Concert Review: Newcastle, UK - December 7, 2000
Jan:
I thought I'd share my story about last night's concert at Newcastle.
We nearly didn't get to see Chris this time round. My family and I are spending our first Christmas away from home in 'sunny' Florida (we hope) and most of the 'local' dates were after we would be leaving, the only possibility was Newcastle, a long way to go on a Thursday night. But the thought of Chris having a tour and me not going was too much and we ordered our tickets.
My husband and I set off for the 2 and a half hour journey from Hull to Newcastle, front row tickets checked half a dozen times before we'd even left the house, and we'd been gone for 15 minutes, already nearly an hour after we were due to leave, when Trev asked if I'd got the camera. Front row seats and not take the camera - not on your life, so back home we went, picked up the camera and as a passing thought we bought a red rose from the local florist. Now desperately late we set off once again and arrived in Newcastle with not many minutes to spare, after getting lost over and over again trying to find the Telewest Arena.
It's not a big venue, only about 2,000 tickets sold we were told, but our seats could hardly have been much better, front row, middle aisle seats (no one next to me to hear my awful singing) and on walked Chris and his band. His songs mostly consisted of tracks from the Quiet Revolution album, with some old favourites thrown in. Then came my big moment "I've got the roses, I've got the wine" sang Chris, and I've still got the rose on my knee, too shy/frightened/embarrassed to walk the few feet to the stage and give it to him! "You should have given him your rose then", said Trev while I was thinking that I don't know why I bothered - I'd never dare take it up there! Suddenly I got some courage from somewhere and ran up to the stage, almost threw my rose onto it and ran back to my seat. Then Chris was waving me back - dare I go? He bent down in the middle of the song, kissed my cheek and said thank you, I said thank you back and floated back to my seat again. I couldn't tell you what Chris sang after that, but for me there were only 2 people in the Arena, with Chris and I both singing at the tops of our voices!
What a night! I know there are many people with better stories to tell, people who have talked to Chris for ages in pubs, had photos taken with him, got his autograph, but that moment will live forever in my memory as I know it will never happen to me again. Now, anyone want to swop an airline ticket to Florida for a ticket to Sheffield Arena or Manchester? lol