Anneke van Giersbergen says her recent stage reunion with The Gathering couldn’t have gone any better.
The singer left the group in 2007 and embarked on a successful solo career. But for their 25th anniversary in November, The Gathering asked all of their previous members to take part in a one-off reunion show in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
She tells Carl Begai: “The first time we saw each other again we went out for sushi and the second time we were already talking about doing the anniversary show. It happened all at once.
“And the rehearsals were super weird. I did one rehearsal with them and we did songs like Saturnine and Strange Machines, which I’ve been doing in my solo shows for the past eight years, but when we did the songs together the guys were playing them and moving the way they did 10 years ago.
“It felt like we’d played together only last week. We locked in immediately – it was crazy.”
The gig featured every member of the group, past and present, since their formation in 1989. Joining van Giersbergen on vocals were Marike Groot and Silje Wergeland. Bart Smits and Frank Boeijen shared synth and keyboard duties, bass was handled by Marjolein Kooijman and Hugo Prinsen Geerligs while Hans Rutten was on drums. Rene Rutten and Jelmer Wiersma played guitar and Noel Hofman was on trumpet.
Van Giersbergen is currently working with singers Liv Kristine and Kari Rueslatten on new project The Sirens. She’s also been recording with Arjen Lucassen as The Gentle Storm. Their album titled The Diary is due to launch next year via InsideOut.
