Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung - July 20, 2005
by Carola AlgeDe Burgh: I enjoyed it - you are fantastic
Lingen. Chris de Burgh is often joked about as a "softener from the green island" - no way! What the the 56 year old offered with his over two and a half hour show on the Marktplatz in Lingen, is anything but a soft package. The singer proves to be musically versatile and rocking and raises his audience towards enthusiasm over and over again. The over 2500 listeners give standing ovations for an overwhelming concert. A concert, that the singer performs solo - as during his beginnings (when he played in restaurants for two pounds a week and a hamburger daily). De Burgh only with guitar or on the piano. "Doesn't this become boring?" certainly some of the not so die-hard fans of the Irishman have probably asked themselves this before. No, it certainly doesn't become boring. De Burgh comes along dressed all in black. The man who was born in Argentina managed right from the start to raise a private intimate atmosphere when he greeted the audience in German with a "Guten Abend, Lingen", and made them all part of the happening. Charming and funny de Burgh communicates with his audience for whom he has a big compliment in stock: "Tonight you sing very good here in Lingen." In a good mood, yes sometimes even a bit like a comedian, he entertains his fans, welcomes also the onlookers from the windows of the market buildings and in the street restaurants ("Mmh, it smells good here"), chats with his audience during his songs all the time and when he looks from the stage into the crowd he makes everyone feel that he only looks at him or her at this moment. The Irishman who was about to fly back to Ireland from Mnster the same night had packed a musically versatile program in which one could hear many songs from his new album "The Road To Freedom", especially during the first part. The constant change between breast voice and falsetto which is so typical for de Burgh and even became his trademark, is also present in the new tracks. He has just performed three songs, when a female fan gave him the first present on stage, a bottle of wine. A turning plastic sunflower, real flowers, a big stuffed toy dog follow during the evening - and a mug of beer that another woman gave him to the stage and from which Chrissie took a sip right away. Rocky-poppy songs and ballads in a good mixture, that is the program that de Burgh serves his fans unplugged and with which they play along just as much as the song demands: For example thoughtfully listening during the anti war song "Up Here In Heaven" or joyfully clapping during "A Spaceman Came Travelling", a rocky song that spread a hint of Christmas to the place where there will be a Christmas market in five months. After around one and a half hours follows the first of many world famous songs of the Irishman which now come one by one and which the audience sings along to loudly: Of course the "Lady In Red", to which the fans wave with lighters and sparklers. And who doesn't have any of that, just takes the arm of his neighbour and sways along to the beat of the music while the stage has been dived into an appropriate red. After that there is no stopping for many fans. When de Burgh encouraged them by a hand movement, they storm the front, clap, dance and sing with him ("Here in Lingen you sing like the angels") during "St. Peter's Gate", "Natasha Dance", they make a party. The front part of the market place in Lingen, over which de Burgh had still walked along through the crowd a couple of songs earlier, is raging and clapping non-stop. The audience has turned into one singing and dancing arena and Chris de Burgh thanked them in his charming way. He plays "Snows Of New York", a song (coloured beautifully on stage by the well worth seeing light show in the 2nd part) that he had been writing for friends. And here he feels as if he sings with just those: "I enjoyed it. You are fantastic." He wants to say goodbye from these friends with the groovy "Don't Pay The Ferryman", but the fan community doesn't want to let him go. Everyone is "high On Emotion", which is the third to last song of the night. Tumultously the visitors demand their star back, clap for three more encores as a final of a night that was a lot of fun and conjured up a smile into the face and heart of many.