On this day in 1985, Rory played the Jübek Open Air Festival. To mark the occasion, I wanted to share this excellent testimony of the event by Edith Viertelhausen, published originally in the Rory fanzine Deuce.

Since I rode my motorcycle from Marburg to Jübek on Thursday and chatted with people until the night, I dozed off on Friday afternoon: standing in front of the stage and leaning over the railing! By the time Rory rushes onto the stage at 12:10 a.m., I’ll be in top shape again. The atmosphere around me is optimal, but I can’t estimate how many people there are.

You can really see that Rory is enjoying the gig and he starts off with ‘Double Vision’ as an introduction, which is then followed by the equally lively ‘Moonchild’. Now a change of mood, among other things, to take a breath. Rory brings Mark Feltham onto the stage, who has been regularly playing his harmonica at Rory’s performances lately. So, here’s a new version of the blues track, which always gives me a pleasant tingling sensation under my skin: ‘I Wonder Who’. This ends the recovery phase! It continues with the hot ‘Nadine’, which absolutely amazes the audience. I’m really happy that I correctly recognised the first few notes that Rory plays as ‘Secret Agent’, because you don’t hear that from him very often and I think it’s incredibly good. The next piece is also great, but it’s new to me and I don’t know the title. In this piece, Rory and Gerry show once again that a duel doesn’t necessarily involve shots being fired: the two attack each other with their guitars, taking turns giving off a salve of their skills. It’s always interesting to watch how Gerry waits for his turn: totally full of excitement, impatience and joyful anticipation

Then it’s the turn of ‘Big Guns’, and the next play gives me goosebumps again – but not from the cold! The band has once again formed a quartet with Mark Feltham and is playing ‘Off the Handle’. I really like it. ‘Shin Kicker’ follows before ‘I Shall Be Released’, the latter gets my personal highest plus points!

Now Rory wants to show that he can also play alone and a little bit of acoustic. First ‘Out on the Western Plain’ which always fascinates me, then ‘Walkin’ Blues’. Then a piece that I don’t know. Mark has joined us again and plays alternately on two harps. With this bluesy part, the question comes to mind – as it has so often before: Rory, why do you do it? Don’t you even have a pure blues record?

At the end we hear ‘Philby’ and ‘Shadow Play’, Rory says thank you and goodbye with Gerry, Brendan and Mark. It is now 2.30am. The audience goes wild. Nobody cares about the fact that it has been raining for some time. Rory sat down briefly in the rain on the edge of the stage and continued playing there.

Of course, the band comes back again and brings a surprise: Rory welcomes Geoff Whitehorn, Chappo’s guitarist, who will be performing the following evening. Together they play ‘Messin’ with the Kid’ – accompanied by heavy rain. After almost 3 hours of the program, Rory and band leave the stage. Unfortunately, the loud shouts from the excited audience don’t help anymore: the roadies start dismantling…

After the performance, I go to the stage entrance with my friend Fozzy, who I was happy to meet, to wait for Rory. Rory looks exhausted now. He says he will come back to Germany perhaps in September or October; However, it is not yet certain. By the way, Dónal came along again this time; So fortunately he has recovered from his back pain.

Finally, I would like to add that Rory and the band obviously did well, because over the next two days you would often hear, “Rory! Rory! Rory!