I'm back.
Arrived home a couple of hours ago and I'm soooo tired, I can hardly keep my eyes open.
It was a fantastic night and Damien was on fire.
Thanks for posting your report Erin, it really was a brilliant night wasn't it and it was so nice to see you and the girls again.
Wardrobe Report: Tight black jeans.
Black and white t-shirt.
Black Converse runners.
Black leather jacket.
Set List: Catch The Wind.
Guitar Man.
Stairway To Heaven.
Annie's Song.
If.
22 Steps. (I yelled out
stalker in the right place.
)
Everybody's Talkin'. Toot Toot.
Interval. Baby I Love Your Way.
Crazy. (The Patsy Cline version written by Willie Nelson).
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0zfv8Ov5INessun Dorma sung A Cappella, i.e. without any musical accompaniment.
Hallelujah.
Sleepwalk (instrumental with Jimmy playing lead guitar.)
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f2bsY0fybHI Crying.
Beautiful.
You Are So Beautiful To Me.
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bor44-RK44UVincent.
Danny Boy
Wicked Game with Irish jig.
I'll post a report and some pretteh tomorrow, I'm just too tired to concentrate right now.
In the meantime here is a teaser.
Click image to enlarge.
Review:I saw George (Damien's tour manager) before the show, introduced myself and asked if it was possible to see Damien very quickly after the show. He gave me an emphatic "No." and no amount of pleading (grovelling) on my part would change his mind.
He said that it was on Damien's orders that no one be permitted to come backstage. George explained that Damien almost lost his voice after the last show but I'm not sure whether he meant the last Canberra concert in November or the last concert of this tour. George also said that they had a three hour drive back to Sydney immediately after the show. I was aware of this and felt bad that I'd asked to see Damien in the first place.
Damien had an audience of 325 in Canberra and they were a predominantly older group. I would say the age group was in the 50-60 year age bracket with a smattering of younger ones who were all rather sedate. Thank goodness Erin's girls were there! ;D
Jimmy with guitar in hand was sitting alone on stage as the lights dimmed and Damien walked out from the right of stage. He looked fantastic and after a short introduction went straight into Catch The Wind. I can never get over just how beautiful his voice is live! No amount of recording enhancement can capture the absolute purity of his voice.
Damien was in fine form and had obviously sussed out his audience immediately. There was no raunchiness although he did make mention of underwear being thrown on stage at previous concerts and no, the thong didn't make an appearance last night. He made mention that it was very cold in Canberra. He got that right, it was 3 degrees outside! He kept his jacket on for most of the night and only removed it (not on stage)after the break.
We had great seats, front and centre on the balcony. The balcony was
twenty two steps up from the front section, just enough height so that the heads in front weren't blocking our view. Damien introduced 22 Steps with the story of his unrequited love for the little girl in Ireland. At the appropriate moment I yelled out "Stalker." He looked a bit shocked and said "There is a fine line between obsession and stalking."
I've never really been partial to 22 Steps but I must say it was absolutely beautiful. Next was Everybody's Talking and Damien introduced it with the Waaa Waaa's and I came in with the Toot Toot. (My practicing paid off ;D). He looked up and smiled and then proceeded to do the Toot Toot as well. He was trying to get the audience involved in the Waa Waa's but they were a rather quiet bunch and I forgot myself for a moment and instead of singing out Waa Waa Toot Toot etc. I yelled out "I think I can, I think I can." (the little steam engine song) and a man behind me was roaring laughing at that.
All the time I was being an enthusiastic audience participant I kept thinking about the sign that was on our table while we were having dinner.
Click to enlarge. This is the reverse side of our reserved sign which was on our table in the restaurant. 
Damien made mention of his appearance at the
"Pope's concert." he then said "Oh, that doesn't sound right does it?" And then muttered something about being struck down as he looked up to the heavens.
The audience loved it and were laughing and cheering. None more than me!
I was happily taking photos while Damien was on stage but because we were in the centre of the audience, just about every shot had the microphone in front of his face. I was sussing out the room and a plan started to hatch in my mind.
After a short break and before the lights dimmed I grabbed the camera and told DH I would be back soon. I quicky moved to the two steps of the balcony and plonked myself down. Damien was back on stage to a thunderous applause and I started snapping. ;D I saw there was a small gap between the tables and chairs leading up to the stage so with camera slung around my neck I proceeded to crawl on all fours to the stage. I manouvered my shoulders through one lot of chairs and continued to crawl but my bum got stuck! Oh shit, thinks me, now what do I do! I looked up and there were people looking down there noses at me, literally.
So I gave my bum a few wiggles and I was free!
I continued right up to the stage, sat down, aimed and clicked away to my hearts content.
Baby I Love Your Way was exquisite (snap, snap ;D). An elderly gentleman in the front asked Damien to sing Crazy and that if he did he would buy four of his CTW CD's. Damien asked if meant Crazy (Little Thing Called Love) and proceeded to sing the first few lines.
No, the old bloke wanted Crazy by Patsy Cline. Damien said "But it's not on the album." The elderly gentleman said "Yeah I know. That's why I want you to sing it."
I was thinking to myself "please, please Damien sing it, sing it." And he did. OMG it was absolutely stunning! I had totally forgotten to take photos by this stage and just sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the stage in teh coma.
As Damien was strumming the last few bars I saw him visibly flinch. I wondered what had happened to cause that reaction but it soon became evident that he'd broken a string on his guitar and it must have given him a start, poor darling. Jimmy immediately came to the rescue and offered Damien his guitar while he took Damien's guitar out the back to have the string replaced.
Damien then asked the audience if they had any requests and a voice shouted Nessun Dorma. Damien said that he usually sings that with a full orchestra and there wasn't one there tonight. Someone said "Just sing it anyway." And he did,
a capella OMG, it was sublime! I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes! He seemed to do it so effortlessly!
You could have heard a pin drop, the audience just sat there enthralled.
Hallelujah was next and Damien had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
I think they were all in teh coma by this stage. ;D Jimmy returned with the Damien's guitar and sat down and began to play Sleepwalk. Damien strummed along and it was goosebump time for me again. I love that song and DH also plays it on guitar.
Damien and Jimmy decided that the didn't like each other's guitars (after just doing a brilliant instrumental with them
) and swapped them over.
Crying was nothing short of sensational and received a rousing applause from the audience. The version of Beautiful (with the intro from Indi on violin) was stunning. I just love hearing Damien's own compositions and this is one of his best.
I was still sitting on the floor in front of the stage and I noticed that Damien looked down at me very quickly quite a few times. He was probably wondering who was this weird woman sitting on the floor with bug eyes and her mouth agape.
After getting quite a few photos I turned around and headed back to the two steps of the balcony. As I was crawling back I looked over and saw DH looking at me with a "What the hell are you doing" look on his face. All I could think to do was to wave at him. He did this
back to me.
As I seated myself on the steps a man sitting at a table next to me leaned over and said "Ah, the official photographer." Yes says me, I'm getting publicity shots for the Damien Leith Forum. He seemed impressed by that.
He then asked me if I'd taken any photos of Indi because "She's hot."
I assured him that I had.
I finally made it back to my seat in time to listen to Damien's gorgeous rendition of You Are So Beautiful.
Pure magic is all I can say. DH poured me a glass of wine after my adventurous trek, thinking that I probably needed it by this stage.
I wasn't the only one who was thirsty. Damien said that they needed a beer on stage and asked George to fetch them. He then asked the audience to call out very loudly to George, which we did. George came out with two stubbies and handed one to Jimmy and the other to Damien. Indi asked where her beer was so George went back and got her a stubbie. As George was walking off stage Indi said "Hey I'm George, look at me." followed by a cheeky giggle.
I finally got to see the Irish jig in all it's glory.
*Siiighh*, that boy can move!
I keep saying that Damien is a natural born dancer, he just has the rhythm.
As the show was winding down someone up the front asked Jimmy why he had a teddy bear sitting behind him on stage. Jimmy explained that it was his son's teddy and it was on holiday and travelling with him to the gigs.
Teddy was then brought up to the front of the stage for all to see and I managed to get a couple of great photos.
After thunderous applause and an almost
non standing ovation (I don't think half of the audience could get out of their chairs - probably all in teh coma
) the show was over and Damien was gone.
The room emptied very quickly and after saying good bye to Erin I spotted Jimmy over in the corner talking to two ladies, one of whom was his Mum. I wandered over to chat with Jimmy and his mother said to me in a beautiful Scottish accent "I'm his mother." She was so proud of him and rightly so.
Houndsy, Jimmy said to tell you that he's lost your email address. I asked Jimmy if there was any chance of seeing Damien very quickly. He said yes, go up through the stage door. I could hear Damien and the others laughing loudly and I so wanted to just bolt through that door! I told Jimmy that George had said that there would be no meetings after the show. Jimmy said if that's what George said then that's the way it is. Jimmy did go in and ask Damien but the answer was no.
So there you have it. As you can probably understand, I had a lot of emotions going on but it was a fantastic night and Damien just gets better if that's at all possible.
I have to send a few photos to Jimmy (via Damien) and then I'll post my pics in the Photo Gallery.
So glad you and your family really enjoyed it. 
aka @just_Leithal on Twitter 
Funtarstic report and it sounds like you really enjoyed yourself. ;D What did Emily think of the concert? Did she know the songs from Catch The Wind?
He said that it was on Damien's orders that no one be permitted to come backstage. George explained that Damien almost lost his voice after the last show but I'm not sure whether he meant the last Canberra concert in November or the last concert of this tour. George also said that they had a three hour drive back to Sydney immediately after the show. I was aware of this and felt bad that I'd asked to see Damien in the first place. 
back to me. 
The room emptied very quickly and after saying good bye to Erin I spotted Jimmy over in the corner talking to two ladies, one of whom was his Mum. I wandered over to chat with Jimmy and his mother said to me in a beautiful Scottish accent "I'm his mother." She was so proud of him and rightly so. 
