Concert review: 9th November, 1999, Westfalenhalle, Dortmund,Germany

 

Wow, what a concert, what an atmosphere!!! I am almost lacking the words

to describe the magic of last night

The atmosphere already before the concert was incredible. There were far

more people there than in Oberhausen. When the gates opened, we

practically got pushed inside, and people ran like crazy to make it to

the front row. We made it to row four or so, and that was still good

enough. :)

The Westfalenhalle used to be Europe's biggest concert hall, now there

are others that are bigger, especially the Kölnarena where Chris will

play next week. But the Westfalenhalle has always been Chris's favourite

concert hall in all of Europe. He has celebrated big, incredible parties

there, I remember the time when he sold it out three days in a row

during the Into The Light tour. Yesterday, we could tell that it has

been his dream for a long time to repeat this success of earlier days in

the Westfalenhalle for one special night. And we made his dream come

true, as he repeatedly said

at the end of his three hours show. The hall wasn't quite sold out, but

it was VERY full if you look at the standard of recent concerts. I would

guess that there were around 10,000 people there last night.

What also struck me as surprising was the amount of young people who

were there. There was a young couple standing right in front of me, I

would guess no older than 20 or 21 years. They were celebrating like

everybody else, they knew all the words, everybody was jumping with the

fast songs and burning sparklers with the slow ones, I just thought wow,

this is like it used to be in those old days.... :)))))

Chris was quite talkative, he extended some of his stories from

Oberhausen a bit. During the intro to "My lover is", somebody threw a

little stuffed sheep on stage. Chris said "oh, look, a flying penguin!",

then Alan (the guitarist) picked it up, Chris saw what it was and gave

it to Tony (the drummer). "That would be for him, as you know, he comes

>from a farm in Wales, where they have all these sheep. Baaaahhhhhhh!"

Sheep sure seem to be the running gag of this tour!

At some point of the concert, somebody at the front held up a big white

paper. Chris read out loud what it said "Could you please play Love Is

My Decision?" He looked puzzled .. "oh, that's the one from the movie,

hmmmm, I don't think I remember this one." And then he tried, but only

really got the melody and some words.. but he promised to fulfil this

request at a future concert.

During the solo part he also played "A Spaceman Came Travelling" which

was the only extra song to Oberhausen. He also sang "Tender Hands", but

this time with a working guitar in his hands.

The song that stood out for me was again "Quiet Revolution". The way he

reintroduces the band with it is just fantastic. He starts singing this

all on his own, after the solo part, then during the song more and more

band members join him, until it is the full band on stage again. This

song is so powerful!!!

Another concert favourite is "I Want It (And I Want It Now)". It really

gets the crowd going, fantastic!!! (Yes, you were absolutely right,

Terri.)

During the "lalala" part of "Where Peaceful Waters Flow" he made us

laugh when he sang "I wish you all a merry Christmas - and a happy new

year - the biggest party of the century - on December 31st - and the

biggest hangover of the century - on January 1st." He also said

something about being on a beach for New Year's Eve. Sounded like he is

looking forward to the holidays - well, he's still got 10 more days to

tour in Germany !!!!!!

What I remember most from last night was how amazed Chris was about the

power of the Dortmund audience. Many times he just stood on stage in

disbelief of what was going on. He had been dreaming of the magic, but

he just couldn't believe that it had really happened. He was walking

over to his band members, as if to tell them "See? I told you this is

going to be great! Look at this!" And the band was really high on

emotion too. For the first time ever I have seen Alan Vosper (the other

guitarist) interact with the audience. Usually he is the quietest of all

band members, but this time he seemed to really love to get going!

written by: Astrid Nolde - Gallasch