Concert Review: Birmingham, UK - December 8, 1999

Miriam McKay:

I wonder am i the first person home from the NEC in Birmingham :-). It is the closest concert Chris has done to where I live in a long time so I am very pleased :-).

it was wonderful. So here goes with my night :-).

I arrived at the NEC at around 5pm. Chris was already inside doing his sound check. As i arrived Alan came up and said hello and so i stood and chatted with Sheila and him who were also prepared to freeze for a further hour until we were allowed in.

While standing there I also came across Stewart Hector, nice to see you again :-). So we stood and talked.

Then at ten minutes to six we were allowed to go in. We went instead of the main entrance we went to the cafe bar. Bags were searched and subsequently no cameras or photos particuulatly. certainly none from me.

We had a drink an wandered around looking at the merchandise. Polo shirts 22 pounds, T shirts 14 pounds i think and also ithink sweatshirts wre there. They also had copies of 'a womans heart' and i know that some people bought them there. I believe there will be the same merchandise in London as well on saturday :-).

After finding out seats I had stood and talked a little more to sheila and Alan.

Tehn finally Chris and Stewart arrived. The motor way is always busy at that time of night but i was glad they arrived safely. Sorry we did not relaly chat guys hope to see you in london.

After a moment or two someone spoke to me and guess what it was our ilusive moderator. yes Dave and his wife kate?

It was wonderful to catch up and see you again after Cologne. Good to be able to talk properly this time.

Dave of course was wearing his list shirt form Cologne and it was easy to know who he was :-) - i was not wearing mind - sorry.

As we stood there suddenly a crowd developed around us. Ann had come and spoken to me earlier and so ccame over to meet Dave. Also jean and family came over to say hello. And Stewart Hector, Chris and stewart williams. it was nice an unplanned meeting that happened. it really was very nice for the short time we spoke. Then we disperesed slowly to our seats.

Chris, as has become his habit, and is his privelidge, was late onto stage. But of course when he came on we forgot this as always.

He started with the same songs as he had in Cologne. Basically the play lst was the same. Very many fast songs. Absolutely wonderful.

I was worried at first that the people sat next to me were goign to be boring and not clap but it took a few songs then they were much more relaxed. I have to confess i was tense for hte first two songs or so and tehn started to relax properly. It is hard to sit in an English concert and calp your hands and know that most around you are wondering what you have taken to make you so happy and easy going :))). But for me Chris is enough to get me high on emotion :))).

he sang oh my brave hearts - one of my favourites, and some of the others fast songs. he also sang Lonely sky at some point I htought of you katja :-).

And the same sun .

he sang Borderline, and i was impressed here by the round of applause that echoced backwards through the arena.

Sadly the arena which is capable of holding 12 and a half thousand people was not fully booked. however we did make an impression on Chris. Borderline was one of those songs where we made our presence known. Lonely sky and revolution were others.

Around the time of missing you' finally we all moved to stand by the barrier. As i was on the front row right of centre i had not far to go to the stage and had a wondeful view all through the concert.

Everyone sang along with missing you and lady in red. And also of course with Revolution which followed soon afterwards.

once Chris had got us up to dance there was no stopping us.

I had a short wriggling person beside me who loved to dance to teh music. And i had to smile as i watched them dancing. it was good tohear and see everyone enjoying themselves so much.

Chris again made hsi joke about Sheep and 'my lover is'. it went down quite well, although after teh coenrt I had to explain the resons behind thejoke to a german guy who i had not met before. he is not from the list he just happened to ask me for direcetions and train times and we got talking and erm well ihad to explain the joke 'blush'. what thoughts of the welsh and english will he take home with him next week i wonder :-)).

The sonws of new york was a good song as always but beter still and even more so to me than in Coogne was 'quiet revolution' itself. it relaly is so much nicer in conert and very powerful. I enjoyed hearing it very much.

The crowd reacted well to 'i want it and i want it now' and 'nothing ever happens round here'.

Also 'Natasha Dance' Chris prolonged the ending walking along the stage getting us all to clap ur hands in the air. Although some of us had done this automatically he made it go on for quite some time and it was great fun. everyone seemed to really like the song because he had interacted so well with the audience during it. it is one of my favourites so to hear the wistles and cheers and applaus e after it gave me a wonderful warm feeling.

the last few songs of he encore were as always high on emotion, say goodbye to it all, peaceful waters flow, hey jude. these as always were wonderful.

Also Chris sang 'hotel california' which went down a realtreat as it often does.

i have been to better coenrts perhaps but then i still say this was one was very good. i was impressed with the audience and it made it very much fun for me. i have come back very high on emotion tonight. i will be floating around somewhere up in heaven for soem time. I think i wont have come down even by saturday. wow what a wonderful night. I thought of you all while i was there and i know you also would have been bouncing up and down in your seats as i was itching to dance until we got the ok to stand up and enjoy it fully.

looking forward to the others reviews. great to see you al again now looking forward to london hope to see some of you there at soem point. until then hope you liked the review. sorry if its not up to usual indepth standard but its late and ihave a busy day tomorrow so i better get some sleep if its possible to sleep after the wonderful time i have had :)))).