Critics of concert celebrated in Malaga last 26,June
Written by Jorge Cassinello
This was undoubtedly a special night, the most fantastic night in my life. It won't be forgotten ever, as the events which preceded the show, the show itself and particularly the beautiful personality and humanity irradiated by Roger Hodgson, will indelibly be kept in my inner and warmest memories...
The Spanish Cadena Cien Radio Station managed to take Roger Hodgson to Spain to perform an acoustic concert at 11 pm on 26th June 1997, which was broadcasted live to the whole country. Only about 350 persons were fortunate enough to attend such a special and unique event, from which just 100 were radio listeners chosen by lot, and the other 250 were invited by the radio station, i.e. politics, people related to the radio business and VIP's from Malaga, most of them absolutely unaware of Roger's music career... very sad since there were also many authentic fans outside the Conservatorio which were not able to attend the concert...
The show was introduced by a well-known radio speaker here in Spain who said that this was going to be the first time ever Roger will play alone at the stage. The speaker: "Cadena Cien se enorgullece en presentar a una autentica leyenda viva de nuestra musica... Roger Hodgon!" (Cadena Cien is proud to introduce you a real living leyend in nowadays music... Roger Hodgson!), forthwith Roger appeared from behind the curtains and the audience cheered and praised him for 40 sec!
Roger said at the beginning these thrilling words: "Hola, bienvenidos a mi fiesta!" (Hallo, welcome to my party!), and at the grand piano the chords of Take The Long Way Home started to fill the atmosphere... wow! Roger showed how in great shape he is, enjoying, singing, cheering... That was a memorable start of a memorable night...
Roger practiced some Spanish during the gig, a clear prove of his easy-going and warm approach to the audience... he is so interested in having a close communication with his public! Before continuing there was a first request from the public ("play Rosie... please!"), continuous requests from the devoted fans would be the trend of the whole show...
Roger: "A ver si recordias esta" (Let's see whether you remember this one), and Even In The Quietest Moments blossomed from Roger's guitar... Before the next song there was a momentary problem with some microphone connected to the guitar but that was solved by the old hand Roger and the warm quick reaction of the audience [cheering applause]. The show continued with C'est Le Bon, with some innovations in the lyrics (!). Afterwards he started a joke playing the first chords of Dreamer at the keyboard... but stopping at once, thus teasing the audience who responded humorously... Breakfast In America was played at the grand piano thereafter (magnificent as always!).
Roger with the guitar once more: "Ok, you help me with this...", and the characteristic whistles of Easy Does It started... the audience also whistled following Roger's demand. That was a funny performance! and a truly magic moment of the show. Easy Does It has always been for me such a great-simple song! At the end of the song Roger was waving his hand, pretending that he was leaving, while the audience were whistling... superb! Once finished the song, Roger started some few chords: "No more, no more... [some people were still whistling...] [laughs] Ok... it's a new song, neuve chanson... ah that's French [laughs]..." and Don't You Want To Get High showed us that Roger's compositions are getting higher and higher...
Again at the keyboard the joke of the first chords of Dreamer ("ahhh" [laughs]). "I love Spain, amo Espana... [applause and cheers] I feel like I've come home, you know, you are my people [more applause and cheers]". Roger then went again to the grand piano ("right...") and started to play the singing part of Fool's Overture (History recalls...) just with the piano! gorgeous! A swift change at the piano and Lord Is It Mine? began... so sweet...
Roger at the microphone asked us: "Que quereis escuchar?" (What do you want to listen to?)... a lot of requests came from the public: Dreamer, A Soapbox Opera, Two Of Us... somebody even asked for Crime Of The Century... big mistake...!)... "I'll give you a little bit!" and A Soapbox Opera, half of the song, was played.
Not absolutely convinced (he seems to be a bit tired of playing it) but jocosely he approach to the keyboard saying "not Dreamer, not Dreamer" [laughs], and started a sort of game with the first chords of Dreamer and The Logical Song (I guess) alternatively... he finally gave up: "Ok, I'll do a little bit of Dreamer... if you help me" [cheers from the public] and the ever-young 23 years-old song captivated us once more! Roger funnily finished the song leaning himself downwards, as though he were a sort of robot just unplugged... [laughs and cheers]
The guitar again... someone from the audience: "Friend In Need!", Roger: "Friend in Need... that's Rick's..." [laughs]... that someone was me (I had always erroneously thought that that song was sang by Roger... well a new discovery for me!). More requests... again "play Rosie!" (that was my friend Jose Antonio...)... Roger: "I like Rosie, it's good...", more: "School!" and Roger singing: "I can see you in the morning when you go to school....", and School was played just a little bit, up to the moment a band was needed: "band?" [laughs and applause]. Afterwards the magic Rosie Had Everything Planned put in an appearance... what a moment! All our dreams were becoming true that night, thanks to a musician out of this world...
Roger: "Well I'm here, any more?" (of course a lot more...), "Two Of Us!", "Lovers In The Wind!" (that was me...), "Give A Little Bit!" (Roger: "Give A Little Bit? later, later"), "Logical Song!", "Child Of Vision!"... Roger: "Ok... [some guitar chords] Now you have me confused.. [laughs] [more chords] ok, intermission (Roger laughs) [chords] Now I'm gonna do a new song, that has not been... no on no CD, ok? [chords] ok? brand new! brand new... so if you like it I will put it on CD, if you do not like it, no applause..." (characteristic gesture of dissaproval for the song...) [laughs] and Love Is A Thousand Times, one of the best romantic song I've ever heard, filled our hearts so warmly... oh my dear!
The show continued with The Logical Song at the keyboard (preceded again by its chords and Dreamer's... [more laughs]). As always, a so logical song... Roger was enjoying himself a lot (as during the whole concert). "Bl...bl...bl...bl...bl... bloody marvellous!"
This was supposed to be the end of the show: "Thank you! Gracias!", and after a thousand of cheers and praises from an absolutely devoted audience, he said: "This is when I should've gone behind the courtains... [takes the guitar] so tonight, no encore, this is the encore... do you understand? yep? [somebody from the front raw looked at Roger with a big smile in his face...]... no you don't... [laughs]... oh my voice is going [he would tell me later that his voice was not totally ok that night, being that the reason why he did not play Hide In Your Shell...]... I'm gonna try this one". And "this one" was a great surprise: The Meaning! with just his guitar this performance was absolutely unsurpassable!! The beginning was curious, singing "why are we here... why are we here" where there is a sort of electric guitar in the studio version...
"That's it! Gotta go, Thanks, Muchas gracias", and Roger went behind the curtains... cheers, praises, shouts, whistles, eeeooo, eeeooo, eeeooo! and after nearly a minute Roger appeared again, took his guitar and said: "Ah, amoro Espana, that's all I can say" [cheers and applause]... More requests: "Babaji!", "Shadow song!" (me...) Roger: "Shadow song?"... the guitar again and Two Of Us magically came into our ears... some of us sang along the second voice for "find out!"... another great moment, not to forget ever... "Bravo!" cheers and praises... and then the first chords of one of the songs Roger seems to enjoy more and the audience (already his friends) praise more vigorously: Give A Little Bit. Everybody was clapping and singing a long version of it, which was leading us to the end of a truly unique night. You will have already realized that I have no words to express the feeling we and Roger shared that night... it was pure magic!
"All right!" That was the final cry and Roger dissapeared again behind the curtains... but after a minute he came out on the stage and laughed and smiled appreciating the audience, which was already standing up and clapping rhythmically... Roger (overwhelmed): "Ok, I'll speak English: this has been fantastic for me, grand for you.... and I will be back, I'll come back here... soon... soon!.... and one more, I must say gracias to Cadena Cien... thank you, GRACIAS TO ALL OF YOU, GRACIAS!"
The show lasted 70 minutes. Simply a dream come true...
Finally, some friends and I went to a pub in other part of the city, where Roger was supposed to go after having dinner... We were waiting for him for two hours and a half, but it was worthwhile since eventually he appeared and talked with us during almost an hour!