Thanks to Kontxi in San Sebastian for this review:

During the short time I reviewed live shows, I always tried to put my heart away, but this time won’t be easy...

We spent the day in Donostia/San Sebastián (the sun treated me badly) together with Pedro (The Logical Group) and his wife. I love showing my homeland to first time visitors.

It was almost seven when we got to the hall of concerts (Kursaal). The ticket office was already opened but not the doors, so we had a coffee next door and looked at the sea for a while. We came back closer to the time, in my case, to go directly to the desk and buy the DVD I had had in mind for such a long time... Excellent material (and thanks for the dedicatory!!!). They also had cds, t-shirts and signed pictures.

It was a bit after eight when he came on stage, all in white, rubbing his hands before he started with “Take the Long Way Home” –in my area!-.

Roger’s first speech:

“Do You speak English? Gracias, muchas gracias for being here and not watching the football Eurocup. We can all cross our fingers now, ok? And when we finish the concert, we’ll go and find the good news”

During these first five minutes, controlling my heartbeat was specially hard, I could almost hear it myself. After 25 years, it was high time... not only could I hear it well (beautifully, actually) but also see it fine. That seventh of July, 1983 in Madrid (Famous Last Words tour), my height and the huge distance between the stage and myself made a difference.

After thanking us for choosing him over the soccer match (Eurofinal between Spain and Germany) the show continued, taking turns between his 2 guitars and pianos. “Give a Little Bit,” that, together with “It’s Raining Again” are probably the 2 songs I can still hear more often-even nowadays-in local and national radio stations, drew the first big ovation.

In my area, there seemed to be (I say this because of their comments) most nostalgic followers. They didn’t recognise the 3 songs from the solo albums–favourites of mine I must say-(“Lovers in the Wind,” “Along Came Mary,” and “The More I Look”), not even “Rosie Had Everything Planned” from the second Supertramp album, great as well. This ignorance made them say: “I hope he plays the tune from “Informe Semanal” (they meant “Another Man’s Woman,” used long time ago as soundtrack for this Spanish TV show and the way many started to know Supertramp in this country). Absent-minded people everywhere…

Most of the greatest hits could be heard during the night, but I can’t help mentioning I missed “KNOW WHO YOU ARE.”  Wow, I hear it while I write, and still, it send shivers down my spine.

A few days before, the Portsmouth man (I must take the “Pride of Bilbao” ferry some day from Santurtzi, it’s just 5 minutes from my place!) had mentioned in a local newspaper that he would be playing two or three unpublished songs (he finally decided not to). He was probably right. We look forward to seeing them included in his forcoming live CD anyway.

I guess that in the same way, the artist likes to know his public’s opinion and see their reactions (the lights were on after each song), the audience–at least me-also like to know what his perception is about ourselves. There were a few references, like that in the times of “Crime of the Century.”  Spanish audiences went crazy, but he also told us we were very respectful and quiet...

He mentioned that his songs were a reflection of his journey through life, and he hoped they were part of our lives, too. He said that in his early twenties, there was a lot of confusion and that was in his compositions as well.

For the Encore, Roger came happy and said:

“I have good news, Spain is winning 1-0. So you still have your fingers crossed, yeah? Ok, what do you want to hear? You want to hear School? Let’s try School.”

I can’t help mentioning, either, that his vocal/musical quality is intact (I had to hear/see it to believe it, I must say) and that there’s a little hope inside me that this “extremely short,” ha ha, show, will have a continuation some time in the future.

Very nice (and handsome) Aaron, who said hello to the audience in Spanish, very correctly I must say, and he even went out to the street to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

A date to remember...