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Lore Müller:
The concert in Amsterdam was my third one (and is my last one) this year after Bonn and
Weinheim in Germany. I love to go to the Netherlands, for I know many people there, and
for years now Cora has been a friend of mine. She and Teun had, this time again, a bed
for me after the concert.
Well, after lots of chatting and going to the seaside, we finally arrived at the venue
and soon met Coby and her husband. In the hall we bumped into Simon and Astrid. And when
we gathered on the first floor, lots of other people from the Netherlands and UK arrived
for a chat. Soon it was time to go in the direction of our seats, but we were missing
Arash and I was looking for him, found him and Claudia and Chris W. and Mylene (of course
we both remember the great concert in Krefeld some years ago) and Cora introduced me to
Bianca and her friend or husband. I´m not sure though, if I have met her before. And I
looked for "Liberation", was easy to find him, for he had entered his seat in the "who
goes to which concert" thread. Nice guy! Arash told me, that lots of Iranians were in the
hall, for the students in Delft had talked to each other about the concert and so many
decided to come to the concert.
We were sitting in the left block first row near the aisle to the middle block with a
very big loudspeaker in front of us. People who were sitting more left, were sitting
already beside the stage. The first part of the concert was very disappointing for me.
Chris got not much applause, only some seconds. Once he was standing in silence on stage,
because he had expected longer applause. I felt really sorry for him. There was time to
really speak a bit to him. So I asked for the new Christmas song. And yes, he sang some
lines, which he would have done perhaps anyway. He said, it´s the chorus, he sang it
twice. These are the lines:
Have a very merry Christmas everyone,
Celebrate the coming of the new-born son,
everywhere this happy day we have begun,
To ring the bells of Christmas.
This upbeat melody reminded me somehow of “That´s what friends are for”.
He got no presents until after the intermission. I wonder why there is this intermission.
Last year the orchestra went in during the intermission, that seemed to be the reason.
But this year? I remember CdeB always stating he doesn´t like an intermission, because
the audience is less IN the show afterwards and he has to work harder to get people to
the same enthusiasm they showed before the intermission. But in Amsterdam, it was the
other way round. The audience got more and more lively after the intermission. Chris got
some presents, and there are some special moments to report (later). And after the LIR
walk-about, people seemed to be just as Chris wants them to be. Of course we went to the
front. I put my earplugs in, which was very good, because it seemed to be really loud
there in front of the loudspeakers. My simple wax-earplugs only take away the loud music
and I can hear Chris´ voice loud enough and clearly. I was standing next to Arash and a
young Iranian girl and Cora. And we got many of the so much loved smiles from Chris!!!
Now to the “specials”, not only those from the second part.
Chris greeted the people in Amsterdam, then pronounced it like the Dutch do “Omsterdom”
and everybody laughed, as it sounded so funny. He talked about the coffee-shops, the
special Dutch coffee-shops, if you know what I mean.
I wondered if he would ask about people from Volendam. And yes, he did. There were only
a few voices. I know, Judith and Annie, who are from Volendam, were there, but
unfortunately I missed them before the concert. I was talking to Arash, when they said
“hello” to Cory and Coby.
When Chris asked for people from other countries, I cried out “and from Germany”. He
repeated s.th. like “ah, from Germany” as if he were surprised, but I don´t believe he
was surprised. As Arash had told me, there were lots of Iranian people, I expected that
someone cried out “and from Iran”. After nobody did, it was me, who said loudly “and
many Iranians”. Chris said with a serious expression on his face, he hopes to do a
concert in Iran one day for the young people there.
Chris announced, there were a couple who got married the following day. He dedicated
“The Same Sun” to them and at the same time to an Iranian girl who got killed in the
recent quarrels in Iran.
Later in the first part he introduced John Haliwell, the saxophonist of Supertramp. He
mentioned he had opened up Supertramps concerts for some years (long ago). And he sang
some lines of 2 or 3 Supertramp songs, changed them a bit to make them funny. The first
song with saxophone was “Leather on my Shoes”. But I must admit, I could not hear much
of the saxophone where I was sitting and John only played it, when there was this
instrumental part in the song. After this song he disappeared and came back later, but it
was the same then. I could hardly hear the instrument, without earplugs, hehehehe
At some time in the show, Chris got a green bracelet from a man, perhaps an Iranian.
Chris put it on and wore it for the rest of the show. Such little gestures are so nice.
In front of the stage I´ve enjoyed the last part very much. Chris sang “The Words I love
you” which surely especially pleased the Iranians, for he sang some words in their
language. And he mentioned he had recorded it with the Iranian Arian Band. To my surprise,
Chris sang “Snows of New York”. We took each other by the hands and waved the arms, what
gives a strong feeling of belonging together through CdeB. When Chris began to shake/touch
hands to say “good-bye”, a young man, looked Iranian, behind me began to shout and when I
turned and looked into his face, I at once took him by his arm and pushed him forward to
the stage, where he could touch Chris. I´ve never seen a face so shining when he turned
back. Then behind me, he hugged a girl. When Cora told me, he was crying, I, too, felt
some tears in my eyes. Chris surely made his day, his week, perhaps his life. And when
Chris came down from the stage and went through the audience in front of the stage, I
realized that there were mainly male Iranians standing there. They all looked so happy
with Chris being among them and Chris seemed to try to greet each one of them all. Things
like that make a concert very special to me.
To sum it up: After the intermission it was a very good concert with a long solo part, a
nice acoustic section and a powerful party-dance-part and an emotional say-good-bye-part.
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