I didn’t sleep as long as I wanted to because when I first opened my eyes I
started thinking about what this day meant and what needed to be done so I was
awake and that was that…… I felt good though!
Downstairs for breakfast and the atmosphere
was really one of excitement and anticipation. It felt good to be part of such
an event. So far we had only encountered the normal technical and physical
challenges that any gig presents and we felt like we were on top of all that.
What I wasn’t quite ready for was an air
traffic control strike in Italy!
Glenn was on the plane that was to bring him
from Rome to Hamburg when the passengers were told the airport was closed and
they were asked to get off the plane. This was not a good thing but Carl Swann,
Glenn’s manager, a great bloke and a good friend, had just arrived in Hamburg
from London and was doing his best to stay on top of the situation.
At first there was hope that the strike would
just be a quick token protest but eventually we received the bad news that Glenn
was stuck in Rome and no flights were leaving Italy.
I talked to Glenn on the phone and he was
devastated. I tried hard to console him (after all it wasn’t his fault) but he
prides himself on reliability and punctuality and this hurt him at least as much
as it hurt me!
Don’t panic, pray!
It’s not good but it’s not the end of the
world either.
I gave one of Glenn’s songs to Erik, the
singer of Live Fire and we would do The Last Dance as we always did before, with
me on vocals. Of course I can’t sing it like Glenn (as you will hear when you
hear the CD) but no-one in the audience had so far heard Glenn sing it so they
wouldn’t be able to make the comparison anyway. I repeated this thought many
times over the next few hours……..
Off to the venue then, and a press conference
that was more fun than usual because Jorn, John and Eve were involved.
I spent a little time with Jeanna,
fine-tuning the arrangement that Matt dela Pola had written for the quartet and
then it was time to cover as much ground as possible before the doors opened at
20:00.
With the film crew running around and
everyone else involved in catering, merchandise etc. it seemed like the venue
was half-full during the afternoon but we had a plan and it was working until…..
no problem, just a bunch of boring technical stuff that delayed the opening for
about 20 minutes.
The crowd didn’t care though and soon the
venue was buzzing as only a good club can!
Finally, we were ready and after the formal
record company announcements etc. we hit the stage with Jorn and blasted through
the first four songs of the CD. The reception was great and Jorn did a great
job.
Keep in mind that we were presenting an album
of almost totally new songs and it’s always a little nerve-wracking to see how
the audience reacts but they were into it and the intensity kept on building
when John hit the stage and sang “It Won’t Last” in his own incredible way….
they loved it!
Eve dominated the stage for “Think Twice” and
the audience, not knowing what to expect, actually gasped as she hit the first
of those magical notes.
This was going so well and I was so happy and
the spirit on stage was infectious. It reached the audience and they just
amplified it and sent it right back to us. And so it grew and grew.
Erik took the first of the songs that Glenn
was to sing, “What you Gonna do” and absolutely tore it up, having started
learning it only a few hours earlier. Amazing!
Jorn came back and we steamed through “Okay”,
the “encore” song from the story.
The band was rocking like never before and
Willy was playing his heart out. Sid, Ken, Erik and I were handling the backing
vocals along with our other “responsibilities” and finally I did my two songs to
bring the first half of the show to a close.
Now the atmosphere was really electric and we
were so revved up to get into part 2.
After a short break it was time to launch
into “Out of My Control” which segued straight into “Brown Eyed Boy” to open the
second set and the energy just got more and more intense.
I’ve done a lot of shows and it is really
rare to feel this much electricity on stage and coming back from the audience.
We only had to play the first few notes of “Circle Of Hands” and already the
crowd was crazy and became an even more important part of the success of the
whole event.
When John came back to sing “Free Me” (after
all, it is HIS song!) it started to get really intense and when he and I shared
vocals on “July Morning” we achieved something that had never happened before….
all without really rehearsing it.
We poured surprises on top of surprises by
bringing Eve back to join John on an unforgettable duet of “Rain” and then Jorn
began to raise the roof with his versions of “Stealin” and “Easy Living”.
Just when we all thought it couldn’t go any
higher we launched into the “new” version of “Lady in Black”, but the audience
was singing the chorus before I could even start the first verse!! At the end we
brought on violinist John Smithson who had flown in from Benidorm just for this
moment and that took the vibe into the stratosphere!!
We left the stage, exhausted, exhilarated and
so, so happy! This could have gone so easily the other way but, instead, there
wasn’t one person who was not, in some way affected by the energy of this show.
Everyone…… the band, the singers, the string players, the house technicians, the
crew and the audience had connected to make this one of the most memorable
nights of my career.
The show wasn’t technically or musically
perfect… that would have been impossible, but the spirit of the evening and the
atmosphere that was created by the connection between the stage and the audience
was magic, pure magic!
We hadn’t planned an encore but we had to do
one and so John and Erik combined on a super-powerful version of “Gypsy” to put
the finishing touch to an incredible night.
I must have signed a thousand things that
night and it was great to go back to the hotel and chill for a while and to
experience the show again through the eyes of those who had been there watching
and enjoying it.
There was more to do. I had at least 20 more
interviews scheduled but I felt really good and really happy.
I had said my prayers and they had been
answered and we had delivered a show that was so fantastic and which might never
happen again.
Now it’s time to unwind a bit, to reflect on
all of this and look forward to what the future brings.
We all have to look in the rear-view mirror
at times but the most important thing is to keep our eyes on the highway ahead.
It will be fun to share it all with you.
God bless,
Ken
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