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Chris Williams:
When we first saw the venue, I thought it was quite a strange shape....rather futuristic
in design
Inside the actual building there are several different sections and halls, and there was
even a viewing area in hall one where Chris's concert was, so in the morning we had
already beeen able to see how high the stage was etc., so we knew it was a nice stage,
not to high, but the front row of seats were very close to the stage, so there was no
room for any other people to go to the stage for the dancing part at the end, which was
a shame.
The intro to the concert was slightly different, with no actual music, just Chris
suddenly appearing in stage bang on 19:30hrs. He was dressed in black trousers and a
light coloured shirt with pin stripes on I think. The first song he sang was First Steps
follwed by The Same Sun which was lovely to hear again, as he did not sing it in the
previous concert in Manchester. The audience again seemed to be quite a bit older than
in Germany, and from what I could see there was not too much audience participation to
start with except for a few of the well known songs like Spaceman and Sailing Away. BUT
there was one man who was up in the balcony area who kept shouting out all night for
Spanish Train
Chris talked abit about Gateshead and made comment about the shape of the venue which
apparently is known as The Slug ....well I can see why, and he also said something about
how much it had cost to build
He talked about the venue being 'sold out' and I really do belive that there were no
empty seats in the hall.
Chris also mentioned that he had taken a walk by the river earlier in the day, (and yes
he did...coz we bumped into him ) and it was low tide and you could see all the rubbish
on the banks......we even say an old wheelbarrow
The solo part was again just a few songs and then the band came on stage for Borderline
and the usual band songs and it was very evident that all the band and Chris were in very
good spirits from the word go.
Soon it was time for the second half and the orchestra started tuning up and thn the
light went down and we heard the theme to Storyman being played. Then Chris walked onto
the stage, and again was dressed in a nice smart suit and a light coloured shirt again.....
oh he looks sooo smart in a nice suit rather that in what he normally wears on stage
The second half of the show is always exactly the same each evening, so I won't go into
all of the songs, other than to say yet again he sang an outstanding version of Without
You Gosh I have heard him sing this song soo mnay times in the past, but never ubtil
this tour with an orchestra and it is just SUPERB
Soon it was time for chris to invite people up to dance, although as I said earlier there
was no space between the front row and the stage, but Chris still said people could stand
up by their seats................so Andrea, jacqueline and myself all stood up and we
were the only ones.....so we sat back down for a few minutes, then thought, OK we wil
get up again and then a few others did the same...........but when in came to the quiet
part of the Revolution....they all sat back down again This continued to happened
throughout the rest of the dancing part....very strange indeed....I have never seen
anything like it before
All in all out of the audience of 1,600 only a few people were actually standing up, but
there were more who remained seated but still clapped along. Chris again invited people
to stand up and a few more did, but still not that many. Then when it was time for SONy
and this guy in the balcony was still shouting out for Spanish Train, Chris sang it for
him , saying that sometimes persistance does pay off ......................umm I'll have
to remember that one
Then it really was time for SONY and the final Footsteps.
All in all it was a great show, still around 2 hrs 30 minutes. We walked back to our
hotel had a drink and then went to bed.
Take care all,
Chris(W)thebluehealer
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