in
Linz, Austria - 20 August 2004

Event: Krone-Fest (village fair)
Location: Hauptbühne (main stage) at the Hauptplatz in Linz
Bands: ??, SAILOR, Haiducii, Christina Stürmer

Photos by: James McCarraher ©

SAILOR during a promotion session in a shopping mall

Peter in front of the crowd

SAILOR during "The Old Nickelodeon Sound"

SAILOR during "La Cumbia"

SAILOR on stage

A concert review by James McCarraher:

On the 20^th August, less than a year since their previous visit to Linz in Austria, SAILOR made a triumphant return, taking centre stage at the annual Krone Fest. In front of an eclectic and appreciative audience ranging from young children to the elderly, SAILOR performed a high-energy set to 20,000 people.
The family atmosphere and warm welcome were rewarded by a high-energy set from the band, who turned in a fabulous performance of some seventy minutes. An excellent rapport was struck up with the crowd as Grant launched into some excellent German and Phil even tried his hand at a sentence or two, much to everyone’s delight.
Roars of appreciation greeted "A Glass Of Champagne", "The Secretary" and the highlight of the evening, an immaculate and highly charged version of "Vera From Veracruz". The show closed with a well rehearsed ‘Full Monty’ and the surprise presentation to the band of an enormous cake.
The event was an excellent showcase for the talents of SAILOR and they undoubtedly won over many new fans that evening.
James McCarraher
24^th August 2004

A concert review by Peter Taylor (Taiwan!) - A Personal Account of the Linz Concert and the lead up to it:

Well, I finally made it to a performance of SAILOR. Having been a SAILOR fan for nearly 30 years now I thought it was my time to finally catch the group performing whilst I'm briefly in this region of the world. As a frequent visitor to the SAILOR website I was delighted to learn of SAILOR's intended performance at the Linz 'Kronen-Fest' and thereafter went about organising the trip to Linz.
On advice from others, including the ever helpful Katrin (from the SAILOR website) and author James, I booked my flight with Ryan Air for a departure on the day of the concert. Prior to leaving London, where I had been staying the night before, I visited the HMV shop in Oxford street and picked up a copy of SAILOR's "Greatest Hits" - I have all the band's recordings on CD and vinyl except that I don't have any of the tracks from "Dressed For Drowning" on CD and the only CD that does have any of these tracks is the afore-mentioned one. As an aside, I've always found it both curious and annoying that the record companies have always failed to include tracks from the original recording of "Hideaway" on their numerous compilation efforts. Is there a reason for this apart from expediency? I also picked up a copy of "Unkown Pleasures: A Cultural Biography of Roxy Music" by Paul Stump, a music writer for various magazines and the Guardian newspaper. In the book there is a rather disparaging reference to SAILOR as being plagiarisers of Roxy's musical style, - both an unfair and inaccurate accusation I feel, by the author. Whilst I agree there are some similarities in musical styles between the groups, - I am an equally enthusiastic Roxy Music fan as I am of SAILOR, there are differences and I consider the author to have done SAILOR a great disservice by this reference. Sure, he has the right to criticise or even dislike the group, - as he clearly does, however to be dismissive of the band on unjust or inaccurate grounds is reprehensible.
Anyway, I flew into Linz on the day of the concert, hurried to the Hauptplatz and  found a pleasant enough hotel within easy walking distance of the concert venue. Linz's, according to the travellers bible -"The Lonely Planet Guide", main claim to fame is that it has the dubious honour of being Hitlers favourite town. However, I was more interested  in being there for the concert, and perhaps time and weather permitting a brief wander around what I considered to be a charming old town located on the Danube. My German is fairly minimal bit I seemed to be getting by okay with most locals responding (in either english or german) in a kindly and helpful, if not amused manner.
I returned to the concert venue which was fast filling up with a generally good natured and happy crowd of both young and middle aged folk. The rock group on before SAILOR (sorry I didn't catch their name) were competent and entertaining. It had been organised for me to contact James by phone before the concert, but this was near on impossible considering the ever-ballooning crowd size and the noise that went with this. My apologies to you James for failing to catch up with you.
Finally, SAILOR came on stage and gave a great and entertaining 1 hour performance fitting in well with the festive nature of the crowd. I was disapointed that they didn't play longer or that I would have liked to have heard Rob Alderton's new contribution "Harbour Bar Bell", "Traffic Jam" (my favourite SAILOR single) nor Peter Lincoln's excellent rendition of James Taylor's "Frozen Man". I also understand the requirements of SAILOR to play to the type of audience they're in front of, but nevertheless feel that it's a pity that they don't use more of their own material in concert. That aside, SAILOR played extremely well and showed what consummate musicians they are.
Well, I'm leaving Linz now on a rather wet Saturday with few Euro's left in my pocket. Linz airport, amazingly has no exchange facilities open on a Saturday! It's back to London for a few days before I leave for Quebec City (Georg's old town,- via New York). Then it's back to Taiwan to meet up with my wife and resume my ESL english teaching there. It was great to finally see the guys in concert.
All the best
Peter Taylor

An extract from an article about SAILOR's performance in Linz (Austria) on 20 August 2004 from the "Krone Zeitung" from 22 August 2004:

...SAILOR also turned out to be true crowd pullers. And although their homes have been the international concert stages for the last 30 years they were impressed by the "Krone"-Fest and the audience. The pop-veterans with the sailor-look amazed the audience with their German language skills as well as the "Mack The Knife" song from the "Dreigroschenoper". With hits like "Glass of Champagne" or "One Drink Too Many" they managed to heat up the audience for Haiducii's "Dragostea Din Tei" - and the star of the evening and the audience's favourite, Christina Stürmer...

...And an Article announcing SAILOR's performance in Linz from the "Krone Zeitung" from 04 August 2004:

Acclaimed cult-band at the "Krone"-Fest in Linz (20 & 21 August) - free admission for all!
The English band SAILOR has released 23 albums and 47 singles during the last 31 years. World-hits like "A Glass Of Champagne" reached cult- and gold-status - but once it all began with a fairy-tale...
Retrospect: The owner of a nightclub in Paris, "Le Matelot", wanted his houseband to perform under the name of "Sailor" in sailor outfits. When the club burnt down in 1970 the musicians went to different parts of the world. By chance two of them met again at a US airport: Phil Pickett (still in the band today) and Georg Kajanus! And the duo brought SAILOR back to life again in 1973 together with Henry Marsh and Grant Serpell. This was the beginning of one of the most innovative bands. They kept their sailor-look, got countless awards and played acclaimed concerts.
At the "Krone"-Fest in Linz (20 & 21 August) the quartet will deliver a great show - with free admission for all!
Also performing: Chris Norman, Haiducii and many others.

Concert Photos