Concert Review: Liverpool, UK - March 12, 2004
Chris Williams:
Hi all, well here is my little review of last night. We were extremely lucky and well pleased to get 2 tickets for this show at the last moment....and I really mean the last moment !! We only knew at 11:00 in the morning and we had to leave by 14:30 to stand any chance on making the long journey up there in time for the show. We set off as soon as Stewart came in from work, knowing that the journey on a clear day would take over 3 hours, and of course this was a Friday afternoon........suffice to say, there were a few tense moments on the journey when it was 18:30 and we were still not there.................we still had another 10 miles to go and some of that through Liverpool itself trying to find the venue, which we knew we had to find first time, or we'd miss the show :-( luckily we only got lost once and we arrived in the venue, breathless from running from the car park to the venue, but much relieved that we had made it with 10 minutes to spare !! The room was quite small with about maybe 100 people or less and all the seats were of course taken already, so we got a drink...and yes they were free :-) and sat on the floor near the mixing desk. A few moments later Chris Andrews came over to us and said hello and a few words then asked if we would mind moving to the bar area...and then I saw a barstool free so I jumped on that.... well sat really !! Stewart stood by my side. Suddenly a few minutes later Chris literally walked right past close to us on his way to the stage. When Winter comes was already playing in the background as Chris jumped onto the stage, he then had a quick word with the DJ before singing RTF and SIF. He was in very good voice from the very first note. Straight after SIF he stayed at the piano and sang, LIR and then into FPD, and in this song I could so clearly see him having to concentrate really hard to get the right notes to play. But of course he did, but I don't think I have ever seen him concentrate so hard before. Another of my favourite songs from the first time I heard him sing it at the 'ball' in October last year. Then there was some more chat with the DJ and some people asked him questions. There was a person from Liverpool Football club asked one, someone from Sky Sports News and then a couple of others from the DJ again and finally one from a fellow CdeB fan called Mel. (Hi Mel..nice to meet you after the show) More songs followed and of course Chris told us what they were all about before he sang them. Songs here included in no particular order, The Words I Love You, The Journey, in which he mentioned that it was written about Glenn, Songbird, (one of my favourites from the first time I heard it last year), Missing You, Rose Of England, Ferryman, Spanish Train, a talk about Patricia the Stripper, but didn't actually sing it, Peaceful Waters, then it was time to go, but good old Chris, stayed a while longer and sang some more and finally it was time for the encore..which was Snows Of New York. It was so strange not to see any one waving their arms in the air....well I did for a while anyway ! The audience was fairly quiet to start with, but soon Mel, Stewart and I started clapping our hands to the beat and slowly a few more joined in. Of course in The Words I Love You Chris stopped playing the guitar for a few seconds and got everybody clapping ! I know we got a few weird looks as we knew most of the words to the new songs already !!!but most people smiled ..... they probably thought that we were just crazy !! Near the end , when the DJ was chatting and thanking Chris for doing the gig, and thanking the audience for coming along, he said 'I know some of you have come a very long way' (to true we did, a 4 1/2 hour journey there and a 3 1/2 hour drive back home again after the show) ....so maybe he was talking about us ? Soon it was all over and Chris left the room immediately, we stayed a few minutes longer had a chat with a few people including the assistant manager of Liverpool FC, no less that Phil Thompson, then as we left the room we saw the actual chief manager, Gerard Houllier in the lift !! What a shame we did not get to say hello to him as well. After we left we walked off to find a burger king or similar to have a quick bite to eat before we started the drive home, and as we walked out of the venue we saw CA in the restaurant, obviously getting things ready for Chris and his friends to have a meal together. About an hour later on our way back from our 'quick food', we caught a glimpse of Chris and his friends all having a meal in the hotel restaurant, although of course we did not stop and stare, we had to walk past the venue to get back to our car. The restaurant had two sides to it, and both sides were full glass, so we couldn't miss seeing him there! Finally we got back to our car and I drove the long journey home, arriving home at 01:30, very tired but very High On Emotion, as we had never ever been to such an event before, and we really enjoyed it, and it was great to see Chris singing live again, his voice was in top form, a great night to remember for both of us :-)