Hensley|Lawton Band

Netherlands, Zoetermeer

19-04-2001

I arrived too early at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer. Everything was closed so I had to wait in my car 'till the doors would go open. In the car next to me there was a couple waiting. At a certain moment Ken came out of De Boerderij and I went to him for a talk. When I went back to my car I saw that the man from the couple next to me had three Uriah Heep albums in his hand, Firefly, Innocent Victim and Fallen Angel. We started talkin', his name was Dana Dyck and he came from Canada with his wife Jane. They were visting her Dutch family. They already went to Gerolshofen to see Uriah Heep. But they also wanted to see the Hensley/Lawton Band. A few moments later John came out the door. We went to him and asked him to sign our albums. He asked us to come in.

They were building the stage and after that they started with the soundcheck. In the meantime we spoke with Iris and Monica. About 18.00 hours Louis Rentrop and Erik van Loenhout arrived. And with the five of us we followed the rest of soundcheck and listened to Easy Livin'. After the soundcheck we went for a "dinner" and a drink to the Eetcafe of De Boerderij. There we met some other Heepsters like Nico and Jan the brother of Erik.

About a quarter past nine the support-act started. The Jan Rijbroek Band is a not so well known band in the Netherlands. The leader of the band is Jan Rijbroek, he looks a little bit like Mick Box, and he sings a little bit like Roger Chapman. But is not as good as both, but it was not bad for a support-act.

The HLB started at 11.00 o' çlock exactly with Easy Livin'. They played for 2 hours and it was a very good set. A lot of classic Heepsongs and a few songs from John's solo-album Payin' my dues ... and from Ken's last solo-album. Most of the Heepsongs were taken from the three Lawton-albums. They played a very beautiful version of The Dance. Of course Free me was played. Other tracks were The Hanging Tree and Free and Easy with Ken on guitar. Songs which i've never heard live. The show ended 2 hours later with Gypsy. After saying goodbye to the band I went home.