September 4th. 2014
Impromptu benefit concert in the Music Hall of Worpswede, Germany, with many surprises and highlights. A special night with the old BG hits and even the BG disco classics performed acousticly and accompanied by a beautiful piano. I am so glad that I had decided to travel to Worpswede to see this special performance of my friends. Together with a hall full of enthusiastic people, we had a great night.
In the early afternoon we all gathered at Blue and Sigrid’s house and from there we later on went to the Music Hall.
Stayin’ Alive performed on piano that really is an experiment. However that was the complete performance of Blue Weaver and the Italian Bee Gees as there had been very little time to rehearse before they all went on stage at the Music Hall. The first time for them to give a show like this in this small setting: just Blue, the 3 brothers, their keyboard player Roberto Risorto and their singer Laura Ugolini. The Italian Bee Gees do not only sound a lot like the original, they also are 3 brothers: Walter, Davide and Pasquale Egiziano. A very good team: Blue Weaver, (for many years he was original Band member of The Bee Gees and wrote several of their huge hits with the Gibb brothers) and the Italian tribute band are already touring for several years together through Europe doing the Bee Gees Show called Massachusetts.
The evening started with Doris Fischer thanking everyone who had contributed to making it possible that the Music hall now has this beautiful Bösendorfer concert piano on its stage. Blue Weaver opened the show with a little chat about the new piano and his working with the Gibb Brothers and got really emotional talking with so much love and respect about that period and the wonderful Gibb music. When he closes his eyes being on stage with his Italian friends he often hears and things about the Gibbs again. He felt so sad that after first young brother Andy had died and then Maurice and two years ago Robin lost a battle against cancer, leaving Barry Gibb behind as the only Gibb brother. That situation inspired Blue to write a special song for Barry and exclusively for this evening he performed that song with the Egiziano Brothers for the first time. Just he on the piano and the 3 voices: “Now We Are One”. Wow…. what a highlight to start the evening with!!
This evening was organized in the first place to get the final amount of money together for financing the Bösendorfer concert piano for the Music Hall. Blue Weaver is the very first artist who’s playing this piano in the Worpsweder Music Hall. Most of the money came from gifts, sponsors and of course entrance tickets and all the artists playing on stage this September 4th. were performing for free. Right this first evening everyone could hear the wonderful and rich sound of this piano. The piano as well as the artists during this events are first class and with all the improvisations this special performance is very charming and gives a wonderful atmosphere on stage as well as amongst the audience in the hall. Specially the voices of the 3 singers, originially brothers like the Gibbs were, are matching perfectly. They easily sing the falsetto parts and have no problems at all with the unusual arrangements which differ from how they usually perform with their full live band on stage.
lue Weaver, the first artist playing the Bösendorfer piano at the Music Hall. He starts with a very special song which he wrote for Barry (after Robin’s death) and now for the first time performs it with the Egiziano Brothers!!
Davide and Pasquale Egiziano now and then play the acoustic guitars and in between songs Blue tells anecdotes from his years working with the Bee Gees and explains how certain songs were composed. Also the original Bee Gees band never performed in such a small setting. However often, after coming back in the hotel having done a live show they loved to sit around the piano in the hotel bar and just start to sing, play and jam for fun. A situation which was also very nice for the few hotels guests still present at that time in the bar and enjoyed listening to this relaxing way of making music. That same feeling was there in the Music Hall of Worpswede where the audience loved this performance from the first moment on and Blue explained that it had been just that memory of the relaxing way of making music in the hotel bars after the huge live shows during their Bee Gees tours which gave him the idea of organizing this show in the same way.
Amongst the audience there were also a number of real fans of the Bee Gees music and of The Italian Bee Gees and after the romantic sounds of How Deep Is Your Love, me and some other fans gave roses to all the artists on stage as well as Blue’s wife Siggi, to thank them for this great event. The Brothers and Blue were very happy that good friends of them had come to this event and joined the experience with them and they specially thanked by mentioning us. (Anja, Detlef, Gerard and myself, Marion). The audience as well as the artists probably have been surprised, as well as proud and happy that this evening proved that well known big disco hits can be so special even without rhythm instruments and sound amplifiers. Besides the Bee Gees musical arrangements their compositions are so good that they are time less and usefull in many situations. So it turned out to become an evening with lots of highlights and lovely memories which will stay even until long after this piano has been paid for.
After each performance the Italians always are relaxed and have time for the audience and to chat with friends or sign items and let some photos taken etc.
Photo Report 13 images
Also read:
Wese Kurier Mit Flügel in neue musikalische Höhen
Weser Kurier Disco-Klassiker als akustische Songs mit Flügelbegleitung
For more photos visit:
www.private-beegees-archives.de
