Concert Review: Bournemouth, UK - December 15, 2000
Chris Williams:
Oh dear what a day :-( Stewart and I left home at 15:30 hrs for what should have been a 2 & 1/2 hr journey. But of course we did not forget that this was a Friday and we had to travel a large part of the M25 otorway...:-( Still we had left plenty of extra time so felt ok....how wrong can one be !! Luckily our friends Sheila and Alan did not suffer on their journey and got there well before us. So we managed to keep intouch on our mobile phones and that is how I knew that the concert would not start until 19:45. The total journey took exactly 4 hours most of the way we just crawled. We finally arrived into our seats at 19:35 just 10 minutes before the concert was due to start. I was to say the least a bit 'wound up' but soon calmed down once there. We met very briefly the 2 Heike's from the list, but could not really talk as the show was about to start, but at least it was nice to put faces to the names!!
Then suddenly the lights went out and Chris appeared to rapturous clapping and WITOY started. The venue was full up, like last year and a real mixed age range of people. Lots of fans there in their CdeB T shirts, so we knew that it would be a good show. To me, Chris looked pretty tired and did not look his happy smiley self for a large part of the first half. But his voice again was on top form. No jokes about the show being 6 hours and bringing your pyjamas and sandwiches. But he did make a few other jokes as normal. The sound was superb in the hall with a lot of clapping along from the audience for a large part of it all. By the time Revolution came along I think that there were alot of people itching to get up and dance, but we knew that we could not get up until a certain point !! In the request spot he sang a little of Living on The Island which I have never heard him sing live before. Most of the other songs during this section were the same as usual. The Tower seems to have become an integral part of this section now and once again I shall say how I had shivers running down my spine while he sang it.
Finally the moment to 'get up and dance' had arrived. We shot to the front and within minutes the whole of the standing area infront of the stage was packed. People were really enjoying themselves. I know I was even if I could hardly keep my eyes open and could not stop yawning. (hope Chris did not notice this!) It was at this point that Chris suddenly seemed to 'come alive' and really started smiling at people again. You could see now that he had really come alive again !! All the fast ones that I love so much, I Want it and I want it now, Nothing Ever Happens Round Here, Ferryman etc etc. Only to soon it was time for the first of the 2 encores. Oh how that last section flies
During this section as well Chris did a really sweet thing. There was a little girl sitting on the front of the stage between the 2 centre speakers and he noticed her and came down and picked her up and carried her on his arm across the stage and just stood right next to Al as he done one of his 'special bits' on his guitar. Then he came back to the centre of the stage again and popped her back down by the speakers where she remained for the rest of the show. Yet again it shows how Chris adores children. It really was such a sweet thing to do. Oh how I wish I was a child again, then maybe Chris could sweep me up into his arms !!! Oh yes please !!
Then finally Hey Jude came and it was all over, and I was not looking forward to the long drive back home. Still at least we knew that the traffic would not be so bad at that time of night. We actually had a very clear run home and got home in just over 2 hours. But boy was I tired, as it is me who does all the driving.
I think that I can remember falling into bed at something like 02:00 hrs in the morning. the next thing I knew was that it was 09:00 hrs. !!