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Lore Müller:
What shall I start with? I´m still totally overwhelmed by the concert and the emotions
of some of the fans and the whole situation yesterday. I went to the concert with my
husband, his brother and Doris from Bonn and I was quite nervous already the day before.
(I put cinnamon and sugar over a dish instead of curry) I would meet my friend Cora from
the Netherlands again and be sitting next to her, and I would meet several people from
far away and I wanted to get into the venue in time to fix signs which show the internet
fans to a meeting and picnic place and was looking forward to the surprise which Astrid
had announced only the day before the concert. And I was a bit doubting if I would enjoy
the orchestra this time, not the same as in Fulda a week ago. I and most people who I
spoke to, who had seen the concert in Fulda, were not enthusiastic about the sound and
the atmosphere during the orchestra/band-part. And I had read from the reviews about the
concert the day before Aachen, that Chris seemed to have some problems with his voice
during the first songs. So, I really was nervous and hoping that everything went well.
And it did!!!! It did 100 %!
Everybody was allowed to enter the venue when we arrived some minutes before 4 p.m. TOP!
So I could look for a picnic-place and fix the signs from the entrance to the place.
Andrea helped me. We were ready within some minutes. Some bandmembers and some musicians
from the orchestra were already on stage. So I quickly ran through the parc to look for
the hotel, where I would meet Cora and her sister. The four of us hurried to the venue,
but they wouldn´t let us in again. Only when I told them, I had my rucksack there and
was in before, we could enter. There were many well-known faces sitting in the first
row and we joined them. But soon we had to leave, even if CdeB -so we were told- had
allowed us to stay, but the orchestra didn´t allow us to stay, only those with a special
pass. So, Cora, Coby, Doris, Claudia and Willi and I had a phantastic ice or icecoffee
outside. After this Doris and I went back to the venue, hoping to listen from outside
at least to the rest of the soundcheck. We heard "Always on my MInd" when we got nearer.
There was a place at the side of the venue near our inside meeting-place, from where you
could have a glance of the stage in a distance. And lots of our CdeB-friends were
standing there and listening. But fortunately this was the first song with Chris, so it
couldn´t have been better. We listened to a long CdeB-soundcheck with orchestra and sang
along.
The weather? Sunny! Warm! After 2 rainy concerts this was wonderful and surely made us
happy. The doors opened later than announced. Soon we were quite a great bunch of people
at the meeting-place. And to learn the names of all the people, we made stickers with
our names to stick on the shirts. I met so many people, but I won´t name them all, for I
am afraid I forget some. And I got presents! Thanks again. You are all so kind! Be sure,
I´m very happy having met you all, even if there was not enough time to talk to
everybody. I am sure, that many will write a review, for they have a lot to tell. First
of all Arash from Iran with his friend Ali. I´m very much looking forward to his review!
I had no time to eat or drink anything at this meeting-place although it should be a
picnic-place. Astrid finally announced her surprise, you have already read it, I think.
I was one of the people who were allowed backstage. Well "backstage"??? It was somewhere
behind the stage, tents, and between cars and vans and a fence. After a rather long
photo-session, (I feared there was no time for anything else) some of us could talk to
CdeB, and some, like me, were just watching and listening. CdeB didn´t say that much,
but he was very interested in what the fans had to say, especially Arash. I had a bright
smile on my face all the time, for I felt so happy for Arash, which whom I had written
some emails the days before the concert. And CdeB said it looked like he would perform
in Iran later this year. He spoke in a very low voice, so I hope I understood it right.
Today some papers write, he would NOT perform in Iran. So, I keep crossing my fingers
for Iran. Well, after the few minutes with Chris we went to our seats and soon the
concert started. Chris with a great voice, no problems, wonderful solo-part, couldn´t be
better. And he talked a bit between the songs, about the upcoming moon-eclipse, the
tennis match (The papers write he turned up there to congratulate the winner and to
joke.) Before he started to sing Shine On at the piano, a little boy right in front of
us, at the stairs, was taking photos. He seemed to have finished, but when he saw Chris
going to the piano he came back and took more photos. Chris saw this, interupted his
singing (or was he still playing the intro to the song?), went to the edge of the stage
towards the boy, spread his arms and posed for a special photo. Everybody laughed. The
boy seemed not to notice that this posing was meant for him. Satisfied with these
ictures he went away.
Let me say something concerning the venue. All seats were on one stand and the first
rows of the stand were already as high as the very high stage. There was quite a
distance between the stand and the stage. At either side there were stairs, we were
sitting right at the stairs, good sight. But everybody had a good sight. There was a
round tentlike roof over the stage, which was sometimes illuminited fantastically in
different colours. We realized at once we could not get that near the stage, if there
was a dancing part, for there was a kind of low wall in front of the stage. But it
proved to be no problem, as if you get nearer to the stage, you wouldn´t see Chris.
During the solo-Borderline Al and Nigel joined Chris and the following songs were with
the whole band. With a fantastic sound! Compliment to the sound technicians! Tony´s cage
was still very dirty. Before the orchestra went on stage, there was a short break. And
then a really wonderful orchestra accompanied Chris and the band. You can not compare it
to the orchestra in Fulda which I didn´t enjoy very much. But here in Aachen, it was a
great pleasure for my ears and eyes. And everything seemed to be soooo relaxed: Chris,
the band-members, the conductor, all the musicians. And Chris seemed to enjoy everything
as well. They were all in a very good mood. Chris mentioned many times how good the
orchestra was and we all clapped and the musicians got up. When Chris introduced the
conductor and the first vilonist, we were all clapping like mad. He introduced Al and
David (the cassanova) and Tony at the drums. Tony had a sign, reached it out of his
plexiglas-cage for Chris to read it out. But it didn´t say (like in Fulda) "Do not feed
the animal - Bitte nicht füttern!" but it said "Den Inselaffen nicht füttern" which
means "Do not feed the ape of the island". Chris pronounced it so wrongly, so I doubt
if the audience unterstood the word Inselaffen. When Chris introduced Nigel, he mentioned
that he had worked hard together with the orchestra to make the evening so perfect and
that it was his birthday today. At once we all sang "Happy Birthday", and we did it
twice and later once again. That was a great gesture of the audience. After the usual
LIR-walkabout we were prepared to run down for the dancing part, but security held us
back, although Chris was already half the way of the stairs up the stage. Chris
immediately waved we could come and of course we did. The first song down there was
Revolution with the third part. And we all sang like a real choir this third part. It
sounded so powerful, so I had wished the band and the orchestra would be playing only
very quietly, so that the whole audience could hear us. During the whole dancing part
Chris had a bright smile on his face. I think, he was looking in all the bright faces
of the audience and was just a mirror of us. There were some intrumental parts at the
end of songs, which were very special. Can´t explain it, you just have to believe me.
When the concert was over, Chris came down the stairs again for some minutes.
I believe, this was one of the concerts where everything was perfect for Chris. For me,
it was surely one of the best concerts I´ve ever been to.
Although I have enjoyed band and orchestra, I´m now looking very much forward to the
next solo-concert in 3 weeks time, at Kloster Eberbach, where I´m spending a weekend
with my husband.
But one thing was not nice. I had to say good-bye to Cora and I don´t know when I meet
her again. We have been busy writing emails during some years now and became friends.
I hope, many reviews of others will follow. And I can only advise you to read each and
every review, for they will all be very special.
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