Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone unplugged

Date: July 14th 2002; time: 16.00 hours
Location: Nijmegen: St. Stevens of Grote Kerk (St. Stephen's or Great Church)

Picture one. To give you all an idea of how spacious this church is... this one was obviously not taken during the Argent/Blunstone concert. This old church was extra beautiful that afternoon because of many arty flower arrangements which were part of an art exhibition.

Picture two. Andorra. Nobody seemed to miss the Spanish guitar, of course due to Rod's great piano playing.

Picture three. Fiesta. Note the abandonded microphone. Well, Rod explained: because Colin is getting on in years he had to sit down for a while, giving Rod the opportunity to play one of his own compositions from Classically Speaking... Fiesta, a great piece of music and as Rod remarked, it suited the occasion since there was a festival going on in Nijmegen.

Picture four. A Rose For Emily. As always a captive audience during this song.

The following photos are thumbnails. Please click on them for the BIGGER picture.

Picture five. Keep On Rollin'. Another little rest for Colin... not really; he did his utmost to make the audience clap to the beat of the boogie woogie coming from Rod's piano; some of them did; some not, but be sure that was only because of the ambiance...

Picture six. Say You Don't Mind. Someone knew all the lyrics...

Picture seven. I Don't Believe In Miracles. Rod wondered if he and Colin could do this song in this ambiance; is he asking for guidance?

Picture eight. Old and Wise. Old? Ahem... more in their second youth as one reporter wrote... Wise? Well, that's something you must decide...

The following photos are thumbnails. Please click on them for the BIGGER picture.

Setlist:

1. Andorra
2. This Will Be Our Year (As far as the Dutch fans are concerned - and more then a few
have been heard saying this - it already is)
3. What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
4. I Want To Fly (As one Dutch fan said: spine shivering in this acoustic version)
5. Time Of The Season
6. Fiesta (Rod solo)
7. A Rose For Emily
8.Sanctuary
9. Home
10. Keep On Rollin'
11. Say You Don't Mind
12. I Don't Believe In Miracles
13. Old and Wise
14. She's Not There

encore:

Wonderful
Summertime

- with a translation, edited by Mr. Jack Coates -

'Great Voice' Blunstone scheurt in de overdrive
Blunstone's quintessential voice soars

Door ( By) MAARTEN-JAN DONGELMANS

NIJMEGEN - Jezelf onderdompelen in jeugdsentiment en wentelen in popnostalgie. Daar draait het deze zondagmiddag in eerste instantie om tijdens het Grolsch Masterconcert in de Sint-Stevenskerk. Vooral veertigers en vijftigers komen massaal af op Colin Blunstone, de levende legende uit Engeland, die vanaf 1964 zijn eerste hits scoorde met The Zombies.

Nijmegen - To submerge oneself in youthful sentiment and wallow in pop nostalgia: that is the most important thing this Sunday afternoon during the Grolsch Master Concert in the St. Stephen's Church. People, mainly in their forties and fifties, are drawn by Colin Blunstone, the living legend from England, who scored his first hits with The Zombies in 1964.

De magie is er nog steeds. Blunstone, voortreffelijk begeleid aan de piano door collega-Zombie Rod Argent, krijgt de Nijmeegse kathedraal muisstil. Sfeervolle popballads wisselen elkaar af. Het steviger rockwerk blijft dit keer achterwege, uit respect voor de serene setting, zoals Colin vooraf aangeeft. Maar tam is het allerminst.

The magic is still there. Blunstone, accompanied brilliantly on the piano by fellow-Zombie Rod Argent, manages to make the Nijmegen cathedral audience as quiet as mice with one atmospheric pop ballad after another. Loud rock is not played today, as Colin explained, out of respect for the serene ambiance. Though tame it certainly is not.

Opgepept door de swingende beats van Argent scheurt Blunstone moeiteloos in de overdrive. Zijn felle stem vult de gigantische ruimte bij tijd en wijle met adembenemende vocals. Ondanks dat theatrale element weet Blunstone probleemloos een oprechte intimiteit met zijn publiek op te bouwen. In oud, maar vooral ook veel recenter repertoire.

Energized by the swinging beats of Argent, Blunstone effortlessly glides into vocal overdrive. His strong, warm voice occasionally soars to fill the gigantic space in a manner that takes one's breath away. As well as this theatrical element, Blunstone effortlessly succeeds in connecting with his audience, building an intimacy that embraces old and new material alike.

Blunstone en Argent, sinds enkele jaren weer samen actief in de popscene, trakteren de honderden fans op een prettige hoeveelheid nieuw materiaal. I want to fly bijvoorbeeld. Met een hees stemgeluid geeft de zanger een vleugje extra mysterie aan de beginmaten. Heel gevoelig klinkt dan 'my heart is breaking'. Sanctuary ontbreekt evenmin en wordt door de kenners met applaus begroet. Magistraal schalt I don't believe in miracles door de kerk.

Blunstone and Argent, active together again for the last few years in the pop scene, treat the hundreds of fans to a pleasing amount of new material, such as "I Want To Fly". With a stage whisper, the singer adds a hint of extra mystery to the first chords, and follows with a heartfelt 'My heart is breaking'. "Sanctuary" is included, greeted by applause from the audience, clearly connoisseurs. "I Don't Believe In Miracles" resounds magisterially through the church.

In Emily heeft de soundmixer echter hoorbaar moeite met het vinden van een juiste balans tussen de twee zo uiteenlopende zangstemmen.

In "(A Rose For) Emily" the sound engineer unfortunately has problems finding the right balance between the two very divergent singing voices.

She's not there, de wereldhit die ook door Santana is gecovered, mag deze middag uiteraard niet ontbreken en vormt zelfs de finale. Maar niet het einde van Blunstone en Argent als duo: beide heren zijn aan een verrassend frisse tweede jeugd begonnen.

"She's Not There", a worldwide hit that was also covered by Santana, is of course a necessity on this afternoon, and is a fitting conclusion to the concert. But that does not mean the end of Blunstone and Argent as a duo; both gentlemen have begun a surprisingly rejuvenated second youth.

Concert: Colin Blunstone, zang, en Rod Argent, piano en zang. Gehoord: zondagmiddag in de Grote of Sint-Stevenskerk te Nijmegen

Concert: Colin Blunstone, vocals, and Rod Argent, piano and vocals, given on Sunday afternoon 14th July 2002, in St. Stephens's Church, Nijmegen.

(Obviously the reporter missed the encore...)

Review from a Dutch fan:

Double gig in Nijmegen

A very impressive concert in Nijmegen yesterday (July 14th). Some brilliant mind had conceived the idea of having Colin and Rod perform in a church, with a purely acoustic set. To our surprise the place filled up almost to capacity (and this was not a free concert, though the 3 euro entrance fee was very modest), which means that at least 500 people were there, breathlessly listening to one of the most beautiful performances I've ever witnessed. Everyone was sitting in pews, not everybody's favorite position, certainly not in the eyes of Colin and Rod, who normally prefer having the audience hanging around in front of the stage. But at least there was complete silence (bless the absence of a noisy bar in the average church!), and the appreciation was certainly no less, and the churchy resonance was simply amazing.

It was all over at 5.15, and as usual the boys were more than willing to chat a little afterwards and pose for pictures. Four hours later they did another gig, just a few hundred yards away from the church, in a completely different setting: a huge open air stage on the bank of the river Waal. Reunited with the rest of the band, this set was more like they usually do. There was a huge audience there, but possibly this was partly because one of Holland's most popular bands, Bløf, was the follow-up act.

Frans de Graaff

This old church was extra beautiful that afternoon because of many
arty flower arrangements which were part of an art exhibition.

Now, of course after seeing these pictures and reading the review, all you fans want some more (somehow that sounds familiar...). Well, be sure that Rod and Colin would like to do a few more of these unplugged concerts. So what can you do?

Well, you could for instance send the link of this page to your local venues (not necessarily churches) or to anybody in the music business who might be able to make an unplugged concert like the one in Nijmegen happen again.

But you might have better ideas... if so please mail these to Rod or to Colin

(sponsor of the Nijmegen concert)

www.grolsch.nl (for Dutch fans)

www.grolsch.com (for English speaking fans)

For more about the beautiful venue: www.stevenskerk.nl

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