Buersche Zeitung - May 29, 2000

translation by Astrid Nolde-Gallasch



From Norway to Chris de Burgh


Kanalbuehne: Fans travelled a long way for the concert of the Irishman

With Norwegian flags Elin and Cathrine sat in the third row of  the
Kanalbuehne. The two girls who live close to Oslo had one of the
furthest voyages to the Chris-de-Burgh concert in the Nordsternpark on
Saturday.

Elin, member of the Norwegian De Burgh Fanclub appreciates the perfect
combination of music and lyrics in the songs of the small Irishman as
well as his "great voice". They both thought the Kanalbuehne was a
"lovely" venue.

It had become cold when their star entered the stage shortly after 8 pm
wearing a black leather jacket. He kept joking about the cold weather.
His advice: "Just put your hands inside the shirt of the woman in front
of you
to warm them up." At least it didn't rain, at least not from above.
Instead it was raining lots of stuffed toys, as always on his concerts.

Jokes on the Day of the Stupid

The star who once started out as a pianist in an American bar in Dublin,
showed his humourous side. In Ireland it's "St. Doodle's Day" today, the
day of the stupid. Although there weren't many stupid people left in
Ireland, because most of them emigrated years ago - to America.

The audience was very mixed, and one could feel that many of them
weren't there for the first time. During the current tour de Burgh has
already been seen in fantastic indoor concert in Oberhausen and
Dortmund. No wonder that he enjoys to return to the Ruhrgebiet for an
open air concert.

After more than three hours of music, excursions into the history of
rock and pop, cover versions of songs of the Beatles, Stones and Eagles
and a variety of his own songs, during the encores Chris de Burgh gave
the command to enter the stage. So some fans just climbed over the
little wall and suddenly stood directly in front of the singer. The
security service was apparently totally surprised. Only minutes later
security guards managed to put themselves in the way. In the crowd
directly in front of the stage you could see two Norwegian flags. Elin
and Cathrine had made it.