Rome - Day One (16 Aug 2000), Part One:
by Mark Robertson

Life sure is a strange ride. Seems like a couple hours ago I was kissing my wife goodbye ("See you in a few weeks, I'll miss you too"), next thing I know, I'm in a van driving around Rome, looking for our hotel. Today is Wednesday, August 16th, and we have soundcheck tonight for a concert tomorrow...hmm. Then we fly to Holland on the 18th for Flevo festival, and back to Rome for World Youth Day 2000 on the 19th. I need a nap...

Rome - Day One (16 Aug 2000), Part Two:
by Mark Robertson

Well, we just got back from soundcheck for tomorrow night's performance...Jimmy got stuck in Ireland (he was doing something for Smitty), and missed soundcheck, but there were still thousands of people there screaming their heads off...and this was just a soundcheck for a smaller pre-youth day event!!! It's pretty exciting...Burlap To Cashmere are here, Cindy Morgan, Maire Brennan, as well as a bunch of others I'm sure I'm forgetting...tomorrow is "American Night" at World Youth Day, and as it turns out there will be about 20 bands, with the rags being the headliner...strange trip indeed so far...we'll try to keep you posted on how things keep developing here...

bye!

-Mark

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Rome - Day Two (17 Aug 2000):
by Paul Zorich

The Rags performed at the Piazza Del Popolo on Thursday 08/17/2000. This was called the American stage provided by Word Entertainment. There were several acts including Cindy Morgan, Burlap to Cashmere, Rachael Lampa, Gabriel's Harp and The Ragamuffins.

There were approximately 10,000 plus people there, many Americans, French and Italians. The Rags headlined with a powerhouse 5-6 song set. When they were finished the crowd kept chanting USA-USA-USA. Then Jimmy Abegg came out and told the crowd that the Rags don't do encores. At that the crowd cheered even louder as the full band came back on stage to sing Creed once more and to close with Step by Step as the band left the stage the crowd kept singing "Oh God you are my God...".

The Rags were definitely at the top of their game this night. The stage was great, great light show, and the back drop scene through the stage was sculptures of people and horses that escalated upwards of two to three storys with fountains that were even higher up. It was a great setting for A Ragamuffin concert.

When the band played Awesome God the crowd went nuts. As other songs were played such as Make Me An Instrument, some in the crowd were line dancing and just having a great time making up their own dance moves.

A few days later on Saturday, the Rags played at Tour Vergata a University approximately 1 hour outside of Rome. They played in front of 2 million people (pilgrims) and 69 million people on television around the world. The stage was incredible. Approximately 3 football fields wide and 3-4 storys tall. The sight of all of the pilgrims was incredible. The temperature was upwards of 95-100 degrees. The Rags performed Make Me An Instrument, a One song set along with joining in on the grand finale of "Emmanuel" the official World Youth Day Theme song which Rick Elias had produced.

From Italy, the Rags went onto Amsterdam and England for two more concerts before returning home to the states!

Paul Z.

Look for the One CD at www.worldyouthday.com.