|
Albums
|
by Tanja Wolf Chris de Burgh: Wow - what a night! Only with guitar and piano the Irishman performed a poetical song night in the Dsseldorf Tonhalle in front of hundreds of enraptured fans. Dsseldorf. Chris de Burgh knows how to behave. A greeting in German for example. "Guten Abend", he said, "sch�, wieder in Dsseldorf zu sein." With some singers the communication ends here. Not so with the Irishman, who chose the Tonhalle for his solo performance. Small and delicate are the halls of his Road-to-Freedom tour, he wants to look into the faces of his fans. He stands there alone with guitar and piano, even after more than 3000 concerts and now 17 studio albums he still talks a little bit clumsy, shy and modest. But an "intimate solo performance" is in no way quiet. Chris de Burgh, meanwhile 55, bellows out so powerfully and loudly as if he wanted to drive away all the knocks and asbestos of the case of renovation Tonhalle. Already during the third song the light tubes shine through the rows (lighters are forbidden), "Chris" receives the first rose after 30 minutes, teddy bears and self made presents follow. Nobody has to warm up here. After one hour the first row enthusiastically begin to sing battle songs: "Oh wie ist das sch�, so was hat man lange nicht gesehen" (Oh how nice is this, we haven't seen something like this for a long time) the whole Tonhalle sings. Even a man who has sold 45 million records doesn't hear something like that every day. Chris de Burgh doesn't need a loincloth or other optical antics. The man who appeared almost a bit clumsy on Gottschalk's couch at "Wetten Dass", hasn't changed his haircut a lot since 1975. He has a dream, he out of all people jokes: After his career as a singer he wanted to appear totally different, like Britney Spears. But therefore he would need a portable microphone. So he tucks the guitar in front of his growing belly and wanders through the rows. At the latest now fans like Nicole Kriegers from Niederkrchten can't keep on their soft seats. "Chris de Burgh Simply the best" is written on her t-shirt, other fans come from Bremen or even from England. He sings a lot of old hits, also "Don't Pay The Ferryman" and that romance that he sold as a single 8 million times. He can toy with it. But he also performs a lot of songs about the soldier's longing for peace and love. "Last Night" for example about the "boys who come home from the war", and Boderline with the line: "I will never know how men can see the wisdom in a war." His comment "Mr. Bush" should think about this before starting his next war, receives a lot of applause. His new record has only been a top ten hit for a short time. But she has especially been written for such a solo concert, melodically a treat for the ears and lyrically closer again to the early story teller Chris de Burgh. But even like this many fans storm the edge of the stage after two hours, and they are dancing on the circles too. The father of "Miss World" plays without a break, at 22:30 he points a bit desperately to his watch. Then he grabs the microphone. "Wow", he breathes, "what a night." |
File last modified on August 26, 2006