Frida in Concert - Report

She was EXQUISITE!

Marcel ( co-ABBA fan and good friend) and I arrived around noon in Cologne and the first thing we did was driving to Saturn what is supposed to be the biggest record store in the world. They say. Anyway we just had to get to get a copy of Beyond The Notes by Jon Lord as it is still unavailable in The Netherlands ( as far as I know) The CD was # 62 in the charts in his first week apparently, not bad for a “classical” album. I have listened to the album and I really liked it I must admit, did not know what to expect.

To make a long story short, when we got at the Vulkanhalle at seven o’clock it was quite busy already, we were looking for some familiar faces in the crowd but didn’t see any. Lots of J. Lord fans: middle aged man with ponytails! ABBA fans where easy to recognize as well: thirty somethings with flowers in cellophane and women with hennaed hair! We did not bring any flowers.

The Vulkanhalle is a very cosy place by the way, lots of atmosphere, not very big. About 800 people? We were in row 12, not bad. DVD recordings were being made during the show and we were being told to applaud enthusiastically, not to walk, sneeze, cough, fart, whatever.

The concert began with a song called Picture Within sang by Miller Anderson, the man has a great voice. Or as Jon said later "he sings what I would sing if I could sing". After that more rocky and classical and cross-over stuff, actually quite good! I really enjoyed the music. Sam Brown was wonderful. Where has she been all these years? Did I miss something? Love that woman.

The alcohol break. It was hot inside so a very welcome break it was. I said hello to Paul Carter who said Frida was indeed In The Building (phew!) but he didn't meet her. Then I greeted Helga and Anita of the fan club but since nobody seemed to be very thrilled to see me, I went back to drink my beer with buddy Marcel ;-)

After the break. When was she going to sing? I suddenly, for the first time actually, I was beginning to feel excited! I really liked the music and the show, I more or less had forgotten all about Frida. (yeah sure!)

I think it was about a quarter to eleven when, after a musical piece, somebody put the microphone stand a bit higher (Sam Brown is a shortly) and Jon Lord introduced another Nordic connection ( his orchestra was from Norway) and just said "here's Frida". BIG applause. She came on dressed in that Chanel outfits she wore in Berlin. She looked so... Frida-ish. Very calm and serious. Beautiful. She looked tall as she stood there, something I suddenly realized. She kissed Jon, thanked the orchestra and began to SING. God, she sang live. I thought she would, I hoped she would, but still... That voice. It was perfect, soft, warm, strong. She still has that perfect timing. It was spot on! I knew she could do it, I mean if there's anyone that can sing live it's Frida! I wished it would last forever. It was just SO f****ing beautiful! Marcel and I looked at each other and we where just ah! Alas, everything has it's end, so has The Sun Will Shine Again. Thunder, applause, cheers, flowers. She wanted to say something but couldn't because of the applause. Then when she talked, to thank Jon's wife Vicky and Jon himself and everybody else who helped her she had the strongest Swedish accent I had heard coming from her mouth in years! She must have been nervous.

After the encores they all came in stage again, Frida too. She looked so happy and relaxed, it was great to see. She really enjoyed being there, being part of that whole thing, being on stage again. She kissed Sam Brown and the percussionist, joked with the musicians. As they all stood in line and bowed the audience ran/walked towards the stage (me too!) fans were giving Frida more flowers but she seemed a bit embarrassed: it was Jon Lord's concert not hers. He should be the one they'd give flowers to not her. But don't worry Frida wouldn't be Frida if she didn't accept them anyway!

When all had left, and the applause died down a bit, Jon Lord came on stage once more to say thank you to the audience. He was really touched by all the enthusiasm and he said that this is the best thing of being a musician.

All in all an absolutely wonderful concert! I loved Jon Lord, a very sympathetic man and I ....( no words) Frida!

Thank you for reading Amen!

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Bonnie Rietveld, Amsterdam, The Netherlands