It's not easy, being a Southside fan in The Netherlands!

I remember it being 1992. My best friend Marco and I were on a road-trip to Spain in his mother's car. Together with some clean shirts and lots of sun block, we packed a collection of 72 music tapes (yes boys and girls, those were the days before mp3!). We quickly implemented the rule that the driver got to pick the tape that was going to be played for the next 90 minutes and hit the road. Marco had always been a huge Springsteen fan, I was more into bands like Van Halen. You can imagine the "driver gets to pick the tape"-rule was not started out of luxury.

I still remember the first time I heard the "Reach out and touch the sky" tape Marco brought with him. It took me at least a week to remember the name of the band: "Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes" isn't something a Dutch boy on holiday remembers easily. But like I said, I still remember the tape vividly. And I remember playing it on and on and on; Pretty soon, the tape was on both drivers' playing lists and I'm pretty sure we blew one of his mother's speakers on that tape!

After that, I was hooked. We went to lots of Southside concerts together, when they would be touring Europe. It was kinda fun, to support a band and buy their music, without too many other friends and family even being able to pronounce the band name, let alone name of of the songs. Getting hold
of new CD's, or even knowing where and when Southside came to Holland wasn't that easy. But still we managed to get our fair share over the years. The acoustic concert in Tilburg is probably one of the more special concerts I visited.

Recently, we've started another Southside tradition. Southside luckily visits Europe more regularly than before. Every year, the two of us travel to London, to see The Jukes in the Astoria. Last year, just after booking the London trip, 4 additional concerts in Holland were announced, but that didn't limit the joy of reliving the Southside road trip that started it all.

For this year [2004], we've already booked our London weekend and we've also got our tickets for the Amsterdam show. Also for a first time, we're bringing our partners to London. Let's see if they feel the same excitement (or is it the beer?) we feel, when we start our yearly pilgrimage.

South and friends, thanks for all the great concerts and memories. Hope to be able to go for the ultimate road trip soon (when will there be another Jukestock?)

Bart van Heumen
Zwolle, The Netherlands