Concert Review: Toronto, Canada - April 11, 2000
Brian Morton:
First off the venue was very, very small. It only sat about 700 people. In fact it remended me of the first time that I ever saw De Burgh in the gymnasium at McMaster University back in 1980. I was sitting on the right aisle about halfway back in the orchestra.
The performance dynamics were thus, very very different from seeing Chris at ACC the night before.. and yet the show was in essential details very much the same. I'm not critical about that mind you. I understand that in many ways Chris rehearses his performance as though it were a piece of theatre. The songs are chosen very carefully to go in a specific order.. and the between song patter is also pre-thought out. Chris works very hard to bring an audience a long with him on a musical journey..
That's one of the reasons why I feel a little guilty about the Kareoke thing.. He wasn't mentally prepared to do this, so I felt like I put him off of his stride for a few minutes.. He didn't seem quite as much at ease singing LONELY SKY afterwards, in fact it wasn't until about halfway through BORDERLINE that I felt that he had relaxed again back to his normal performance leval..
Still what an amazing show.. I shall remember it for a long time to come..
BTW Several people told me that they had taken some photos during the concert. Perhaps some kind person will help us set up a web site so that we can all enjoy them??
Wednesday April 12, CENTENNIAL HALL, London, Ontario 7:30 pm
WHEN I THINK OF YOU,
LIVING IN THE WORLD
-- Intro How are you? Spring is here at last.. Took a walk in Victoria Park,
-- Can't remember the last time I played here in London... But it was a sell out with 25 people! London has more millionaires per capita then any other city in Canada. Is that true? Are there any millionaires here tonight? If so, could you lend us a few bob, I'm a little short!
LOVE OF THE HEART DEVINE
-- Leather jacket strip routine..
SAILING AWAY
-- at the end of SA he had the band stop playing and chris just sang to the rhythm of the audience clapping
LOVE'S GOT A HOLD ON ME
OH MY BRAVE HEARTS
-- This is the last show in Canada, but I shall be back again soon -- One of the best things about my job is that I get to travel to different cultures and meet the natives as it were..
-- And sample the local wines! But not "night train wine from Hamlton"..
THE SAME SUN
ST PETERS GATE (very nice light show for this song)
-- Story songs, there's one about a game of cards, but I don't remember it anymore.. Town of Guelph, sounds like someone had a cold,
-- played in Guelph, it was one of my first gigs in Canada at the University.
-- celestial thoughts in womens' heads,
-- Peter got locked in the ladies loo
-- Putting make up on mime show
A WOMAN'S HEART
-- Beatles chat including brief excerpts from..
HELLO GOODBYE
YESTERDAY (everyone sang along)
HERE COMES THE SUN
-- I love the eagles! Hotel Best Western, Hotel Sheridan....
HOTEL CALIFORNIA
-- Guitar solos still brilliant!!
-- Chris had forgotten one verse, so he played just that verse for us again...
Band intros..
MISSING YOU
LADY IN RED
REVOLUTION
(shave and a hair cut drummer joke)
LIGHT A FIRE
LIBERTY
(Unplugged section)
--Kyla from the list brought up a tiny little sheep to Chris
-- "What's your name?"" BAAAABARRAAA!" "Save me from WELSHMEN"
-- Just as Chris was announcing the name of the next song. "and it's called My Lover Is.." I yelled out very clearly "A SHEEP!" and Chris went into hysterics.. They couldn't start the song for over two minutes!! "He likes girls, honestly!"
MY LOVER IS
-- There was a message left on the edge of the stage.. Chris picked it up and read it, something about "thank you for the musical footprints in the sand"..
-- "When I'm in Canada I feel that I am amongst friends"
SNOWS OF NEW YORK
(solo section -- band goes off stage for a beer)
Requests --
THE TOWER
DISCOVERY
-- with Brian (Kareoke)
-- Chris: "So where are you from?" Brian: "Hamilton, where the wine comes from"
LONELY SKY
-- over to the piano for
BORDERLINE
-- Standing ovation!!!!!!!!! He was very moved. He said "I get goosebumbs, when you do that because it shows me that we all believe in the same things"...
SPANISH TRAIN
SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING
-- Whole audience sang along on SPACEMAN. At one point he stopped playing and singing and the audience carried the tune for a whole chorus.
(Band back on stage)
QUIET REVOLUTION
-- He started QR acapella, and he was perfectly in key and on pitch!
NATASHA DANCE
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ROUND HERE
I WANT IT (AND I WANT IT NOW)
DON'T PAY THE FERRYMAN
-- another standing ovation!!!!!!!!
(1st encore- with the band) We all ran down to the front of the stage
SAY GOODBYE TO IT ALL
HIGH ON EMOTION
(2nd encore - just solo)
PATRICIA THE STRIPPER
WHERE PEACEFUL WATERS FLOW
"to thank us all for coming and singing along"
-- He took one bar "Na, na, na," and had us repeat it over and over again while he made up silly lyrics.. quoting tiny bits from about 15 other CDEB songs.
(3rd encore - band back on stage)
HEY JUDE
And that was it folks!
Janette Couch:
Well, I'm a bit late with this, because I've been sick since we got home from TO. We ran into some turbulence for the last 20 minutes of the flight back to Calgary and I get motion sickness really easily. Anyway, feeling better now and just wanted to share my feelings about the concert.
In one word AWESOME! I can't go into a complete set list cos I was too busy having fun to take notes :) Terry and I walked to the restaurant to meet the group for dinner and it was wonderful - very relaxed and friendly right from the start. Yes, Jeri, I did get my dance with Ron, right in the middle of the restaurant hehehehe.
We all walked over to the ACC together. Most of us were sitting not too far from each other. The show was absolutely wonderful. I can't believe how Chris can just keep getting better and better as he gets older. The only (small) disappointment for me was that he didn't perform Lonely Sky as he did at some of the other Canadian concerts. That song has always been in my top ten fave's and I've never heard him do it live. The highlights of the concert for me were:
"Revolution" and wow, if you ever thought maybe Chris is losing the voice - no way! This song was so powerful, it took my breath away.
"Borderline" - the crowd actually gave him a standing ovation at the end of this song - very moving.
"Love of the Heart Divine" - this is a fave of mine and he sang it beautifully - almost brought tears to my eyes.
"The Same Sun" - now this one did bring tears to my eyes, thinking of very special friends who couldn't be with me at the concert.
These were just a few of the high points for me personally, but I loved the whole show - I was bouncing in my seat the whole time VBG - there was nowhere to dance and I just couldn't keep still. Chris invited everyone to get up and dance when he did "Blond Hair Blue Jeans" but when Terry and I moved to the only place available to dance (behind some of our group who were in the last row) we were told by the (nazi) security that we couldn't be there, so we sat down again and I had to be content with bouncing on my seat.
The sing along after the show was great fun and Brian, you are very talented :) It was so cool to get the phone call from Astrid (crazy woman - what time did you have to get up to do that? 6 am?). I also called Jeri from the pub to share the excitement a little bit.
Then when we arrived home, there was the coolest coincidence. We have shared on this list stories of how we discovered Chris' music and I had told that my best friend in high school had brought the STAOS tape to school to play "Spaceman" for me because she had heard it the night before and was so taken with it. She and I had gone to our first CdeB concert in 1983. Anyway, we had lost touch over the last 8 years, but when T and I got home from Toronto, there was a message from her on our voice mail. Karma or what. I told her all about the concert, the web page and this list, so hopefully she'll be joining us soon.
Anyway, hope this didn't bore you all, just wanted to share my feelings from a wonderful concert and I'm so thrilled we were able to be there and hope it won't be another 4 years before Chris comes to Canada again.