Burggarten / Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Report by David Braic.
Publishing with kindly permission by Paul Deblond.
Original on www.blackmoresnight.nu
Photos by Alexander Samoylovich / http://home.fotocommunity.de/alexls/

Reflections from Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Having seen the shows in Fulda, Bremen and Wertheim the show in Rothenburg must have reached absolute top peek of the whole tour…..

After arriving to Rothenburg before noon and checking in to the wonderful hotel ”Göttlische Haus” I was amazed by this beautiful town. All the houses, buildings, churches, towers seemed like a medieval fairytale…absolutely amazing, and I recommend everyone to visit this charming town. There are many nice stores where you can find medieval souvenirs, swords, medieval clothing and even knights' armour etc. For those of you who don’t know, the cover of ”Under A Violet Moon” is taken from Rothenburg.

After several strolls in the town once again the Blackmore’s Night family consisting of people from USA, England, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland etc. was gathering …in order to consume some more beers (!!) then back to the hotel and change to medieval costumes and then a nice walk to the beautiful castle with its beautiful courtyard… The great Italian band La Zag opened again and then we were all waiting for the main act…

So once again the German version of ”Les Miserable” was heard through the PA-system and shortly after Ritchie’s guitar synthesizer intro the band started of with Cartouche… you could immediately tell that Ritchie was in a good mood, Rothenburg is one of his favourite places which surely gives him an extra kick… every song performed this magical evening was amazing and the highlights from my point of view were:

Minstrel hall:
Played with absolute highest precision and you could hear a pin drop…

Home again:
Was played early in the set so people rushed near the stage, after the song Bob said: ”Please take your seats” and so we did…. during the song the German anthem was played, and also Edvard Grieg’s ”Hall Of The Mountain King” strange that no one shouted Sweden !!! this time… how come Paul?

Fires at midnight:
Absolute top version… excellent guitar solo in the middle, Candice introduced this song and mentioned that the sound of her instrument draw attention to some birds quote “so if you see some strange birds during this song it’s because of this instrument”

Ghost of a rose:
This song is an amazing Blackmore’s Night song, it moves me deeply.. though the lack of the cellos live, the song grows more and more … and this special night the song in some way was absolutely brilliant. Maybe also because the word ”ghost” has another meaning to me after this German tour…. thanks David Hall from San Francisco for introducing a new scary experience in this life……the ghost hunt 9th July was special..…. Anyway.. the song is inspired by sir Edward Elgars Cello concerto in E-minor,( don’t remember the number of the opus…) and the tragic story of the late cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, If you like drama watch the film ”Hilary and Jackie” which tells the sad story about Jacqueline du Pre.

Wind in the willows:
Works very good live, everyone in the audience seemed to sing along with the chorus


Überraschungen!!

Temple of the king:
2 verses and one chorus were performed… excellent…

Purple haze:
Intro plus two verses sung by Bob… great Jimi Hendrix nostalgia

Black night / Woman from Tokyo:
The well known Black Night riff started and then Ritchie incorporated the riff from Woman From Tokyo several times before going for Black Night

Smoke on the water??!
Yes, folks…. Intro plus one verse sung by Candice and the audience of course sang, screamed and shouted during the chorus…

Now and then
The show closed with this one…

Conclusion:
Great weather, full moon rising during the concert, the international Blackmore’s Night family gathered, great concert in the most beautiful town I’ve seen, 11th July 2003 was a fairytale coming true…….. Who could ask for more……………

Thanks again Ritchie & Candice and the band of minstrels for bringing me your emotionally moving music and for giving me opportunities to see all these amazing castles and locations in Germany…. Hope to see you again next summer….. or earlier