Concert Review: Groningen, Netherlands - September 20, 2009
Chris Williams
The venue was very small, I think even smaller than the Gaiety theatre where Chris performed in Dublin a few weeks ago !: There were about 10 rows of seats in the main area followed by a little gap and then a raised area which I guess had around 10 rows as well. On the sides there was one balcony to the right and one to the left. I have no idea of the total amount of seats but I doubt it was more than about 800 in total...if that The stage was pretty low with only a very small area for dancing as the front row was very near the stage. The whole theatre was really quite nicely laid out. I only recognised one other fan that I knew there, so we said a brief hello before the intro music started at 20:00. Gosh I thought we got blinded by the bright lights in the front rows before, but i can tell you from even further back it is much worse But we survived it all Chris entered the stage from the left side and was dressed in a light coloured shirt and the usual trousers and black jacket. The songs were the same as other nights so I will not list them all, but they included Last Night, The Mirror Of The Soul, The Long And Winding Road and my favourite sone of this tour Without You. By the way the sound was very good in the middle of the theatre The audience was again on the ‘older’ side maybe mostly around 40-50 age range, although I did see two children in the front row......more about that later tho Just before Leather On My Shoe I decided to pop out to the toilet and when I came back in Claudia told me that I had missed Chris introducing John Halliwell and that he had sung a few lines from a Supertramp song......as he introduced him. During the interval Claudia went to help out Jason with the merchandising desk and I remained in the theatre and I have to say that I was very surprised how many people stayed in their seats at this pint......maybe it was because it was unreserved seating......I really have no clue:!: Soon it was time to see the stage crew bring the instruments to the centre of the stage and place Chris’s chair there for him and actually I had a very good view at this point of the show, as the chair that Chris sits on has very tall legs ? ? . Of course in this section he say the usual songs of All Along The Watchtower, Love of The Heart Divine etc. Then it was time to introduce the band and then Chris singing solo for a few songs. The audience loved Borderline and of course mostly stood up at the end of this song to give Chris extra applause. I think mainly the older songs went down the best, at least with the people in the area where Claudia and i were sitting. Now just before Moonlight and Vodka, there was something funny happened..well probably not funny for the person involved, more like embarrassing I guess, but most people laughed. As usual the young lad carried on the tray with the little glasses of vodka on and handed them out as Chris done his talk prior to the song......so far so good...... Chris and the band drank theirs and the young lad collected the glasses up again but as he was walking off the stage, he either slipped or tripped over and of course the glasses went flying, although from where we were sitting I could not hear if they broke or not. Talk about embarrassing for the poor lad but Chris of course made a joke out of it and soon the lad picked himself up, left the stage and the show went on as normal. By the way Chris’s voice was superb as always Now the next ‘extra’ bit........just before the LIR walk around bit Chris talked about being able to actually see everyone in the audience even although we did not know it, and i have to say I was wondering where this conversation was going, but we were about to find out. There was a young girl in the front row who loved to play the drums and Chris invited her up on stage to play for a few minutes. Gosh as she walked up on the stage she must only have been around 11 or 12 years I estimate and Chris also invited maybe her brother up also to take some photos of her. My god she was BRILLIANT............ and I really mean it, she was FANTASTIC and showed no sign of any nerves at aall She must have played for a good 3 or 4 minutes and who, she took my breath away she really did. She I think has a career in music ahead of her, what talent she had, it really was amazing. Chris himself and Tony just stood to the side of the stage and you could see how impressed they both were. It really was soo nice of Chris to invite her up to play them for us all. This girl was a true star in the making:!: gosh I wish I had a talent as good as that Oh yes I nearly forgot, in this section as well, Chris sang some of his new Christmas song again, but this time I think it was a bit more than in Dublin, and he told us that it is a new song and will be out in the shops nearer Christmas. I can’t remember the name of the song, although he did tell us and he said that he would sing the chorus, and I have to say that it is very good indeed, very upbeat and fun sounding, so if the verses are as good as the chorus we will all be in for a treat at Christmas After the LIR walk around bit, it was time for Africa and Chris invited people to stand up and dance and I have to say I was quite surprised when everyone in the theatre got up on their feet:!: But sadly it did not last as the majority of the audience then sat back down again right up until Ship to Shore, when everyone seemed to recognise the song and finally stood back up and danced then till the end of the show As the globe finally flew over me I knew it was time for the end of another great CdeB concert, so I put my jacket on and went to wait for Claudia who was helping on the merchandising desk again. We then caught a taxi back to the hotel where we were staying for the night, and had a drink in the bar before going to bed.