Concert Review: Siegen, Germany - May 19, 2009
Chris Williams:
Hi all, Here is my review of the Siegen concert last evening. Well after travelling with one friend to Bochum by train another great friend of mine Konni was driving me to Siegen for my last concert for now. So she picked me up from my hotel late morning and as it was only a 1.5 hr trip to Siegen, we spent a nice afternoon at her house and we had some nice cake with fresh strawberries and a lovely bottle of sparkling wine..............well of course Konni could only have a few sips as she was driving, so Claudia B and myself had 2 glasses each and left the rest for Konni to drink when she got back home after the concert. We were going to swap my luggage into Claudia S car before the concert started, as she was driving me to her home after the show, but she got held up in a very bad traffic jam and only arrived as the lights were going down for the start of the show. The theatre was quite small and looked very nice actually, and it also had a nice fairly low stage Again I talked to lots of people that know me, and unfortunately as usual I can’t remember all their names, but they included Claudia and Willi (hope you both got home safely after the show), Astrid who had her old maths teacher with her, Sylvia, Heike, Angelica, Sabine and a few others. Then it was time for the lights to go down and the dramatic audio and sound introduction, whow that is a really different Intro from any I have seen before. You have to be there to witness it, i just can’t do it justice by describing it here Chris was dressed in a pale coloured shirt with thin white stripes on as far as I could tell The first few songs were I think the same as my previous reviews............but he did miss out one song and that was The Same Sun, which was a shame in my own personal opinion The audience seemed to take slightly longer to get warmed up I think that the previous 2 shows, but soon there were quite a few people clapping along to certain songs. I went to take a photo at one point and a security man jumped straight up and told me off... so no photos from me, but other people further back were getting away with taking them As it was my last night of my current time out in Germany I planned to give Chris a rose, after Without You, as I love that songs sooo much ...and when I went up to present it, he said a few words to me, and then i turned and went to walk away and it appears that he wanted to give me a kiss and I nearly missed it I can’t really remember how I turned back round but he did manage to give me the most unexpected kiss and everyone clapped..... and I got back to my seat as quickly as possible.....it’s actually quite nerve racking taking something up to the stage.................I never used to feel that, but I do now for some strange reason Oh I just remembered, as i sat back down in my seat, Chris done the usual thing of saying that there was a message on the flowers saying something like ‘to the most sexy international superstar’ and then a big surprise as he read the actual message that I had put on them...it was simply 3 words......Sealed With A Kiss..........OK i think many of you including Chris if he reads his guestbook know that I LOVE this song and would adore to hear Chris sing this song at one of the concerts (hint hint ) and when he read it he did sing about 2 lines of it and we joined in with it of course. Just remembered when Chris sang The Mirror Of The Soul, he held a small silver ball type thing is his hand and help it up to the sky at the appropriate place in the song. This was new last night I think as I had not noticed it before. The audience really loved this song as well. It seems some places the audience likes different songs to other areas and it’s quite fascinating to see the different reactions to different songs After the intermission, it was time for the quiet acoustic bit and I did notice as Chris sang a couple of the songs that either his microphone was turned down too low or that maybe his throat was playing up a bit.......but it was only a couple of times I noticed it. Of course if he needs a nurse to look after him....................I could fly back at a moment’s notice Again when Chris told about Moonlight And Vodka one of the backstage crew again came out with little glasses of Vodka for Chris and the boys in the band to drink. I bet it’s water really....but i have no real clue of course When Chris sang Borderline again he got a standing ovation and clapping for ages and then in the solo section that comes next where Chris sings 2 or 3 songs, after Spaceman I think it was, or it might have been after Borderline just before the solo songs Chris just stood on stage with his hand held against his heart and looked soo humbled by the massive applause, and he kept his hand on his heart for several minutes and just kept saying ‘thank you’ and finally when the clapping finally subsided he said thank you again and that was pretty emotional. He always looks like he cannot believe that he would get that much clapping. It is such a nice gesture when he thanks the audience like that. There was another change in the set list again last night and i think it is a great one........LIR has been moved forward to before Africa and Perfect Man, which seems to be soo much better, as you just cannot sit down to these 2 songs!! The audience of course love the LIR walk around bit and at one point Chris dragged a very reluctant lady out of the audience and danced with her for quite a while.........why was I not that lady As soon as the first beats of Africa started the area in front of the stage was full with people clapping and dancing/singing along. The rest of this section was identical to other evenings, and the audience appear to love it...including me of course Only too soon it was time to hear Footsteps and see Chris walking into the audience to say goodbye, and then a final wave from the stage as the world ball hovered just above his head and he reached up and touched the ball, then was gone. We always know there is not going to be an extra encore as the house lights come on within minutes of the band finishing their section of the Footsteps theme. After this we went to Konni’s car and got my luggage out and transferred it to Claudia’s car as I was going to stay with her for the night before leaving to fly home on Wednesday. Hope you have enjoyed reading about my little concert tour I will be back at some point, but I have to return to work for a while now, so I can earn some more pennies.......ok pounds actually . so I can afford my expensive CdeB lifestyle And just before I go, again someone I think it was Heike, thanked me for my reviews and told me she loves reading them as I write them so well and it almost feels like she has been at the show even if she hasn't:!: and again I told her as I tell everyone, I just write it as I see it with simple easy to understand words and I guess I must be lucky that i seem to have a knack at it, judging by all the lovely comments I always get, some personally and some on the list and forum....i think Chris de Burgh brings out the creative writer in me NOT that I ever knew I had a hidden skill like this Take care all, Chris(W)thebluehealer and very tired CdeB roaming reporter...........