Besides playing in Sweetwood, the Leiden-Haarlem band, I am also a member of GEMS, the Global Equal Multistakeholder Band, that performs off and on at ICANN and IGF meetings. Both are internet governance institutions, where people from all over the world and from different stakeholder communities come together to discuss the state of the internet. On the respective Music Nights those delegates who want to play together do so. Usually there is a jazz set and a rock set.
Myself, I am only active at the IGF, so can't tell you about the ICANN meetings. Just imagine the following. Music Night is announced and a bunch of people start to indicate, yes, I'm there and then start sharing ideas for songs they would like to play and what instruments they to play in an Excel sheet. Online they agree on it all. Come Music Night, all players come together. In four cases for me it was an introduction, as I had never met these fellow musicians before and not played ever with one of the additional musicians/singers.
We had a backstage and a well-filled refrigerator, in fact we had two, which was new and greatly appreciated. Come show time, the show started with a Bach prelude played by keyboard player Susan. Next up, was 'A Hard Days Night'. The honour was for me to open the set with that famous The Beatles chord and kept the suspension for just a little longer before going into the "It's been a" and the band kicks in on the word "hard". Without any hesitation all kicked in and of we went for a constant shuffling of instruments. I had learned the lead guitar lines for 'Stuck In The Middle With You', others learned the parts to 'Back To Black', 'Better Be Home Soon' was learned at home and then we sang a four parts harmony flawlessly, etc. We were all amazed by the voice of our newby Lea, who played before an audience for the first time. She is a natural alright. I looked on in amazement how Chris played the Jonny Greenwood guitar part of 'Creep' and on how 'Champagne Supernova' came alive thanks to Nico. Singing 'Wish You Were Here' is always a highlight for myself.
We were on a huge stage, with very professional gear set up for us by an organisation. We were televised on the huge screen behind us, as it was the main stage of the conference all changed for the band. In front of us were easily a thousand people. Who became more enthusiastic the more we got in the real rock part of the sets. By the time we were playing 'Song 2', 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Basket Case' it was game set and match for GEMS. With thanks to the IGF secretariat, the Norwegian host and the professionals in the background, the music equipment guys as well as the ladies of the venue, taking care of everything. Thank you, thank you. A great job done!
Of course there were little and sometimes bigger mistakes, but who cares. We had loads of fun and gave it in abundance as well. I'm nearly convinced that practising together is overrated, except that my own band shows me time and again that it is not. With GEMS it is. We rock around the (free) world and who knows where the next show will be? First the U.N. General Assembly has to decide on the continuation of the IGF in December. Then we'll know more. Music brings people together in a very positive way. The karaoke following GEMS proved that well beyond doubt.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
To get an impression look here and scroll down to Music Night:
https://www.igf2025.no/
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