Concert Review: Saarbrücken, Germany - March 25, 2011
Andrea Lucas:
I already drove to Saarbrucken on Thursday right after work, as I wanted to have a relaxed day on Friday. And it was a relaxed day! As the weather was really nice, I spent the morning walking in a park, then reading in the sunshine. In the afternoon I drove to “downtown” Saarbrucken and have to say that the city didn’t impress me that much. Even walking along the river Saar isn’t that nice, as a motorway runs along it and it’s very noisy, apart from obviously many people being around on a Friday afternoon. How peaceful was it in the “German-French-Gardens” in the morning… At about 6.30 I drove to the venue and thankfully found it easily. Walking to the entrance I immediately met Dany, Alex and Uschi. No matter which concert you go to, there’s always other people!!! And we soon found out that we were even sitting together… It was also nice to meet Tina and other friends. Of course we also said “hi” to Jason! It was great to catch up with him. The stage was quite low, only about a metre high which was very nice. And as we walked in a red curtain was drawn (Is that the right word???) and we were wondering whether it would be taken to the side or pulled up. It fell down… Our excitement grew the closer it got to 8 p.m. Right on time the concert started with the Moonfleet Overture and the first part of the narration we know from the CD. Then the curtain dropped and we saw the band already being on stage. The only thing we saw before was a “wooden barrel” – well, probably just looked like it – instead of the stool where usually Chris’ water stands. The decoration on stage was “Moonfleet-like”, as were the outfits Chris and the band were wearing, even Al’s and David’s shoes. In front of Tony’s drums and Nigel’s keyboards were boat parts, an anchor, ropes – maritime equipment. The tops the guys from the band were wearing were in sailor/pirate look and Chris had on black trousers, a black shirt, a silver waistcoat and a black-silver striped scarf. After the break they changed to “normal clothes”. The songs might not be in the right order and probably not all of them, but I’ll do my best… The actual concert started with “The Light On The Bay”, “Have A Care” and “Go Where Your Heart Belongs” (soooooooo great!!!!). The audience’s reaction was very good from the beginning. After those songs Chris greeted the audience in German and French, as Saarbrucken is only a few kilometres from the France. He told us that this evening would be the first concert of his “Moonfleet”-Tour and we would hear some of those songs, as well as lots of oldies. And some of those oldies were the next songs: “Missing You”, “Ship To Shore” (always special to me, as this was the first song of my first CdeB concert many, many years ago), a rocky band version of “A Spaceman Came Travelling” and “Spanish Train”. They had two white “things” (sorry, my brain is a bit slow this morning…) hanging on the stage which I thought might be used as sails during the show, but they were used as screens at some songs. “Spanish Train” was one of those and we could see the film that was already shown on one of the earlier concerts, with the train tracks and so on. For the next song Chris said that “Moonfleet” would not only be a story about smuggling and adventure, but also a love story and sang “My Heart’s Surrender”. One of my favourite songs from this album. And he sat down almost right in front of us!!! The crew had brought a stool covered with a black cloth (as far as I remember) and behind Chris was a kind of fence, those wooden partitions people use in their gardens with fake ivy worked in. I LOVED Chris singing this song, but don’t really liked this decoration. This was one of the songs where Al played an acoustic guitar. If I remember correct the next songs before the break were “Moonfleet Bay” and “The Storm”, then “The Leader”, again with the film we know from some years back on those 2 screens. At some songs close ups from Chris or the band were shown on the screens. The second half of the concert started with “When Winter comes” and “The Road To Freedom”. After “The Words I Love You” Chris sang “Borderline”. It was strange as for the last tours “The Words I Love You” was always sung in the dancing part and it was quite a contrast to hear “Borderline” after it. We also heard “People Of The World” and “Why Mona Lisa Smiled”, both with films on the screens. And before the solo part Chris introduced the band members. It also seemed to me that he was checking the movies from time to time by looking up at the screens. The solo part, always one of my highlights, started with Chris pretending to think of which songs he could play. I was tempted to shout out “Carry Me”, but then I didn’t. Chris asked if someone was going to get married soon or would be newly married, but nobody answered and he asked something like “Is Saarbrucken no place for lovers?” – and he sang “In A Country Churchyard”. The next song was – thank you VERY much Chris!!! – “Carry Me”!!!!, followed by “Where Peaceful Waters Flow” with also the audience singing along. The last solo song was “Shine On” played on the piano. The band came back on stage for the “Lady In Red” walk around the audience. We could follow Chris’ walk on the screens which I think was a good idea. As he was back on stage he gave us a sign to come to the stage and the dancing part began!!!! It started with “Africa”!!!! Wow, I was really surprised as I had thought this song wouldn’t be on the setlist for this tour. But it’s great it’s still there!!!!! For the dancing part I am completely lost with the order of the songs, but we heard “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” quite early and I thought for a moment “oh, it’s quite short now…”, but I was wrong!!! “Everywhere I go” was great and what a surprise to hear “The Getaway”!!!!! I think “High On Emotion” was the first encore, then Chris and the band came back for a final song which I thought would be the “Moonfleet Finale”, but it was a bit of “Go Where Your Heart Believes”. Chris thanked us for making the first Moonfleet show so special and would hope we enjoyed it as much as he and the band did. He wished us a good way home and said we should always go where our heart believes… The band played on the song while Chris shook hands with those standing at the front and also walked down the steps into the audience and waved from one of the chairs. We could also see that on the screens. I definitely missed “The Snows Of New York”… But WOW, what a FANTASTIC show this has been!!!!!!!!! I know that many fans would like to hear all Moonfleet songs, but in my opinion it was a very good mixture and I soooooo enjoyed it!!!! We stood together for a while, had another drink (of course I didn’t give back those “Moonfleet”- beakers, ha, ha…) and as I finally started driving to the hotel I took a wrong turn and my sat nav and I got completely lost… Thankfully I could turn round soon and reached my hotel only a little bit delayed. Sorry this got quite long and congratulations to those who made it… Enjoy the other shows, you are all in for something special!!!!!!!!!!!!