Concert Review: Fulda, Germany - August 23, 1999

Astrid Nolde-Gallasch:

Here's my review of last night's Fulda concert. Fulda is about a 3 hours drive from where I live now, so it was an exhausting journey, especially since we had to drive back home after the show and I am supposed to be working today.....

Well, yesterday I left work as early as possible, so we arrived in Fulda at around 6:30. The concert venue was right in the town center, in front of Fulda's large cathedral. A really beautiful setting!! The venue seated about 3,000 people and had room for maybe another 1,000 people standing in the back. At first it seemed that this place would never fill up, but I was wrong.. the later it got, the more people arrived and it looked almost sold out to me. We were soooooooo lucky with the weather too!! Sunshine all day, and it really warmed up! And now, after I read about the storm in Estonia of Timo's report, I know why Chris pointed out so happily that "the sun was shining for Chris de Burgh". :)))

Before the show I met Marius and his wife, a couple who I had first met at Halle's concert last year, and who joined the list after that, but never post anything, so a big hello to you lurkers out there, hope you enjoyed the show too! :))) I also heard some people standing next to me talk about the new CD coming out soon, and that it was going to be released here 2 weeks later and all that, it was obvious that they had this information from the website, it's so interesting how everything is spreading around the world....

I was looking out for Hannelore too, but didn't see her until right before the show, so I only waved to her as she was a couple of rows behind me. And then the concert started. Chris started out "as usual", with Carry On and Here Is Your Paradise, solo on the piano. Transmission Ends followed, solo on the guitar and then Danny Boy (the traditional Irish a cappella way). After that I finally got to hear one of the new songs: Natasha Dance. !!! Wow.. what a nice song! Such a catchy chorus, I am still humming it in my head. The melody is sort of a traditional Russian folksong kinda thing with a "nananana" chorus that gets faster and faster in the end. People were clapping with it, and that was the first time I saw any reaction from the audience. No reaction to the "heavy breast" part though.. I guess because nobody really listened to the words. ;)

After that he asked for requests, and I shouted "Perfect Day", but he looked at me and then said "Perfect Day? I don't think I remember that one..". And so he took a request from somebody else to play A Spaceman Came Travelling. He was joking with the audience, pretending that his mobile phone rang (i think he just finds it so funny to say "my handy rings", as that's what we call it in Germany). He pretended that it was a phone call from America. "Long distance? Yes, I know it is a long distance to America. Oh? I got a call from America! Yes? Oh.. Bill! Hello Bill, how are you? Did you get that little problem sorted out that you had, you know? Oh... yes, I bet she was! Did you buy her a new dress? Oh, I see, you took Hillary out to a vacation to warm her up. Where did you take her? To Alaska? Siberia?" If he had added "Ahh.. you took that spanish train that runs between..." it would have been the perfect intro, but he just let this story stand alone and actually, he didn't play Spanish Train at all, which was kinda odd, this is a song I had heard at all concerts so far and I really missed hearing it!

He played Lonely Sky (with the first sparklers coming out), and then he went back to the piano and said that he'd like to play two songs about war, and how in times of war it is always the innocent that suffer the most, usually the children. And that he is particularly thinking about what is happening in Kosovo, but also what has happened in Turkey. Then he played The Simple Truth and Borderline. I found slightly disturbing that - despite the fact that he was alone on stage - there were very loud synthesizer violins in the background of those two songs. Maybe I heard them only as loud, because I was sitting right in front of a large speaker, but still.. it was a bit overdoing it.

After that he was joined by the band (first Peter and Neil, then later the other ones). At first they played Always On My Mind (with Chris doing his unforgettable Elvis parody before that song).

Then he played Sailing Away an then finally he played his new single When I Think Of You! This was a magic moment for me, as I had only heard the beginning so far, and had some idea of what the rest of the song might sound like. Well.. I was SO much wrong! The chorus is very different to what I had made out of it.. not bad, but.. umm.. not better either. I'm sure though that this version will grow on me very quickly. Can't wait to hear it again when the single is out .... :)))

After this they got faster, louder and rockier with Love's Got A Hold On Me, Oh My Brave Hearts and Brother John. He also mixed House of the Rising Sun at the end of Brother John, and I thought it was very clever done. Still with all those fast songs, he didn't manage (yet) to make the audience get up and dance. I didn't dare to get up and start it, because of all the strange looks I got from all around me, because I was singing along with every song!

Then there was a little intermission because an orchestra was joining him for the 2nd part of the show. It was surprising to see him with the orchestra again, and he said that here in Fulda this would definitely be the last time that he ever does a concert like that, the shows in November would all be just with the band. During the intermission I went to Hannelore, and she and her friend told me that people had been throwing little stones at them when they tried to get up and dance!!! Yikes!!! Well, there was a free seat right next to me in the front row, so both of them came to the front with me for the 2nd part of the show. Hannelore had a blanket with her, so she just sat on the ground. Now they were both safe of those stone-throwing idiots and it was fun to have people so close who enjoyed the songs as much as I did, now finally I wasn't the only one in the front row singing along with every song! LOL

The orchestra part started out with Missing You, and then it was Carry Me (Like A Fire In Your Heart). Then he played "It's Me", and - what a surprise! - he forgot the words to the 2nd verse!!! How funny, Hannelore and I had to grin at each other when we realized it! Right after this song, he said "As those of you who have heard this song before may have noticed, I really forgot the words to the 2nd verse! Well, here they are again." And then he sang the 2nd verse a cappella, as if just to prove to himself that Alzheimer wasn't getting to him yet! LOL - really funny!

He continued with "The Lady In Red" with the usual intro (Peter playing a totally off-key Fuer Elise and Blue Danube on the piano..), followed by So Beautiful and Hotel California. And then he said "Now this is a song you might want to dance to", and he started The Revolution Trilogy. As soon as this song got faster there was no stopping us! Hannelore, her friend and I were first at the front of the stage, and within a few seconds we were surrounded by lots of others, and then - finally - the party began!!! He played One More Mile To Go, The Snows Of New York and Don't Pay The Ferryman and everybody was singing and dancing! I looked behind me a couple of times and nobody seemed to be sitting anymore, finally he got them all, it was so amazing!!! I remember that during The Snows Of New York everybody had put their hands together in the air, people holding hands with strangers, joining in with the song... I had to think about Bonn during this song and it was such an incredible feeling.

For the first encore, he played Say Goodbye To It All and High On Emotion. It seemed the crowd was going crazy!! He came out for a 2nd encore and played Blonde Hair Blue Jeans (!!!! very unusual as an encore!!), and then finished the evening with Hey Jude. We tried to get him out a third time, were shouting "Zugabe" for a long time after he had left, but it was late and every good thing has to end.. *sigh*. All in all he played for a whole 3 hours (with 10 mins intermission), from 20:20 to 23:20, so I guess we cannot complain. ;)

Hannelore left very quickly after the show, I don't know where to (backstage??).. and Thomas and I had to drive home for a tiring 3 hours... good thing I could come into work a bit later today.

Well, that was it, hoped you enjoyed reading the report. I might have mixed up the order of songs, or even left out some that I forgot about, this is just what I remember from memory... It was definitely surprising that he didn't play Spanish Train, and no Patricia either! And no Where Peaceful Waters Flow, which I would have liked better in the end than Hey Jude. Also he didn't play Love Of The Heart Divine, so I will have to wait for the album until I hear this song. But the other two new songs really make me curious, and now I can hardly wait for the concerts in November... is it really still 2 1/2 months away???