Rheinische Post - May 24, 2004

by Bernd Schuknecht


Lyrics from a construction kit


Chris de Burgh performed a concert in the Tonhalle during his "Road To 
Freedom" tour. The audience cheered - about songs full of romantics.

Occasionally even trivial thingt need longer to come to realization. So 
Chris de Burgh realized that the liberation from ballast can open the road 
to more personal freedom. The Irish pop bard whose biggest success was 
recently to be mentioned as the father of Rosanna, "Miss World 2003", 
presented the songs from "The Road To Freedom" in a solo manner. In the 
sold out Tonhalle the 55 year old tore a completely enthused fan community 
from their seats with a two and a half hour concert.

Solo concerts are musical challenges that can be really thrilling. De 
Burgh had composed the songs of the new album for a solo performance 
straight away, but at least he could have given the lavishly arranged 
classics like "Don't Pay The Ferryman" and "Borderline" a totally new 
sound profile. But a single musician, either with guitar or at the piano, 
doesn't guarantee a new sound picture, nor the beseeched intimate 
athmosphere. 

The clapping audience made the rhythmical background to the mostly heavily 
played twelve string guitar and de Burgh's piano often produces the 
trivial music box sound of a synthetical 80s sound design.

Quantitatively he saved on the accompanying musicians, but qualitatively 
the sufficiently known ballast of musical kitsch remains. "Snow Is 
Falling" sounds like a musical winter tale by Rosamunde Pilcher. It coldly 
serves an artificial romance full of unscrupulous clichees. It flogs 
nature imagery. So the night is constantly dark, as the forest, but there 
are many bright mornings, rain and tears fall and love isn't just red with 
the "Lady In Red". Lyrics from a construction kit. "Oh wie ist das schön" 
can be heard from the audience.

The female fans love to touch their star - which is indeed possible, for 
once he takes a long walkabout all over the floor, and there is a tight 
crowd at the edge of the stage. The womanizer sings "High On Emotion" as a 
first encore. He couldn't have described the state of mind of his 
ecstatically applauding fans better.