Katalin Uppsala 22 Jan

lisa · #1 (**permalink**) 29th January 2012, 08:34 PM

The news came as a shock to me. UB40 coming to Sweden! Unbelievable! I thought they've done their last ever gig here a long time ago (9 years since I last saw them, and another 9 years before that one). The audience was not as appreciating and raving as I wanted them to be, and believed that the band thought that as well.

I had been attending two earlier gigs with my sister and we had great fun together - but now her situation have changed and I didn't think she would be able to make it this time. So I chose not to tell her and bring my partner Johan instead. Felt a bit weird but we've have been sharing some great music experienceslately, and he felt kind of obligated to join since I joined him to his favorite bands gig a couple of months earlier.

Everything else about the upcoming show seemed to fit me perfectly. The date and day of the week.
Have the promoter been looking into my calendar and work schedule????
And the place too. Uppsala is practically our back yard, we usually have to visit Stockholm if we want to see any greater artists, and going there takes some more time and effort.
And how exiting that it will at Katalin, a club - a pretty known jazz-club. Felt sooooo good knowing I would experience a UB40 gig there of all places.

I have been VERY envy of all peeps that have had the chance to see the guys at a club. Lucky me! Now I got the chance too. Yaay!

Finding out about this in early November made this winter a whole lot easier to live through, when I had an event like this to look forward to in the end of January I sure felt a whole lot better.

Some weeks went by. then I got some fantastic news from my sister. She and her husband had some time off just about then and asked if I had any plans to go to the event. How wonderful to be sharing anotherUB40 moment with sister again.

The big day finally arrived and after running around nervously waiting for the hours to pass we went down to Uppsala. Hard to get a clear view about the day through the excitement!
But we arrived to a snowy town and had dinner at a favorite restaurant before we met up withthe others at Katalin. Which were a nice place and the waiting time did not feel as long as I expected thanks to our company, they were a bit defeated by a cold just days before, but in good mood though.
So delighted to share another UB40 moment with my dear sister, and amused by the fact that our guys were with us too. Reggae love songs is not really their first music choices, but they were actually looking forward
to listen to some great tunes too, especially after hearing me bragging about the great sound at previous gigs.

UB40 Kat.jpg

What an excellent performance!
Wow! The guys really showed us that they still got it, full of joy and energy. Sharing a "contagious party energy" (as written in local news article), with lots of the popular covers, and some of their own hits like "Food For Thought", "One In Ten" and "Rat In The Kitchen".
"Madame Medusa" and "Maybe Tomorrow" were welcome surprises, as the new lovely Willie Nelson cover "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain", that proved they are true pro's still going strong (or even stronger)
The tight interaction and harmonies between the band-members were awesome, the horn section were certainly impressive (fit together like hand to a glove). Unbelievable that some of the members joined for just some years ago.
The sound could have been a bit better but was not bad (probably caused by the premises?)

My expectations of the audience got me confused at first, for some people around us were not moving - at all, not even swaying to the music. Then I realized that they must have been stunned with awe.
But no offense to the guy in the declined wheelchair. He seemed to have a great time, clapping hands and had an happy excited glow in his eyes. I wanted to grab his hand and start waving, but braced myself.
After a while it finally loosened up and started to move around us too. (typical swedish behavior - were kind of slow at first)
Luckily I don't know how to "behave" and don't mind making a fool of myself (neither did my sister), so we had a great time anyway dancing, singing and waving all the time.
As we were urged to...

"Let your body work, can you feel it jerk?
This one gonna make you move 'til your body hurts
We gonna dance until the morning light

Break it down

This one is making me silly, it makes me jump around
Get down
People get on your feet; I don't want you sitting down
Break it down
Let's start the winding, start the grinding, let's just jump around
Get down
Cos good music always comes back around"

Warm, happy and full of endorphins, and with an upcoming album to look forward to we had to hurry back home to a howling dog and mad neighbors.

I still have strange sensations in my toes after all dancing and jumping. But that is all good. My backache is gone and my voice is back to normal.
Nowadays I prefer wearing uncomfortable shoes to great events like this, then I am reminded of it by every step I take the following days.

We got even more impressed by Duncans performance when we heard out about his accident, which if I got it right, occured before the concert in Sweden. There was no sign what so ever of any injuries or problems according to it during the show.
I hope he can make it through the tour, you don't want to miss out on a gig like this!

Snapshot 2012-01-29 18-28-32.jpg