your glasses'. And that's when my bottle of Bacardi breezer did come in handy :) And then afterwards that compliment: 'You guys for sure do know how to sing with harmonies'. Just in case I turned around to ask the people who were sitting behind me if they would mind me standing up during One Quiet Day and If I Were You. Luckily they didn't mind, which is an understatement, 'cause eventhough the venue wasn't sold out, it for sure was one big party, just like in Amsterdam! Charm You without cigarettes isn't right so again a package of cigarettes was thrown on stage. This time no real ones but lookalikes made of chocolate. The response: 'Mmmmm, chocolate!' With For A Kiss we had to whistle Mark's part. Well, normally I can whistle very well, but on the 'moment suprême' I couldn't make any sound. Luckily a whole bunch of people could, which did sound very nice. When Pete got introduced Kipp said: 'He can play bassguitar, is very good in basketball, he can sing...' And he mentioned a lot more things, but I can't remember them. At first Pete was modest but then he came to the front of the stage and pushed Kipp aside to receive the big hand we gave him. He was enjoying the attention so much, a very good thing to see. Because there was still some food left the guys received a piece of paper on which was written that the buffet was still open. Kipp made the announcement. After that Herman asked if Venice did know a dinnersong to sing so people would get more hungry and would go to the buffet once more. On the melody of Down By The Riverside Mark started singing about McDonald's where they feed you rattlesnakes and after that Venice sang some old McDonald's commercials. 'Okay, and now on with Burger King...' but that wasn't necessary anymore. Kipp told us: 'For this year we're the last band to play here'. Michael responded with: 'No, we're not, another band will be playing after we're done'. Kipp again: 'Yeah, but that will be after midnight, so... next year'. After which Michael admitted: 'Yeah, you're right'. Further made 'Elvis' me almost fall off my chair again, was I still completely amazed by the interwoven Christmas songs and did I thoroughly enjoy the new songs for the third time. Talking about the new songs, this time the guys completely messed up The Sun Inside. I can't remember who started joking around, but I think Pat's wrongly tuned guitar is how it all began. After that the guys put on their serious faces again and brought the song like it was supposed to be sung. The song Landslide was mentioned on the playlist, but... I haven't heard it during the show. Or was I that delirious? It could be ofcourse :) As a final encore, which wasn't mentioned on the setlist, Venice performed Brown Eyed Girl. Marty 'the babysitter and the tallest Mexican of the world' had to come on stage too. He was playing the tambourine and also sang along. And Pete came to the front of the stage to show us his bassguitar solo qualities.

After the show I asked Kipp if I was allowed to take his playlist from the stagefloor. As expected it was okay. And Pat gave me one of his guitar picks. Strange thing is that Michael's signature is engraved in it though :) About half an hour later Venice appeared back on stage for the final countdown. Michael said: 'Five minutes to go... oh, is it 20 seconds till midnight already?' And then 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... happy new year! Champagne, toasting and a lot of hugs and kisses. Afterwards there also was a disco to celebrate the new year with. Just swinging on the dancefloor while hearing good music... very much fun! But the best part was when Abba's Happy New Year came out of the speakers. Venice and a bunch of fans standing in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, moving from left to right on the rhythm of the song. About one hour later it got crowdier because the Hardenberg locals were allowed to enter the venue. Not much later the band Back 4 More, a Top 40 coverband, started to play. Damn, they did sound good!

I for sure liked this 'hanging out' thing much better! During the signing sessions you could talk with the guys too, but somehow that's different, 'cause it's a one-moment thing and has to go fast because there are more people in line. In Hardenberg you could have a chat with the guys any single time you wanted to. A funny thing occured when I was talking with Kipp and some guy made the remark 'there you have another groupie'. Me a groupie? No, I wouldn't go that far. 'Cause that for sure would put me in a very awkward position, wouldn't it. And then Kipp said: 'Venice doesn't have groupies, we didn't even had them in the eighties'. An example that concerning the English language I'm still learning is the following. When, I asked Mark if he wanted something to drink he answered with: 'A shot of Jack Daniel's, you know what that is?' But ofcourse, that's whiskey. As I came back Mark's reaction was: 'Hey, but those are three shots, thanks so much'. So now I know what he meant by a 'shot' :)

At 5:00 I went back to De Pub. If I wouldn't be that tired I for sure would've stayed longer in De Troubadour and after that joined the party in De Pub, 'cause the music was very good. But tired as I was I went to bed immediately. I couldn't sleep, 'cause in the café the music was pretty loud, but I at least could lay down my head and close my eyes. While downstairs the music was pounding my thoughts went back to that awesome evening and night!

And again I want to thank Venice for celebrating Christmas and New Year with us! Leaving the wives and children behind and all, that must've been difficult. So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you so much, it was a blast!