Concert Review: Kreuzlingen, Switzerland - May 26, 2000
Anke Laubensdörfer:
after the great concert reviews we had already from Gelsenkirchen I just want to share some of my impressions from the concert in Kreuzlingen on 26th of May. (last week I was on holidays, so sorry for the delay!).
On this beautiful Friday evening the "Bodensee-Arena" was well filled with 2500 people, not quite sold out. Although it was a seated concert, I was happy because the seats were not numbered. So my husband Thomas and I had a good place in the 3rd row. Before the concert started I met Hannelore and some Swiss friends of her and they told me about the concert in Bern the day before. First I couldn't believe what they told of the "Swiss manner", but with the beginning of the show (already 5 past 8!) I saw it with my own eyes: from the very beginning many people already streamed to the front, stood at the side of the stage (as far as the securities allowed them) and also in the middle aisle! With "Sailing away" I couldn't stay on my seat any longer while so many other fans already gathered in the middle in front of the stage. I managed to climb over the seats and stood with them, dancing, decent 3 meters away from the stage and the security. It was so fantastic! No chance to push anyone of this crowd back to the seats! (later I heard >from Thomas, that some sitting in the first rows complained about this!). And during "Natasha dance" Chris signaled the people to come all close to the stage. Well, the atmosphere was great and Chris too. It was just as in many other concerts an so I think I don't have to write too many details (but of course some ;-)).
In the Beatles section he played "Michelle" and "Here comes the sun", in the solo part "Transmission ends". This, especially with the last part "don't let it happen - I'm always going to be with you" touched me deeply, wished he would never stop singing!
Remarkable: no sheep and no other toy cluddies before "My lover is"! So Chris made some new jokes with the band and told us, that the pooooor guys have to go to Gelsenkirchen by bus after the show. "Any girls who have never been to Gelsenkirchen before and want to join the band? You can buy tickets!" Then, during Peter's "My lover is" solo part Chris played a bus driver with his big steering wheel! It was so funny in combination with Peter's music! Even the band had a hard fight against breaking down laughing! Later in the show Chris repeated this "bus drive joke" to Peter and Peter back to Chris.
Maybe this fact (I mean that they have to bring the equipment and the band to Gelsenkirchen in that night) was the reason for the early start of the show and the end after exact 3 hours. After the show I waited with a hand full of other fans at the backstage entrance. The security people made a big fuss(?) ("trara"), to gather and keep us few behind an imaginary line. When Chris appeared he just had to make the comment "oohh so many security! more than fans!" The boys were a little bit surprised when he marched through their line (first they didn't want to let him through) and signed autographs before leaving.
So this evening was again a great celebration for me and there could be no better start of a holiday. My poor husband often had to listen to my humming and singing in that week...