Chris Norman & Band |
Halle/Germany, Hallmarkt, June 13, 2007 |
The concert at “Handels Open” festival |
Chris Norman Band: |
Shannon Callahan - acoustic guitar, vocals, Geoff Carline - guitar-solo, Axel Kowollik - bass, Martina Walbeck - keyboards, Dorino Goldbrunner - drums. |
Report |
On June,13 the day had come, it was time for another concert again after a long period of waiting. Chris stopped by not far away from my home. After only 2 hours by train I arrived in Halle and a few minutes later I met some fan-friends at the station. We went to the hotel for a short refreshing, ate and drank a little and hit the road for the concert place. We were thankful for that nice and sunny weather and only got mad about that burning heat. Fortunately some wise people had bottles with water and even sun lotion in their bags. So the time of waiting to get into the concert area passed by quickly, we drank a lot of water and talked e.g. about Chris. Then as the gates were opened we ran towards the stage but somebody had made a mistake. We weren't allowed to get inside yet, so we had to go back again. No problem because we could check out our runway already! Finally we ended up staying only in the second row but with a great view and mostly nice people close, who cares about bitching nobodies far away! Then at 8 o'clock the opening act called “California Dreaming” started the show with a great mix of 60's,70's and 80's music. The atmosphere was great and everybody was in a good mood. As the time was on for Chris's jumping onto the stage some bigwig like people and the major came up and made a short speech. But then the well-known tunes of the intro of “Sarah” came out of the speakers and then the words “Please welcome, live on stage, the Chris Norman Band!”..... The crowd was screaming and going wild as Chris stepped onto the stage. He began with “Right Time, Wrong Place”. Everybody up there was in a great mood, our old friend Geoff too, he was smiling to us very often. We could see in his eyes how much he enjoyed being back in the band. Chris was dressed in his white boots, some jeans and a bright blue satin shirt, looking like an angel while singing “Hallelujah” by Handel and making his jokes like so often. George was happy to have Chris back in the country too. What can be better than everybody being happy? To mention a few songs of the evening: In the midsection of “Don't Play Your Rock'N'Roll To Me” he put in “Willie And The Hand Jive” (...boumbodopdop...:-) ) instead of his normally used “(Marie's The Name Of) His Latest Flame”. In the final ending scene while doing his playback performance to “oh the good life full of fun seems to be the ideal...” Chris even knelt down, it was such an emotional moment for all of us. Doing such, he made the farewell much harder for us than it already had been. The band, George and Chris drove away in a cute sighseeing tour bus. So this great evening passed by much too fast again. We all wished this could be lasting forever and this great atmosphere still lasts in our hearts. Afterwards we went through Halle looking for a bar but nothing could be found, so we drank a glass at a snackbar. Later in our hotel we talked until the sun was rising again. The next morning when we were going to leave the hotel we were surprised to find Chris at the frontpage of the local newspaper. Back home again, my grandfather told me he heard a report of the concert and only 1.000 people should have been there. I'm sure they calculated wrong, there must have been more than 1.000 people. Now it's all over again but I'm already looking forward to the next gig. If there woudn't be my promball I would be at the concerts in 2 weeks but I got to wait until August, 3. Bad Krozingen, I'm coming!!!! |
© Jana Rieche (Germany), www.myspace.com/smokey_eyes88, 16.06.2007 |
© www.chris-norman.ru |
Have a look on the photos from the concert on "Fotoalbum" page