Report on the pre-listen party:



Location: Amsterdam, Holland
Date: October 26



The "party" started at 7:30pm, but ofcourse I was late. There were two listening sessions.
After session number 1 had ended I could see on people's faces something was wrong.
As the second group left the bar to go to the little movie theatre they started playing Rave in the bar.
As already reported it's unchanged, meaning he did not redo the original version, which is something I'm thankful for.



In the movie theatre there were postcard on our chairs with posing like on the cover of Rave.
The session started with Rave Un2 The Joy Fantasic. The lyrics appeared on the screen in a karaoke like way. The also
showed some pictures, all of which are circulating on the web, and moving across the screen from time to time. It was
hilarious. They can't be serious.



With the rest of the songs they played old video, sometimes with the lyrics showing on the screen. Wasn't done stylish either.
I couldn't really get into all the ballads, too many in my opinion. Maybe it was cause they were not that good, maybe it was because
of the whole atmosphere. A room filled with people who got bored of the old videos isn't ideal to try and dig some ballads you know.
So I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait till I hear them on my stereo, or mp3 ofcourse



Rave sounds like a pretty good album to me. Maybe too many ballads, maybe lacking of a good raw rock song, but all in all good. It's
pretty much like said, it has a little bit of something for everyone. The diversity should make it easy to sell good, but I don't like
it better when it's just a concept album. Rave has no real sound, made me constantly think "this could have been on...that could have been on
and occassionally, HEY this is NEW!"



Anyway yall go by it as soon as it's available, it's definately worth a listen.



Note to BMG/Arista/NPG Records:



Treat the fans with a little more respect. The video thing was not cool. Also the way the "party" ended was very uncool. Also after the second
listening session WE had to ask to put Rave on one more time. Thought you wanted us to buy it? Then play it till we DREAM about it!
We had to leave the place at 11pm. Which was a bit early, but ok. But the way it was done...boy people were pissed!
Music stopped abruptly, lights went on and the coats were brought out. Not very subtile, was it?



Anyway I'm still glad that I was able to hear the whole album two weeks before it goes on sale. Or will it be delayed?? We'll see...