www.ChrisRea.nl

Hi everybody,

when Chris played IAG in 2012 as an encore I was completely blown away. Since this song has only been played between 1986 until 1988 I had never had the opportunity to watch the man play this song live at a concert. It didn't come completely unexpected, though - as there were some hints on his Facebook page but when I heard the first notes I had to fight back my tears

Does anyone know why he decided to play this song? Was it because of Max Middleton who accompanied Chris on this tour?

BTW: it seemed to me most of the people in the audience didn't recognized this song

Hi Tobias,

nice to see you back here,

I recall on FaceBook there were not only hints but also a kind of a poll ('likes' contest), which was supposed to make people choose between Soft Top, Hard Shoulder and It's All Gone as additional old stuff played at 2012 gigs:

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisReaOffici ... 1393146953
https://www.facebook.com/ChrisReaOffici ... 7100531982

I assume Max Middleton's return had a certain role in picking these 2 numbers as live versions of both songs feature an extended Fender Rhodes solo by Max.

As for me, I love It's All Gone in both live and studio versions, but I would rather chosse Soft Top, Hard Shoulder as its live versions played in 1993 tour is what really blows me away.

I think It's All Gone "won" the "contest" not only becase it is more popular and got more "likes", but also since Chris thinks it one of his most important works ever, and he once had a special and memorable appreciation of its live version by Eric Clapton at Montreux'86, which meant a lot to Chris, check it out in these interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYBEQIWNPJA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfJOUz1HAtM

To be honest, it did not like the 2012 live version that much in comparison to 80s versions, I heard it live at St. Petersburg and on the bootleg recording from Royal Albert Hall, maybe these ones were far from the best performances of that tour and you were lucky to hear a better one.

best regards
Andrey

Hi Guys,

It made me happy, as Soft top, Hard shoulder, would have made me happy.
Everything he plays, that hasn't been played before 2008 live makes me happy.
We have quite a good version in Paradiso, Amsterdam online:

https://youtu.be/etF9oUdrAV0

Just my personal opinion.

Best to all!
Anneke