Concert Review: Offenburg, Germany - March 20, 2004
Chris Williams:
We got up at 04:30 hrs on Saturday Morning, so that we could take the cheapest flight of the day to Germany. The approach to Frankfurt airport and the actual landing were what shall I say, rather bumpy as we hit alot of cloud and it was pretty windy as well. We arrived in Germany at around 09:30 hrs German time and as soon as we stepped into the airport terminal building one of our friends, Dany, was waiting to drive us back to her house, where we would all be meeting before travelling to the show. It was at this point that we made a big banner to hold up at the show, hopefully for Chris to spot ;-) we had a great deal of fun designing this and were well pleased with our efforts ! After about an hours drive, we arrived at Dany's house where another friend, Andrea, was already waiting for us. After a few 'hugs' we sat down and talked of course and planned the forthcoming trip to the TV studio. As it was about a 2 1/2 hr drive, we decided to stay in a hotel in Offenburg after the show, along with 2 other list friends, Claudia, and Anja. After eating a nice lunch, we started the long drive at around 15:30 hrs I think. Saw a nasty accident on the way, which was not a pretty sight, but thankfully although the car was pretty smashed up, the occupants all appeared to be standing outside of the car, so thankfully I did not need to jump over the central reservation, to put my nursing skills into practice !! But it is always nasty to see a accident, and it serves as a good reminder, that even though we think we are 'protected' by a ton of steel around us, we still have accidents. Finally we arrived at the Hotel where we were staying at around 17:30 hrs and met up with Claudia and Anja. After saying hello to them, and catching up on a few things, we all went to our rooms to get ready etc. At around 7pm we started the walk to find the studio where the show would be filmed, and it was very cold and windy, but we found it fairly easily. Show Review As we walked into the show we saw an awful lot of older people, and wondered if we were in the right place !! I know I'm getting quite old now, but many were definitely older than me.........but I'm very young at heart anyway ;-) we even saw one woman in 'national costume' . But no problem, we would add a bit 'spice' to the night, especially when Chris would be on stage !! there was a stand where we could get a lot of 'freebies' like a pen, a baseball cap, a small tin of peppermint sweets and some badges, of course we took some, after all they were free ;-) Soon after this we walked into the recording studio and found our seats, whow we were 2 or 3 rows from the back I believe, makes a real difference from 2 or 3 rows from the front ;-) but we were not complaining as the seats were really steep the higher they went up. the actual set was very big. It consisted of 2 areas. One large one where the music would be performed, then a set of stairs next to that stage and then another large roundish size stage, where other things would be happening , like as we saw later, like dancers. Before the show actually went live, there was a warm up guy, who was telling us all about who would be on the show and made jokes about them I think. he asked if there were any Chris de Burgh fans and of course we shouted out yes, and he produced an old sock out of his pocket and had it passed up to us, saying that it was Chris's sock found in his dressing room. umm, I wish ;-) although I'd rather have one of his shirts (not black though !!) There were a group of 'Flipper' fans right behind us, and when Andrea asked if they would mind if we held our banner up when Chris arrived on stage and they said no not at all, as they were doing the same for 'Flipper' !! So no problem there :-) We spotted a few more CdeB fans around the audience, including Thomas and Bianka from this list and some other ones that I don't believe are on this list. Soon it was time for the real show to start, and the lights and cameras started to roll. Personally I have only ever witnessed the 'lottery show' live in the UK, so was amazed at how swiftly and professionally everything was done. Must be really hard work to correlate such a show. There were several other guests on before Chris, but I can't really say much about them as I don't understand German :-(, but I did understand that James Last and his orchestra were there , as well as another well known singer who I can't spell his name !! the other ones were German I guess. The thing that shocked me most, was the 'heat' in the studio, as the studio lighting was very hot. before very long, we were literally dripping with sweat (yuk!), and worst of all we were sitting on plastic chairs :-( I'm the person who is even cold on a hot summers day, so for me it was 'alien' to feel this hot !! But I soon got to accept it !! After about 1 hour we looked down to the side of the stage area and suddenly noticed that Tony, Al and Dave were walking onto the stage that was not being used at that moment. Soon afterward Chris came down the stairs and I will not go into what was said as Tina has already described it so well. BUT he was dressed in, wait for it...........drum roll........black suit with a BLUE shirt :-) he really does suit the colour blue sooo well :-)))))))))))) He looked pretty small (well he is anyway !!) from where we were sitting, but we still had a good view of him :-) As he walked down the stairs, we of course started to cheer and Andrea and I held up our banner hoping he would see it, which we assume he did as he waved up to us with a big grin on his face. Can't really make any comment as to whether The Words I Love You was live or playback, as we haven't seen the show yet :-( Hopefully my copy will arrive tomorrow or Thursday. We have been told that we were seen on TV , a real close up, of Andrea and myself holding up the banner :-) so 'fame at last' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll have to arrange an agent for us all soon ;-) After TWILY, Chris sang a lovely version of LIR, and this was really live as he walked up the steps into the audience and sat between the owner of this restaurant and her husband, as he sang it. We were all holding up glow sticks when Chris was singing this song, and again I believe the cameras were on us !! It was just after LIR had finished and Chris was back in front of the band, I spotted Tony waving like mad at us, and then I noticed Dave and Al as well and we waved right back to them, and again I hear that this was seen on the TV as well. After they had all left the stage there were several other guests on, but I won't go all into that. The show over ran by quite alot, but Andrea explained that this often happens in live shows. We were all so thirsty that we sat down in the foyer and had a long cold drink, while we decided what to do next. The vote was to go to a hotel a bit between the venue and where we were staying, and have another drink there. What a surprise we got about 1 hour later when the 3 boys from the band walked in, and stopped to have a few words with us all, and give us girls a kiss each !! then they had to go to another table for various reasons and we six carried on our party.....till the early hours of the morning...well more like the mid hours of the morning !! finally we went off home and after a few hours sleep, we had to get up for breakfast and say our goodbyes to Claudia, Anja, and a couple of others that we had met there in the hotel, and start the journey back to Danys house, where! we had a lovely barbeque, well the food was cooked on the barbie outside, but we actually ate inside as it was quite windy out on the patio. After all this was over, Andrea had to start the long drive home to her house, and Dany, Stewart and I sat down and watched some new video that Dany had not seen before. Finally at around 20:30 hrs we started off for the drive back to the airport, and guess what, we saw an even worse accident, this time on the same side of the road as us this time, but it was dark and the emergency services were already there, but again it was scary to see, cars sooo smashed up and 2 other cars facing the wrong way completely. We arrived at the airport just in time to check in and then say our goodbyes to our friend. This is the part we always hate, having to say goodbye to all our friends who have all been made through Chris de burgh and his music. The plane actually was scheduled to take off at 23:05, another late flight, as it was much cheaper, and of course we wanted to spend the maximum time possible with our friends. In actual fact the plane took to the skys at 22:52 hrs, so was early, but if we though that the landing was scary, that was nothing compared with the take off for the flight home.......now that was very scary indeed, as the wind was pretty! strong as as we sped down the runway we could literally feel the plane being blown from side to side, and then as we climbed to the skys we were buffeted quite alot until we got above the cloud or whatever was causing it !! The rest of the journey was uneventful until we arrived in the terminal building at Stanstead, only to be greeted by a massive long queue of people waiting to get through passport control, and we naively thought that at 12MN it would be empty !!!! It seems that alot of other people had the same idea to take cheaper priced later flights. We finally arrived into our house at 01:00 hrs, very very tired, but well high on emotion :-))))))))))))))))))))))) perhaps not the cleverest of things to do on the day before I went back to work, after being off with stress for a couple of weeks......but you only live once and you have to enjoy yourself when you can !!! And both Stewart and I are so glad that we have such good CdeB friends that will always go out of there way to collect us and take us back to the airport, and who always look after us so well whenever we are in Germany, so a massive thanks to Konni, Andrea and Dany, who always look after us sooo well, you are all treasure :-))))))))))))) Biggest thing that surprised me, was that we had to pay for the tickets to be in the audience, whereas in the UK it is always free.