03/01/03 - KIRSTENBOSCH GARDENS, CAPE TOWN

Review by Val Deuchar:
Friday 3 Jan 03
I was up early but "allowed" Lauren to sleep later (having two kids she needed the break) but by 08h00 she was up. After Lauren had breakfast here (hubby kindly made the breakfast - he is a great cook - I leave that all to him) and spent the morning - I saw her off and then got ready for the next show. I decided to get there earlier this time - I arrived about 14h10 - same place, main entrance gate. My sister was only prepared to get there at 18h30 so I told her to go and watch the concert by herself as I was not going to be at the back! The queue was only about 15 people long - they had started at 12 noon. So I befriended them and I was elected the leader of the pack due to my experiences of the previous day! They were great youngsters and it was the best & friendliest queue out of the 3 days. Security this time far better with stricter control, proper barriers and tape dividing people - someone still later in the afternoon ducked under the tape and sat right by us. I ignored him (yes, a man!) for about 20 seconds, then asked him : "are you visiting the Gardens". He said no. I said "then are you here for the Bryan Adams concert?" He said yes. I said "then get to the end/back of the queue!". He said - I thought this was the end of the queue.
H E L L O ?! He was summarily dismissed outta there!

The kids got me in front of them to run for them all when we entered at 18h30 and again I was the first up front - even taking the other entrance gates into account. Again centre left , but a bit more left so that we could see Bryan on the left stage platform. This time, I felt pretty ill after that run uphill - took me 10 minutes to recover and also get my breath back! But I even beat the youngsters to the front - they were also extremely grateful that I got positions for them.

Security guards around the stage recognised me - one said "weren't you here last night?". So befriended them and by the next night, we were really chatty and friendly. They allowed the crowd to let loose - perhaps Bryan had a chat with the head of security. There was also no hassle whatsoever with cameras, they did not check for them and also did not stop one using them. Unusual for South Africa.

No introduction by KFM 94.5 this time, but same scenario with the audience at about 19h50, standing up, getting restless. I started rolling up my lawn blanket to put in the bag (being the experienced concertgoer I am from the previous night - I had learnt all the tricks) and when I did this and stood up - well everyone surged.

During the course of the concert the obligatory bra ended up being tossed on stage. It was as if Bryan had not noticed (very professional!) and after the song he just kicked it further in.

WYG. Out of all the females in the audience - Bryan had to choose a woman from … CANADA!
He even seemed surprised. Where from in Canada he asked? VANCOUVER!!! He could hardly say she had an unfair advantage but no doubt there were a lot of put out S.African females in that audience - and then to top it off - she was married. Bryan insisted she point out where here husband was - he then said something (no doubt some flirtatious comment perhaps for her husband to guard her) but I can't remember what he said! Hers was the worst of the 3 nights regarding the singing - she was really pathetic (even with words given to her she hardly sang) and some people were shaking their heads and screaming to get her off - which did not happen (they did that in Johannesburg and got another young thing on stage). This Canadian woman was not blonde - attractive brunette but certainly not as say "sexy" as the first evening. Bryan did say, if you volunteer please at least know the words (and I think he should have said for her - PARTICIPATE!). Extremely irritating for all those other ladies out there dying to get on stage and really do the participating thing.

Bryan had his normal chit chat but he commented that the previous nights audience were brilliant and hopefully tonight we would be even better - I think we were. He chatted to Norm Fisher and asked him what he did during the course of his free time in the day - I won't go into what he said but Bryan reacted as though it was a pretty bland activity and commented that he needed a tour guide - hey me - I'm a tour guide - I can take him around. Next time, okay? Bryan mentioned he had spent some of today on the beach, pointed to his non existent tan on his arm and acknowledged it was still non existent even after having been at the beach!

No Ronan Keating but with the penultimate encore Bryan messing about and threw water all over Norm - Norm appeared throughout all 3 concerts to be quite reserved. Gary was having a ball though.

At the end of the show, Keith threw his plectrum right at me (I like to think it was his intention for me to catch it) I caught it - well sorta - I dropped it in the gap where my now security friend stood. His name also Bryan. He picked it up and although everyone else shouted for it, he gave it to me. Aw shucks, what a cutey. Each night Mickey threw his drum sticks far too deep into the audience for me to even attempt at a catch.

Before B's final walk off he came to the edge of the stage - - both sides and centre and touched as many people as he could.

I noticed a tall blonde girl backstage dancing - toss up at it being Lauren Maas from the night before (ha, ha) or Cecilie (are they back together?) or perhaps Keith or Mickey's partner?

I am sure that the 2nd and 3rd concert - the lawns were more filled up and people cramped up closer together so even though first concert initially sold out, I believe the organisers got agreement that more tickets could be sold for the final two shows due to the total demand for tickets. ALL three Cape Town shows were ultimately sold out.

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