Deutsche Version von diesem Bericht / German Version of this review

I'd like to tell you a bit about my third Kelly-concert - and do that from my own point of view… so here it is, my personal

Laa an der Thaya Diary

29.6.2000
I left my hometown Budapest, and was sitting on the train, full of emotions, impatiently awaiting the next day, but at least my arrival in Gyor. After a while I did arrive in Gyor, where I met my two cousins Andrea and Dóri. We went to Andrea's flat, and quickly transformed it into a battlefield. We tried to remain calm and organised, but we didn't stand a chance - after all, we hadn't seen each other for ages. At about two in the morning we were still rolling with laughter, and finally fell asleep - three of us in a double bed.

30.6.2000
Somehow we got up at seven, ran down to Tesco's for a final go at stocking up some food resources for the big adventure, and succeeded in catching our bus to Vienna at 8:40. It was the first time we were to visit a Kelly-concert abroad, and we crossed the border with a cry of "Watch out, Austria, here we come!" before arriving in Vienna soon after. There we met my e-mail-pals Trixi & Mirjam (Greets to you!), and in the afternoon we set off for Laa together. We arrived just after 5 pm, got the tickets...

... and stared. It was 5 pm, and only about 200 people were in front of us! Fantastic! I had long ago given up hope of getting any good place at the concert, but now I realised there was nothing to worry about. Also, everyone was really calm, no pushing, no hysteria, apart from the occasional "someone stands up at the front and sets everyone off" act - I was deeply impressed. We listened to the soundcheck, and I was mega-happy when I recognised Jimmy's voice - Yes!!! - I had never seen him perform live before. I found some of my friends among the fans (greets to Petra, Dorina and Katarina! :-) ), and we talked and gossiped till 6 when we were let in. And then came Miracle Number Two: There was STILL no chaos, no screaming, no one being trampled to death. People were just WALKING to the stage, talking, buying drinks and Kelly-stuff - and not killing each other for the best places - unbelievable. That's how it should be at every concert - but I had never believed it possible for any Kelly-event. But here is the evidence that it CAN happen like this, the hysteria isn't inevitable. If we simply - take it easy. I'd like to thank everyone who was there for this!

At 8 o'clock the time had finally come… 6 Kellys ran on stage! Not a very great number, I think, but we had of course expected the Barby-Kathy-Johnny delegation to be missing… The first song was Why Why Why - like in the "good old days" - and during the song I had a look at the "new" Kellys - Angelo's hair was in a ponytail, so we had to wait a bit before we could take a glimpse of the new, short version of it. Maite's hair, on the other hand, isn't quite long enough to be put in a bunch any more… but she seems really cool & sexy with her new look - very grown up! I looked at our beautiful Patricia, and praised the Lord (me, the atheist… :-) ) that I could see her again after almost 3 years. And then my glance got stuck somewhere near Jimmy - and I thanked the Heavens above that I was at last allowed to see him live - an unforgettable experience, I must say! The two leadsingers of Why Why Why also impressed me, Joey, the father-to-be (or rather, father-to-be-very-soon), and Paddy in an… uhm…well…interesting pair of greenish, wide trousers that I'd never seen before (doesn't happen often with our Kellys, does it? :-) )

After Why Why Why Jimmy greeted us with the words: "Ihr seid wenig, aber ihr seid gut drauf!" (Not a lot of you, but you're definitely in a good mood!) Well, yes, this was quite a small concert - and I infinitely prefer small concerts - but those who were there were very enthusiastic! Jimmy asked us if we were satisfied with the concert (yeeeah!) "because if you aren't… just tell us… and we'll give another concert… and another… until you're satisfied… so, are you?!" (yeeeah…um, wait a minute…another concert would be great…hmm) Then came Thunder, with the well-known gag - Jimmy pretends his voice is gone, and then screeches at us in soprano in a voice that would do credit to a tawny owl: "Don't laugh! Don't laugh! I can see you! I can memorise your faces! So watch out!" Then Patricia sang Paddy's Looking for Love - beautiful!

During Every Baby we were watching Joey's face intently - decidedly dreamy! Three guesses what he was thinking about! (By the way, Tanja, THANK YOU for not giving birth that night - we would have missed Joey tremendously…)

During I feel love Maite was playing around with the microphone-stand (acting verrry cool…), and of course tried to stand it up again after the song. She managed to do that, so far so good, but as soon as she turned her back on it, it fell over again - everyone burst out laughing and Maite didn't realise what was up… But anyway, Patricia, the good soul, who was getting ready to sing the next song, went over and stood it up again… and while she was doing so knocked the other stand down - it flew off the stage and disappeared somewhere between the fans and the stage. Patricia knelt down and looked down anxiously: "Oh, sorry…", till a security-guy gave the thing to her again. She had a hard time standing it up though, 'cause its legs had gone a bit wonky, and she remarked: "This is a live show…". In the meantime, the Kellys had given the first few notes of the next song - First Time - and while Patricia was fighting with the micros, the fans began to sing all alone! Patricia joined in at the second verse, but she let us sing a lot in that song!

Sometime Maite announced her new song: "The next song…is unreleased… and it's called So many things I wanna do." She had a guitar in her hands (Maite and a guitar? Wow!), and began playing… but stopped again after the first tact: "Hey…stop! Stop! Sorry… something's not quite right…" She looked pleadingly at Paddy, who was grinning like mad, and they tried a few notes together till Paddy indicated that everything was okay - and Maite could play her song. I liked it very much, by the way!!! And also Jimmy's Warriors of Love is something fantastic - not the kind of style you'd expect from the Kellys, but total wicked all the same! We didn't get Paddy playing the keyboards with his head or his arse (excuse my language…) though, like at some recent concerts, and maybe that's just as well… :-)

Before one of the songs there were some problems with the guitars again, and Jimmy triumphantly declared: "That was it, guys! The guitars aren't working… there's no electricity!" (There was, by the way, or are you telling me the lighting works with gas or what?! J) There came a somewhat sarcastic laugh from the technical team, with a murderous glance from Paddy, and suddenly (lo and behold) everything worked again…

It was Key to my Heart that really set me off - it was then that I slowly started realising how wonderful this whole event was - and my cousins and me went plain crazy. Andrea and me started dancing together like mad. At that time we were in about the 10th row, where there isn't really much space to dance, and Andrea managed to rid a man of his sunglasses. The guy was rigid with fury, but we had never been on all too good terms with each other… before the concert I had accidentally trodden on his feet twice, of course I had said sorry, but he hadn't been very convinced. Although I personally think that it happens quite often at a rock-concert that people's feet get trodden on, one shouldn't be so fierce about it, but there we are. And his wife was a trial too… she was very small, and therefore couldn't see much, but she seemed determined to insure that nobody else see anything either - she held her Kelly-scarf, Kelly-pullover and Kelly-picture as high as she could (although I think that after all these years the Kellys have got some kind of a faint idea about what they themselves look like…). We asked, we pleaded, we threatened - but no, she wouldn't take the stuff down for the life of God. It wasn't so bad for me, 'cause I'm tall, but a small blonde girl next to me really missed some of the fun because of this… well, a little more respect for each other would be nice. BUT this was the only bad experience I made in Laa, all the other fans were wonderful. I got to know a Slovak girl - we didn't have a common language, but we danced and sang together a lot, and after the concert I managed to find her again so we could hug each other and say goodbye. There were also a few guys around who had apparently only accompanied their girlfriends to the show - they didn't seem to be too wild about the Kellys. One boy once shouted: "Angelo, I love you!" at the top of his bass voice, and we laughed ourselves silly - and so did Angelo. But apart from this joke there were no Paddy- and Angelo-screams, it was fantastic that for instance I Can't Help Myself and Mama weren't interrupted - COOL!

But… where was I? Oh, yeah, Key to my Heart. So the man roared at us, but he had such a strong Viennese accent that we could only make a (probably quite accurate) guess at what he was saying. Anyway, dancing was so cool that me and my cousins decided to go a bit further back where we don't trample on people after every jump - and I must say it was the best thing we could ever have done! It was simply FANTASTIC! We were still only about 15-20 meters from the stage, but could put all our stuff down, and had SPACE to really dance, party, jump, sing, move… exceptional!!! I'd never have thought it would be so cool… I'd like to say to everybody who always fight for the first rows - just try it one time, ONE TIME, a little further back, I promise you, it'll be beautiful. At small concerts you can see well wherever you stand - but you can't really dance in the first 15 rows, can you?! The whole concert by the way was dominated by ROCK - I wouldn't have thought it! Okay, Bravo said so, but Bravo loves to exaggerate (otherwise they'd never have anything spectacular to report about… J). But this show is 100% a rock-show - sometimes I was grateful when a slower song came at last so I could have a bit of a rest…

Key to my Heart was followed by Rock 'n' Roll Stole my Soul - an endless version! Jimmy sang the verses twice, and made us sing the chorus at least a hundred times before he was satisfied - his sisters were trying to pull him away from the micro, to no avail! Beans-beans was also our part, though Jimmy took over the farting-bit… :-)

Alle Kinder brauchen Freunde was also a riot - Jimmy lost his paper with the songtext on it, and during Paddy's part he was frantically searching for it on the stage… He was also the one who at some point collided with Maite's bass guitar - and pretended to be badly hurt. He stumbled across the stage in a fake daze and almost gave Maite a bad conscience…

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht and Sladdi's Ich vermiss' Dich wie die Hölle were also played… I must say this whole Big Brother-cult is slowly getting on my nerves. Maite quietly mumbled "Jürgen…" while Paddy explained that when they got bored of music they would transform Gymnich into a container with cameras. Then someone remarked: "Then you can watch us having a shower!", but Paddy was aghast by the idea, and said "NO WAY!" decidedly.

Anton aus Tirol was also present, unfortunately Jimmy aus Cologne wasn't… :-)

Please Don't Go was one of the highlights of the show for me, I just LOVE that song, and Jimmy & Patricia sing it beautifully. Patricia suddenly said near the end: "What? Please don't go? You know what, GO! Go home, go home Jimmy, go home!" But they hugged each other at the end of the song, it was really sweet.

When Paddy suddenly asked: "So how many boys do we have here?" I couldn't believe it - does he STILL play the 50-50 game?! It seems so… a concert isn't a concert without 50-50…

Mama was something very special - no cries for Paddy, and a fantastic atmosphere. Maite's dancing, Paddy's extra-high singing, Angelo's part at the end - wonderful.

And of course the Drum Solo also appealed to me - and everybody else. Angelo gets better and better!

But after Take my Hand the Kellys said goodbye… the line of only 6 people seemed depressingly short… then came I Can't Help Myself as the final song, and this fantastic concert came to an end…

After the concert I was happier than I had been for months - I wanted to hug the whole world. This very special Kelly-feeling - beautiful. In the past few months I hadn't really been much of a Kelly-fan anymore - I had sadly thought that this would be my last concert and then I'd stop… but now I know once more exactly why the Kellys are so special - I go to a lot of concerts, but I only have this wonderful feeling at Kelly-concerts - a trance, pleasure, happiness, everything. Thanks so much for all this, Kellys!

And you can definitely count on me for another few concerts, guys!!!

1.7.2000
We talked about the concert all day, and in the afternoon we said goodbye to Mirjam and Trixi and all the others (Thanks a bunch for everything, you're the best!), and found our seats in the bus to Gyor. On the bus we met two really nice guys, and we sang Kelly-songs till we arrived in Gyor 2 hours later. We spent the night at Andrea's again, 3 in the double bed, went to bed still laughing like crazy at 4 in the morning… And next day I travelled back to Budapest again - so ended our big adventure! A spectacular experience!

THE END