Bill & his Rhythm Kings came onstage 8.10 p.m. The first thing surprising was the fact Gary Brooker was missing (same as the night before in Hamburg).

His subsitute was a young guy looking a bit like Elvis - his name is Mike Sanchez.

He did a real good job, I think, giving the band an even more boogie and R`n`R -mood. The way he plays and acts onstage is totally different than Gary Brooker does; more like Jerry Lee Lewis.

The set - as below - took us thru parts of all the Rhythm Kings albums in nearly 2 hours gig of great music. My personal highlights were "Mystery Train" (phantastic Sax and Harmonica by Nick Payn), the wonderful Beverley Skeete doing vocals on "Melody" and performing the new single "Love letters".

All thru the set Martin Taylor and Albert Lee did - once more - great guitar work with some phantastic solos. As always, Georgie Fame made his jokes. When the band came back on stage to give the encores Bill was missing and Georgie said "sorry, there is an old guy called Bill Wyman who first nees to finish his cigarette backstage". I was lucky enough to meet Bill & the band backstage after the concert.

One of the things I asked Bill was why Gary Brooker was missing. He told me that he is off the band for only a few days as he is doing a few "memorial" gigs with his old band "Procol Harum". After that - off course - he will return to the Rhythm Kings continuing the tour. I also asked Bill about the problems they had here in Germany with the local promoter (see large article on bills website www.billwyman.com; tour 2001).

They planned to do about 10 gigs here in germany but cause of the problems with the promoter they now could only arrange three dates (Hamburg, Cologne, Lichtenfels). Asking if he will add more german dates in near future I have good news as Bill gave me a statement (handwritten) with a message to all his fans: " To all fans, I send to you fond wishes - and look forward to seeing you in Germany ( if not in May - maybe in November 2001) - when we may well return ! Bill Wyman "