Piet's stories

[Piet]

I decided to write down our history and memories of our meetings with the Killer, here's the beginning and let me know if you're interested in more.

Part 1. Amsterdam 13-05-1972

When I met Els in the beginning of 1968 I didn't have music of JLL, I grew up with older brothers and sisters so I was familiar with the well known Rock 'n Roll stars and we had lots of records at home, but Els was a fan of the killer "Jerry Lee Lewis". One of the first things I've got from my new sweetheart was the "Golden Hits" LP and soon to be followed by many more. We married in 1969 and got a boy, Piet jr. born in 1971 and a girl Edith born in 1973. It was in between those two babies that I was at work and in luchtime I heard a DJ on the radio saying that Jerry Lee Lewis would perform a midnight concert in Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 13th of may THAT was NEXT WEEK. I forgot to tell you that we lived in a small town in the south of Holland and there wasn't much advertised in our part of the country. I called the venue and thank God there were still tickets for sale, we brought Piet junior to the neighbours and headed to Amsterdam, a big trip in those days, never been to that big city before, to find out we were way in the back, "never mind" said Els; "I'm going to the stage when Jerry comes on" I tried to tell her she would be kicked out but she didn't listen and when Jerry came down the stairs with his wooden shoes in his hand Els was sitting on the stage (thank you securityman) and she was the first one Jerry shook hands with and Els was allowed to sit on the stage the whole show (as she would stay calm). I saw the show from way in the back but I do remember a fine looking young lady just before me with a very short dress who watched the show standing on her chair, well I had a good view and heard Jerry somewhere. Before the show we found out there was a real fanclub in Holland (we had always thought we were they only fans in Holland) and so we joined it and became friends with Wim de Boer and Henk van Raaij who both live close to our town. Years later we went to see some shows by "The Shakin' Arrows", we told one of the bandmembers this story (after he told us he also went to the show), he said he had a surprise for us the next time and indeed he handled us this picture below, Els sitting on stage in the yellow/brown dress just in front of Jerry. Maybe that's the reason I want to share my pictures with all of you, just as that guy did, a big surprise from one fan to another.





To be continued.....

[nicolaas]

Great story Piet. And a great picture too!

I think we all be screaming for more.

[Bobby McGee]

Precious memories!! Thanks a lot, Piet!

Good old days ..... I feel like I was born much too late...

We surely wanna hear more!

[Maarten K.]

Thank you, Piet. These kind of stories are much appreciated! I always enjoy reading these things very much. Maybe you inspire others to share some memories as well.

[Piet]

Part 2. Hamburg 11-03-1977

In de following years we frequently visited Wim and Henk and our record collection was growing bigger and bigger, there were even records we never heard of. When Henk van Raaij, in the beginning of 1977, told us that Jerry was coming over again but this time only in Germany we were surprised, we strongly believed that 1972 was the one and only time we could have seen the Killer live in action and now he came back, the plans to go were made over several beers and we had to take the opportunity to see the man again but which show??. Jerry was playing 2 shows in Hamburg on Friday, a day later in Bremen and on Sunday in Essen, Henk had been corresponding with several people all over the world and he arranged a stay over in Hamburg at the house of Hans Peter Zdrenka, we also could take the next show in Bremen (100km closer to Holland) and from there we would drive home to catch some sleep for the Sunday show which was close to our hometown. On friday morning 11th. march 1977 we headed for Hamburg, never been outside Holland before and TomTom navigation didn't excist but with Henk as my co/pilot and Els to look after the drinks and food we made it into that big city, I still wonder how we found it so quick but we still had one problem left…tickets! Henk had one ticket for each show and he was convinced we could get some at the venue, haha, it was sold out as the sign said but we had luck, we saw a guy hanging around the Music-halle and we found out he was selling his tickets because he couldn´t be there that evening. Soon after that we met our friends and Dieter Grage, a guy we´ve met several times at the Tilburg rock-meetings, has arranged that Els and I could sleep at his parents place while Henk should stay with Hans Peter. The show started and there were a lot of rockers/Hell´s angels in front of the stage who started booing every time Jerry went into a country song, a little later Jerry got angry and told the audience that there were lots of fans who liked his country songs, he left the stage for about 5 minutes but returned to finish his show. The second show was about the same, the same booing crowd and after a couple of songs Jerry got angry again and left the stage again with the words, "If you don’t like my music you can kiss my ass".. Well that was nice, we had a 600km drive for this and again Jerry was gone, would he come back again?, the crowd stayed inside the venue in the hope the show would continue and we´ve met Kenneth Swanstrom and Per Ake Blohm who sadly both passed away. A little later Horst Fasscher (owner Star-club) anounched that Jerry would go on with the show but the public had to be calm, when Jerry came back after a 20 minutes break he had a nice song for those riot rockers, maybe some of you have heard it before but I´ve lost it. The same thing as in Amsterdam happened, Els wanted to have the best place and she hang out with those angels at the fences and she can be seen with her famous red cap. (just on the left)




To be continued..

[Perk]

Thanks Piet for your stories!

That improvised song for the Hamburg audience you mean must be "You Can Kiss My Ass On Main Street" : )

On the audio recording i have from this you can hear Kenneth Swanstrom talk on the tape in the end. Too bad both Kenneth & Perra are gone, i met them both several times in the 80´s.

By the way Perra´s funeral was on the 9th January. Many JLL fans attended as John Brende, Hans Jabell, Gunilla & Göran etc.

Ops! I see Piet is catching up on me on the number of messages on this forum

Keep rockin!

Perk : )

[thrund]

Great idea Piet, thanks.
It would be great to get more!

[Piet]

Part 3. Bremen 12-03-1977 & Essen 13-03-1977

After the shows we had to follow Hans Peter who drove with his car straight trough the whole Reeperbahn district and I had to follow him because otherwise we would have no sleeping place, thank God we did make it save to his house and after a couple of beers we went to Dieter Grage his parents house, the next day we had an enormous lunch and after that we went looking for our friends again, they still seem to be in coma but we all managed to leave for Bremen to arrive in time for our third show. Linda opened the show and it was nice to see her behind the piano singing “Who’s sorry now” the old Connie Francis hit, we saw an unusual show with Jerry playing guitar (Mystery train) and fiddle and again Els was in the front and she managed to give Linda Gail a sign to meet us after the show (no back-stage passes at that time) and we finally had the chance to shake hands with the sister of the Killer. We told her we would be in Essen the next day and wanted to meet Jerry Lee, Linda told us to leave the venue right after the show for Jerry’s hotel, it was easy to catch him there, she said. Being tired we went home just after the show, still another 500 km to go but with the memories of that three shows we were home soon. The next day we picked Henk up again and of we went to Essen and this time Wim and Ans de Boer were also going that direction, first we searched were the hotel was so it was easy to find it after the show. The show was in the big Gruga Halle and after seeing another great show we hurried to the hotel, we still didn’t know if Jerry arrived before us but after a couple of minutes a big Mercedes stopped before the side-entrance of the hotel and trough the glass door we saw Jerry getting out of the car. Els was getting nervouser by the minute and was pulling the door while Jerry did it on the other side, they both didn’t notice the door was locked so the Killer has to come through the front door. Finally Els was able to shake hands with the Killer again and he allowed me to take a picture from both of them, too bad I had forgotten to connect the flashlight with the camera (good old days) and it didn’t work, Jerry noticed the mistake and said to me: “Take your time son, I’ll wait till this lady has her picture”, and in between he told Els he noticed her in the public the last couple of days, thanks to the famous red cap. After that he spend some time in the hotel-lobby taking to Wim and Ans de Boer and signing autographs for the fans who also found their way to the hotel. When Jerry left for his room Linda and Kenny came down and we went for a drink in the basement of the hotel to find out they were closed, the only drinks we could get was water. We spend quit some time with Linda and we gave her a Jerry T-shirt we also had, when I suggested she put it on for a picture for the fanclub magazine she did it right away as you can see, after spending an hour or so with her we decided it was time to get home again to put an end on a marvellous weekend Germany and the Lewis gang.






To be continued…

[jllWAfan1982]

Great stories...have been enjoying reading them.

[Piet]

Here some pictures that belong to the story



2nd. show Hamburg



Bremen



Mystery train

[Perk]

“Take your time son, I’ll wait till this lady has her picture”,

Ha ha, this same thing happened to me in 1985. I caught Jerry and asked him politely for a picture. It was okay. Now the camera didn´t work for the first shot. I told Jerry this. He said "well let´s try another one". Next time it worked.

I mean what big star does this for his fans? That´s a part of why i hold Jerry so high!

[bernieo50]

I would be interested in reading more of your memories.
Bernadette

[Perk]

Piet, you should ask Wim to print up those fan T-shirts again with Jerry and a cigar (wasn´t it Wim who did them?)

Best fan T-shirts i ever seen! I´ll get me one right away!

Perk

[Piet]

Piet, you should ask Wim to print up those fan T-shirts again with Jerry and a cigar (wasn´t it Wim who did them?)

Best fan T-shirts i ever seen! I´ll get me one right away!

Perk

Yes Perk, it was Wim who have them printed but I guess Els sold the most, on every rockmeeting she was making her round to sell the t-shirts, the first print was white, the next one was yellow.
Here you see Wim (in yellow) at the radiostation with the DJ "Cowboy Gerard"

[Piet]

Part 4. Amsterdam 11-11-1978

Never in our live could we expect that Jerry would visit Europe so many times after 1977 and again it was a big surprise to us when Wim de Boer told us the next year that Jerry would do a show at the “Jaap Eden Hall” in Amsterdam, the date 11-11-1978. Wim and Henk (vice-president) were celebrating the 15th. Anniversary of the Dutch fan club and they thought it was a good idea to give Jerry a present and they had a plaque made out of copper with an etched gravure of Jerry’s face and, of course, a bottle of Jack Daniels and Els insist on bringing the Killer some Dutch flowers. Wim managed to get some airplay on a Dutch national radio and so Wim, Henk and me went to the radiostation in Hilversum for the program “It’s country time” a good choice when we look back on the setlist. When the big day had come we all went (with our ladies) to Amsterdam to find out the flight is cancelled due to the fog, thank God there was a clever guy in Paris who suggest to take the city-hopper to Rotterdam and Jerry arrived just in time, he didn’t even had time to eat a meal. Duane Eddy did his best to please the audience but could do no good in the eyes of the public, they wanted Jerry and keep on shouting his name over and over again and when finally the “Memphis Beats” stepped on stage the crowd went wild but they really broke the house down when Jerry got on stage with a big cigar. He did a great show witch lasted 90 minutes and included “Just because, If the world keeps on turning, One has my name, Send me the pillow and In the mood”, a wonderful show but mostly country songs, I still believe he even shouted “Bring me a Heineken” in “What’s made Milwaukee famous”. After the show the promoter allowed Wim and Henk to sneak into the dressing-room but Henk insist the fanclub photographer had to come in also, you should have seen Els face!!! When we handed over the gifts he was happily surprised and said: I’ve got golden records but this is even nicer” but at the same time he wondered were our wife’s were, he missed already the lady with the red cap who was sitting on the first row and he send Jeffrey Kruger to get the ladies in and Els, holding those flowers the whole day, could finally give them to Jerry. We spend about an half hour in his company and we left the room telling Jerry to come back very soon, which he promised!







To be continued…