George Michael 'Return Of Symphonica'
"I do love all that the (Twitter) Lovelies give us, I feel as if I’m there..."Such is the power of A George Michael #TwitterLive Vienna Come Back Concert!
Back from his near death experience in this very city, barely 10 months ago, he celebrated his return to health and musical superstardom by performing to a capacity crowd of 16,000. They filled the complex, octagonal seating layout of the Weiner Stadhalle.
This special audience included his Father, his best friend, partner Fadi Fawaz and the medical staff of the AKH Hospital that saved his life. He generously donated 1,000 tickets to the staff for last night’s performance. It’s reported that 300 doctors, nurses & ancillary hospital staff were present. With his permission the hospital put the remainder 700 tickets on sale and raised over 60,000 Euros for Lung Research.
An army of press waited in the auditorium in front of the stage to later saturate the European press with "GEORGE TRIUMPHANT" pics, resplendent in his purple suit, crisp white shirt and black tie, looking fresh faced and healthy. He was late (as usual) but the crowd were just happy to be there and raved, tweeting their pleasure during the whole concert. Not too talkative in the first half, George was relaxed and wowed the audience with his peerless voice, wonderful backing singers, sextet and superb Czech National Orchestra. How do I know this? Because I was online following the concert on Twitter of course!!! There were photo uploads galore. I knew what the press looked like as well as George. Granted they were not a pretty sight but heyho!In case you’re wondering about this very Un-Twitterlite format... I’ve been sanctioned due to space requirements! No not sectioned! Although that might be a handy defence for when my next defamatory Vienna Twitterlight review is published on the George Michael Dutch, French & English Twitter fan sites, (@GeorgeMichaelNL, @GeorgeMichaelNews & @GMFamilyForums). But I digress, back to the #TwitterLive concert facts.
Uploaded was the familiar see through red curtain & fantastic sinuous, swirling Persian motif visuals as the Orchestra began & George appeared from the inky depths singing his opening number Through. His first cover of the night followed with Nina Simone’s My Baby Just Cares For Me. Then the first set change for 2012 and Father Figure made its surprising appearance with a different musical intro from the original. George by now in full swing gestured to the audience to sing the last word.Next a beautiful Sax solo accompanied the long time crowd favourite, Cowboys And Angels. If there was any worries about his voice the next tweets took care of it. "George was doing some gymnastics with his voice...playing with high and lower notes! Amazing". "George Michael’s voice sounds Amazingly powerful and clear!" "He sounds...unbelievable". "George doesn’t hold back now". "#Georgeisback Volume 100% #Symphonica2". "You know that note in Wild Is The Wind? Yeah, that one. Chills!" "...He’s never sounded better!". George said "Doesn’t it feel great to be alive?"
The second half opened with another set list change for 2012 Waiting For That Day and George in a dark suit with a black shirt. The crowd, who before, were well behaved, opened up and showed their appreciation. As usual the gloves were now off and so was the roof! "...the venue is now on their feet!...and dancing!" "Wiener Stadthalle has no roof anymore! :-0 Really crazy here"
"George says, ‘Come on sing with me’, ‘Come on louder'". ‘Now you do it, last sentence...You can’t always get what you want. But you can try. You bring luck to me".
Patience followed and John And Elvis Are Dead. "Written for my best friend David who is here tonight", (big cheer from the audience), then he whispers, "he doesn’t really deserve it!" The rest remained the same as before with "A little change in the arrangement of A Different Corner". During Praying For Time the fans started rushing to the front of the stage in anticipation of the dance medley that followed with pics to prove it! "When everybody rushed to the stage...George said, ‘Oh Hello!’" Bev from George Michael.com said "I get the feeling a lot of these folks have been here before. They’re moving to the front of the stage at the START of Praying For Time ;-0""I’d like to take this opportunity to say that there are a number of people without whom none of us would be here tonight. This is one of the greatest honours of my life to sing to the men and women who saved my life". George Michael flawlessly then performed his version of Nina Simone’s I’m Feeling Good, as requested by one of the doctors. The whole venue at this stage was going crazy..."People are swaying their arms, the orchestra is just about to drop to the floor laughing so to speak :-)". "We’ve got some Stamp McStampers in the crowd, pleading for an encore :-) #Symphonica - Bev". "@GMSingers are already highfiving and rightly so, their contribution was extra special as they supported George 1,000% tonight." "I’m Your Man! Such a party". "Audience likes the George Michael/@GMSingers sandwich". Amazing and Freedom made up the explosive dance trilogy.
"One last treat for you before we go. I think given the manner of men and women who did save my life, we could not go without singing this song...Lets hear it for the people who saved my life". A special performance of White Light followed the enormous round of applause for the AKH Staff and closed the show. "And its over, the curtain is closed, lights on and no more George". "His voice was stunning". "That’s a wrap folks. Thanks for joining us for the first show of round 2 of Symphonica. See you Thursday – Bev" (6th September). As usual it’s said best when George Michael’s Twitter followers, his 'Lovlies' say it..."I was not there and I felt every note...Thank you so much for bringing everything to us in the way that you do...J".