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Night of the Proms, Antwerp, Belgium - 20 & 21 October 2006 by Marilyne Friday 20st of october Yeay!! It's Texas week-end again!!! I was so Looking forward to that. It's been only a couple of month since i saw them last, but as you all texans must know, seeing Texas live is such an addiction! So with my bag, a map and all my texas albums i'm heading for my 6 hours driving to Antwerp, went smooth with such good music. As the songs went on, i was trying to figure out how they'd sound going "symphonic". Thanks to very clear direction i'm at mieke's around 16 and Wildwhite joins us so we can head to the venue. Pretty huge arena btw, and after a stop at a local BELGIAN fries stand we go to the doors where there's hardly anyone, although the door will open in less than an hour (i'm french, we're just crazy queuers! lol). But some crazy texans are already there like sandrinegiroux and the danish team, dirk and familly join us, in what is my shortest Texas queueing ever i think. 18:30 the doors open and we get in front of the stairs to queue again, but for just about 30 minutes and than we go down some stairs, grap a little night of the prom light and run to the front of the stage who was defintly a texas one: scottish flag and t-shirt, texas t-shirt, we know for whom those people came . 20:30 they turn the light off, people shout and clap, i don't know what to expext, it's my first NOTP, the ochestra starts to play, it's quite breathtaking... After a few bits i realise they're playing a medley of what's ahead of us tonight, comes the "summer son" bit, it's sounds awesome, this is going to be huge!!!! Tony Henry is on stage to start with a classic "the barber of sevilla", i'm not really classical music-educated, but i was really impressed by his voice. The classical part mixed with the more pop ones, like John Miles' "music", where everybody sings along, Ike Turner who is not in the prime of life anymore.... but has a great singer with him (Lyrica, was it?). And than SHE appears, or more her voice comes out of nowhere.... but she's not on stage.... "are you ready...." yes we are!!!!.... we see her on the screen and realise she's behind us on a small stage in the back of the venue, with her guitar and one spot light on her... she looks like an angel, it's such a moving song to me and the ochestra adds to that "dramatic" side. The light goes off, she's gone, for now... I think at this point we have "tears for fears" on stage, i really loved them as a teenager, so i was happy to see them live and i was really not dissapointed, i think their songs fit such a big ochestra. And than comes the break, as wildwhite managed to see the track list from one of the photographer, we knew she was on at almost the end of the second part, and after seeing the first bit we were all excited!!! All the artist came back again, we even had a suprise act to add, some belgian fame academy winner, he was good, but i was too much waiting for the next act to be totally focused. We can hear some strings playing quickly... and "yeah, yeah, yeah" being singed from the back of the stage, and there she comes with her leather jacket for "inner smile", so good to be jumping and see sharleen on stage. I think we could tell afterward (specially after the second night) she must have been a bit nervous. Than came "black eyed boy", "summer son" and "say what you want". I think those were more fitting to an ochestra than "immer smile", even though i heard "summer son" so much, i'd say it's excellent with an ochestra but "black eyed boy" being one of my favorit texas song ever, i was so pleased to hear it. "say what you want" was so different from what we're used too, and i enjoyed it more the second night because i wasn't "expecting" it to be what i'm used to, i just got "into it". Sharleen wasn't very talkative as the song were played very quickly after one an other. Obviously it was too short, after just those four songs she was gone again. We got the classic bit again, and a beatles final without sharleen. And there's it was, my first NOTP experience coming to an end. We let the venue empty a bit and go all to a bar for a drink before going to sleep and get back some energy for the other day. Saturday 21st of october Today is actually the big texans gathering meeting at the zoo with some new faces (at least for me) and we go for a drink to an irish pub. I'm always amazed on how easy those gathering tend to be: we come from different countries, have different ages, languages, background, experiences... but we have fun, get along, laugh and basically have a great time. After a few drink and some food, we go back to the venue where there's more texans waiting for us, but also more people than yesterday. Knowing how the venue is now, and with a bit of running (which is always such a challenge for me ) we're front row again, and still excited of what's upon us. The show has the same line up, or almost, they cutted out some part (good option, it had more "rythm" this way) and the surprise act was different, and much better i think than the previous one. Even though the "surprise" effect was gone, you have to be totally blown away by Sharleen performances. She was way more relaxed and smilling that second night. I think (or hope) she heard and saw how much fans she had in the place, i hope it felt more "familiar" to her, she wanted to chat after the first song, but the ochestra started straight away, so after the second song she went to the "maestro" and told him she was going to talk a bit to the audience. As said i enjoy "say what you want" much more that second night, and the whole show in general. It's really a special texas experience, too bad it's not longer. I think they should do a "texas goes symphonic" tour (and add "Saint" to it!!) . For our after show party i guess the pictures and video speak for them selves Absolut awesome time, great fun, kewl music and most of all fantastic people... what else do we want??? The only sad part of all this is that it has to end at some point... saying goodbye to everyone, hoping it won't be a long time untill we get to meet again, enjoying fabulous music and great time together. |