90s Request: 1995, R.E.M. and Jeff Buckley are unforgettable at Rock Werchter
Chaos in the Charlie tent during Osdorp Posse
William of Zeeland , 20 September 2011
In the context of 90s Request on 3FM, 3VOOR12 editor-in-chief Willem van Zeeland looks back on the most important festivals of the 90s based on his own memories. In the evening you can hear live music from those festivals at Roosmarijn Reijmer in 3VOOR12RADIO. Today: 1995.
Chaos in the Charlie tent during Osdorp Posse
In the context of 90s Request on 3FM, 3VOOR12 editor-in-chief Willem van Zeeland looks back on the most important festivals of the 90s based on his own memories. In the evening you can hear live music from those festivals at Roosmarijn Reijmer in 3VOOR12RADIO. Today: 1995. One of the most beautiful festival performances of 1995 can be seen on Drum Rhythm. This is a multi-day festival that was organized in Amsterdam from 1991 to 2002, with artists who are somewhere between jazz and dance. The tobacco industry was still allowed to sponsor cultural events in those years. The money from the shag giant is used to bring big names to Amsterdam. In 1995 the festival still takes place at various locations in the city, later Drum Rhythm will move to the Westergasfabriek site. In 1995, Drum Rhythm brought Massive Attack to the Netherlands for the first time, four years after the release of the classic debut album Blue Lines. A special location has been found for the concert, the main hall of De Beurs Van Berlage. The acoustics are not optimal, but it is a beautiful entourage and Massive Attack goes all out with vocalists Horace Andy and Tracy Thorne (of Everything But The Girl).
Pinkpop 1995 is nice, but certainly not great with Spearhead, Levellers, Biohazard and Tragically Hip, among others. Live plays on the main stage for the first time and will return there three more times in the years that follow, but the group does not become a favorite of the critics. Early in the day, ex-Pogues singer Shane MacGowan has to be taken away drunk halfway through his concert. Sinead O'Connor closes Pinkpop. While her career seems to be on the decline, she surprises friend and foe with a very convincing show, with a sizzling performance of her new single Fire In Babylon.
In 1995, Rock Werchter was a two-day festival with lovely summer weather and I saw no less than five unforgettable concerts that weekend. First of all, there is the Belgian dEUS, which can be seen at almost every major festival in 1995. In those years, Tom Barman still has the current Zita Swoon singer Stef Camil Karlens as a sidekick. Every performance of dEUS is different, but at Rock Werchter 1995 they rise above themselves, pure magic. The performance of the English singer PJ Harvey is also great. While she made her debut in 1992 as a somewhat timid girl at Pinkpop, in 1995 she appears to have grown into a flamboyant singer with a theatrical performance. In 1995, Bristol-based trip-hopper Tricky was seen as the future of rock 'n' roll and his dark whisper show made an impression as night fell in Werchter.
The closing act of Rock Werchter provides the concert of the year. R.E.M. performed twice at Rock Werchter in the eighties, but in the early nineties they broke through to superstar status thanks to the classic albums Out Of Time and Automatic For The People, including the hits Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts. R.E.M. had a flourishing period in the studio in those years, but the two albums were not accompanied by a tour. In 1995 they finally show themselves again, on the occasion of the somewhat lesser album Monster. The material from Out Of Time and Automatic For The People can now be heard live for the first time. R.E.M. represents the very highest that pop music has to offer in 1995.
Earlier that day, Jeff Buckley had already shown how to be pathetic without flying out of control. What a shame that I will see him here for the last time. How I would have loved to have experienced many more performances with him. Everything indicates that he had what it takes to show a lot of beautiful things, but in 1997 Jeff Buckley drowns in the Mississippi.
In 1995, Lowlands grew to 25,000 visitors. The marriage between rock and dance survives in 1995 at this festival with the guitars of Monster Magnet and Soundgarden in the Alpha and the beats of the Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers in the Bravo. After this weekend, the Dutch club circuit has two new favorite acts: the Osdorp Posse and the Heideroosjes. A little later, under the title Greetings From Lowlands, they will be touring the country a little later, where they will provide the most exciting Dutch club tour since Claw Boys Claw. Lowlands underestimated the popularity of these bands, because I've never seen a party tent stormed as much as the much too small Charlie tent during the performances of the Heideroosjes and especially Osdorp Posse at Lowlands 1995. Be sure to check out the spectacular video in which you can see how the audience at the Osdorp Posse literally hangs in the roof of the tent.
Rock Torhout / Werchter 1995
Belly, Ben Harper, Bodycount, Channel Zero, Dave Matthews Band, dEUS, Jeff Buckley, Morphine, Offspring, Orbital, PJ Harvey, R.E.M., Senser, Soul Coughing, Spearhead, The Cranberries, The Cure, The Scene, Therapy?, Tricky, Weezer
