Schlosshof / Fulda

Report by Paul Deblond and Daniel Olsson.
Publishing with kindly permission by Paul Deblond.
Original on www.blackmoresnight.nu

The next stop on our "Scandinavian Minstrels on the road" tour was the beautiful city of Fulda. We checked out the venue during the day and noticed that it was the biggest venue so far. A guard told us that it could hold up to 1900 people and it did! The weather conditions were perfect and once again, La Zag entered the stage and played a similar set to the one in Würselen.

Blackmore's Night entered the stage at 21.15 and opened as usual with Cartouche. You could tell early on that Ritchie were in an extremely good mood. I have never seen him talk and joke that much before! He was jumping around all over the stage and doing a lots of "hey!". Wind In The Willows was added into the set and really grew live. They hadn't played it for a while but it sounded perfect to me. About 1/3 into the set it was time to rock it up a little with 16th Century Greensleeves which would become, well, very different to say the least. Halfway into the song Ritchie called for Bob and wanted to switch instruments. Bob looked very surprised, to say the least. So all of a sudden Ritchie had a bass guitar and performed quite a nice bass solo. Bob showed that he could handle the guitar (almost) as well as the bass. Bob commented the situation with "Please forgive me I do not know what I'm doing". It was quite a sight folks and I surely won't forget it!

With the Würselen show fresh in mind I was afraid that this would be a rather short gig (Sunday night, outdoor and the curfew) luckily I was wrong. They kept on playing and playing, giving us a sensitive version of I Still Remember, loud sing-a-long versions of Home Again and All For One. Once again I shouted "Sweden!" during the lower part of Home Again and sure enough we got the Hall Of The Mountain King theme. While Ritchie was tuning the hurdy gurdy for the intro to The Clock Ticks On he asked me if I was from Sweden (Ritchie was talking to me during the show!? I was delighted and excited at the same time) I quickly replied "yes". "Whereabouts" said Ritchie, "Malmo" I replied, "Well, we all got our problems" he said smilingly. Wow! I talked to Ritchie during the show! I couldn't believe it. I was happy as a kid (again). I will treasure the Fulda show forever. However, one of the surprises of the show was still to come. "Any requests" Candice said and the choice seemed obvious to everyone in the front rows. Everybody shouted "MANDALAY!" and Mandalay we got! I don't understand why they don't have it in their set list because it becomes even better live. A splendid version of Beyond The Sunset (almost tears folks) and Dandelion Wine concluded a perfect evening that had everything. Perfect weather, good music and good company from our fellow Germans. .

Showtime: approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes

Setlist:

Intro
Cartouche
Play Minstrel Play
Under A Violet Moon
Wind In The Willows
Past Time With Good Company
Minstrel Hall
Soldier Of Fortune
16th Century Greensleeves (incl Ritchie on bass)
Mr Peagram's Morris & Sword
Village On The Sand
Durch Den Wald Zum Bach Haus
Queen For A Day 1 & 2
Ghost Of A Rose
Renaissance Faire
I Still Remember
Home Again
The Clock Ticks On


Encore:

All For One
Difficult To Cure/Self Portrait
Keyboard solo
Writing On The Wall
Rainbow Blues
Way To Mandalay
Beyond The Sunset
Dandelion Wine