Even Chris de Burgh knows the

Niederrhein Anzeiger

Another newspaper-article appeared at the 13th of December 2006 in our weekly advertising-paper, after "my" journalist contacted me in order to ask me, if there were any news about Chris de Burgh and the concerts I visited recently. Here it is:



















Even Chris de Burgh knows

the Niederrhein Anzeiger

Fan Doris Neerfries: with greetings from Dinslaken to Liverpool

Dinslaken/Liverpool. If you'd meet Chris de Burgh and ask him for Doris Neerfries he certainly would answer: "Yes, I know her well". The woman from Dinslaken is no longer unknown for the singer, and she's a welcome guest at his concerts, just like shortly in Liverpool
"Well done" said the well known Irish singer, when the female fan from Dinslaken showed him the Niederrhein Anzeiger. She is an enthousiastic fan of the singer (we reported), she doesn't only visit his concerts regularly, she also built up friendships all around the globe, is well known with radio-presenters and of course meets Chris de Burgh in person again and again at his concerts.
But recently, when she once again was able to shake his hands at an exclusive radio-concert in Liverpool, she even had the Niederrhein Anzeiger with her, to let it sign. She intended to let it "ennoble" with his personal handwriting. And she managed it. Because of personal contact to the presenter of the radio station Magic 1548 in Liverpool she was one of only 90 fans, who had been choosen to be there to see a very individual concert of Chris de Burgh.
"Chris came on stage and said good evening to the audience. He said that he had the feeling to know everybody in the room. And when he asked, if there was also somebody from Germany I of course took up my hand immediately" tells the lady from Dinslaken "and Chris welcame me then even with 'Hi Doris'."
This had been once again one of the unforgettable (memorable) moments, which Doris has faced since her enthusiasm for the singer had started.
"At every concert I bring Chris a red rose to the stage, and now it already got an habit, that he thanks me each time with the words 'thank you Doris'" she tells happily after her return.
For a further concert, which took place this time at the end of Nevember in Dortmund Doris Neerfries had invited a lot of guests to a fanmeeting in her house. Her friend from Liverpool stayed with her in her house, a family from Cornwall booked a room in a hotel nearby. Of course they all met her idol - before everybody else met him - at a soundcheck in the venue.
Even the singer himself makes sure, that Doris Neerfries will go on thinking of him. After another concert in Birmingham some weeks ago she celebrated her birthday with friends in a hotel. And how else could it be - she also got a birthday-card from Chris de Burgh. "Indeed my foreign friend Melanie had organised this and had sent Chris an empty card. She had asked him to write something on the card. But this card was better than any other birthday-present."
Even if the tour is over so far for Doris Neerfries - the singer of course is not forgotten. Christmas is approaching soon, and a Christmas-card for the singer is already on its way to Ireland. In spite of this, the following weeks shall become a bit more quiet for her and her family, who doesn't really share her passion. "Now it's time" so the lady from Dinslaken "that my life will become a bit more normal again".


And here's the text in German:

Auch Chris de Burgh kennt

den Niederrhein Anzeiger

Fan Doris Neerfries: mit Grüßen aus Dinslaken nach Liverpool

Dinslaken/Liverpool. Würde man Chris de Burgh mal begegnen und ihn nach Doris Neerfries fragen, würde er sicher: "Yes, I know her well" antworten. Für den Sänger ist die Dinslakenerin keine Unbekannte mehr und ein gern gesehener Gast auf den Konzerten. So wie kürzlich in Liverpool.
"Well done", sagte der bekannte irische Sänger nämlich, als ihm der weibliche Dinslakener Fan den Niederrhein Anzeiger vorlegte. Sie ist begeisterte Anhängerin des Sängers (wir berichteten), besucht nicht nur regelmäßig seine Konzerte, sondern hat sich rund um den Globus Freundschaften aufgebaut, ist mit Radiomoderatoren bekannt und begegnet natürlich Chris de Burgh immer wieder auf seinen Konzerten persönlich.
Doch als sie jetzt bei einem exklusiven Radiokonzert in Liverpool de Burgh wieder einmal die Hand schütteln durfte, hatte sie zum Signieren sogar den Niederrhein Anzeiger dabei. Den wollte sie sich mit seiner persönlichen Handschrift "veredeln" lassen. Und das ist ihr gelungen. Durch den persönlichen Kontakt zum Moderator des Liverpooler Senders Magic 1548 war sie eine von nur 90 Fans, die ausgewählt wurden, um bei einem ganz persönlichen Konzert von Chris de Burgh dabei zu sein.
"Chris kam auf die Bühne und begrüßte die Zuschauer. Er sagte, er hätte das Gefühl, jeden im Raum zu kennen und als er fragte, ob jemand aus Deutschland da sei, meldete ich mich natürlich sofort", erzählt die Dinslakenerin, "und mit 'Hi Doris' begrüßte mich Chris dann auch."
Das war wieder einer der unvergesslichen Momente, die Doris seit ihrere Begeisterung für den Sänger erlebt hat.
"Bei jedem Konzert bringe ich Chris eine rote Rose zur Bühne und nun hat es sich eingebürgert, dass er sich jedesmal mit Worten wie 'Thank you, Doris' bedankt", schwärmt sie begeistert nach ihrer Rückkehr.
Zu einem weiteren Konzert, das dieses Mal in Dortmund Ende November statt fand, hatte Doris Neerfries zuvor jede Menge Gäste zu einem Fanmeeting zu sich nach Hause eingeladen. Ihre Liverpooler Freundin wohnte bei ihr, eine Familie aus Cornwall quartierte sie in einem Hotel ein. Natürlich trafen alle ihr Idol noch vor allen anderen beim Soundcheck in der Halle.
Dass Doris Neerfries auch weiterhin an "ihren" Chris denkt, dafür sort der Sänger sogar selbst. Nach einem weiteren Konzert in Birmingham vor einigen Wochen feierte sie mit Freunden in einem Hotel ihren Geburtstag. Und, wie sollte es anders sein, es war auch eine Glückwunschkarte von Chris de Burgh mit dabei. "Zwar hatte meine ausländische Freundin Melanie dies organisiert und Chris eine leere Karte geschickt mit der Bitte, diese ausgefüllt zurückzusenden, aber die Karte war besser als jedes Geburtstagsgeschenk."
Auch wenn die Tournee jetzt erst einmal vorbei ist: für Doris Neerfries ist der Sänger dadurch natürlich nicht vergessen. Weihnachten steht for der Tür, und eine Karte nach Irland zum Sänger ist bereits unterwegs. Trotzdem sollen die kommenden Wochen für sie und ihre Familie, die ihre Leidenschaft nicht unbedingt teilt, ruhiger werden. "Es wird Zeit", so die Dinslakenerin, "dass sich mein Leben mal wieder ein bisschen normalisiert".

Chris de Burgh Concert in Düsseldorf -

3rd of December 2006

The concert in Düsseldorf was my last CdeB-concert for this year. Already more than 13 (!!!!!!!) months ago I had bought 2 front-row-tickets for Kerstin (from Bochum) and me.
After all those concert-weekends during the last time this was "only" a normal concert for me - no airports included….., no longer journeys, no foreign guests.

I started to drive to Düsseldorf at 15.40 p. m. in the afternoon (45 min. - 63,3 km). This time I drove alone, Birgit and her husband Olaf followed later. The weather was terrible, it was raining heavily, so driving on the motorway was no pleasure - but with such a nice reason for the trip and with the right CD in my car-CD-player (would you believe it - I listened to the "Storyman"-album?!) all this was no problem. Kerstin arrived a few minutes later. We both parked very close to the Philippshalle. We had planned to spend the time before the concert together and intended to go for a walk together or to a Café, but as the weather was so terrible we only managed to surround the Philippshalle when the rain just had stopped for a while Soon we met Angelika B. and her husband in front of the entrance, the crowd in front of the venue got bigger and bigger, and time passed rather quick until we could enter the hall at 18.00 p. m., just when the rain began to get heavier again.

Like always the last hour before the concert passed much too quick while meeting a few other listmembers, having something to eat, looking at the merchandising-articles and also with the long toilet-cue. We met Birgit and Olaf short before the concert began, but they had bought their tickets only 2 weeks before the concert and so they were sitting in a block far away from us. That's why we couldn't enjoy the concert together. But we met again afterwards.
When Kerstin and I wanted to sit down short before 19.00 p. m. (yes, the concert started 1 hour earlier than usual) we had to find out, that our seats were not on the left side in front of the stage like it was to be seen in the seating-plan. They seemed to have changed Block A and B, so our seats were in front of the right side of the stage. Also good - no problem. And Kerstin was glad to be sitting in front of David! All the mailing-list-members were sitting there, as they all seemed to have bought their tickets at midnight of the 29th of October 2005 when eventim started to sell their tickets.

I don't know why, but for me this was the best concert of the 3 (Birmingham, Dortmund, Düsseldorf) concerts I've seen this year. Maybe because at the previous concerts there happened so much other things like travelling and meeting friends over all the other weekends - which I enjoyed very, very much!!!!! But this time I could concentrate only on the concert, and I wanted to enjoy the songs and Chris and the whole atmosphere one more time - every second of it. I even had planned not to take so much photos.
Don't worry, in spite of taking photos I enjoyed it!!!!!
Kerstin and I went to the front with our gifts after "Spirit" again. When I told Chris, that he please should come back soon again somebody behind me also agreed, he should return soon. I realized, there now was a whole crowd of people standing behind us with their gifts. Already when Chris spoke to Kerstin and me he said to the audience: "Just a moment, I'll be with you again soon". He took some more presents, then he went on singing while the others, which had not yet delivered their gifts could enjoy the next song standing right in front of Chris. It was their turn after "The same sun".

Angelika Baumeister even managed to climb the stairs and go on the stage, when she handed the calendar over to Chris, which she had made for him. She had designed a wonderful calendar with as much photos of listmember, as she could find, and a lot of us even had written some sentences on the calendar-pages during the After-Show-Party in Dortmund the weekend before.

Chris even had two special guests this evening!!! So far he always had had one guest: Kristyna Myles, who sang the duet "Raging storm" together with him. But this time Aled Jones, who is working for BBC radio also was his guest. Aled accompanied Chris' and Kristyna's song "Raging storm" with the drums. Tony was standing next to the drums with a rattle in his hands during this song. And Aled Jones was not alone, there was also a film-team - from BBC television I assume - who filmed his whole appearance. When the acoustic session started, Aled played the Bongos sitting next to Tony. Later he came once again back on stage to dance and sing along (as kind of background-singer together with Kristyna).They all seemed to have a great time on the stage! All this was filmed.

When Chris started singing "The Lady in Red" we all were still on our seats, but when he went down from the stage to "visit" the audience below, where he hugged a few ladies, we decided to stand up and start with the party-part of the concert. It was great, and I had the feeling, the fans around us were singing much louder than at the other concerts I've been at. Too soon followed "The snows of New York", which meant, everything was over…….. .
The lights were switched on, we talked to some other fans, also to Birgit and Olaf, then we had to leave the venue. Kerstin and I didn't hurry to get into our cars, as the parking-area was still so crowded. But at 23.00 p. m. we finally had to drive back home…….. , where I arrived short before midnight.