North Sea Jazz 2011 part I: Jonathan Jeremiah, Kris Berry and Paul Simon

Due to the fact I arrived back home early this morning (8 o'clock) I'm still a bit tired while typing this review. It has been an exhausting night, but oh what a night it was. I knew the atmosphere at North Sea was amazing, since I found it out last year, but I didn't know a concert could be so mind blowing. I'm talking about Janelle Monae. But I'll tell you more about that later, let's begin at the beginning.

Ramai and I arrived at 4 o'clock at Ahoy, which meant we had to wait for another hour until the complex was going to open. Finally it did, and we went in with lots and lots of other people. We bought our tickets a few months earlier, it was a tough decision, but we decided to go on Friday. And we bought an extra ticket for Prince of course because when you have that chance you've gotta take it. Not everyone was so privileged because it was sold out in short time and you had to pay extra money of course.

Anyway, after a quick walk around the complex (I had to examine all the records of course, but unfortunately they were very expensive: 50 euros for Marvin Gaye's 'What's going on'.) we went to the 'Maas', the biggest stage in Ahoy.

Jonathan Jeremiah, of whom I hadn't heard until that same morning, was performing there. The Metropole Orchestra was joining him on stage. Raymann (you might know him from 'Raymann is laat' introduced the British singer-songwriter who gave a good show. He looked a bit like Jesus (in a good way) and his voice was incredible. A darkbrown voice (the man is white) and he had a soul/folk sound. I especially loved 'How half-heartedly we behaved' and the uptown duet with Frisian singer Elske Dewall 'Heart of Stone'. After an hour we left because we had to be on time at the next concert and to be honest, the last songs were a bit the same.


Next stop: Kris Berry. Their singer is from Curacao and also calls herself Kris Berry (Kristel is her real name). Their style is quite vintage, fifties and they have a sound with influences of New Orleans Jazz, Caribean, country and rhytym and blues. We saw them as the supporting programme at Selah Sue in Eindhoven. I was already a fan after that short concert so I was dying to hear them performing at North Sea. At first, Kris Berry (the singer) was very nervous, you could tell by the look on her face and the way she was talking to the audience.

But the songs made everything good, her voice is wonderful, I'm sure you have never heard such a voice. Especially 'Flower Empty Tree' and 'Love Trip' were amazing. Her family was in the audience, so she was very fond about that. Ramai and I also follow her on Twitter (and she follows me!) this sounds really bad, because I actually never really care about how many people follow me, etc. but I'm telling this, because I was almost sure she recognized us! After the concert we got her autograph.

We rushed to Paul Simon, who was performing at the 'Nile'. We were late, so stood somewhere in the middle and I couldn't photograph him very well. I was a bit disappointed by his performance because most songs I heard in that half hour were a bit dull and slow. The only great song was '50 ways to leave your lover'.

And again we had to go away earlier because we wanted to see Janelle Monae, the main reason why we chose to go on Friday. More about her in part II.

THUMBSALT

Congrats to my little friend Avalon!

She has also turned 17.
I'm going by her to eat some pie and to celebrate the fact that it's her birthday (:

My apologies for the arm on this photo by the way, it kind of ruins the picture, but this caricature was awesome, really.

Happy Independence Day!

The celebration of the United States Declaration of Independence at the 4th of July in 1776. Wish I was in the States right now.. I would definitely attend a BBQ, watch the fireworks and sing along with the 'Star Spangled Banner' as hard as I could.
To all my American followers, enjoy this wonderful day and to the rest of you people, let's enjoy this 4th of July as well ;) Let's put a little America in our lives by doing everything mentioned above.

God bless America.

Clean and sober though a defined piece of art

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for the British Vogue

Collection Laura de Wit (Glamour site)

21st of 22 photos, in the orange-blue outfit:
http://www.glamour.nl/fashion/shows/wdka-students-show

VACATION!!!

God, I think I just lost 10 kilos of stress, because of the fact I've finished all my tests and the prospect of spending my time in the sun, with music, magazines and lovely people is so overwhelming. Yes, I can finally live my life again ;)

And by celebrating that here's a peaceful song by Kris Berry, performing at North Sea Jazz in one week.

First backstage photos WDKA Show 2011

What an amazing show! I had the honour to walk three shows and each show for four designers, so I've worn some incredible outfits, all hand-made and one of a kind. The photos by Peter Stigter aren't online yet, but I'm already very happy with the backstage photos. I hope the real photos are as good as the atmosphere backstage was.

Though we can't stand the rain, we definitely can stand Festival Mundial

To be brief - something I'm really bad at - Mundial was amazing again.
Me and one of my friends went on Saturday, we already bought our tickets before we even know who was going to perform.
A few weeks later we heard Wyclef Jean was coming (you know, the one from the songs with Shakira and a former member of the Fugees) so we were head-over-heels.
But of course, he cancelled it - so typical, those kind of things always happen to me.


Anyway, a few weeks later I received an email which said that we could vote on some artists to come. India.Arie was one of them! She's an amazing inspiration and terrific singer, and I thought I was going to pass out if she would come to Tilburg. But of course she didn't come either - Triggerfinger (some Belgian rock band) showed up. I was pissed off so I deliberately didn't want to hear one song of them. Blugh.


Other artists who came were Selah Sue (we saw here a month ago, but she was awesome as always!) and Paolo Nutini (you know, the wasted guy from 'Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything is right'). We also saw Mamas Gun, described as a funky soul band, but unfortunately their lead singer had lost his voice so the session was pretty disappointing.

Thank god the atmosphere at Mundial was amazing (lots of stalls with delicious food from all over the world and alternative clothes and rings) because the weather really sucked. It rained and it rained and it rained. God was with us during Selah Sue because the umbrella's were gone by then. I really enjoyed Selah Sue but you could easily tell a small and intimate concert fits her better. This concert few people in the audience actually knew her songs and could sing along. She was standing a lot further from the audience as well (because the stage was further away).



Paulo Nutini was exactly as I thought he would be. A sociable but quite odd person, he looked as if he was under the influence of I don't know what. He was mumbling all sorts of words but no one knew what the hell he was talking about. But when he sang it was a lot more clear, everybody knows 'Hey, I put some new shoes on!' and 'Candy' was brilliant as well. Conclusion: We can't stand the rain, but music makes everything good. It really does.

Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight., here one day gone one night

25-6-2009