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| Well,
we've seen Sir CLIFF
RICHARD tonight and
we are amazed. It's only fair to say that a few younger groups/singers
can take a leaf out of his book with his persistence and stamina, specially
considering his age (59 this year). The man still had the audience - which
ranged from kids to pensioners - in fits, not only with his good sense
of humour, but also with his excellent performance.
An interesting aspect was also the fact that, as no one got searched for cameras, there were a lot of flashguns going off during the whole show. Some people were even allowed to walk right up to the front of the stage to either take a picture or hand him a flower and/or present. But such a thing can only happen and work well with a civilized crowd of people. |
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| This year he celebrates 40 years in music business, and a magic 40 years they've been for the man. Sod what the press say or that some silly radio stations refuse to play his songs, because he's "so old". Judging by the huge amount of people present at the concert tonight, we would say that he's definitely still alive and kickin', apart from the fact that in his long career (spanning from '58 to this day, so that actually makes five decades!!!) he got presented with numerous awards, such as the NME prize for "Best British Male Singer" more than once and "World's Most Outstanding Singer" or also the Silver Clef Trophy for "Outstanding Services To The Music Industry" and "Outstanding Music Personality Of The Year" by the Daily Mirror. 1995 he was even awarded with a knighthood by the Queen. |
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Back
to the concert. What song would've been more appropriate to open the concert
with than "From a Distance".
He presented material from his album "Real as I wanna be", like "She makes me feel like a man", "The Miracle" (on the album a unique song recorded in two parts, one in England with Cliff and one in Los Angelis where other famous singers, as the likes of James Ingram, supplied their voice to the record) or "Can't keep this feeling in". The latter actually had a very entertaining story to it. |
| Cliff, always in for a good laugh, decided to trick the record industry this time. Instead of publishing the single under his name as usual, he did it under the fake name of "Black Knight" to see how the radio stations would react to the song itself. And the outcome was that the stations not only favoured the song, they also categorized it as "Soul Music". Apparently one DJ even quipped that the new singer of that particular recording was real classy (can't remember the his actual words, unfortunately). But when they all found out who was hiding behind the project they stopped playing the song. |
| Other famous, well-known hits were "In the country", "Some people", "Daddy's home", "Remember me", "I could easily fall in love", "Wired for sound", "12th of never", "Be with me" (not too sure about the title) from the musical "Heathcliff", not to forget the all-time favourite "Summer holiday" and a medley including "Power to all our friends", only to name a few. As Cliff Richard worked with Peter Wolf on "Real as I wanna be" and enjoyed working with Wolf's wife Michelle as a backing singer so much, he decided to invite her into his show to do the same there. With "Summer holiday" and a few other songs Cliff even took the chance, besides rocking to every tune, to prove his brilliant guitar skills too. The whole programme was underlined by a wonderful, and sometimes magic light and laser show. |
| The
one I loved best though was "Miss you nights", since the created atmosphere
of a starry night (done with the effects of a disco ball) was just incredible
and gave the song its sentimental touch.
The concert was definitely an event worth watching. Date: 05/05/99 |
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