Concert Review: Wexford, Ireland - September 13, 2002
Chris Williams:
Well here is my review from the warm up concert at Wexford. We arrived in Wexford at about 13:00 after driving down from the Dublin area. Knowing the Irish roads from past experience, we allowed plenty of time !!! After driving through the very narrow streets of Wexford, we finally found the guesthouse where we would be staying that night. As soon as we had unpacked our stuff we walked into town to 'suss' the venue out !! What a shock !!! It really was a church hall right in the middle of the main high street !! But the sun was shining and it was a lovely 'hot' day so we explored a little of the surrounding town. Later we met up with Marietta and Yogi and we all went for a chat and a drink together. Finally at around 17:00 hrs we decided to start the queue :-)) A few minutes later Claudia from Ireland arrived with her Mum from Germany and we all chatted away the time. After about 30 minutes 2 men arrived from Galway after a 5 hour drive. It turned out to be a father and son. The son was about 17 years old and although he had been a fan for years he had never been to a CdeB concert before. We all had a chat with them, and what a lovely pair they were. If only I were 30 years younger....ohh the 'boy' was really nice ;-) We watched the merchandise being delivered, so realised that this would be where we would see all these new 'things' appear. Before the main doors finally opened.... well it was only one narrow door really .....we saw David Wynn' arrive. He is mentioned on the programme 'This Is Your Life' when Chris appeared on the show. He is a sculptor and Chris used to go and hang out in his house years ago when he was a struggling musician with no money. Lots of other people who were obviously local 'town' people arrived and were allowed in before we 'ordinary folk' !! Finally we were all let in and found our way down to the front rows. Thankfully all the 'invited' guests who had gone in earlier were seated in reserved seats at the back of the hall. We caught up with Claudia (who runs the Disco in Wuppertal) and Silvia, and a few other friends, not from this list. The hall was quite large really, it seated 700 and was a complete sell out . I can just see the headlines in the 'papers' now ......Chris de Burgh has to sing in church halls these days............ I'm convinced one of the tabloids will come out with this one shortly. We all know how cynical the tabloids are. The stage was fairly small and the first thing I noticed was that there was no piano, just some sets of keyboards, where the piano would normally be :-( Finally at 20:30.....yeh dead on time ;-) , the lights went low and on came Chris. He was dressed in a (please note !!) ......white shirt and black trousers. He started with 'Guilty Secret' and suddenly as the second song 'Missing You'. So he had moved this song right to the beginning of the show. then he said his usual hello to the audience and laughed and said that he must know everyone there tonight !! I think it was at this point he asked if there were any Germans there and of course all our friends shouted out yeh, and then he asked if there were any English fans and Stewart and I and one other fan from England shouted out and he just stood there, shaking his head and l aughed and said 'you are all mad' . Of course he knew we were all there as he had already seen us all in the front row !!! He played lots of new songs from 'Timing Is Everything' along with some of the oldies of course. Here are some of the ones I can remember from the first part of the show,The Best That Love Can Be, Lebanese Night, Sailing Away, Living In The World, Oh My Brave Hearts. There is a real funny story attached to this song !! He started singing it and for the first few moments it did not sound right at all, then he told the band to stop and laughed and said 'oh they changed the key on me'...he was singing it in one 'key' and the band were playing it in another !! He started the song again with the band playing in the correct key and of course it sounded as normal. After the song, he said, 'that must have sounded really weird, they were playing in C sharp and I was singing in A minor !! Then there was a bit of chat and then came, The Same Sun, St. Peter's Gate, When I Think Of You, If Beds Could Talk, and of course LIR. Then came Revolution. I'm glad to see that the quiet bit in the middle is still there. The bit where they all sit in the middle and Tony plays the bongos. Here is sang, Sailor, Another Rainbow, which he introduced by saying that it was about a very good friend of his. Then a real shock ! he sang, Save Me, in this section. Now I would have thought that that would have been in one of the other section of the show, probably nearer the end. But of course I am wrong !! Then the band left the stage and Chris sang his solo section, including, Spanish Train, In A County Churchyard, Lonely Sky, The Tower, (yeh) and at this time he mentioned something about Bargy Castle, and that he had grown up there, and that how his Mum and Dad had worked ferociously hard to give his brother and himself a decent education, and then he said, 'Thanks Mum, I know you are up there somewhere', as he pointed to the raided section at the back of the hall. The came if I remember correctly, Spaceman where 'we fans' added the little extra bit, the Germans know all about this as they invented it !! He looked down at us and smiled :-)) Then he mentioned about Sept 11th and that alot of radio shows had played, TSONY and he then sang it. It was during this song that the band reappeared. THEN FINALLY he invited us to get up and dance for the final section....the best section of the lot :-)) But amazingly at first only the 2 sides of the front rows got up :-( so we had plenty of room to dance around :-)) This section included, Nothing Ever Happens Around Here, I Want It And I Want It Now, Timing Is Everything, Bal Masque, (both of these are very good live) and Don't Pay The Ferry Man. Then he left the stage as usual :-(( In the first encore he sang, Say Goodbye to It All and High On Emotion. In the final encore he changed the running list slightly from the one that we had seen on the sound desk at the start of the show. He was going to finish with There Is Room In This Heart Tonight and then Hey Jude, but in actual fact he changed it and sang, Patricia and of course the crowd went wild !! I looked back at this point and saw a large part of the audience on their feet clapping and singing. I think they slowly got up during the last 2 encores !! It beats me that anyone can be still sitting for this last part of the show :-(( but then again that is just my personal opinion. During Patricia, he was really dancing and jumping around on the stage.... just where does he get his energy from..........god I wish I knew coz I want some !!....he mentioned that now he must have embarrassed his family by dancing around like an idiot, and then carried on with the song !! Then the dreaded moment came when you know that it really is the end of the show....he started singing Hey Jude. The whole show lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes, so it was still a very decent lengthed show :-)) despite him saying on a couple of radio interviews that he was getting to old for these 3 hour long concerts and that they would be less long now. My personal thoughts on the show.....I sure missed Peters and Neil's presence with their musical depth and ability, and definitely missed the piano, although that hopefully was only because the stage was so small. The 2 new musicians were good, but I guess that it will take a few shows for the band to really 'gell' together. All in all though, a brilliant show of course and very good value for money. After the show, we joined Marietta, Yogi, Claudia, Sylvia, Hannalore, and we found a local pub and all had a drink together. It was a perfect ending to a great day. Finally we walked back to our guesthouse and rolled into bed at around 01:00 hrs. Tired, exhausted, but still very, High On Emotion :-)))) The next morning, we got up had breakfast, done a little shopping in the town and then it was time to drive back to Dublin airport to catch the flight back home. A very busy 2 days, but well worth it. If you have managed to read all this to the end....well done, you deserve a medal !!!!!