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		29/03/05 - KONIG-PILSENER ARENA, OBERHAUSEN Review by Steven Stanley: I flew into Cologne from Coventry airport with my friend Moya the day before and we were greeted by Maria and her husband Gerhard. We were made very welcome and it was cool to see a different part of Germany after going to Kempten in April. Myself, Maria and Moya arrived at the venue around midday anyway and as we thought there were not many people there yet. I spoke to Nikki and Alex who were there and shortly my friend Dave from the Netherlands came. I went for a scout round with Dave and some posters instantly caught my eye on the wall so they were half inched straight away! The venue itself was quite a modern arena and looked very large from the outside, but inside it wasn't as big as you might think... about the size of Nottingham maybe and not as big as Manchester or Sheffield. After queuing for a while longer myself and Dave went into the huge shopping mall opposite and I bought a couple of copies of the new 'Room Service' single which to my knowledge is yet unavailable in any other country... so got a few copies while I could! Of course we popped into Starbucks as well :) The weather was great all day, absolutely perfect and I had fun in the queue talking to everybody. I kept showing everyone my video of the BA Experience performing 'Open Road' and all the fans couldn't tell the difference between them and the real thing... they have a few more fans in Europe now! The doors opened up quite early at about 6pm and I had no problem at all running past the security and down the stairs. I was first onto the floor apart from 3 girls who were already at the barrier via Lance's bus of love! They weren't stood in a great position anyway so I stood smack bang in the middle of the stage, front row... my usual spot :) The support act 'Countermine' were ok but nothing at all to shout about and they got boring after a while. Not in the same league as 'Speedway' or 'Vega4' Bryan hit the stage bang on time at 9pm and started with the usual 'Room Service', this time using the black strat instead of the sunburst he used last year. 'Kids Wanna Rock' was great as always and featured a mid song extended guitar battle between the boys during mid song instead of at the start like Sheffield last year. Just before he sang 'Kids' a couple of people threw letters onstage. The first letter had a bunny attached to it and Bryan commented it was great being a rock n roll singer because he got lots of secret love letters... then declared the night 'bunny night'! Bryan read out the letter...'Hey, Bryan... I really wanna meet Keith'.... Keith came across and put his hands up to his head like a bunny and claimed the letter! The letter really was wanting Keith as well because I could read it from where I was stood! The 2nd letter was funnier though... I could see it had a picture of the Addams Family on it and it said 'Dear Bryan... are you from the Addams Family?' This got quite a few laughs! Bryan then sang the first verse of the song adapted to his way like this: "...and uncle fester farted, they really are retarded, the addams family..." Was so funny! All captured on video of course haha! Bryan also asked a member of the audience where they had come from or something... the German person who didn't speak very good English said 'I can't come'... Bryan not being able to resist said "You can't come?" (lot's of laughs from audience)..."welll I'm sure there will be a nice young man in here that could help you out with that problem!" (even more laughs from audience!). Bryan said that 2005 was special as they had been rocking for 25 years... and that they had been coming to Germany for 23 out of those 25! He asked if anybody remembered them playing at 'Rockpalast' in 1983 because that was their first show in Germany. Next up was a nice surprise in the form of 'Fits Ya Good' complete with Kman Spanish solo... haven't heard him do this since Europe last year and it was great.... as was of course the trademark 'Back To You Bounce'! 'Summer Of '69' was done half acoustically again (why oh why!) and I nearly fell asleep during 'Everything I Do' but apart from that it was ok! Actually something funny happened in 'Everything I Do'... during the bits of the guitar solos etc Bryan was sharing a joke with Mickey. Instead of singing "...search your heart, search your soul..." Bryan was singing something like "search your bowl, it's just like eating jelly roll...!" WTF lol.... Bryan and Mickey found it hilarious anyway! Before the song he spoke about his music crossing boundaries etc... he said last week when in Egypt at the pyramid show a guy came up to him and shouted "Summer Of '69!!!!".... Bryan did it in a really funni Asian voice.... I couldn't stop laughing! 'Cuts Like A Knife' had some great crowd interaction and after the song finished the crowd kept on singing the na na na's. This surprised Bryan and he wanted to keep on rocking out... he gave the nod to Mickey to start the drum beat for 'Blessing In Disguise' and the place erupted! Was a great version. It was then time for some more audience interaction with 'When You're Gone'... same old same old really. The girl was up for it though and did ok. Her name was Max from Gelsenkirchen. Bryan continued his set with 'Nowhere Fast' which sounds great live and has a bit of a guitar solo by Keith. 'Heaven' was done in it's original way like in Cardiff last year which was cool but I did like the upbeat version. 'I'm Ready' was very good with the harmonica and Keith went typically insane during the solo for 'It's Only Love'! Next was my favourite live song though.... 'The Only Thing'.... awesome as usual and at the end of the song Bryan let me and Dave strum his Fender strat to end the song. We were then left with the guitar as Bryan ran off the stage!!! Toe came and got it back eventually though.... could have easily been robbed... damn! I really love that song though... completely rocked the place. Bryan came back for an encore as usual and 'Cloud #9' and 'Run To You' were played before 'The Best Of Me'. At first we didn't think Bryan would come down for the song because he must have sang the first 2 verses before he did! I managed to get him to take a picture of us though but he missed his head in the shot.... you can only see his arm and the side of his face... nevermind! 'Flying' was dropped from the set... probably because he played 'Blessing In Disguise' but I didn't care because there was more than enough acoustic songs at the end anyway and it's nice to have more rockers instead. 'Room Service' actually did rock the place however even though it was just Bryan and an acoustic guitar. At one point the crowd were bouncing along as he and everyone else in the arena belted out the song. After the show I went around the back and talked to some fans (hello if you were there!) and saw Keith leave but he didn't stop. Apparently Bryan had gone but I couldn't be bothered to wait for him anyway! All in all a great gig with a couple of setlist surprises... the band were in a great mood as well... as were Moya and Maria who made front row centre! I wasn't expecting to enjoy it but I did and I'm glad I went despite the rubbish I was put through just before I went. We came back to Maria's anyway and watched some of the footage I had videoed from the show which was awesome... some great great videos again. Also the new acoustic 'Moon' guitar Bryan is using sounds bloody good... Jill from Speedway on the UK tour used one and Bryan decided to try one because hers sounded so good. Before I knew it I was up and at the airport and back to a foggy England! Thanks to Moya, Maria and Gerhard for letting me come anyway it was great and hope to do it again in September maybe! Until then... roll on May! ********** Review by Maria: Just some notes in addition to Steven’s review Before the support act came on we got balloons to blow up and didn’t know what to do with them. Moya and I thought about writing a request for a song on and throwing it on stage but we didn’t even have a pen. The letter with the question about Bryan being a member of the Addams Family made its way on stage attached to a white bunny which Bryan put into Mickey’s biggest drum. Remembering Rockpalast was his first ever show here in Germany, Bryan asked if someone was there from then and a person behind me said: “I was only three years old.” About the 25 years stage’s anniversary - a woman in the audience shouted out something like “and 25 years to come!” So she got the advice finding this nice man for her problem. He said he loves touring so much and gets so much inspiration from it: “So you there in the white shirt …. Thank you.” Doing one of the first few songs he introduced his band members in a very nice way. They all got some celebrating moments with a few seconds solo on their instruments. Didn’t know about the Back to you bounce before but was so great jumping up and down with so many people around. Bryan wouldn’t (or couldn’t?) speak Gelsenkirchen. He changed the letters in something like Gesenkesen or it was a joke like he did on his last tour here. After the song Bryan couldn’t spot out Max’s sister and mother on the grandstand, so they both were asked by Max to jump up and down. It was pure fun to watch Keith during the WYG performance. Max was really good but Keith couldn’t stop laughing. There was a funny story about the Fender given to Steven and Dave in our daily newspaper. It reported that there was, for sure, a lucky fan that got Bryan’s guitar as a gift. Next to the end of the concert Bryan got some flowers which he picked up. Also a bra and some boxer shorts made their way on stage. Bryan turned the bra around and put it on a mic edgeways. The boxer shorts, similar to the ones boxers wear during fights, were very big and silk looking, anyway he threw them on the floor again. During our time queuing, Moya and I watched a man and were fascinated by his activities. He did nearly a perfect service for his wife in the queue. He first, brought her something to eat; next he brought drinks and also a bunch of flowers for Bryan. I wondered if my husband would ever buy and bring me flowers for another man. He would have been more perfect if he could have managed to go to the toilet for her. When they all did the bow after the show the band members were introduced again by Bryan. Because Mickey didn’t get as big applause as Bryan wanted for him we had to do it three times until BA was satisfied. Thank you Steven and Dave for saving a place for Moya and me at the front. We have never been nearer to Bryan in a show before. We enjoyed every single moment and of course, we had one of our best ever concerts if not our best one. Setlist: Room Service Open Road 18 Til I Die Can't Stop This Thing We Started Let's Make A Night To Remember The Addams Family Kids Wanna Rock Fits Ya Good Back To You Summer Of '69 Everything I Do Cuts Like A Knife Blessing In Disguise When You're Gone (with Max from Gelsenkirchen) Nowhere Fast Heaven (original version!) I'm Ready (with harmonica) It's Only Love The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You Cloud #9 Run To You The Best Of Me All For Love Straight From the Heart (with harmonica) Room Service (acoustic)

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