A short trip to Great Britain.
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007.
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I have been a fan of Arjen Lucassen's work for quite a few years now. After his sixth project he started the
side-project Stream of Passion together with Marcela Bovio. Because I love to see Arjen play live, there was
no way that I would say 'No' to the opportunities of going to his gigs. So I tried to attend as much shows
as I could, of which you can read more about on
the Stream of Passion page. The
shows and personal meetings with Arjen, Lori, Marcela, Davy, Johan, Diana and Alejandro were all so cool
that I leapt at the opportunity when a friend offered me the chance to go with him to see two Stream of
Passion shows in Great Britain (Sheffield and London).
We left early on the Friday morning to get the ferry in Calais (France) in time. In the meanwhile we kept
some contact by phone with Davy, so there would be a chance that we could travel together on the same ferry
to cross The Channel to Dover (Great Britain). After we checked in for the trip we got suddenly a
not-so-positive message from Davy. The British Immigration control had brought our Soppies to a stop. But
hoping for a happy end, we got on the ferry. We had a tasty lunch and found some relaxing places to sit for
a while. We also walked a bit through the enormous ferry (on the deck, where there was an extremely fierce
wind blowing, and also through the luxurious corridors and halls on the ferry). When we finally arrived in
the harbour city of Dover, we took the left lane of the highway and cruised in the direction Sheffield, via
London. It was already time for dinner, so we stopped at a petrol station near Maidstone, where René also
filled the tank of his car with some diesel. Because we hadn't heard from Davy for some hours, René text
messaged him to ask what the situation was because if they had already crossed the border we would be able
to drive further towards Sheffield without doubts. But soon after that we got the disappointing message from
Davy: "They won't let the Mexicans enter Great Britain. We're going back." So after long and intimidating
questioning it appeared that the Mexican band members weren't allowed into Great Britain. Later we heard
that the immigration officials wanted to arrest the 3 Mexicans and put them on a single trip back to Mexico.
It shouldn't get worse in Europe... So after reading the message that they would return to the Netherlands,
we also turned around and tried to get the earliest ferry back to Calais. This was luckily possible, so that
night we went back to Calais, from where we continued our trip in the direction of Gouda. Once home at my
friend's house, we went to bed for some well deserved sleep. The next day I returned to Rijssen...
What should have been a great party in the UK became a huge disappointment. The show in Dordrecht became
their final show, although no one had ever expected that, as the shows in Great Britain were to be the real
finale of this tour. Therefore there are no photos of shows unfortunately, but there are photos of the trip
with the ferry, because in the end, that is what this page is all about.
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