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08/04/05 - CHUM FM SHOW,
HARBOUR LIGHTS, BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS The Canadian radio station 'Chum FM' celebrates it's 20th birthday in style by broadcasting for the week from Barbados! On the last day they get Bryan to do an interview and short acoustic session on air and later that night entertain a few thousand lucky competition winners and locals at a gig on the beach. Review
by Tricia: I arrived in Barbados on Thursday afternoon and my goodness, the place is absolutely beautiful! Seeing it from the air is breathtaking - bright blue water and then the strip of white sand...just like what you see in those magazines. I mean Trinidad & Tobago is beautiful in it's own right, but B'dos is even more so. Anyways, I was in contact with Rob Farina from CHUM-FM since this whole adventure began. I was told by Rob to present myself at the Almond Village Resort on Friday morning where I'll collect the passes for the concert to be held that evening. So that's exactly what I did. I was met by Rob himself and directed to the area where CHUM was doing their morning broadcast. Roger, Rick and Marilyn were all there, as well as the winners from the contest. Quite a crowd. I was given a headset which was to listen to the broadcast with. Put it on and someone brought a chair for me so I took a seat on the aisle just behind the first table. Everything was quite close. I noticed that there was a stool and mic set apart from the main table. Then I heard over the headset that Bryan's cue was gonna be so and so....and then I realised that the man himself was gonna be there. Talk about anticipation! At about 8:15 AM people started re-acting and pointing to the back of me and lo and behold, there was Bryan coming up the aisle, and he was even more gorgeous than all the pictures that I'd ever seen! Fashion report: Bryan was wearing one of those white long-sleeved t-shirts (like in the Slane or Budokan DVD, can't remember which right now), a pair of blue jeans that was folded back above the ankles which just served to accentuate his shoes, and a pair of really dark shades. I got my senses in order and switched on my camera and started taking out pictures. As I was sitting where I was, he passed by just about 2 feet away from me. As stunned as I was, I forgot to take a snapshot when he was closest, lol. So he took up position on the stool and was given his acoustic guitar. He did "Open Road" and "Room Service" as well as a little interview. I was so intent on just watching Bryan that I barely heard what was actually being said in the interview. Next thing I knew was that Marilyn Dennis was asking where I was during the interview. So I got up from my seat, waved to her and then to Bryan. Bryan did a little wave thing and I sat back down. I think I blanked out completely as I had absolutely no idea was said after that, lol. Whatever was said, those of you who was listening to CHUM at that time would have a much better idea than me, so please fill me in if you can! Twenty minutes after he first got there, it was time for Bryan to leave and apparently it would be the same way he came in - I'd be close to him again, oh joy! So there he comes walking on the aisle and I'm taking pictures again when he stops directly in from of me. My eyes were like flying saucers as I lowered my camera! Bryan says "Hi, here's my harmonica." and I automatically reach for it. This guy, Bernado, who was standing right behind me yells "I love you Bryan!!!!" and Bryan gives him his pick. Bryan then turns back to me and says "How about a picture", reaches for my camera and sees that I have 2 hung around my wrist. He jokingly says "How many cameras ya got there?" Uhm well, I was speechless. He finally took a camera from me and Marilyn volunteers to take out the pics. Bryan then puts his arm around my shoulders, gives a nice, good squeeze so that we touched head to head and the photos were taken like that! He turned towards me again and I give him a hug and say thanks, and he walks away. I sat back down in my seat totally awestruck! For the ladies: Bryan smells heavenly ;-P That was it. My few seconds one on one with the man so has come to mean so much to me. It all happened so quickly and he was such a sweetheart and was so charming. I got the concert passes from Rob and chatted a bit and thanked him for what CHUM did for me. Said he wanted Bryan being there that morning to be a surprise for me, lol, and you bet it was! Also met and thanked Marilyn.
(Above) A casually dressed Bryan doing a short acoustic set on the radio. Gates were to open at 7 pm but I got there early. Was not allowed in by the staff but Dwayne from CHUM pulled me in to the line of winners going in and so I was in the venue. Got inside but was told that I couldn't go any further as they were the winners getting complementary cocktails etc. Shrugged it off and sat nearby to wait. Then Marilyn comes up and says "What are you doing here by yourself, come on!" and then proceeds to hold me by the hand and carry me forward to the very front up to the stage - and everybody was watching us, lol. So there I was, smack right up at the front. The stage was like 4 feet high and three feet away from where I was standing under Keith's mic. Pictures were not allowed at all but the venue itself was very small. We were in a small, sandy area and I could see that the stage was actually built on the sand just outside of the wooden fencing. They were expecting about 800 people and I have no idea how many were there as I'm really quite short, but I know it was jammed when they let everyone in. But we at the front had more then enough room to move about freely. Met some really nice people while waiting for the guys to come on stage. Half-an-hour late past the scheduled time, but the guys got on stage to loud cheers and lots of noise. BA had on a light grey T-shirt, blue jeans and the same laced up shoes from earlier that morning at the resort, and the others black T's and dark jeans. Interesting
points: (besides the entire show) 'Back To You' was fantastic! Bryan sang the first verse twice and Keith gave him a funny look. We all did the bouncy thing too. 'Summer of '69' got the biggest response from the crowd. Was the half Unplugged version and sounded great. During the end where they all rocked out Keith got down halfway on his knees and spun around. I was like OMG, he's gonna get tangled up and trip on the cord and fall! But he didn't and all credit due to him - he really knows what he's doing! Freda, the WYG girl did a pretty good job. Bryan was wiggling his butt during every pause in the song before the main butt-shaking part. Song ended, and because there were no Tshirts to give to her, BA gave her the bag of "ganja" instead. Hilarious! The dudes were killing themselves laughing during the whole thing. During the first verse of 'Heaven' something went wrong because Keith changed his guitar and BA gave up his acoustic altogether. Bryan shrugged, held the mic with one hand, shoved the other into his left jeans pocket and continued singing. I doubt that the people towards the back even knew what was going on. Mickey's a riot! It seems that the cymbals on either side of him were set a bit too high so at the end of TOTTLGOMIY, he couldn't reach and had to struggle to hit them with the sticks. Had a huge grin on his face the whole time. To end the show, Bryan decided he wanted to "Get Down Tonight" - had the words taped to the floor. Invited dancers up on stage who made a brave effort to climb on. They showed off their stuff though. Bryan said good night and and the guys were off. Hung around at the front waiting for the crowd to lessen before I made my exit, and managed to get Keith's setlist that was taped to the floor from one of the crew. Setlist: | |||
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Thanks to Tricia for the setlist and photos.
Bryan getting the audience to sing along during 'Cuts'
Tricia meets BA
The audience
The WYGG and BA
BA on his strat
Tricia leaves Barbados... what a view! |
