Hannover, Germany - July 15, 2005


Albums

Songs

Concerts

Press

Chris Williams:

Hi all, 
Well here is my review of tonight's concert at Hannover. We took a 
taxi to the venue as we had tried to walk to the venue in the 
afternoon to check it out.....but we kind of took the long way round 
and were walking for 50 minutes..one way !! So after having eaten a 
nice meal we decided to take the easy way  back to the venue and 
booked a taxi. We arrived in bright sunlight, although only hours 
earlier we had had a violent thunder and rain storm :-( Even our seats 
still had puddles of water on them !! having dried then off with some 
tissue, we sat down and waited for the concert to start. This didn't 
seem to be to long as again we chatted with friends while waiting. 

The sound of When Winter Comes was heard at 20:01 and the weather was 
still sunny. Chris came on stage, dressed in all black, but without a 
jacket as it was still pretty warm. then all changed !!

As Chris sang the first song, 'Road To Freedom'....just as he got to 
the line that says 'will your freedom bring the rain' ......it started 
to rain slowly for about  3 minutes and then it got heavier and 
heavier, and then also thunder and lightning for a few moments. Even 
the stage all around Chris was getting wet as the torrential rain was 
coming through the stage roof.................but like a miracle
........Chris stayed practically dry...it must have been his 'halo' 
protecting him ;-)  The audience was absolutely soaking wet. After the 
introduction Chris sang 'Summertime' but changed all the words to it...
saying that the show would go on even if it was raining !! 

During 'The Words I Love You' the rain became torrential, but still 
Chris carried on. Just after 'Once Upon A Time', Chris said he had to 
take a little advice from his electronic experts, as it could be 
dangerous on stage.....well the rain was pouring through the roof ! 
The experts told him that it would be OK to carry on and then he said 
that he was quite happy to carry on if we the audience wanted him to 
continue.....or course we did !!

Just as Chris was introducing 'Five Past Dreams'....the show had to be 
halted for 5 minutes or so, until the rain had eased off. Alot of us 
tried to shelter under the edge of the overhanging stage roof....well 
it was just like a tent roof really....but we were all sooo wet by 
that time it did not make much difference.

Luckily the rain did nearly stop and the stage crew swept the rain to 
the side of the stage and suddenly Chris came out on stage holding a 
large green umbrella, and took a look out into the audience. Then when 
he saw it had stopped raining and then he started singing 'Here Comes 
The Sun' !!! After this he went back to singing 'Five Past Dreams'. 
During one of the next songs...I'm not certain which one it was, Chris 
suddenly stopped at asked what the loud noise was that he could here. 
Someone shouted out that it was a train, and then he broke into 
singing part of Spanish Train !! 

When it came to 'Here For You', Chris just could not get the first few 
lines right and had to sing it three times.....and he told us that it 
was because he was confused by all the bad weather..or words to this 
affect. Well that was sure true..I think we were all affected by it ! 

It did start raining again, but no where near as heavy as before, so 
no more interruptions thankfully :-) I must say by this point my 
trousers were completely soaked through and it was pretty uncomfortable 
:-( 

I was wondering if Chris would do the 'Britney Spears' bit, but as it 
had stopped raining completely by this point, he did, and it went down 
a storm......(please excuse the pun !!) The audience just would not 
stop clapping after this section. As the actual concert area was quite 
small, Chris went round it twice in this part !!

At some point , I cant remember exactly when, a rather strange lady 
went up to the stage and asked Chris to sing song......we could not 
hear what it was, but she would not go away. Chris was very good with 
her, as he kept telling her, that he would sing it later, and that he 
would have to learn the words first. Still she would not go away, and 
still Chris was patient with her, and finally after several minutes of 
Chris telling her that he would sing it later....she finally went away 
back to where she was standing. I was amazed that security never moved 
her from the stage area. They just let her stay there. 

No more major interruptions happened and the show continued. One 
person started the dash to the stage at 'Sailing Away' and suddenly 
everyone was running to the front. this was much earlier than normal 
and I must admit, I was abit taken by surprise by this !! Suddenly the 
whole area in front of the stage was full of people dancing and 
clapping along as Chris sang the fast section songs. 

At one point I saw this somewhat 'strange' lady was back in the front 
just under the microphone. She was acting very strange indeed, when 
people were clapping along to some of the songs, she literally had her 
hands held in tight fists and was banging then together ......much to 
the amusement of many around her. At another point we spotted her 
holding her two hands together, just like Chris does when he tells us 
at the end of the show that it is time for us to go home to bed. She 
remained looking like she was asleep for the whole of one song !! 

When Chris started playing and singing 'The Journey' she put her hands 
up over her face and I believe she was crying, so this song must have 
brought back some kind of bad memory for her......and for this I did 
feel sorry for her. Moments later she walked away and never came back. 
I recall seeing this 'strange' lady at one of the shows on last years 
tour I believe. 

After Snows Of New York, Chris walked off stage and as Chris Andrews 
was standing there holding his jacket ready for him to put on........
I guessed there would be no party songs.......but Chris said something 
to CA and then came back on stage and done his final 'party songs'. 
This really does get the audience really joining in all the fun and 
only too soon it was all over and Stewart and I said our goodbyes to 
our friends and walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel. Yes we found 
the correct way to walk this time. Mind you we were nearly run over 
about 10 times by people on their bicycles, riding them on the 
pavement. As we walked along, suddenly I saw Chris's van drive past 
us.......I think he could at least have offered us a lift;-)!!!!!  
Now we are sitting id the bar at the hotel while I write this, 
drinking a nice Weissbier before heading off to bed, as we have yet 
another hectic day in front of us tomorrow !!!

Take care all, 
Chris (W)....thebluehealer and travelling CdeB reporter !


Questions or comments?

File last modified on July 29th, 2006