Symphonica - Gig Report Rotterdam (October 10)

When George Michael announced the Symphonica Tour I was so pleased to see Rotterdam on the tour schedule. While George may not quite be King George over here, as he is in Denmark, the Dutch people have much love for George so he always has a good time here.

The first show sold out in minutes, and a second date was added. Demand was still high, so Team George Michael found a place for a third date in the already crowded schedule for October, funnily enough about two weeks before the other shows. So it was this third date crowd, comprised mostly of casual concert goers and only a few hard core George Michael fans, that won the prize of welcoming George to the Netherlands. Fortunately we all did a good job, I don't think George has a problem with coming back in 10 days time! But we didn't get an "I love you" so come on people, there's room for improvement!

The Stage in Rotterdam. Beautiful

One sentence review: George and the Symphonica Gang throw a Dutch party

Please read on for the rest of this extra long review. Sorry for the excessive length, but George is finally in my own country and I want to tell all!! If you prefer to read the Dutch review, that's over here.

Symphonica: Gig Report Antwerp (October 7)

For a while now, I've been closely monitoring the @GeorgeMichael tweets, reading the public messages my fellow GM-fans send to George.What's immediately apparent is this: George Michael is loved - deeply and truly loved - by his many fans. So many of us have invited George's music and George himself into our lives at a fairly young age, and have clearly rejoiced ever since in having him join us on our walk through life. So much so in fact, that judging from twitter, you'd think George went around performing miracles left and right. And in a way he is, just not the 'healing the sick' variety.

I've been privileged to see the effect George Michael has on his fans up close a few times and it's always a touching and somewhat humbling experience. Tonight was no exception.
In the seat next to me a woman all the way from Brazil saw her lifetime dream of seeing George Michael live come true. From time to time I glanced to the left to see how she was enjoying her very first George Michael concert. The rapturous, intense look on her face said it all. She was leaning forward in her seat, wanting to be even closer to him than she was in row 2, taking in his every word and gesture - and being completely oblivious to the rest of her surroundings. It was a wonderful sight.
To the right of me was a Dutch man, another big time fan. He was also getting his first taste of Symphonica and by the looks of it loving every minute of it. Tapping his feet to the beat, swaying in his seat during the ballads and whooping with delight after every song, he appeared to be having one of the best if not the best nights of 2011!

What must it be like to be George Michael, to know that you have the ability to affect people in this way? Changing people's life for the better, sometimes forever (as was the case for me because his courage inspired me to educate high school kids about diversity and gay rights), sometimes just for the duration of a concert, that is performing a miracle.

One sentence review: George wows "every other lovely in the world" (TM @TanteGeraldine) in Antwerp

Please read on for more details of the night. If you prefer to read the Dutch in-depth review, that's over here.

Symphonica - Dutch Review Verona (Sept. 14)

This is the Dutch review for the George Michael Symphonica concert of September 14. The English review is over here.

De Engelse review voor 14 september was al behoorlijk compleet, toch nog een paar observaties na mijn eerste 4 Symphonica bezoekjes.

Die Italiaanse fans maken heel veel geluid maar waren - althans in Verona - heel keurig. Schuin voor mij waren twee plaatsen leeg, en die bleven ook leeg! In Ahoy zouden die plekjes binnen 10 seconden opgevuld zijn. Maar nu zat ik dus effectief op rij 3, met zo goed als vrij zicht op George. Eindelijk goede filmpjes (link naar WIHYA)!

Groeien en bloeien van de show
Het leuke van een complexe show als deze (bijna) vanaf het allereerste begin volgen is dat je ziet hoe de show gaandeweg gestalte krijgt, er wordt nog steeds aan het concept gesleuteld. Een paar dingen die me opgevallen zijn.

Ik vermaak me kostelijk met het gluren naar het orkest, super interessant om te zien hoe dat zo'n beetje reilt en zeilt. Om te beginnen kun je merken dat ze de afgelopen weken hebben gezocht naar een manier om alle 'toppers' hun eigen moment te geven om te schitteren. Zo zit er nu, in ieder geval sinds Keulen, een shout-out voor het hele orkest (Ladies & Gentlemen: the Symphonica Orchestra!!) in het midden van Brother, Can You Spare A Dime. Onlangs hebben ze dat stuk nog zwaarder aangezet. Ik zat in Verona vlakbij de Arena in het zonnetje te luisteren naar de soundcheck en toen hoorde ik het orkest dit stuk oefenen. Zo gaaf!
Ook de harpist heeft zijn eigen spotlight en shout-out, tijdens I Remember You. En George's eigen band en zijn achtergrond zangers komen natuurlijk met zijn allen naar voren vlak vóór de medley om voorgesteld en bedankt te worden.

Ik wist overigens niet dat je ook 'rondreizende' klassieke musici had, een soort klassieke sessie-muzikanten dus. Voor diegenen die geen toegang hebben tot de All Aeccess blog op de officiële site: het Symphonica orkest bestaat uit een vaste kern van 11 musici, die allemaal individueel zijn ingehuurd voor deze tour. De vaste kern wordt aangevuld met 'losse' musici van wisselende nationaliteit, afhankelijk van waar het GM circus neergestreken is. Erg knap dat al die mensen met een ongetwijfeld minimale rehearsal tijd toch zo goed samen kunnen spelen. Ach het zijn natuurlijk ook de besten in hun vak, want voor minder doet George het niet.

Meer details na de jump.

Tough Job: All Aeccess blogger for GeorgeMichael.com

Here in the Netherlands we have this TV show called: Real Men. It's all about big, burly men doing tough jobs like logging in Oregon or driving trucks over frozen ice. Impressive stuff and you find yourself thinking: "Thank Goodness I don't have to do that for a living".

Tough jobs come in all shapes and sizes though. These last few weeks I read about, had email conversations with and eventually met in person (twice!) a lovely woman with a different kind of tough job.
Meet Lindsay: official All Aeccess blogger for GeorgeMichael.com. She couldn't look more different than those big, tough guys; she's just a slip of a girl.

Lindsay at the Köln show, busy as always
(pic courtesy of @GeorgeMichaelNL)

I've written some stuff about the concept of fandom on this blog, because the subject endlessly fascinates me. Something tells me that Lindsay, in spite of working for the organisation that handles George's website, hadn't had much experience with superfans 'in the wild' so to speak, before she took a plane to Prague for her first stint of touring.

I won't lie, the start wasn't easy for her. The fans, some (heh) of them just a tad jealous about her presumed close proximity to George Michael, watched her like a hawk to see if this lucky girl would slip up, make mistakes. And of course she did, like we all do when starting a new job.

When you work with real fans, you'll soon discover that they are often more knowledgeable about their idol than you are. Fans dedicated enough to come to multiple shows or buy an Aeccess Membership all know about the video of Roxanne - they probably know the exact date the footage was shot in Amsterdam as well!
And though I have to admit to giggling about her suggestion of skipping the last song before the break to enjoy the luxury of a private trip to the bathroom, I'll never know how she sneaked that past her editors/bosses. Especially since Brother, Can You Spare Me A Dime is such a cracker of a song!

Lindsay was a trooper though, and took all the criticism of  George's 'lovelies' on the chin. And then she got into her stride. Her blogging got very good and funny, giving us her take on the shows and interesting background information about life on the tour(bus) and soundchecks. She even gave us a few rounds of the sound check game.
And she was nice to us! She emailed me a few times and I heard from several other people that she took the time to email them personally in the few hours between travels she could get herself and her laptop to a wi-fi point. Very good of her, especially if you saw how incredibly busy she was. Always having to blog against a deadline isn't easy!

While she admits that life on the tour is tough for her, I'm sure that once she's home again and reunited with puppy Dexter and her husband her time with Symphonica will seem a lot more glamorous and fun (time and distance will take care of that!).
And she'll have enough stories to dine out on for years to come. Even though she wasn't exactly travelling in the inner GM circles, I'm sure she saw some funny stuff she can't tell us about. (Pity!)

I'm not sure if George Michael is aware how much great work Lindsay did for him and his 'lovelies', but we sure are. Thanks Lindsay!

Thinking about Where I Hope You Are

Some more thoughts about the new George Michael song Where I Hope You Are. It's not the full review I want to write about this wonderful song, I'll hold off on that until the CD single comes out. These are just some thoughts about how this song affected me.
George's music is deeply personal, but can still lead all of us on our own emotional journey, that's the beauty of the way he writes. This is where Where I Hope You Are led me.

I'm a survivor. I survived being born amidst the horrors of a brutal  civil war in Nigeria. I survived the death of my mother of starvation when she was still nursing me. I almost died from hunger too after her death when there was no food left to give to me, but I survived even then.
I'm a survivor; it's what I do. Now if I only could forgive myself for surviving I'd be all set.

These last few weeks have been so much fun! Going to four (!) George Michael concerts in as many weeks in three different countries was incredible. Meeting up with old friends from the George Michael fan community and making new GM friends at the concerts and online (twitter, yay!) was great.
And in spite of all that, or maybe because of all that, today I'm sad beyond words. I miss my mum. I think she misses me too. And that thought makes me feel so sad. And so guilty.

It's not my fault she's dead, enemies of the Igbo tribe murdered her by starving her and hundreds of thousands of Igbo people to death. I'm sure that nursing me depleted what little resources she had left after fleeing, while heavily pregnant with me, across the country back to Igbo territory together with her husband and 3 small children. Still not my fault, I didn't kill her.

I know all that but I still want to beg her forgiveness and say: "I'm so sorry that I'm still alive and you're dead. I'm sorry that today I'm enjoying the sun on my face in the Netherlands while all that remains of you are dusty bones in the earth of a village in Nigeria. I'm just so sorry, mum".

Looking back on it, I guess that's why Where I Hope You Are hit me so hard when I first heard it in Herning. The way George Michael kept singing "I'm so sorry" broke my heart. With every "sorry" his head dropped a little lower and his voice got a little more emotional. He truly was sorry, even the most cynical person on earth could see that. That particular performance of Where I Hope You Are almost felt like a public penance to me, and it affected me deeply. I cried my eyes out.

And guilt? Well, I'll bet George Michael feels quite guilty too about the way things turned out. It's very hard to realise that the person you love the most is the person you've hurt the most. I've been there, I guess everyone in a long-time relationship has been there at one time or another.

Symphonica - Gig Report Verona (September 14)

Second night at Verona and you'd think George Michael couldn't possible be as good as he was yesterday. Well, he was even better. Way better. The reception he got yesterday must have done him a world of good because he was just walking on water today.

Tonight's concert was a big old love-in. Every person in the audience loved George and he loved us right back. He even told us he loved us and he doesn't do that often.  He came on stage with a huge grin on his face. And, some of the sad ballads aside, that grin never left his face again that night.  I have to say: happy is a great colour for him.

One sentence review: Lightning strikes twice in Verona

Please read on for more details of the night. If you prefer to read the Dutch in-depth review, it's over here.

Symphonica - Dutch Review Verona (September 13)

This is the Dutch review for Verona, September 13. My review in English is over here.

Een stropdas, en dat met die hitte!

George zei het al in zijn eerste praatje: Let's hear it for Verona!! Absoluut, wat een onvergetelijke, bijzondere Arena en wat een bijzondere avond. Ik kan nog steeds niet helemaal geloven dat ik er bij geweest ben. Dit is echt zo'n avond die je nooit meer vergeet.

Na de jump meer details over deze bijzondere avond.