Krefeld, Germany - July 13, 2005


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Lore Müller:

The concert in Krefeld was not planned for me at all. Planned was Bonn 
and Mainz, then I added Bremen (taking my aunt to northern Germany for 
a holiday). After Bremen I was longing for the next concert, it was 
soooo long till Bonn, and poor Doris from Bonn would be going alone by 
car to Krefeld, I really felt responsible for her and thought I´d 
better accompany her :-)) So I bought a ticket on ebay, got it only 
two days before the concert. Free choice of seats! And I realized it 
was indoors. So, no rain during the concert:-) But, we had to start 
early, because we wanted a seat not far from the stage. I had a little 
white toy-rabbit with me with a sign tightened on its neck. I wanted 
to give it to Chris together with a rose which I still had to buy. I 
disliked it so much that in Bremen no-one could go to the stage 
because of this terrible fence and so Chris didn´t get any flowers or 
anything else. To be honest - there was nobody there with a present for 
Chris :-(( That should be different in Krefeld. Doris had the idea to 
buy a carrot (still with the green leaves) and give it to Chris 
together with the rabbit.

Arriving at the Königspalast in Krefeld we found already Chris and 
Stewart in front of the closed doors. Soon, others came, known and 
unknown faces. I´m happy to have met Mylene, who I haven´t known before 
personally. Great to see Stefan and Anette (and the baby) again, forgot 
that I knew them:-( And a very shining and brightly smiling Doris 
Neerfries, the winner of a meet&greet, arrived soon. And from Ireland 
Claudia. Oh, I can´t name and/or remember everybody. 

After some chatting I tried to find a shop to buy the carrot and the 
roses and s.th. to eat. It was not so easy, but after an hour I was 
back with everything, the 2 red roses with those very tiny vases for 
orchids, because it was very hot and this was the only way to keep the 
roses fresh. 

The doors opened at some time after 6 p.m., our rucksacks and bags 
were thoroughly checked, but.... we were only allowed to get into the 
entrance area (not really big) in front of the concert hall. Hundreds 
of people wanted to get a seat on the parquet, not somewhere upstairs, 
so we were many many in front of a door out of steal. It got hot and 
hotter and sometimes someone from the stuff went through that door and 
an icy wind came from inside. We were wet with sweat, every hairdoing 
was in vain. You could get drinks upstairs, had to buy a money-card 
for 5 or 10 Euros first. So, very expensive drinks. And if you had 
left the crowd, even for the toilet, it was hard to get back to where 
you were standing before. After one hour in front of that door we were 
let in and you can´t believe how CdeB-fans can push and run like wild 
animals, unbelievable. I´m very lucky that my right arm had not been 
broken, because I got stuck for one or two seconds right in the doorway 
and pressed against the edge of the door. 

If they had opened the doors right after checking our bags, we could 
have gone -not run- one by one slowly to the front. Then, once having 
taken a seat, we could have looked for a drink or the toilet and our 
neighbour would have reserved the seat during that time. Or, to avoid 
all those thoughts, they could have sold tickets at a higher price 
with numbered seats, which would be the best idea at all. I wonder if 
tour-organizers know the circumstances.

Most of us got seats in the first or second row. There were papers on 
some seats in the first row telling that the seats were reserved, but 
we sat down. Soon someone from the stuff came and told us we had to 
leave these seats. But we stayed and nothing happened, so we were 
happy sitting right in front of the microphone with a stage of normal 
height and enough room between the seats and the stage for later.

I enjoyed the concert very very much with very emotional parts and an 
extremely strong "Up here in Heaven". Oh, how I enjoyed this view of 
Chris so close (not too shy to sit in the first row anymore!) when he 
was strumming on his guitar and moving to the rhythm!!! BTW after the 
second song Doris and I went to the stage to give him the rabbit and 
the carrot and the roses. It was a great moment, I´ve given him flowers 
only once way back in 2000 in Bayreuth (hi Angelika!), but I was not 
prepared to really talk to him. I realized that there was absolutely 
silence when we were standing there at the edge of the stage, that was 
a strange feeling, everybody´s eyes on the two of us. We thanked Chris 
for the wonderful concerts, he was surprised about the carrot and 
threw it to s.o. from the stuff. He talked a bit with the rabbit, 
that´s what I like so much and had asked for on the small piece of 
paper at the rabbit. The rabbit and the roses (still with water) were 
lying on the piano during the whole concert. He got other things, but 
when he finally left the stage, it was the rabbit and our 2 roses that 
he carried away with him :-) 
The concert began with "When Winter comes". I like this instrumental 
song on the CD very much, but not so much at the beginning of the 
concert, because people seem not to realize that it is a song by CdeB 
and so they are chatting and not actually listening to this absolutely 
amazing sound. 
I´m used to the clapping at the first tunes of "Borderline", but was 
surprised to hear the clapping also before "Say goodbye to it all". 
Chris was in a very special good mood, perhaps caused by the great 
mood of the audience, not to compare with the Bremen concert (which I 
enjoyed - no question!). And he looked down at us in the front rows 
and later right at the stage and you could see how he enjoyed looking 
at so many happy faces. I felt he often looked at me!!! And smiled 
with his greatest smile!! Don´t laugh - dreams and illusions are 
allowed here :-)) I forgot about everything else during that concert, 
I was really a prisoner in a positive sense.

I want to mention s.th. about "High on emotion": I´ve never seen him 
miming while singing that song. Perhaps he has realized that we all 
were so far away from every-day-life. He looked ........, I can´t 
describe how, during the lines "Living in a world that others cannot 
share" and "I am your rhythm tonight". Anyway I liked it very much to 
see that he was thinking about the meaning of the lyrics during a song 
that he sings so often and that is not an emotional song, but really 
up-beat.

After the show we went past a man in his thirties, who said to s.o. 
else: "Well, THAT was real MUSIC!" I agreed loudly. The man seemed to 
belong to the stuff of the hall. We wanted to take back some mugs 
which we had found, and collect 1 Euro for each. There was a long 
queue in front of this give-mug-back-cash and you could not get money 
for the mugs, but only get a credit note on this special card. So we 
gave away the found mugs. What a nonsense to sell drinks only that way! 
We´ll never come back there and what shall we do with the rest of the 
money on that card???? Again I wonder if tour-organisers know about 
such circumstances.

The car was parked right near the venue. During our way home, about 
100 km, we talked a lot about the concert and the radiant emittance 
(Ausstrahlung - looked it up, is it the right word?) of Chris de Burgh 
and how we women feel about that. And how incredible it is that he 
sings and plays sooooo long without break, only with a bit of sweating, 
and giving his audience so much. We can´t say enough "Thank-yous" for 
that.

Lore - from Germany near Bonn/Cologne
hannelore-mueller@gmx.de


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File last modified on July 29th, 2006