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Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

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BLUEHOOD71
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Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by BLUEHOOD71 »

I like many others have had the privilage of seeing Chris live on many occassions and once again he did not disapoint. I wondered like others what it would be like seeing a very similar set list to previous concerts again not disapointed. Same songs different arrangements did it for me. It struck me as I watched Chris at work that it really was a privilage watching a master at work especialy with his passed health issues. He looked healthy and looked as if he was enjoying himself. He sounded awesome as ever. Set list as everywhere else personal favourites Stainsby Girls and Still so far to go. Really enjoyed tweeked version of Julia. No real suprises. From a personal point of view would still love to see Chris in a standing venue and still get annoyed when the biggest cheer is for RTH as if it were the only thing he has ever done. Glasgow audiance seemed older than ever but did appreciate the man.

So many people would love to see Chris live and do not get the opportunity if you do remember it is a privalage to see this man do his stuff. If he plays the same set list for the next 10 years I would still go every time just to hear it all live awesome.

P.S. Well worth catching support act Nell Bryden very good indeed
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by Peter S... »

Hi,

I was also at the Glasgow concert last night and throughly enjoyed it. Still get those hairs on the back of my neck standing during Easy Rider, Stoney Road and Stainsby. The evening flew in, a very professional perfomance by all those on the stage....i would like Chris to revert to the original version of OTB .

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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by Variaxer »

I was there too. Never miss the chance to catch the man when he comes to town.....Have to agree with all the forum views of this tour. Heres my take.....

Great show from Chris last night in Glasgow, played and sang like a demon. All the same songs and moves as last tour but hey ho its was just great to have it all happening in front of me again. Have to say though that I was less impressed with the shows false ending. Last song of encore played, stage went dark, they all walked off without so much as a wave and then ran a video and cd track of Somewhere between the Stars whilst we all sat like expectant tubes till the house lights came on. Bit of a daft and disrespectful payback for the fans Chris! Still love you though.

New band? Tasty new guitarist but given very little to do and looked bored. Max Middleton did nothing and looked half asleep most of the time and we need Martin Ditcham back on the sticks.
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by alan1958 »

Hi folks , sorry about the delay , I meant to write my review of the Glasgow gig last week ……..

Like most of us , I’ve seen Chris many times, (First time in ’86,) and as has been said before , we have had a fairly static set-list for almost a decade .....
That could be seen as totally negative , but it does bring many benefits ....We now have possibly the most dramatic live versions of Easy Rider , Stony Road and Somewhere Between Highway 61&49......Chris’ solos and the tightness of the band made these tracks as indispensible as the big hits he is forced to keep in the set-list .......

My next comments may offend some of my fellow fans , but I mean well , and have Chris Rea’s thoughts foremost in my mind ....

About half-way through an electric performance by Chris , and because of an apathetic response from the crowd , Chris gave up , and clearly went through the motions .....

I don’t remember ever feeling so bad for a perfomer.....poor man , it was embarrassing .......

Despite a blistering display of musicality , and with Chris pulling out all the stops , an incredible number of my fellow Glasgow audience were clearly at the wrong concert .........As was mentioned by Bluehood , there was a very large number of “older” people at the Glasgow concert , though that really should not be relevant .....Older people go to see Springsteen ,Jools Holland , Elton John ,line –dancing etc , but they don’t just sit and act as if they would rather have gone to the bingo.....There were people in the front row who DID NOT clap at the end of some of the songs......

My wife and I were seated in the third row from the front , so we could see every look and all the body language from all the band members .........things did not bode well right from the start , because , apart from us and the lady beside us , no-one in the front three rows seemed to know any songs apart from the hits ..............No cheers of recognition for anything but the hits , no applause for wonderful solos .

The point of no return for Chris came during Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49 , when the audience failed to acknowledge the wonderful guitar solo by new guy , Anto Drennan ........I have checked youtube to see if this happened elsewhere , and it did , but the response at Glasgow seemed to hurt Chris ......He waved at the crowd to give a belated cheer to the guitarist , but Chris looked totally exasperated , sickened and angry ..........

After that , not one band member smiled , or even moved , including Sylvin , who stayed right at the back , and knew better than to mess around with the boss in a bad mood ....Chris , despite his earlier efforts , gave the Glasgow crowd exactly what they gave him .......as little as possible .....yeah we got the “too old to dance” schtick , and the Stainsby Girls “shooting” with guitar routine .......but it was lifeless..........possibly the disadvantage of being so close ........you can see it go wrong .....

I have scoured the internet to hopefully find evidence to back up my review , and the best I can find is a clip from Road To Hell , which came shortly after Highway 61....

If you scroll through to 7m 11 secs , as Chris turns his back , the look of boredom and disgust are clear .......and the odd way he throws the plectrum ........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl6NUA6vKjM


Not every performer can drag their audience with them on their musical journey , but my goodness , if this is common , he needs a rethink ........Hopefully a new manager can get him a more appreciative audience , younger or older , as long as they turn up for the MUSIC.......

Seasick Steve is almost 10 years older than Chris , yet plays Glastonbury , gets on “cool” TV shows , and gets the RIGHT crowd , albeit smaller , for his music, ......

It reminds me of a wonderful quote from David Bowie , in the aftermath of LiveAid , when every band seemed to be able to fill stadiums ..........

“I spent 15 years developing an enigmatic image , and here I am , selling out Wembley Stadium ..........to an audience of Phil Collins fans !!!!!!!!!!!! “...





There seems to be a problem , and I think that is the reason Chris was so exasperated ......I think deep down he senses that much of his audience have no interest in the music he is playing .... Maybe he’d still rather have the sell-out crowds , but it certainly looks as if it hurts him.....

As the lights came up after “Somewhere Beneath The Stars “ , and it was clear that it was over , I heard a crowd member sarcastically shout “Goodnight Glasgow” , in reference to Chris’ exit without a word ..........No more than they deserved........

Oh , and did I mention that Chris and the band were awesome ........

Alan T
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by elangelo »

Hi Alan, thanks for that review, that shows me a different side of it all. Wow, I was thinking that the Moscow audience wasn't appreciative enough because some people just kept coming and going, because many started leaving while Chris still was playing 'It's All Gone' that not so many know and that I love. But hey, it can be much worse than that, as I see, because our crowd cheered after every solo and Chris didn't seem to be bored at all. I did look at the video you had given a link to, and I really see the look of boredom. And I feel a bit proud that our audience, while not being experts in Chris' music at all, did much better...
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by ann268 »

Hi,

We went to the latest Tour and thought is was great.
I liked a different setup of the band.It was powerful!
Our audience was also some older people, but also younger. A bit of a mix. Small theater.
We could stand or be seated. The "old folks" took a seat, I'm almost 50 but feel like a kid :oops: when I go to a concert or a gig. I stand frontrow in Paradiso, Amsterdam. The public was a "good"one, lots of yelling, clapping, whisteling etc. Maybe that's a difference. Can't say the band or Chris looked bored, on the contrary. Only focused. He also trew a plectrum in the audience :lol:

I heared some "mistakes", but overall had a great evening. I feel sorry for you people in Glasgow, you didn't get the same great time. You look forward to these things for a long time. :?
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by elangelo »

I saw a video from Paradiso and thought the atmosphere was awesome. I think Chris appreciated that and played even better than ever.
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by chrisreafan »

Hello Alan1958,

Could it be that the audience knows he dislikes T.Blair and that he funded the right wing. Don't know about the politicalspectrum in Glasgow, but I think because of the Unions they are more leftish than right wing or am I wrong?

Now people may say that's all too farfetched, but people do remember and crowds may not be stupid.

About professionalism, bought a few cards for the Dianna Krall concert in Carre Amsterdam (Nov 2 2012) and people on forums already talk about the prices, and that's why i mention it, her attitude on stage.

I mean she is locked onto her piano ofcourse, but they say she is distant, too perfect and (german word expresses it great) not 'locker' (free translation: relaxed). So you see there is always something people will say about an artist, true or not true.

Chris was tired in Amsterdam (half of the Tour) but his mood was not bad. At the end irritations about crowd, members of the band or roadies may become more evident as in the beginning.

Paradiso was great, but HMH two year before was in our (father and mine) opinion even better

All the best.
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crowd apathy

Post by phil j »

I went to the Newcastle gig and was blown away by Chris and his guitar playing,but was disappointed with his lack of interaction with the crowd ,which was much more enthusiastic than Glasgow seems to have been. The reason i joined this forum was to find out if other people had the same experience and obviously you did,as for age im 52 and was one of the younger people there ,this obviously reflects the fact that his music seems to be passing a generation by which is a shame. One other point which i found to be annoying was that during the final video sequence when the band had left the stage the crew were throwing cases and packing equipment onto the stage the lights came up and they were stripping the stage before people had even had the chance to stand up,which comes over as "weve had your money now leave". All things considered i would still go to see him again as he is one of the best slide guitar players this country has produced
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by Variaxer »

Just a footnote to the full and constructive review from Alan............I am one of those older concert goers and leave all the whoopin and hollerin to others so cant complain too much but the atmosphere at the gig was non existant and does definitely affect how the artists performs. I was sat beside someone whos wife bought tickets cause her husband had picked up a greatest hits cd in a bargain bin to "try it". The wife talked about that great song on the cd...."something about heaven" ... she must have got a shock at Easy Rider and the likes! If a large part of the fans were of this ilk then its little wonder that they were subdued.

The point I need to make though on the overall sedate and negative audience comments is that Chris, whether hes not feeling too great or whatever makes no attempt whatsoever to engage with his paying public. Maybe as his audience ages with him we shouldnt expect too much by way of reaction. Its not enough to just let the music do the talking when its gettin near cocoa time. Another of my favs...Clapton is just the same, hardly says two words to the faithful so the gig lacks any warmth when theres a barrier to get over.

Final thought to those who were there.........what about the Cat in the Cowboy Hat and shades walking around annoying everybody,including Chris, filming on his phone for 10 minutes completely unchallenged....only good bit of that was hopefully he'll get some good footage posted.
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by alan1958 »

elangelo wrote:Hi Alan, thanks for that review, that shows me a different side of it all. Wow, I was thinking that the Moscow audience wasn't appreciative enough because some people just kept coming and going, because many started leaving while Chris still was playing 'It's All Gone' that not so many know and that I love. But hey, it can be much worse than that, as I see, because our crowd cheered after every solo and Chris didn't seem to be bored at all. I did look at the video you had given a link to, and I really see the look of boredom. And I feel a bit proud that our audience, while not being experts in Chris' music at all, did much better...



You are welcome , thanks for taking the time to find the part in the video that I had noticed .....
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by alan1958 »

Variaxer wrote:Just a footnote to the full and constructive review from Alan............
Final thought to those who were there.........what about the Cat in the Cowboy Hat and shades walking around annoying everybody,including Chris, filming on his phone for 10 minutes completely unchallenged....only good bit of that was hopefully he'll get some good footage posted.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my review ....

I totally agree that new guitarist Anto Drennan is under-used.......Maybe Chris should feature a showcase during a few songs where they both play dual solos , Chris on slide , Anto on lead .....BOTH at the front of the stage .......would work well , and would allow the audience to really realise who is playing what .....or at the very least , have a single spotlight on the person playing the solo , as I suspect some of the audience don't realise who is playing what .....

As for the "greatest hits " fans , I met casual fan before the gig who had came along hoping to hear Steel River ......I think he's still in his seat waiting :lol:

I've got mixed feelings about the lack of engagement with the fans .......I've seen Clapton , Van Morrison , Dylan .......not a bloody word ...terrible people .....Does CR feel a kinship with these dour - faces .....The need to be taken seriously ????? Is that what it is ???.........Springsteen is more talented than most , and you can't shut him up :lol:

I did hear a great response from a singer in a famous band who had not spoken a word during the gig - when an audience member shouted between songs ,
" Tell us a story " , the singer sharply said " I AM TELLING YOU STORIES ".......is that how Chris feels ?
Do the songs give us enough of HIM ? who knows .........


As for the Cat in the Cowboy Hat and shades............his behaviour was so odd he almost managed to wake up Max Middleton :lol: :lol:
Joking aside , Max gave Sylvin a very funny look when the Cowboy was standing in front of him .....I said to my wife that he looked as if he came from TWIN PEAKS or a Coen Brothers movie .........

On a serious note , I would like to see Chris' band far more involved in the "show" .....Sylvin is wasted standing rooted to the spot , and Drennan should be brought out of the shadows as well ......Not much can be done with static keyboards , but lively players would also help ........
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Re: Glasgow March 29th 2012 - Awesome as ever

Post by BLUEHOOD71 »

From my point of view it is really annoying / flustrating when the biggest cheer of the night is Road to Hell. Its as if its the only song he has ever done. I have had the privelage of seeing Chris live now around 8 times and the audience is always the same. I felt last time round in Glasgow the audience was far more receptive than this time round. After some amazing guitar solos there was hardly a ripple of applaus, this must give negative feedback to Chris and the band. Yes a little feedback from Chris would not go a miss but what do you expect when a guy plays his heart out and is given little in return. As for Max Middleton as commented elsewhere he looked asleep most of the time not even sure he looked at the audience once. All that said it is always a privilage to see Chris live and I will be first in line for my ticket next time round although maybe I should venture South to see if I can get a better auidience. Sorry Glasgow from a proud Weegie.
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