Hammill's Krakow Concert - December 16th, 1999
reviewed by Koen Vyverman

Having been talked into a visit to the old Polish royal capital by a couple of my colleagues, I got hold of a last-minute flight and set off for a four day visit to Krakow.         My first target upon arrival was of course to locate the venue. This seemed a pretty straightforward task, since according to my map, the Kinoteater PTK should be located on one of the main avenues encircling the city center. Frustration started to strike however, after having walked up and down the avenue twice, trying to locate number 71 among the mostly housenumber-less buildings.         After a freezing while, I discovered that the avenue didn't stop where I thought it did, but actually petered out into a much narrower street slanting off in the direction of the Krakow docklands. The setting of deserted streets and derelict old factories with the occasional hissing pipeline overhead started to look more like it, and indeed, I came upon a doorway with the correct housenumber next to it.         Upon entering, I was greatly surprised to find at least 50 people queuing up onto a narrow staircase leading up somewhere unseen. Since this seemed to be the only way out of the hallway (except for backing out on the street), I assumed the ticket office must be upstairs and joined the queue myself. After a while though, it occurred to me that although the PH-fan population is (on the average) probably an aging one, there appeared to be a disproportionally large number of pensioners in the queue above me. My Polish vocabulary being limited to the bare minimum (i.e. 'beer' and 'cheers') I had some trouble interviewing the people directly above and below me as to the purpose of the queue. That is, until one of them waved an official-looking document in my face from which I learned that PTK stands for something like Polish Cable Television, and they were all there to pay their contributions.         Slightly confused, I got outside again and decided to walk around some more. And lo, one of the corners of the same block looked a bit like an entrance to a foyer of sorts. It was by now concert time minus 5 hours. The place was locked, no-one in sight, and no posters or announcements whatsoever. All this lead me to believe that I had finally found the venue, and I went off in pursuit of something vegetal to eat.         Returning later that evening, I was relieved to see some shady characters hanging around outside, waiting for the doors to open up. Having managed to buy a ticket in the city during the afternoon, I got past the four bulky bouncers and discovered the place bustling with activity. Well, not really, but there appeared to be an awful lot of people employed there. As I rushed forward toward the stage, I noted the absence of fiddle-space and equipment. Ah, a solo-show! I also soon found out that not only the venue was seated, but the seats were also numbered. I discovered that my ticket entitled me to a spot in the before-last row, and decided to spend the remaining time trying to get my glasses as clean as possible.         The place filled up nicely, and when the show started, looked pretty sold out to me. Meaning about 360 occupied seats. Peter got greeted enthusiastically, and started with a keyboard set that started promising with a "Don't Tell Me", but failed to convince me somehow. The voice did not appear to be in ultimate form for this last show of the millennium (in its widest interpretation). Indeed, I had spotted Mr. Soundboard (Paul Ridout) before the show, and he confessed that Peter and himself had been feeling a bit fluish since starting the mini-tour at Kaliningrad.         When the first keyboard-set extended into a 5th song, I correctly predicted a long acoustic guitar set and a final keyboard set, rather than the 'classical' keyboard / ac. guitar / keyboard / el. guitar structure. Halfway into the guitar set, things began to pick up for me. We got a rather powerful "Sign", and after that my initial reserve was gone. This has happened to me before, a seemingly poor (in comparison) first half of the show, followed by an excellent second half. Like e.g. Freiburg last year. I wonder if it's just me, growing into a state of blissful concert-haze, or if there's really something like the voice warming up and the playing getting bolder after a while.         Whichever way, after "Sign" things were just wonderful with "Patient" and the entire final keyboard set as highlights, building up to the explosive finale of "Traintime". After thunderous applause, Peter came back on stage and announced that he'd play one more song, and then would not play anymore until the year 2000. I sort of began to expect "Future Now" since this was obviously the last occasion to perform an unaltered version of it, but I decided against it for reasons of 'probably too obvious'. And indeed, we got a fascinating (keyboard of course) "Still Life" followed by the disappearing act. Half the audience left the venue, while the other half just kept maniacally clapping for at least another ten minutes. Which made me wonder if they hadn't understood the remark about not playing again until the next year. Or perhaps they were all taking him literally, assuming he could still come back for an acapella (i.e. no playing involved) second encore? Of course, Peter didn't come back, and after a long while, Paul mercifully turned the music on and people drifted slowly out.         While I was still loitering around, Peter came back to the edge of the stage after a while, and dangling legs over the edge confronted the oncoming flood of people brandishing CD-booklets for signing. Washing forward with the tide, I took the occasion to say hello and apologized for not having anything for Peter to sign. Whereupon he insisted on scribbling on the back of the Ellery Queen mystery novel that I had been lugging around. He seemed genuinely pleased to see a familiar face, me being apparently the only one of the regulars having made it to one of the shows.         So, to finish this off here's the not very extravagant but still very much enjoyable setlist of the last PH show of the century (or whatever):
1. Don't Tell Me (keyboard) 2. Just Good Friends (keyboard) 3. Siren Song (keyboard) 4. Nothing Comes (keyboard) 5. Unrehearsed (keyboard) 6. Comfortable (ac. guitar) 7. If I Could (ac. guitar) 8. Sign (ac. guitar)		9. Last Frame (ac. guitar) 10. Shingle Song (ac. guitar) 11. Patient (ac. guitar) 12. Easy To Slip Away (keyboard) 13. Bubble (keyboard) 14. Stranger Still (keyboard) 15. Traintime (keyboard) 16. Encore: Still Life (keyboard)
Koen Vyverman