The concert which I wanted to get to was going to be in the evening of April, 21 in Grimsby, a small seaport on the east coast, about 140 km from Bradford. Having got plenty of impressions in “The Cradle of Our All” during the first half of the day, me and my companions hurried on to Grimsby where that perfect day promised to end up on major note. And how else could it be?.. ;)

The trip was not to be long as the roads in England are excellent, but anyway, I was eager to reach the place somewhat quicker – I didn’t have any idea where and what is situated there. I only knew the name of the venue and was unaware of how long it will take us to find it and if there will be available tickets (as we didn’t have any) – all that didn't let me relax…

At last we arrived at the place and stopped at a hotel. I had originally intended to “catch” Chris before his soundcheck, but we ran a bit late while we were looking for the venue. I got inside the concert hall and found out about the tickets – there were still available seats but only at the balcony. Taking into account that the hall was not so large (about 2 thousand seats) that didn't matter much, as visibility and audibility promised to be good from any place. Whilst I was talking to the ladies at the box office, I tried intently to listen to the sounds which came from the not tightly closed doors of the hall – one could hear how our dear Maestro was “limbering up”… ;))

After Chris's soundcheck his tour manager George appeared at the foyer. He was quite surprised when he suddenly saw me – oh, where are you from?.. ;)) Surprise, surprise…;)) George told me that members of Chris's family and many friends wished to come to this particular concert. Some of them hadn't managed to get to the gig in Bradford 4 days ago, some of them had enjoyed it so much that they had decided to repeat the pleasure. In the meantime people began filling into the foyer. The audience was mostly at the age of 40 and above, but there were younger people, too. And yes, one could notice some persons among them, who evidently were from the show business circles. George also welcomed and arranged them. Among the guests I noticed Geoff Carline, a well-known guitar player of the Chris Norman Band who got back to the band not so long ago. I walked up to him and we greeted each other. Soon also arrived Andy Whelan, who now plays with Alan Silson and whom you might know well from the reports at Alan’s Fan portal. I can remind you that in his time Andy had worked with Chris on “The Growing Years” album. I was acquainted with him before and was very glad to meet this musician I respect very much and to get acquainted with his wife and his little lovely girls. Andy came not only to see Chris – his good friend Clive Gregson plays in the band of Dennis Locorriere. As I found out later, he seems to be the best musician in this band.

The concert started without any delay. At 7.30 pm sharp we heard so long-awaited words: “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chris Norman!” which this time sounded unusually unpretentious – for sure, they don't know how Chris should be announced properly... ;))). After that Chris and his keyboard player Rob Gentry arrived on stage. Chris greeted the audience with “Hello! How are you doing, all right?”, introduced his colleague and started his set without any protraction. “I’ll meet you at midnight” – traditionally starting thing, kind of a visiting card.

The Auditorium Hall turned out to be rather cozy with very good acoustics. The sound was perfect even at the balcony. To tell the truth, I missed exactly such an acoustic perfomance of Chris. I have heard and seen quite enough “electric” concerts with a band and I was dreaming about something like this. Surely the perception in such sets where only two instruments play is somewhat another and the songs sound a little differently. But the artist also has to “sweat” a lot – he can't hide behind the “wall of sound” of a band, the slightest singing or playing out off tune will be seen and heard immediately. Acoustic guitar and piano must fill up a whole palette, the entire sound range from bottom to top, and the vocals have to complete the painting brilliantly. And Chris together with his colleague succeeded in all these things, but who had doubts about it, I wonder? Chris is a magnificent instrumentalist and concerning his voice conditions it seems they are always okay – which is a sure sign of high class professionalism. And, by the way, that was already the end of a long tour that lasted nearly 2 months, the 34th concert, you know! But Chris's voice was fresh and strong as ever, sometimes tender and all in all matchless!

The set was arranged very competently – old Smokie hits along with a couple of Chris's favourite solo things. For the first time I heard these solo songs live and I have to admit that their performance was just amazing! A bit thrilling “Lost in flight” – quiet at the start and at the end with dramatic surge in the middle. “Million miles to nowhere” once again sounding very lyrical and heartfelt. And looking on the boisterous reaction of the audience to the immortal Smokie hits, it was clear that our heroes were very well known in these lands in their time!.. ;)

The guitar worked hard, the keyboards performed parts of solo- and bass guitars and, of course, of piano. Sometimes the sound manager aptly added echo effects to Chris's voice bringing in some element of diversity into the sound. The audience had to be the “drums”, so Chris asked them of it more than once and they did it continuously with great pleasure. And once again, I can't be but delighted with Chris's ability to get into contact with nearly any kind of audience. He always so impeccably senses the mood in a hall and is able to lead it into the needed direction aptly – sometimes to joke, sometimes to play to the audience, sometimes to stay serious and not to follow the audience's taste, sometimes to awake a nearly lifeless hall from sleep – generally speaking, he can manage an audience and it always stays satisfied by such a contact, irrespectively of the fact how good artist and audience understand each other in a sense of language. Surely there was not any language barrier at this concert and this circumstance only intensified the contact. People welcomed Chris very cordially and friendly, gladly replying to his words, kindly reacting to his jokes and acclaiming at the end of every song. In short, I liked the audience – they listened carefully to the unknown songs (“Lost in flight”, “Million miles...”) and joined in singing the old Smokie evergreens – at the final “Don’t play…” the hall naturally was rocking! In the end Chris and Rob really “reved up”, so it felt like the sound of a whole band but not like just guitar and piano…

My individual respect goes to the keyboard player Rob, who is a rather young lad but very talented. He had learned the music material very well, in detail. It seemed as if this guy had played these songs all his life – he was so much into it, emphasizing necessary nuances at the required places which seems only “connoisseurs” know. When playing such an acoustic set, one has to be able to realize features of his instrument for 200%, has to be ready to correct a possible pause of a partner, has to support a possible improvisation and so on. Rob coped with it brilliantly! After the concert I was glad to be able to express him my admiration and to wish him good luck.

Half an hour of Chris's perfomance flew by like one minute. I guess, noone in the hall would have minded if Chris had sung for another half an hour…and then for another half an hour..;) When he said that he has to finish soon, a disapproving murmur of regret went through the hall – “uuuuuuhh…”. In answer to it Chris funnily played to the audience – bowing his head and covering his eyes with the hand, acting like he was also crying about this fact… ;) But then he optimistically declared, that certainly he will be back next year on tour with his band, so the audience breathed again and joyfully burst into applause… ;))

Right after his perfomance I had a short communication with Chris. Expressed my delight with the show to him and presented prepared gifts. Chris looked splendid as always, but there was a small shade of tiredness on his face – after all nearly two months of touring can exhaust everybody. Having noticed his favourite “Famous Grouse” on the table, I told him that a day before I managed to get to that distillery. Chris was a bit surprised and took the bottle in his hands, hoping to read where it was produced – seems he hasn’t been at this place yet. So I had to enlighten him a bit... ;)) At parting I passed him greetings from all of us, his fans, and he thanked me for coming and supporting him. Next day he did the last gig of the tour in the Manchester area.

Speaking in general about that promo tour, I think that it was rather successful for Chris. The task to remind the British public and promoters of himself and to generate interest for a future complete tour was accomplished very well. By the way, along that tour people actively bought up his CD “Coming Home”. So, dear Chris, would you please tour Britain next year with your Band, we can hardly wait! ;-)))