22/11/99 - THE POINT, DUBLIN

Review by Paddy Friel:
After waiting an hour and listening to a band called 'Johnston' it finally happened...the whole place went dark, but the white stage shone...."Is there anybody out there?..." the crowd went wild! Bryan, Keith & Mickey steped on stage, dressed totally in white. In fact everything was white, guitars, drums, amplifers. I like it! As he made his way to the microphone, the beginning of "How Do Ya Feel Tonight" began and so did the concert. Just after the second verse, Bryan kicked into 'Back To You' which was a more livelier rock version of the song. The atmosphere was just unbelievable in the Point.

The band continued with a string of their hits, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", "Summer Of '69", "It's Only Love", and you know the rest. One highlight of the show was when Bryan was telling the audience about one of his songs being voted into the top 100 of the millenium....at No. 79 he added. With the acoustic guitar he began playing the first set of strings and then stopped and said "That's it!". nobody had really recognised the song, not even me and so he countinued with the rest, an acoustic version of "(Everything I Do) I Do It For you". It was brill!

The band continued with more hits. "C'mon, Cmon, Cmon", "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", "I'm Ready". A girl in the audience had offered to sing a song in Irish for Bryan, but didn't get the chance 'cause he had already sang it. Keith really wooed the crowd with the intro of "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman".

As Bryan always does at his concerts, he brought a member of the audience to do something on stage with him. So he choose a young girl, with a very low cut top might I add...Hmmm Bryan what were you thinking at that time? Anyway she came up with serious excitement and Bryan asked her to sing "When You're Gone" with him but there was one problem, she didn't know the words! So she was given a sheet of the lyrics and so the duet began. It went good at the star until her excitement got the better of her and kept forgetting to sing into the microphone which Bryan had to keep pointing out to her! But nevertheless she was good.

So shortly after pumping out a few more hits such as "If Ya Wanna Be Bad Ya Gotta Be Good/Let's Make A Night To Remember" and "Heaven", Bryan thanked Keith & Mickey or "Irish Mickey Curry" as Bryan put it as Mickey did a little Irish dancing waving the national fag about. So Keith did the same. Seemingly that was it, they thanked the audience who were brilliant and left. But as we all knew that couldn't be it. Two minutes later they were back performing "Cloud Number Nine", "Run To You" and his new single "The Best Of Me" to name but a few". The Point was rocking!!!!

"Cut's Like A Knife" really got the crowd going as they chanted the famous "Na Na Na" while Bryan sang the verses. But Bryan being the smart guy that he is had stopped sing, letting the crowd do the chanting and kept tapping the microphone as to say "is this the best you can do!"

And so that was it. Once again Bryan thanked Keith & Mickey and the three left the stage. After about a minute though, Bryan and Keith reappeared, Keith with the guiter. Everyone knew this scene was familar, just like in the '18 Till I Die' and 'MTV Unplugged' where they would perform "I'll Always Be Right There". Even I thought it, but we were all wrong! The two played an acoustic version of "Please Forgive Me" which ended the show in style. Of course Bryan promised he would be back in 2000! I hope so!!

At the end of all that all I can say is "What a show, what a performer!"

***********************************************

Review by Andrew Finn:
The point depot was rocked to its foundations on 22nd november as "The groover from vancouver" produced an awesome performance in front of 7,500 adoring fans. Although the band is stripped down to a 3-piece, Bryan,keith and Mickey produce a show that illustrate what rock is all about. He belted thru hits like 69,run to you,back to you and when your gone and mixed them brilliantly with some of his slower hits like Everything I Do and Please Forgive.A girl from Monaghan gets asked up to duet on "when your gone" and although she can't sing and doesn't know the lyrics, Bryan gives her an E for effort!.He slags off keith for being the sensitive one in the band and jokes with the crowd about Irish dancing.At the end of the show Mickey does an irish jig to the delight of the crowd!.

Bryan and the guys come out again for the encore and do Cloud#9,Someboby,Best of me and a brilliant version of Please forgive me.At the end Bryan jokes he'll see us next century I just hope its a lot sooner than that!

® 2003 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All rights reserved.
Web site comments to admin@18tilidie.co.uk

BA feelin' the noise!

Bryan rocking out

K-man on guitar