Concert Review: Oberhausen, Germany (Nokia Night Of The Proms) - December 11, 2001
Konni Risse and Chris Williams:
Here is a review of last nights concert at Oberhausen........but you will have to forgive any mistakes as we have just returned from a visit to a Christmas market and 2 glasses of glühwein !!!! well , where shall we start..at the beginning of the queue may be a good place :-)) We arrived in the afternoon and started the queue and soon after 3 'Meatloaf' fans arrived. It was very very cold in the queue but we managed to survive because we knew that we were going to see 'the man himself' later. Soon before the doors were due to open there was some confusion as they did not seem to know what doors to open and moved the queue twice....still we finally managed to get in and thanks to our 'meatloaf' friends...got a place in the front row........I think they felt sorry for me (Chris) still walking with one crutch !!
just before the actual concert started Marietta and Yogi joined us ...these were the only 2 people we recognised from the list but we do think that maybe there were other people further back. The concert started 'Just In Time' and we did not really know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the time up until Chris in self came on stage. The orchestra were very funny as was the choir...they kept jumping up and down with the music and one violinist had very long hair and every time he jumped up and down his hair would look very funny. Then the man on the vibraphone was just so funny..he really was a very good entertainer and made us all laugh a lot. Finally it was time for 'Chris' himself and we were very pleased :-)) As people who have already gone to one of these concerts will know that he first sang LIR, and during this time we could see him looking all along the front row and when he saw us he gave us a big smile !! then he sang Snows Of New York and Ferryman. then Chris talked about football and the draw for the world cup and sang first American Pie and then sang a German soccer song called 'Hey baby'...he really was in a good mood you could tell. Only too quickly it was time for his final song which was of course, 'High On Emotion' and he jumped off the stage and run along in front of the barrier with the microphone in his hand. First he stopped in front of Konni and put the microphone right under her nose and she sang the words'High On Emotion' into it, then he moved to me and done the same ! We were so happy.....but there was more to come !!" After he got to the end of the front row, he turned and came back along the row again and touched every bodies hand, till he got to us 2, then he actually held our hands tight for a few moments before moving on.. WE WERE SO 'HIGH ON EMOTION' !! Then came the break and we talked to the 'MeatLoaf' fans who we had met earlier and who had managed to get backstage to meet 'Meatlaof' himself in the interval.They were obviously 'HIGH ON EMOTION' too !!!!! We did not really enjoy the second half very much at all, especially 'MeatLoaf'....sorry any MeatLoaf fans :-( Not until the finale anyway when Chris himself appeared again. It was really funny..when all the singers came on stage at the end of the show there was a line of girls giving then all flowers and Chris did not take his.we think he pretended not to see them !! The lady had to run after him and he looked all surprised and said "oh are they for me" and then took them and kiss the lady! As the other artists collected their flowers they threw them straight into the crowd....but Chris did not do this he just kept holding them .Then they all started singing 'Yellow Submarine' and Chris kept looking down and smiling at me (Chris) and I wondered why...then suddenly he threw the flowers straight to me with a great big smile on his face !!! I was sooo happy !!! For the second verse of the song Chris came to the front of the stage and sang it by himself, which was really good, a very nice way to finish the evening off :-)
Unfortunately we did not get to give him the 'Christmas message Book' but we will try again at Dortmund on Friday, and hopefully we will be lucky. Just on our way home from the Christmas market a while ago we were in the car and suddenly the radio station that Konni's Husband was listening to the sport on(WDR 2) played 'BY My Side' which was a lovely end to a nice day !! Thats all for now folks !! To be continued on Saturday after the show at Dortmund !!!! Hope you managed to stay awake while reading this review !!