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Michaela:
This time I attended the concert togehter with my parents-in-law. Mum has seen Chris
live in Fulda last year and she liked the concert very much. Dad was a bit envious then,
but I was not sure if he was interested in Chris or simply didn´t like that mum had all
the fun without him.
We arrived around 4 p.m. at Weinheim and walked around in the city where I met again a
lot of well known faces. After 1 hour we favoured an ice cream parlour over a closer
look at the cities sights.
When we finally went to the Schlosspark, my mother-in-law wasn´t allowed to bring her
sandwich in! And while she had a quick meal at the entrance another woman was even not
allowed to take a dextrose roll in. Well, I can understand that they want to support
their catering, but isn´t this a bit too overdone?
My parents-in-law had their seats at row 28 and I was again more lucky than expected.
This time I had a “regular” ticket from eventim for the first row, but it was much
closer to the middle than I reminded from the internet-booking. Few minutes before
8 p.m. again were four seats next to me empty. And I thought: Oh no, again those VIP´s
who are not interested in the concert!
Two minutes before concert starts they arrived and the couple next to me pulled the
“golden book” of the city out! Obviously they were late because they came just from
backstage. The photographers took pictures from Chris´ entry, I could read “Best wishes
Chris de Burgh” and some other signatures around. The couple must have been local VIP´s,
maybe the major or the concerts organizer?
Band and Chris started as usual with Last Night and the sound was much better than in
Bonn. And I think, Chris smiled much more right from the beginning. And I felt also much
more relaxed, can´t exactly say why, but the excitement wasn´t that big after I´ve
already seen one concert. And I had not so much impressions and new faces before the
concert. And I had no present to bring to the stage. So somehow I could pay better
attention to the single songs.
Chris welcomed us and called the town “Rotweinheim” or “Weißweinheim”. I had already
expected that he would like the name of the town! Then he made again a joke about
swineflu, but the way he told the story was much more funny than in Bonn. This time he
had seen a pig when he visited Heidelberg, which sneezed and so he run all the way to
Weinheim.
Brave Hearts was again one of the highlights for me, even if I may be alone with this
opinion. And I changed my prejustice about VIP´s very soon! Everytime I started
clapping, the woman next to me joined in! And it didn´t last long and she even started
to clap earlier than me.
At one point a saw Sophia walking with two beer in her hands and slow in the uptake as
I am, I thought she must be very thirsty. But then I realized that she was going to
bring one beer to Chris. I was very busy to pull out my camera!
When Chris explained the story about Leather on my Shoes, which was written in the
80ies, he said “and now this happens again”. And I remembered, that last year he always
said “thankfully these times are behind us”. Well, things have changed.
We all know, once the order of a tour programm is known, the rush to the front of the
stage starts even before Chris can say anything. Well, I noticed another rush and this
is the rush to the loo even before the last sounds of Leather on my Shoes are ending and
before the intermission is announced.
I visited my parents-in-law during the intermission. Mum said that she liked the concert
very much, but Dad didn´t say much at all. It´s the old phenomenon, I thought at least,
for Chris it seems always to be easier to „get“ the women.
After the intermission Chris appeared on stage and not in front of the stage as before.
Time for the acoustic set. As I said before, this version of Moonlight and Vodka is sooo
great! And all the joking around the waiter and the vodka and the great performance of
Nigel at the accordion.
And from this song on the VIP couple next to me sang along with all the songs, even the
man knew the lyrics!! They seemed to be real fans! I wonder, if they were responsible to
invite/engange Chris for the concert? After the solo part the man said “He´s even better
than with the band. And only with the guitar! This is unbelieveable!”
After Borderline Chris got standing ovations and he said “thanks, that means a lot to
me” which sounded very honest.
After introducing the band as usual with lot of words and ballyhoo he sat down at the
piano and said in German “und ich bin der Sänger”. Which was funny, because it sounded
very decent, like anybody would have not known.
The weather by the way was thankfully dry, but it was getting colder and colder. And
Chris called the town now “Glühweinheim”. While introducing Spaceman and telling us what
to do at a christmas market (Schnaps, Glühwein and Currywurst) he sang a bit of Silent
Night. After Peaceful Waters he said, that he has noticed, that a lot of women in the
audience were wearing a special colour. And a bit snappish he said “green”. After a few
lines of “Lady in Green” he sang of course LIR and went down the stairs. And while he
walked towards the audience the people already started to rush to the front. This was a
bit strange, because they must have run across him without paying attention. But hey,
you can´t give away the chance to be close to him during the whole dancing part for see
him for a second during his walkaround.
Well obviously the audience in the back enjoyed the walkaround, but all I could see were
a lot of cameras in the air.
I managed to make it to the front of the stage, I think for the very first time I was
really at the edge of the stage. The live intro of Africa is for sure another highlight
of the concert, a moment when I forgive him, that he has done a cover-song album. Not
much to say about the dancing part, as everybody knows that this is the part which the
audience usually enjoys most. Especially when he starts to run und jump around at the
stage and smiles more and more.
During HOE I noticed that even the security man, who had turned has back to the stage
and made a stony face so far, now turned his view to the stage and smiled a little bit.
SONY and Footsteps follwed with their great "we-all-love-each-other"-feeling and too
soon the concert was over. Though it was actually not short at all. This time I managed
to shake Chris´hand even twice
After the concert my parents-in-law came to the front. I had told him, that they will
find me there still yearning when Chris will have left the area yet. I asked Dad, how he
liked it. And he said, that he hadn´t seen much concerts in his life, but all over the
years it had been a few though, and this one was for sure the best ever! And that Chris
came over so authentic and fair-minded. Wow!! I didn´t expect that!!! Mum of course was
full of commendatory words for the whole way home. She asked me about the age of Chris
and said, that it is unbelievable, how powerful he is. Must have sounded not very nice
for Dad, because he is about the same age.
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