Half an hour later we saw Steffi; we entertained ourselves looking at the huge screen where the face of Savage was transmitted – he used to be a fragile Italian guy who broke so many hearts with his tearful ‘Don't Cry Tonight, Only You’ and other songs, and now he was a respectable old man in his 50s, it was not that easy to recognize the guy we used to love. We missed the last hour of the concert – and were not upset at all because we spent this time in a much better way.

Steffi brought us the backstage passes and led all the way to backstage opening to our eyes the huge spaces hidden from regular people – we haven’t even suspected how big the Olimpic stadium is! Alphaville members were sitting in a small makeup room and we were happy to see each other.

Marian both changed and stayed the same; his eyes were still sparking with usual kindness and warmth; his body was definitely more fit and energetic since he was back to healthy life style, but the partly gray beard prevented us from knocking off 20 years of his age. Greeting Pierson, I had the same dialog as we always had: “Lady Bright!” – “Hi Pierson” – “You haven’t changed at all, you look the same” – “So do you” – “Thanks” – “So, are you still single?” – “Hmmm, am I still single?”. Absolutely the same phrases after all these years! Later I found out that he was living together for 3 years, broke up and was alone for the last 4 years, but all this time he was ‘still single’ in our greetings J I was incredibly happy to meet Rudy, who was just as nice and sweet alive as he was online, and I regretted not chatting with him a year earlier after the Berlin concert. Having chatted with all of them for a while, we splitted: Lena captured Marian, at that moment I was more interested in Rudy who was easy to chat with, Sveta and Slava cruised around back and forth. We haven’t noticed the midnight approaching J

Marian was in good spirits obviously happy to see us – as if we were old friends. “Hey, I am still embarrassed about that thing seven years ago…” – he still remembered a small confusion that happened after their first concert in Moscow back in 1998 when, horribly tired and slightly drunk, we were sitting together in a hotel bar and relaxed a bit more than wanted. These four days when I stayed with Alphaville all the time seemed to be so far and unreal. “Do you remember back in 2002 I went to Riga on my own to see your concert, walked around the city center and stumbled upon the band? Then we went together to Radisson and chatted for 2 hours being unable to stop, happy as kids”. Memories overwhelmed us…