25/06/04 - SUMMERFEST FESTIVAL, FITZGERALD STADIUM, KILLARNEY

Review by Roberta De Silvestre:
I had always wanted to visit Ireland. When I heard that Bryan was going to play there I realized it was the perfect excuse to finally do it :).
Marzia and I flew to Dublin on Saturday, June 19th, and spent a whole week driving around and visiting the country.

Killarney is a lovely town surrounded by forests and lakes. After 2 days spent touring the beautiful surroundings, the day of the gig arrived and we got to the venue in the late morning. To our surprise, no one was there!
No one except the security of course, who thought we were completely mad (who, us??) to think of lining up so early.
After a while we met up with Jill from the webboard and people slowly started to arrive. We met other baddies, including Niall and Denise again :). So nice to meet you all!

I must say that this was the most relaxed queing I had experienced for a long while... One of the main reasons is that security was so good it was unbelievable. I met some nice security guys in the past, but this was way better than anything else. Not only they gave us plenty of information on the venue, opening hours etc... they also let us in to have a look at the venue, take pics or get a coffee... they spent the day chatting with us... they even gave us ice creams!! And the best was yet to come...

When the opening time was getting near and a quite long queue had formed behind us, the security manager arrived - a very nice sir who seemed eager to help us as much as he could. Security started collecting our tickets, which was great enough as this speeds things a lot when entering!
And then... they suddenly opened the gate and let us in! We ran like mad things only to find a completely empty field in front of us. We reached the front barrier and hung on to it, waiting for those behind us to arrive...

But... no one arrived. We turned back, and realized we were the only people in!! The security had taken our hint, and let the first 10 or so people in before everyone else.
We couldn't believe our eyes. Time passed, and still no one arrived. We relaxed, chose the best spot possible, went to the bar to have a coffee... and still no one else arrived. Security was playing football on the field... someone was even cycling across it :)). We had the biggest smile on our faces :). It was only after a good half an hour that the others were let in.

The weather had been quite nice until then... but it suddenly got cold and windy, so that when the first support act started (Hazel-something, she wasn't bad at all) we were already freezing. Simple Minds followed... They were pretty good, although I was so cold that I couldn't enjoy them that much. Still, they got a great welcome and really did well. We also had a good giggle the following day when we found them sitting next to us at the airport's bar...! :)) By then it had started to rain, and it went on and off for the whole night. But when Bryan arrived, we couldn't care less. I just took my hood off and got ready to rock! :)

Like in Milano 2months before, they started with my fave rock track: There Will Never Be Another Tonight. Can't say how much I love this song, especially as an opening track... it's just perfect!!! Not too long into it, we were already feeling much warmer. :) Bryan was wearing a black John Richmond jumper and a jacket over it. He obviously felt pretty cold too, and he soon started joking about the weather: "Hello, Summerfest!!!" he said with a very ironic smile :)). He then looked up to the rain falling on him and made as if he wanted to go back, but at our cries he said "Hey, don't worry... if you're getting wet, I'm getting wet too!" :). Indeed, he stayed at the front for most of the concert, getting soaked with the rest of us. How great of you, Bryan.
"Hey, you can't stop this thing we started!!"
Keith seemed slightly less fond of the rain - at some point he got close to Bryan to play with him and a huge amount of rain fell of him from the stage's roof, making him shout and duck back :))...
One of the surprises of the evening was Norm getting much more active than in the past, coming to the front pretty often and singing back-vocals with Keith. He seemed to enjoy it, too! Well done Norm :).

A very welcome comeback in the setlist was Kids Wanna Rock. I missed that one! The guitar solos were just amazing... Obviously, Bryan had much fun at changing the lyrics to the songs to adapt them to the bad weather... at some point he even started to improvise "Singing in the rain" in the middle of a song! The WYG girl was hilarious. First, she took quite long to come up on stage, while Bryan sang "c'mon hurry up!" after her :)). Then, during the dancing part, she moved away from Bryan while he was leaning back on her, making him almost fall down :)). His face was priceless, and the band kept laughing histerically for the rest of the song (as we did...). She knew the song though, so it turned out quite good at the end. Keith was amazing, his solos get better and better and you could often spot Bryan looking at him in amazement. He got the biggest cheers.

We got lots of interaction from the guys, and especially from Bryan, being in such a fantastic position. When he sang SO69, Marzia and I started singing the stadium-like choruses he had enjoyed so much in Milano. Unfortunately no one else in the audience knew what we were on about ;)), but Bryan surely did - he gave us a big big smile and a nod, remembering with us... :) That was a great moment. Bryan was clearly very happy about the audience. I was told the stadium could hold about 18.000 people, and I surely didn't see any empty space! Other great songs were Let's Make A Night To Remember, 18TID with a great response from the audience, and that great uptempo version of Heaven, which I really love. Big laughs during Cloud#9 everytime he sang "and the weather is really fine..." :)).

Soon it was time for the first bows... Bryan and Keith clearly enjoying some lovely freezing wind on their bellies... ;) But of course it was time for the encores... And The Best Of Me! At first, Bryan didn't seem to want to come down, as he said "no" to Toe when he was getting the ladder ready for him. But immediately after that he changed his mind... so he started climbing down and soon was right in front of us. And here something amazing happens... Bryan comes over and jumps on the barrier where we stand... he looks at me with a giant smile... reaches out and grabs my camera from my hands... He holds it up high, turn back and takes a picture of him and me! :) He then gives it back to me with a very very sweet smile...

Bryan was left alone on stage, took his acoustic guitar on and... Straight From The Heart! A show starting and ending with my two faves... don't really think I could ask for more ;). He did it so well it was seriously moving. And then another moving one... "Depend On Me", dedicated to Killarney of course! What a show... what an audience! Here is Bryan looking happily at us and thanking us for standing there through the rain and the wind...

"I've never been so proud of Ireland!" he said, and we surely were proud of you, Bryan :). After the show, we managed to meet him and thank him for just another great night. It was just three of us, which made it a lovely meeting. He was very sweet and very happy about the show. He didn't miss the chance to practice some more Italian with me (hey, he's getting better!!), and to tell us once again how great Milano was :). Hope you'll keep it in mind for the next tour Bryan... :). He also confirmed the album is coming out in September... Looking forward to ROOM SERVICE! :)

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Pictures by Niall Corcoran and Roberta De Silvestre

Bryan on his guitar

Marzia and I...and the flag, getting ready to rock. Thanks to one of the many sweet security guys for this pic :)!

The WYGG Karen from Galway with Bryan

Niall throws his Offaly shirt onstage!

The K-man on fire!

The boys turn up the volume!

Bryan rockin'

Bryan givin me back my camera... and that smile. Oh, wow. Mega huge thank youuu to Marzia for taking this pic!! Ok, so the camera was off at that point. Guess "someone" had turned it off by mistake ;)). Bryan, never mind... it was so sweet of you to do that, it made my night, grazie honey xx. :-)