Vatican Concert Review

Anna Fabiani - Italy

One month ago, more or less, I was driving back home, well ..to be honest I should say that I was "trying" to drive back home, cuz as always in Roma there was a terrible traffic jam, and I was in the middle of it! While I was seriously considering the fact to emulate Michael Douglas in his famous movie.. or at least to runaway in desert of Sahara, leaving behind that crazy city...my cellular phone saved me and started to ring...it was my friend Roberta calling me from Padova (maybe someone knows her better as "the dry Louise":) telling me the unexpected news: "KEITH, Bryan and Mickey will be in Roma in one week, for the annual Vatican show!" PANIC! We started to make plans, last time they were here was 3 years ago...we're lucky to have Pope ...at least!:)

It was simply great, considering all the trips we made to see the guys ( Uk, Austria and Gemany......) this seemed to be the ideal situation...... no planes to take, no kilometers to drive... just ten minutes from my house ( traffic apart..of course!) ..there's Vatican City! Everything seemed to be so easy....too much easy, I should have thought what this would mean...

In fact the first worrying thing happened when I went to buy tickets..there was no sign of Bryan Adams on the list of the artists planned to be guests of the show!! PANIC! ...again..People at the agency didn't seem to know anything about it, so considering the high cost of the tickets (it wasn't supposed to be a charity show?!?!) and being sure that Robbi would surely had killed me..I decided to try to have a confirmation...pestering Ceri! (Just a warning..don't try to emulate me..or she will kick me out of the FC!!). Gotta say that she was an angel (just to use an euphemism:) with me (thanks heaps Cer**) (No problem, sweetie. You are never a pest! :-) Ed) so I finally got the tickets! But a kinda sixth sense told me to say to Robbi to bring her opera glasses..it was helpfull at least!:)

Taking a more accurate sight at the tickets a little detail took my attention.."dress coat is kindly request"..ehehe..we'll finally have the chance to look decent for a concert! This was definitely cause of lots of laughs for us, being a shopping addict I have a big wardrobe..this means that we spent a funny evening doing a kinda fashion show..at the end Roberta winning the oscar of most wise and patient gal in the house at the moment..did her choice, and I ended wearing a very moderate "mourning dress"..heheh real vatican style, believe me!

We tried also, of course to find out in which hotel they were..with no success! We saw literaly half of the cast of the concert..Tosca, Anguun, the Irish band, Nek..etc...but no signs of the guys! TRAGEDY! This is ironic..cuz we always had the chance to meet them in every place we had been, but it seemed was quite impossible in Roma! This was cuz the entire organization of the show was made by Vatican..and in my experience I knew this was not a good thing for us! Vatican is like a 007 organization..they know very well how to keep things secret!

Finally the day of the concert arrived and we went to the Vatican, there we met some other fans, we tried to wait to the main entrance..trying to corrupt the swiss guards..result= they are incorruptable! We had more luck with the "italian" guards, cops..result= they are italians...if you know what i mean, once again we had lots of infos about some artists..apart for those we were looking for! At this point i honestly started to think that they would had really cancelled their performance!

Wanna say a word for Martina who simply had a chat with every single element of the Irish band..at least we had the info that they had just made soundcheck!! GREAT! While I was talking on my cellular phone, and some of us were talking with Nek (who's an italian singer) a car sorted out of the main entrance...and I saw Bryan, who was beside the driver!!
Everything starts from here! Something that I call: "the mutation", two quite normal almost thirty years old gals, who are transformed in a sort of Thelma & Louise rough copy! (This I would LOVE to see! :-) Ed) In just a second "mutation" took place..and I immediately started to act like a dumb...with a reflex movement I simply closed my ericcson leaving speachless the person on the line..the car stopped near us for a while..I tried to see through the dark rear window..I guess that you already know that I was looking for Keith! But unfortunately my x-ray sight didn't work! Soon the car went away and that was all....for the moment! How can you imagine, we were speachless...and grrrr upset too! :))
Meanwhile, it started to rain, and this suggested me that maybe things could go better...rain has been a constant of every meeting with Keith. I was completely wet in Rankweil...but this is another story.. a great one...do you remember Keith???:)
I wasn't wrong infact ...some time later.the unbelieveble happened ..while smoking the thousand cigarette of the day ( yeah I have this bad habit too...) I just turned my head and I saw Keith and Mickey coming by walk!!!!!!!!!!!!! You must know that in this situation I always have an apparent calm, just apparent...anyway in this mood I announced the situation to my friends, as if it was the most common thing in the world to see them walking down the street!

I'm sure you can imagine which my real feelings were, I was just shocked and surprised to meet them in such an easy way!! So we had a nice chat with them, I chatted only to Keith to be honest:)) While we were chatting a funny thing happened , a man who was there for the show too, decided to speak to Keith....in italian!!! I had to make a quick translation to Keith, the man said that Keith was a kind of charming prince ( I guess he was very impressed by our reaction when we saw Keith,.) and some other things like this, that's how italians are ...a bit intrusive, but funny!:)

Keith was kind as ever, we talked about his audience with the Pope, kissing the holy hand, ring I guess..what a lucky guy...the Pope of course! We also talked a bit about soccer, derby that was going to be the next day, he knows I'm a big Roma team supporter, so he was teasing me saying that he would had supported Lazio..anyway we won the derby Keith!)) We took also some pics...unfortunately I only have one pic of that day, Keith also gave his digi camera to someone to take a pic of us.. guess you'll see it here! They had to go and we wait to go inside the Aula Nervi to see the show!!

I realized that we had bad seats, very far!! Gosh...it happens every time...The Aula Nervi was full of people,..we and other gals had different seats, so we weren't all together...Katia one of the other gals, was going to find her place while she met keith outside, ..she definetely had the lucky ticket!
All the artists performed for free to help a charity project, and they all met the Pope the day before the show. The concert was broadcasted on TV and radio on Christmas Eve. It was amazeing to be in the heart of the Vatican and see them there, a perfect mixture of sacred and profane, very suggestive!

All of it was very special - but the highlight was, of course was Bryan , who opened the show and charmed everyone with a touching "Christmas Time" on the acoustic guitar , and then they ROCKED the place with his new song written right for the occasion: "On Christmas Day"!

Keith was particularly elegant all in black ( perfect italian style!:) i'm sure the ones who saw him on tv really appreciated ...isn't it? i did..anyway!)

It was amazing to see all the show, we had a moment of complete convulsive laugh during the performance of a japanese artist of Theatre of no..with all the respect for this ancient form of art, you can comprehend that half of the audience was hardly trying to refrain their laughs! It was a blast!

At the end, Bryan came back on stage to sing "Happy Christmas" with everyone else. And here there was another funny moment of the show, cuz the italian gruop who was singing the song in english made some horrible errors, and many of the artists on the stage ( bryan too..heheh) were laughing...so at least a very funny show!:)We had so much fun cheering for them among such an elegant (and pretty old ;)!) audience! :)))

After the show we didn't have the chance to meet them again, we tried, but it was such a caos, there were a lot of italian vips and people from showbiz etc..but it has been great to have meet Keith!!! Well from the eternal city it's all for now! Till the next time...
Anna