My journey to Birmingham

- 18./19. November 2006

Photos

Everything began in October/November 2005, when the tickets first were sold. I had got to know Melanie from Liverpool short before, and I'd bought a Dortmund-ticket for her, so she didn't have to bother with ordering a ticket via a german website, as she doesn't speak any German. She had bought a Birmingham-ticket for herself, but after she had ordered the first one she thought, she might get a better seat and organized another ticket. So she now had one spare ticket and asked me, if I would like to take it. I never before had flown abroad to see a concert! So I thought - no, I will never do it! But the more I thought about it the more did I want to see the concert over there in Birmingham. My birthday approached, so I told everybody, that my only birthday-wish was ticket-money. At the beginning of December I attended a Runrig-concert with Michael (got to know him in Dortmund 2004, he had been my seat-neighbour at the CdeB-concert there) and told him about the Birmingham-concert. He simply said - why don't you fly? I'd like to accompany you. Ok. I was a bit worried about what my family would think if I'd fly with a "strange man", so I asked on the mailing-list: "Who wants to fly with me to Birmingham?" Claudia answered immediately. She just had booked a flight from Düsseldorf, "our" airport. Fortunately I managed to persuade my husband Arno, that I simply HAD TO fly there!!! He finally agreed, even if he couldn't really understand it, and soon before Christmas I booked the same flight, that Claudia took also for Michael and me! And Melanie bought another ticket for him. In March my friend Birgit finally also decided to accompany us. So we were already 4 - 5 CdeB-travellers!


Travelling from Dinslaken to Birmingham

On Friday, 17.11.2006 I tried to go to bed early, as our flight started at 7.00 a. m., which meant, I had to wake up at about 3.00 a. m. - in the middle of the night! Of course it was not very easy to sleep - thinking of such an exciting weekend ahead! But who cares…? Soon it was Saturday morning, 4.00 a. m. and Birgit came to pick me up. We arrived at the Airport at 4.35 a. m., where we soon met Claudia and Michael. Time passed rather quick, as we all were looking forward to the concert and had a lot to talk about. Then it was time to enter our plane - and you could hear 4 rather enthousiastic CdeB-Fans laughing, when we saw the sign next to the door of our small (54 seats) British Airways plane: a blue spot with the words: "One World" - So we could be sure to have found the right plane! The flight went well. We arrived at Birmingham Airport at 7.40 a. m., drove with the sky-rail to the NEC, where we already saw several Storyman-posters. Always a good reason to stop and take photos of each other in front of the posters.
When we came near to our hotel, the "Crowne Plaza", we already could see Melanie through the breakfast-room-window and she came out, said hello and helped us to check in. She already had driven from Liverpool to Birmingham the afternoon before.


Birmingham

As it was still rather early in the morning we had much time left. Claudia stayed in the hotel - she needed some sleep. But Birgit, Michael, Melanie and I drove by train to the City of Birmingham. We were rather surprised to find a German Christmas-market (Weihnachtsmarkt) there. It was like at home. How funny, that we had to travel to England to show Melanie (from England) a German Christmas-market. The weather was lovely - sun and blue sky all the weekend! We enjoyed drinking some Glühwein (mulled wine). Then we drove back and had a rest at the hotel in order to be fit for the concert in the evening.

We met again at about 17.00 p. m. in the hotel-bar. Meanwhile Col had arrived. We only knew him from chatting and met him for the first time "live". He had brought some Kendal Mint Cakes for each of us, as he had promised us to bring them already months ago! Also Malcolm and his family were on their way, and after a few phonecalls we managed to find each other. It was very nice to meet them finally after so much e-mailing and chatting. I felt like knowing them all already very good, because Malcolm had sent me so much photos of his family during the last months! Unfortunately we couldn't spend much time together, as we had to leave to go to the NEC, where the concert took place, soon. But we'll have more time together next weekend, when they all come over to Dortmund and Dinslaken.



The concert

We were very nervous about if we would be allowed to take our photo-cameras with us into the venue, as it was said, they were rather strict in the NEC and we would have to lock our cameras somewhere instead of taking them into the venue with us! So I had hidden my camera in a big bag. I even took a water-bottle with me in order to distract the security-people. But it was vice versa. They didn't notice the bottle, but found the camera. My heart stopped missing a beat, but it was ok, I was allowed to take the camera in with me.
I had planned to meet a lot of listmembers in the venue, but time passed so quick, that I didn't manage to find them all. We had a drink and the cue at the toilet was rather long, so it soon was 19.30 p. m. My mobile phone kept on ringing, and text-messages flooded in. It was most important to find Angie, as I had 2 Dortmund-tickets for her. As we knew her seat-number we found her. Another nice experience to meet somebody for the first time, which I only knew from chatting and a few e-mails - and a photo, which she had sent to me some days before. I even got to know her father. Another person I intended to meet was Shenna, who had also bought some Dortmund-tickets from me, but I didn't manage to find her before the concert. And unfortunately there was no time to meet Lyn. But of course I met Chris and Stewart Williams, and Claudia introduced Yogi and Marietta to us.
We all took place. I had a seat in block A, which was left in front of the stage, row D was the 4th row, and seat 11 was rather in the middle of the row. So it would not be easy to walk out of the row to bring my gift to the stage and later to rush to the stage to celebrate there. My friends were sitting far away.
When the Storyman-theme began the light was still switched on, only at the end of the song it was switched off and the music became louder. Chris appeared during the next song: "Where we will be going". Then followed, as far as I remember "One World", before Chris said good evening and also mentioned, that his family would be there. He also welcomed his oldest fan, who was there. Her name was Nora, and I think he said, she's be 94 years old. And his youngest fan …., and all the birthday-children…! Then followed "The Storyman", "Sailing away" and "The Traveller".
As Melanie and I intended to bring our roses together to Chris we had planned to go after the song "Spirit". How excited I was when the song began after about 35 min.! I must admit, that I couldn't really enjoy the song, I was always thinking about how and when I'd get out of my row. Of course I didn't like to disturb my seat-neighbours = the whole rest of the row, but I had to. And it was worth it!!!! Melanie and I met in front of the stage. The song was over, and Chris was looking at the audience. We already were afraid, that he didn't see us, because the stage was so high. So we waved a bit with our roses below him! He first asked, if we had some wine for him. Maybe he expected something containing alcohol after a song like "Spirit"!!! But unfortunately we had only roses and a book. I hope it pleased him in spite of this. Then he said: "This is Doris"!!! I didn't hear what else he said anymore…..!!!! This was my "High on emotion"-moment of the concert!!!!
Two songs later Chris sang my favourite song of the Storyman-album: "The mirror of the soul", and I must admit, I loved it, how he said: "Wait, wait, something awful happened" to the band, when he forgot the words. Those moments always show, that he's simply human - and we could enjoy this wonderful song for about 1 minute longer….. .
Then Chris introduced the young singer Kristyna Myles, she appeared on the stage and they sang the duet "Raging Storm" together. She has a wonderful voice!
The next stressful moment came, when the batteries of my photo-camera were empty. It was when Chris was singing "Leningrad". No problem to find a new package of batteries somewhere in my big bag. But already opening the photo-camera in the darkness was not very easy. Then I had the problem to find out, how to put the 4 new batteries in (which pole in which direction). It was very difficult, and I tried it several times. So I missed "Leningrad" and "The grace of a dancer", but then at least my camera was working again!
My poor seat-neighbours had to suffer again, when finally the first people stood up and went to the stage. I had waited for this moment and intended to hurry to the front then, too. But it was not so easy from my seat the middle of the row. I hope I didn't hit the foot of the people next to me……, if I did - sorry!!!!!!! By the way, it was "The words I love you", when we got up!
It's hard to believe how difficult it is to find somebody in the crowd in front of the stage. I couldn't find Melanie nor Michael or Birgit or Col. Afterwards I found out, that Melanie had only been about 2 metres away from me.
It was a great moment, when our "Storyman-photos" finally were shown during the song "Living in the world". It was no morph-video as it had been planned, but the heads were shown one after the other. Sometimes there was a break, then we could see the audience. A filming camera-man was standing on the stage. It was very nice to see several friends - also those who were not at this concert - in the video! The faces were very, very large, so that the chins and even parts of the mouths of the faces disappeared behind the drums. (The members of the Chris de Burgh-Mailinglist had taken photos of their faces and sent them in for this video already in March 2006.)
The only 2 songs of the "Storyman"-album, which Chris left out were "The sweetest kiss of all" and "The shadow of the mountain".
The concert lasted 3 hours, but it was so great and wonderful, that it seemed to have only lasted 1 hour, when the last song, "The snows of New York" had ended. Well, the sound hat not been as good as it could have been, but I didn't really care about it.
When the concert was over I met Melanie and the others again and suddenly somebody was standing in front of me, smiling at me and saying "Hello Doris, nice to meet you finally!". It was Shenna, accompanied by her family. The whole family was so friendly! We took a few photos together, and they told me, how happy they were to come over to Dortmund the next weekend!

Setlist (as far as I remember):
- Storyman-theme
- Where we will be going
- One world
- The Storyman
- Sailing away
- The traveller
- Spirit
- The same sun
- The mirror of the soul
- Raging storm
- A spaceman came travelling
- Spanish train
- The leader/The vision/What about me?
- In a country churchyard
- Lonely sky
- Where peaceful waters flow
- Borderline
- Leningrad
- The grace of a dancer
- Love of the heart divine
- The Lady in red
- Moonlight and Vodka
- The words I love you
- Bal masqué
- Living in the world
- My father's eyes
- Say goodbye to it all
- Don't pay the ferryman
- High on emotion
- Band introduction
- Patricia the stripper
- The snows of New York



My birthday

It was about 23.15 p. m., when we arrived in our hotel. Suddenly my mobile-phone rang: A happy birthday-message from Germany! It already was my birthday in Germany, as they are 1 hour ahead! So my little birthday-party could start! Melanie, Birgit, Michael and Col celebrated with me, and Melanie was the party-service!!!! She had organized everything. Not only wine, beer and a birthday-cake, she also had received birthday-cards of wonderful people, which she had to hand me out at midnight!!!!! I never before got sooooo exciting and "magical" birthday-cards!! - Even one of Chris de Burgh!!!! Of course I also got a few nice gifts. Thank you very much! But before I was allowed to enter the party I was forced to stay in the bathroom until the preparations were ready. I left the bathroom at 23.30 p. m., halftime between midnight in Germany and midnight in England. We even listened to CdeB-music in our hotel room. At 1.15 a.m. the party was over and we were glas to be able to sleep after such an exciting day.

Sunday

Already at 6.15 a. m. the next morning I received another birthday-message. I didn't know, that my mobile-phone could be so loud!!! So we both - Melanie and I - were awake. Thank you in spite of this, Judith! Judith just was at the airport in Kopenhagen, she had seen Bruce Guthro live the night before, while we saw Chris!

At 7.50 a. m. our "real" telephone rang. As I hesitated, Melanie picked up the phone. She went on speaking, so I didn't really care about the phonecall. I thought, maybe Birgit or Michael were asking her something. But then she said: "Just a second, I'll hand you over to my room-mate"!!! So the phonecall was for me. First I didn't recognize the voice, than the mysterious caller said, he was Keiron, and I would be live on the breakfast-show at Magic 1548!!!! What a nice surprise!!! I'm very glad, that it hadn't been me, who picked up the phone first, because Keiron wanted to make a joke with me. He intended to pretend that he was living in the room next to us and was searching for the naughty channel and didn't dare asking at the hotel-reception how to find this channel. As German is my mother-tongue and not English I'm not sure if I would have understood, what he had meant….. - I'm so glad, that Melanie picked up the phone!!!!!! So I only had to tell Keiron, how much I enjoyed the concert last night, he played a birthday-blast for me and then of course a CdeB-song: "When I think of you". But unfortunately I couldn't hear the whole song, as we were too far away from Magic's broadcasting-area! This birthday has been totally different from the usual ones. I'll only be able to celebrate with my family after the 3rd of December, when all the concerts I'll visit are over.


Birmingham-city

After having had breakfast we checked out, left our baggage in the hotel and drove once again by train to Birmingham, where we visiteed the City and the Christmas-market once again.
Back at 14.00 p. m. we met Claudia, Yogi and Marietta, and soon we had to start our way to the airport again. My bags never have been searched as often as during the last 2 days. I must have looked rather frightening - maybe like a terrorist!!! But all the security-men were rather friendly, so it be them forgiven. It's only their job!


Our way back home

Our plane left at 16.50 p. m., when it was already dark. It was nice to meet the same steward in the plane as on our flight to Birmingham the day befroe. He of course still knew us from our previous first flight!
We reached Düsseldorf in time, said goodbye to Michael and Claudia and then Birgit drove me home, where I arrived at 20.00 p. m. A big bunch of flowers was waiting there for me already……… !!! They had not forgotten my birthday!
It has been a great weekend!!!