OK, I thought that I had it all planned out, I did. Flight booked. Gig ticket sorted. Accommodation in the bag. Money changed. Even had the airport car park booked. Then my car had to in to the garage on the Friday for some bloody repairs. No sweat, I'll just leave work early and pick it up on the way home. Except the bloody garage decided to shut up shop early, leaving me 5 miles from home in the pouring rain and with shanks' pony as my only transport. This also buggered up my travel plans and meant a frantic Friday evening trying to organise something. Eventually I settled on a taxi / coach combination.

Saturday started off so much better. Taxi on time. Coach on time. Checked in OK and still had time for a latte and a slice of cake. Lovely. I was even at the head of the boarding queue!

The flight over on an Easyjet 737 was fine except for a touch of turbulence - though nothing as bad as Gordons Guff on the latest radio show - and the geezer in front reclining his seat. It's a 45 minute flight for progs sake! The lady next to me had a bit of a snigger at this but had her sexy smile wiped off her pretty face when the same happened to her a few seconds later. I don't think i won any favours with her by yelling 'Ha!' and punching the air triumphantly though. Probably a lesbian.

Anyway after a short coffee, cake and piss break at Schiphol Airport I hit the train to Den Haag.

Then somehow I ended up in the local cop shop. Still not sure what I did. One minute I was just sitting there by the side of the road, eating some local Surinam dish, the next I was being bundled into the Dutch equilivant of the Black Moria. Not wanting to get a savage beating I rolled myself into a ball like a hedgehog and cried.

Luckily after a couple of hours in the slammer my friend Nanda turned up and bailed me out.

Finally we made it too the Boerderij where we entered through the VIP entrance. After storing my gear in Arie's office we went upstairs to the bar where we bumped unexpectedly into German Prog Princess Heike. Thank God we've settled our differences. Prog brings people together.

After a beer or two we made our way in to see the opening band, Sylvan. Their last album was the magnificent Presets and I was looking forwards to seeing them live.

They didn't disappoint though they could have done more from that album, such as Former Life, Transitory Times, For One Day and the excellent Presets.

Anyway guitarist Kay Sohl couldn't make the tour for some reason so a stand in guitarist who's name I promptly forgot joined singer Marco Gluhmann, keyboard whizz Volker Sohl basser Seb Harnack and drummerer Matthias Harder and did a good job too. It didn't show to me that he was the new boy.

They played One Step Beyond and When The Leafs Fall Down (sic) from Presets and That's Why It Hurts from Artificial Paradise before doing a selection from Posthumous Silence along with oldie Lost and newie Heal before finishing up with the magnificent Artificial Paradise.

The Germans had done well and were well received by the enthusiastic Dutch crowd, who called them back for an encore of This World Is Not For Me.

Sylvan will be performing the whole of their epic Posthumous Silence at a special show in Hamburg on September 1. If you're in the area, get along to that.

During the break there was just enough time to get some more beer tokens and some beers and soft drinks for the ladies.

Then it was time for the main show. No, not the gay wrestling icon, but RPWL guitarist Kalle Wallner's Blind Ego, who's album Mirror her been getting mega amounts of play in Silhobbit Towers.

They came on in style kicking off with the album opener Obsession, with Arena old boy Paul Wrightson singing current Arena boy John Mitchell's parts well. The band were tight, showing that the tour had been going well. Kalle's guitar was singing one moment, grunting the next. RPWL's Yogi Lang thrashed his keyboards like a madman at a car-boot sale, speaking of which, John Jowitt was his usual madcap Brummie self. Erwin Rieder shouldn't be forgotten on the drums either.

They continued to play the rest of the exceptional album with Don't Ask Me Why followed by the instrumental Moorland, Mirror and the well titled Black Despair before giving us the first surprise of the night in the shape of RPWL's Sugar For the Ape, taken from the old Trying To Kiss The Sun album.

After that it was back to Mirror with Break You followed by Open Sore and Moon And Sun.

Then the second surprise - Queensryche's Operation:Mindcrime's My Empty Room and Breaking The Silence got an airing, and they were excellently played and sung. Seeing Queensryche do the whole of the O:M album at the Hammy O way back in the 80's was one of my favourite gigs, and to hear even a couple of those tracks again was a treat. Maybe I'll get along to one of their November / December dates. And even give O:MII another spin.

Back to reality, and Blind Ego finished off their set with the albums 10 minute epic Forbidden To Remain, but they weren't going to let us off that easily.

After a couple of minutes cheering, they trooped back onstage like conquering heroes to launch into a cover of Deep Purples' Perfect Strangers (their 1985 Knebworth festival was also one of my favourite gigs, despite getting absolutely soaked and covered in mud, hit by plastic bottles full of god knows what. Deep Purple tore Hertfordshire up that night, The Scorpions played a blinder, and Meat Loaf, who already had his leg in a cast, fell over on stage. Oh what a laugh! Until we missed the bus home and had to walk 15 miles).

Enough of that, Perfect Strangers was followed by a magnificent version of Arena's A Crack In The Ice, off The Visitor, which I think was the last album Wrightson sung on.

One of the songs - I can't remember which - Paul dedicated to a friend of his who had wanted to be there at the gig, but was feeling too ill to make it. I hope she feels better soon, too.

So that was the end of the show, but the party was just starting, so we made our way to the bar where we stayed til 3am with the Sylvan and Blind Ego guys. There was a great crowd back there, with several Boerderij staff cutting the breeze with us mere mortals, I can't remember many names, but Hi to Jack, Iem the German from Berkhamsted, Janke (Hobble on the Cobbles!), JJ2 (or was it JJ3?)

Marvelous.

For more decent pics, check out Nick Askew's excellent site at askew.nl

Blind Ego are coming over to the UK in September, where they'll be supporting the mighty Pallas in Rotherham on the 1st, and at The Dome in London on the 2nd. On both nights the superb young Dutch band Kramer will also be on the bill. I'd like to suggest that you don't miss these gigs.