

"Paradiso", "Melkweg", "Brabanthallen", "de
Vereniging" in Nijmegen, "Concertgebouw" in Amsterdam, "Congresgebouw"
in Den Haag, "013" in Tilburg , "Jaarbeurs" in Utrecht
and numerous others. They have even performed twice in "de Kuip",
Rotterdam - [once in a tent in the car park, and once in the canteen...].Fragment
have been performing in Plan C, Rotterdam since 1985 - in total they have
performed approximately 70-80 concerts there........But
that doesn't beat "De Hooizolder", in West-Kapelle, where
they played every summer season from 1988 till 2000, with a total number of
concerts there of more than 150.
And they still perform there from time to time.....Incidentally they have
also been playing "t Centrum" in Wintelre, since 1988....


This is where we tell you all sorts of useless facts you really didn't need to know.So here we go then.........
Polonaises
- Fragment are sadly famous for their final song finale, which involves a
polonaise through, and with members of the crowd. In their Ahoy concerts,
the number of participants was in the hundreds. But occasionally the public
is less co-operative [i.e. not drunk enough] , leaving Tim to wander over
to the bar with just his bass guitar for company.
In the early days, it was the custom [for some unknown reason], to lead the
polonaise into the ladies toilets. On another occasion [in "De Pinball"
in Heeswijk-Dinther], Tim and Jono led the 20 or so participants out of the
disco, over the road and into a quiet cafe, where the welcome was less than
enthusiastic - a couple of dogs did however wake up and promptly attacked
the polonaise members. When the drunken line finally returned to the"Pinball"
disco, the front door had been locked. Dave [left alone on stage] gamely extended
his solo drum/vocal performance to even more unpleasant lengths.......until
Jono and Timwere finally allowed back in.
Another famous polonaise took place at one of those Fanclub evenings they
used to hold in a hotel in Breda - the whole audience [of 150people] happily
joined the line [the drink was free, after all], and, as they exited the Hotel's
front entrance a coach-load of Japanese tourists arrived outside the entrance.
As the first Japanese visitor came out of his bus, Tim kindly shook his hand
with the words, "Welcome to The Netherlands". The tourist smiled
politely, bowing his head in that humble Japanese fashion, at which point
he was greeted in turn by every member of the polonaise. Clearly, he felt
this was some kind of strange Dutch ritual that could not be avoided.
Songs
- the boys claim to have performed live something around the region of 400
different cover songs. Which is why you occasionally [usually in the first
set, or on live radio] hear them attempting something old and unexpected -
usually they can't remember how to play it exactly, but, strangely, no-one
seems to notice the difference.Mind
you, they often try songs they've never played if someone requests it.
Usually the requester is happy that they at least tried......but they fondly
remember one particular occasion when they played a short section from Nirvana's
"Come as you are" in response to a rather vociferous request. Tim
[or was it Nick?] was a little taken aback when the guy tried to beat him
up, angry that he didn't play the entire song. Jono and Dave found this quite
amusing.....
Fragment's
first appearance on Dutch national radio was presented by Ted de Braak, he
of the irritating moustache. The programme makers spotted the band on the
streets of Rotterdam, and invited the band onto the show.
To
enhance the idea that they were street-musicians, the producer had the brilliant
idea of adding steet noises to their radio performance.Clearly under the strange
impression that Fragment were regular performers on the A4 motorway betweeen
Amsterdam and Den Haag, their "unplugged" version of "Can't
Hurry Love" was largely drowned out by the sound of pneumatic drills,
and hooting cars.