Golden Earring's One Last Night tribute concert became 5 sold-out arena shows. Entire last concert, 2h20m,

[highplainsdem]

with Barry Hay, Rinus Gerritsen and Cesar Zuiderwijk all performing with other artists during most of the performances of Golden Earring songs, but not sharing the stage until Radar Love was performed by everyone there.

Setlist with times and artists below. This was the final concert, on January 30, which was broadcast on Dutch TV late last month but I didn't discover until the other night.

From the YouTube description, translated where necessary:

The complete Golden Earring farewell show in 2026. After more than sixty years, one of the most successful rock bands in the Netherlands came to a definitive end in January 2026. During this special concert at Rotterdam Ahoy, Barry Hay, Cesar Zuiderwijk, and Rinus Gerritsen, together with well-known Dutch artists, paid tribute to their musical legacy. Think of performances with DI-RECT, DeWolff, Guus Meeuwis, Davina Michelle, Danny Vera, Acda & De Munnik, and Maan, among others.

2:14 Twilight Zone - Son Mieux, Cesar Zuiderwijk
8:22 Clear Night Moonlight - Son Mieux, Cesar Zuiderwijk
14:28 Weekend Love - Son Mieux, Cesar Zuiderwijk
19:55 Don’t Be Silly - Wodan Boys
22:50 Burning Stuntman - Acda & De Munnik
27:35 Another 45 Miles - Acda & De Munnik, Guus Meeuwis
32:58 I Can’t Sleep Without You - Guus Meeuwis, Maan
37:17 Candy’s Going Bad - Maan, Barry Hay
42:20 Why Do I - Flemming, Davina Michelle
46:40 Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart - Davina Michelle
53:30 Bombay - One Last Night Band
57:15 Making Love To Yourself - One Last Night Band
1:01:59 The Devil Made Me Do It - One Last Night Band, Davina Michelle
1:06:39 Buddy Joe - Frank Lammers, Danny Vera, Flemming, Acda & De Munnik
1:10:40 Hold Me Now - Danny Vera
1:14:19 Dong-dong-di-ki-di-gi-dong - The Opposites, Maan
1:17:57 Avalanche of Love - DeWolff
1:22:22 She Flies On Strange Wings - DeWolff, Barry Hay, Rinus Gerritsen
1:31:47 Going To The Run - DeWolff, Barry Hay, Rinus Gerritsen
1:36:09 Albino Moon - Danny Vera
1:41:00 Long Blond Animal - Danny Vera, Davina Michelle
1:44:54 When The Lady Smiles - Di-Rect, Barry Hay
1:50:47 Back Home - Di-Rect, Barry Hay
1:54:33 Bass Solo - Rinus Gerritsen
2:00:57 Drum Solo - Cesar Zuiderwijk
2:04:54 Radar Love - Everybody
2:15:50 Hold Me Now - George Kooymans

Special mentions: JB Meijers, Bertus Borgers, Frank Carillo

The video of George Kooymans at the end is from the November 2019 concert in the same arena, which turned out to be the complete band's final concert. George did some touring as part of the trio Vreemde Kostgangers in early 2020, and Golden Earring had planned to tour again later that spring, but then Covid shut everything down. And later that year George was diagnosed with ALS, and in early 2021 Golden Earring disbanded. George's bandmates did not want to continue as Golden Earring without him.

The "special mention" artists above include Bertus Borgers, the saxophonist who'd sometimes recorded and toured with the band since the 1970s; Frank Carillo, who had recorded and toured with George in the duo Kooymans Carillo; and JB Meijers, who's recorded with Barry Hay.

Of the bands performing Golden Earring songs for this tribute concert, I've mentioned DeWolff here a number of times, since they toured with Silveroller. I think I've also posted about Di-Rect because of their connection to Golden Earring.

The One Last Night Band who did three of the songs consisted of Rinus, Cesar, Frank Carillo, JB Meijers, Bertus Borgers, and (I think) Karl Kalf on trumpet, since he'd also worked with Golden Earring.

That final video of George is so poignant. Golden Earring existed because of him. He was only 13 in 1961 when he taught his 15-year-old neighbor Rinus to play guitar and they started a band.

I didn't see George's widow Millie (Melanie) or their children and grandchildren when I watched this the other night, but it was very late and I might've missed her. She's Rinus's sister, and she and George fell in love in their mid-teens, in the early '60s, and married in 1969. Rinus's brother became Golden Earring's manager.

Both the marriage and the band were lifelong successes for George. It still seems terribly unfair that his career was ended by ALS, which took his life last summer.

The YouTube channel had videos of old film of the band, reminders of how young they were when they started out, because they'd started 8 years before this clip of Rinus in 1969:

George and Millie (starting at 1:06) from a 1969 documentary about the band:

Video of all 3 of them about a dozen years ago, from a special when George won a European guitar award:

Watching that tribute concert, I couldn't help thinking that George and the other members of Golden Earring would probably still be recording and touring today, if not for ALS (which those concerts raised some money for).

[SheltieLover]

1. Ty for sharing!

[highplainsdem]

2. You're welcome!