Pumpehuset,Copenhagen
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My Little Red Book
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A magical evening in Copenhagen's Pumpehus, began with Arthur and the band's arrival outside, when fans taking in the fresh air before the show, fondly greeted Arthur, who was looking happy and enthusiastic as the band strode up.
But just after Arthur and the band had entered the building, a brief but genuine Bummer in the Summer occurred in the music hall's driveway, as a fan, hurrying with friends to the concert, overlooked a chain strung across the driveway and he took a tumble, breaking his arm. For the poor guy, the only bright spot of his evening was that the Pumpehus quickly refunded his ticket purchase, as his friends found him an ambulance.
But from that point on the evening was one long positive surprise for many Danish fans. The nearly packed hall gasped with delight right from the start at the sheer energy and commitment from Arthur and the band. After the first few songs, many fans looked at each other and laughed as they shook their heads with disbelief, astounded that Arthur could perform with such intensity after such a long hiatus. And thanks to Arthur's continuing musical generosity, half the fun of Arthur and Love's concerts these days is seeing the ecstatic faces of the fans, many of them singing loudly along or simply mouthing the words in energized delight.
And Arthur seemed to gain energy with each song, although he laughed and complained of exhaustion near the end of the long set - only to come back and do several encore mini-sets lasting a half hour or more. And throughout the evening, Mike Randle and Rusty Squeezebox's guitar accompaniment was more than masterful - and the rhythm section, Dave Chapple on bass and Dave Green on drums, provided a driving rock solid support.
Afterwards Arthur and the band signed autographs in the bar and chatted with fans, and a pair of them, two surprisingly young teenage girls raved about the music while gushing over Mike Randle's guitar hero good looks.
Thanks to this amazing comeback these are the good old days!
Michael West
Photo by Michael West
More photos by Jens-Ole Baunøe
