Concert Review: Wuppertal, Germany - March 24, 2002
Katja Overbeck:
Good morning, blue riders, and how was your night? :-)
Well, I would have loved to sleep a little bit longer this morning, but my horses don´t care about it and so I had to get up early as always. Now I sit in front of my computer and think about yesterday. It was a GREAT event, very special for me. First I want to thank all the people who have made this possible for us, the committee and Claudia from Wuppertal!!! Many, many thanks!!! It was wonderful to meet a lot of old friends and to see new people, some from the list, some not. I arrived at three o´clock and there were many people already there. First I tried to find a place for my cakes on the table, oh, btw, who was it who said that we´d have to starve???? There were such a lot of cakes, muffins, cookies ad other things that we could have fed the whole army of the crusaders with it ;-) After a long time of saying "hi" to my friends the caraoke part started and I was very impressed about the talented people we have on the list!! All did their part very well, it was very moving!! Some were very nervous, which I can uderstand very well, but there was really no reason! It was really wonderful and all of the singers can be very proud that they had the courage to stand on a stage ad sing for us! Thanks to all of you! The "highlight" was the long expected entrance of Simon, the man in red. But...hm..somehow we was´t a _man_ aymore :-) When he came on stage he was dressed in....red and he wore a red wig, too! The dress reminded me very much of the dresses that Scarlett o´Hara wore in the film "Gone with the wind" :-))) You can imagine that we all could´t stop laughing! Claudia was dressed like Chis de Burgh, black wig,sunglasses, black trousers and black leather jacket and both sang "Seperate tables" . Great, really great!!! And after that Simon sang Lady in Red, loudly supported by the audience. So, all you judges on the list, I think he has had his punishmet, although it seemed that he too had a lot of fun with it :-)))
After the caraoke we danced ad talked and laughed for a while and later had another caraoke show, wonderful like the first one, and after that more dancig. At 10.30 pm most of the people were on their way back home ad I drove home, too. I really, really hope that we will meet again to spend a day (and evening ) together, it was really great fun! I´m sure that many other listmembers will write their review later and I`m sure that we will have photos so that all of you who could´t be in Wuppertal yesterday can take a look at Lady Simon the Red and many other people!
Jan Cas Sombroek:
As we drove off Friday to go to Germany to get a piece of rest in a lovely hotel and a lot of enjoyment in Wuppertal we arrived in the afternoon. We drove by the Bundesallee, and immedialely we saw the sign for us of the disco. After that we went to the hotel outside Wuppertal and wanted to go to Cologne at Saturday. Unfortunately our car did not start that morning. We spoke with our repairman in Volendam, Holland and he told us what to do, to get the car started. After a while we fixed it but we were a bit afraid to go to Cologne after that. So we took a ride in the neighourhood of Wuppertal. Although it is an industrial area, what a beautiful area to stay in. Beautiful mountains with all kind of colours from brown to green. And the survay was breathtaking. Sunday afternoon we went by taxi to the disco about half past one with a big box filled with video's and dvd of the benefit concert of our Chris de Burgh in Volendam last year.
My wife Alie and I got a warm welcome when we arrived. Strange feelings for us. There were a lot of people we knew from the list and to who I spoke and mailed with and now we were able to put faces to the names. The welcome committee did a good job, there was a fanstand, where interesting cdeb articles were for sale. And already two places were open to put the video and the dvd.
Finally we met Astrid (in person I mean). After that, almost everybody who came in, shook hands and within two hours I grew dizzy of all the lovely people I met. Boy I sure met a lot of wellknown names. And now I know who they are.
Thank you Claudia for everything you've done for us -I mean Claudia, the redheaded girl who was everywhere in the disco at thesame time. And yes there was a lot of cake. But there was more cake, but Simon all ate it.
Everybody was watching the karaoke at the stage, and suddenly I saw a woman crawling over the floor, I looked and wanted to get her up, but it was Simon (joke) who was sneaky eating all the cake from the table. Don't worry Simon, I won't tell anybody. It must be hard for your Astrid to hold on, just kidding of course. But still.......
At the stage there was a videoscreen with nice viewing of Chris. I even saw parts of the Video from Volendam. And Monique had a nice letter from Marian Pantano with greetings. Thank you Marian. And Jeri from Santee, thank you for asking to give me a kiss. I've never been kissed so many times before, so don't worry about what Lore told you. Everything has turned out well.
It was great fun watching the karaoke part. Especially the part where Simon and Claudia came on stage. What a great performers and entertainers they are. You really made the show. I'm sure there will be a lot of pictures on the site of that performance.
Maybe a hint for Chris to his for-programme before his own show starts? All and all it was a meeting to worthwhile to let all happen again. What will Simon have to do then? Now that he is called S.I.R. Simon In Red, what will follow.
We all had a great time, and the morning after we drove carefully back to Holland. Carefully because of the carproblems, but we had a lot to talk and to laugh about. Listing to Chris in the car, we went just like real Americans to a Mc. Donalds Drive, and sat, eating in the car talking about the meeting the day before. I do not dare to name people's name because I'm sure I will forgot some to mentions,
But really boys and girls who were there in Wuppertal, you are GREAT. The ones who did the whole meeting, and of course the guests. You're the fans Chris can be proud of. And for the ones who could not be there, enjoy the reviews, and the photo's. Sorry I am not a good storyteller, otherwise there would be at least four or five pages more about last Sunday. And about ten pages just about Simon. Simon who? Simon S.I.R.