Weser Kurier - October 25, 2002

by Christian Emigholz

translation by Astrid Nolde-Gallasch


Almost an overdose of Chris de Burgh


Hit after hit during the three hour concert with the soft Irish pop singer
in the Stadthalle

For being a popstar Chris de Burgh doesn't make a big fuzz about himself:
Those often read stories about sexual misleadings (or accuracies) are lacking
with him.

Also, he doesn't enter the stage of the Stadthalle with a bang effect like
others of his calibre. He is simply there, surrounded by his five companions,
and starts: astonishingly rock-stressed for his means with the song "Guilty
Secret", which is also the opener of his current album. The totally hard rock
beat with screeching electric guitars isn't really de Burgh's thing, he
stands more for pop musical melodiousness, songs in which his voice is softly
embedded in lavish keyboard magic. He is the man of ballads who often uses
similar melodic bricks to build new songs full of yearning. "There's Room In This
Heart Tonight", that he starts playing later in the evening is a variant on
"Sailing Away", which again is a variant on "Lonely Sky", that's why the pieces
can be attached to one another without a break. In this respect the rock
opening is a real surprise, especially as Chris de Burgh goes on and gives his
two guitarists some room for really massive rock outbreaks. 

The audience in the seated and half-filled Stadthalle is not yet warm with
their hero at this time, maybe they haven't mastered the lyrics of his new
songs yet, in any case the attempts of de Burgh to animate the hall to sing
along are rather miserable. Only when "Lebanese Night" is played, also a recent
song with which de Burgh does his rather vague piece for the topic of
ethno-pop, it slowly gets crowded in front of the stage. On his album during
"Lebanese Night" de Burgh carefully uses Arabian-like metres and far-fetched echoes
of the concise tone of the Arabian sound Ud, but embeds everything into a
disco rhythm. During the concert only the latter wins and it serves as an
effective prelude to his first highlight: "Lady In Red". De Burgh stage-manages this
huge hit of the year 1986 relatively unspectacular, of course the curtains
are lit up in red, but nothing else. "The Revolution", a couple of years older
than the lady in red, is afterwards enjoyed to the fullest, arranged heavy
and powerful.

A small "unplugged" insertion at the front of the stage, but only with one
song that is really played on acoustical instruments, the new "Another
Rainbow", leads towards a big solo part: De Burgh on his own at the synthetical
piano and later on guitar, prepared to keep the promise of the beginning to sing
a whole bouquet of old successes next to the new songs. Spoilt for choice, he
prefers to sing all his hits, among them are many which are from the era
where de Burgh co-worked with Rupert Hine: "Ship To Shore" and "Don't Pay The
Ferryman" are almost exactly 20 years old.

Chris de Burgh doesn't need an opening act and no break either, and still
the small friendly singer from Ireland delivers effortlessly a three hours
concert: This is almost an overdose of de Burgh. For some of his fans this is too
long and the evening has gone too far, they leave the hall earlier quietly -
almost a bit ashamed.