AMSTERDAM

TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF MY TOE - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + Mick [Keyboard] + String Quartet

A PROPER FOOL - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet

MY PLACE OR YOURS - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + Mick [Keyboard]

Gilbert said "Goede avond [Dutch for good evening].  This tour first started last October in the UK.  We did all around the UK and Ireland and now we are doing these dates in Europe.  We started in Zurich, went to Paris, Antwerp and now here we are today.  I'd never been to Zurich.  In Paris I said that it's 34 years since I've been here.  But of course I've been here before.  It's not the second or third time I've been here.  It's great to be back in this wonderful theatre.  Over the years in my career I have been lucky to collect many awards and of course they are all very special and in recent time I've gotten platinum discs and platinum CDs.  Yes I do get some [joking].  [Audience laughter].  The most important one to me is this one [Kevin enters stage left holding a gold disc].  This is what I received from Holland in 1971 [holding up the disc].  [Loud audience applause].  It doesn't matter how many discs I receive in the future this is the one that will always be closest to my heart."  [Loud audience applause].

NOTHING RHYMED - [From the album "HIMSELF"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet + Nick [Bass] + Julian [Flute]

Instant recognition of this song with warm applause.

"Was that really me up there? [referring to the video that played during 'Nothing Rhymed'].  It's interesting that if you look at pictures of people like David Bowie, Sweet, and Marc Bolan from that period, they look really old fashioned.  I look quite fashionable with my hair.  Mind you at the time I looked like I'd escaped from an asylum.  [Audience laughter].

OUT OF THE QUESTION - [From the album "BACK TO FRONT"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

"Okay what's next? [glancing at the typed set list on the piano].  I said to my brother this morning 'Every year the writing gets bigger'.  What can you do?"  In the middle of Gilbert's count in to the next song, a mobile phone rang.  "What the hell was that he asked?" [Gilbert is not a fan of mobile phones and doesn't own one].

MISS MY LOVE TODAY - [From the album "SOUTHPAW"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard]

KNOW WHAT, YOU'RE RIGHT - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet

Gilbert asked "Where's Bill?  You see I change the set around and people are waiting in the wings saying 'Number 5, it's not me, I'll be 6.'  But suddenly Ray says 6 before 5."  [Bill rushes on stage].

WE WILL - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Bill [guitar] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

Bill plays a particularly nice accompaniment to this song with the help of a guitar slider [metal tube placed on one finger].

"This next song is interesting, but I would say that.  I wrote it in 1968 before most of you were born.  When people talk about "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" [quoting verse] and ask what was John Lennon on when he wrote it, he must have been in Amsterdam.  Well I wrote:

Now down among the Partridge trees

Lives a "Don" who loves his knees

So much so he's framed them in a jar

What was I on when I wrote that.  I hate to disappoint you, probably just tea and biscuits."

NIAMH & CHARLOTTE

MR. MOODY'S GARDEN - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Accordion] + Julian [Voices]

DOOR CLOSES - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet

"1-2-3-4."

I'M IN LOVE WITH LOVE AGAIN - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet

It's kind of interesting when you are preparing songs for a concert tour.  Obviously I don't listen to my own songs.  And I have a catalogue that goes back 40 years.  The only time I listen to my songs is when I have to get ready for a concert.  It's a nice situation to be in when you go through the material, because you come across songs that you'd totally forgotten about.  You think to yourself, that's pretty good, I might do that one......Somebody has to! [Audience laughter].  It's also nice to take an old song and adapt it in a slightly different way, sometimes simple and this is an example of that."

SOMETIMES - [From the album "SOUNDS OF THE LOOP"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + Julian [Flute]

"I've toured consistently since 1990, but when we went to Zurich, people said there that they thought I was dead!  You know 'out of sight, out of mind, in a coffin, under the ground!  We are now touring much more than we've ever done.  Last year was the biggest and the best we've ever done.  It was a fantastic tour.  We have a fantastic team.  Plans are already in place for next year and we are hoping to go to America in the second half of this year.  So it's all very good and exciting.  I used to get a lot of criticism because I wrote this song.  The critics would say 'He can't be that good if he wrote that song.'  Well I'm going to do that song.

OOH-WAKKA-DOO-WAKKA-DAY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute]

A cartoon featuring Gilbert is played on the screen at the back of the stage during the song.

CLAIR - [From the album "BACK TO FRONT"]

Gilbert [Electric Piano] + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Harmonica]

STICK IN THE MUD - [From the album "FROBISHER DRIVE / IN THE KEY OF G"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

CAN'T GET YOU TO LOVE ME - [From the album "A STRANGER IN MY OWN BACK YARD"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

MAKE MY DAY - [From the album "PIANO FOREPLAY"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band+ Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

NO MATTER HOW I TRY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band+ Mick [Keyboard]

IF I DON'T GET YOU (BACK AGAIN) - [From the album "HIMSELF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

A FRIEND OF MINE - [From the album "I'M A WRITER, NOT A FIGHTER"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING - [From the album "HIMSELF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

WHY, OH WHY, OH WHY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard]

"This was a successful song for me.  Originally it was a ballad but we now do it in a reggae style."

COME ON HOME - [UNRELEASED]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute]

This is the first time Gilbert has played this song on these European dates.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOU - [From the album "OFF CENTRE"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

FOREVER WONDERING - [From the album "FROBISHER DRIVE / IN THE KEY OF G"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU GOT - [From the album "BY LARRY / THE LITTLE ALBUM"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard & Accordion] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

This is a crowd favourite.

MICK & STRING QUARTET

HAPPINESS IS ME AND YOU - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Vocal] + Bill [Spanish Acoustic Guitar] + Julian [Flute] + Martin [Percussion]

Gilbert had failed miserably during the last show when he attempted to do the band introductions without the list of names.  Having heard Charlotte say that she could do it, he called her forward and put her to the test.  She accepted the challenge, walked to centre stage and introduced the string quartet before handing back to Gilbert for the remaining introductions.  With this been the last European date, Gilbert took the opportunity to give a name check to the people behind the scenes:

Sound: Kevin Sefton & Francis Garder

Lighting: Richard Parkes

Tour Manager: Kevin O'Sullivan

Audio Visual: Gary Shelford

Merchandise: Marie & Richard Lambourne

I even got a mention myself!

THE MARRIAGE MACHINE - [From the album "A STRANGER IN MY OWN BACK YARD"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Charlotte [Vocal] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute]

WHAT'S IN A KISS? - [From the album "OFF CENTRE"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard]

SAY GOODBYE - [From the album "IRLISH"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals] + Charlotte [Tambourine]

ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY) - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard]

ENCORE

MATRIMONY - [From the album "HIMSELF"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

GET DOWN - [From the album "I'M A WRITER NOT A FIGHTER"]

Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Charlotte & Niamh [Backing Vocals]

Fans move to the front of the stage to dance.  A very large crowd stayed behind after the show to meet Gilbert and to get items signed.

STATS

Gilbert played and sang 33 songs tonight representing material from 13 different albums.  The breakdown was as follows: