John Waite Live in Zoetermeer/Holland, Boerderij
June 10, 2006

Meet & Greet

One of my fewer good qualities is that I´m bad in estimating things, neither the age of a person, nor the number of fans that now were waiting for John to shake his hand, to have signed their records, concert tickets whatsoever, or having a photo with him. (Willem, Willem, you should have stay a little bit longer...) So how many fans might have waited there, 20? More, less? Dunno. But one thing I knew for sure, I found a good place to watch him without cricking my neck. Fine, I was suffering a stiff neck anyway because of the  front-row-looking-up  but hell, I won´t complain...

I brought along a little present for John. However, I never thought that this will ever happen, and so I didn´t think about what to say. After 5 years where each and every event in this direction had failed my hope was almost gone being one of those that have a nice Meet & Greet story to share. Apart from this, I´m getting even more nervous the more I ponder on a line of action. At a suitable moment I would find the suitable words. Last but not least, I didn´t want to sacrify the impressions that surrounded me now because of a concentration that would fail later anyway.
So I was standing there, watching John. He seemed to be a bit tensed up, hectic maybe but it was getting better after a while. André kept his eyes glued to John, so did I, even though for different motives. What was I thinking in this moment? Well nothing. As always *grin*. I just watched the scene and snapped some snatches of talk where John among others apologized for the muffed sound.

Menno got his records signed finally except for one which might have been a vitctim of the turmoil. Being a fan for ages, it also was a big deal to him to see John Waite live. I don´t remember why it didn´t work in 2001, please forgive me Menno, I know you told me the reason why! Paul also missed John in 2001. He and Adrian Steenland didn´t know each other at that time, otherwise things would have turn out different, for Paul at least.
Speaking of Paul: What happened next is due to him. (For a better understanding I want to point out that I had contacted John during the last fours years several times for this and that.) I got sidetracked by Anita while Paul jumped at the chance - who´s next? - and he took my arm to pull me forward. I heard John´s voice mentioning my name, and looking around so Paul pointed at me and John now asked me directly, "You are Petra?" And then he knocked me out of my stride because right after answering in the affirmative he took me and kissed both of my cheeks. Excuse me? You might admit that it was useless to think about what to say. Right know I would have forgotten every word...
More or less perplexed I finally gave him the Life Story - A Tribute To John Waite, English version. It was the paper print of the Lifestory which was originally written by David Waite and Adrian Steenland in 1997 that I translated and updated with their - and John´s - permission. One day Adrian said it would be a good idea to tranlsate it back to English and give it to John. At that time I would have laughed at everybody that would have told me that this will happen one day.
Have I been nervous now? You bet! I was surprised anyway that I overcame all this without heart attacks and fainting fits, and now it was nearly over I went into a skid. Damn it... John flipped through the pages, said "Thanks", and, "I´m very touched", and I don´t remember whether I asked him to let me know if there is anything wrong to correct it. (Thanks Crissy!) Paul said something very nice while John was glancing over the Life Story, it was, "You´re holding your life in your hands."
I don´t know if John will ever read it because he knows his life, but if so I hope there will be nothing in it that he never said...

Paul Wijman, John Waite, waite4you!!!Petra

Epilog

Paul managed it to get me the smaller concert poster at the ticket office of the Boerderij.
I snafued the photo that Menno asked me to take from him and John. I´m still angry about myself because I knew how much it meant to him. As I offered to take a photo with my own camera and send it to him John already was on his way back. And all this just because I´m too dopey to handle an analog camera. I´m terribly sorry, Menno!

It was already after midnight. Adrian, Marian, Paul, Menno, Anita and I didn´t care, we would have loved to have a final drink together to finish that terrific evening gracefully. But it seemed that our lucky streak ended with John´s departure. Our plans to meet my folks at the Zoetermeer bar "Plaats" failed so we wanted to meet at the Golden Tulip hotel bar but it was already closed. I think every one of us refused to believe that it could end that cheerless. I mean - everybody knows it, it´s like watching a great movie at the cinema and afterwards wanting to put in your two cents. You don´t wanna discuss it the next week, you wanna talk about it now! Besides, you don´t meet that often when you´re living in different countries... and last but not least, you can´t compare a movie to a John Waite concert.

Menno left in front of the hotel, (he had parked his car nearby) and went home then to Duivendrecht. Marian & Adrian stayed for about another 30 minutes and relucting we said Good-Bye then. Fortunately it´s not that far to Gouda, where they live. Paul stayed, believe it or not, till 2:10 am while my friends were already sleeping in their hotel beds. But then he had to leave as well, and he set out for Wijk bij Duurstede. Anita, however, stayed at the hotel and spent the next day with our small group at Scheveningen beach and a bit of Den Haag before she also left in late afternoon, back home to Simpelveld.

I think - I hope - that you, Marian, Adrian, Paul, Menno, Anita, Willem, Walter, Joost, Marianne, Wouter, Jörg, Caudia, and all the other WaiteCrazees that had the chance to be present, have the same wonderful memories that I have when I recollect the 10th of June, 2006...

Look what we found... Ute, me and Anke in Zoetermeer, the day after...

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