| CdeB's early days
Colin Vallance a former member of Chris' band
has contributed some memories of the time when he toured together with
Chris. He, Colin, worked in the seventies as a "session musician". At the
end of the sixties he was in a band called "White Unicorn". Later on he
was a member in a band called "Ocean". He joined Chris de Burgh for the 1978 UK Tour.
Here are Colin Vallance's memories about this time:
I joined Chris de Burgh's band as bass player
in January 1978. At the time I was the newest member of the band as Chris
and the other musicians hadrecently returned from Canada where he had
already had some success.At this time Chris was not well known in Engand
except through his single 'A Spaceman Came Travelling' which was played a
lot on 'Capital Radio' in London and the 'Spanish Train' album which had
already earned him some recognition as a songwriter. Chris toured the UK
in 1977 supporting 'Supertramp' who had already achieved major success at
home and in the States with 'Crime of the Century' and 'Crisis what
Crisis' . This was the year I first saw Chris perform at Earls Court Arena
in London on Supertramp's 'Even in the Quietest Moments' Tour. That
particular night there was a power cut just as Supertramp were about to
take the stage and the whole arena was plunged into darkness until the
emergency lighting came on. Nobody knew how long the power cut would last
so Chris decided to save the day and entertain everyone while they were
waiting. The only instrument that could be heard at all without
amplification was the grand piano, so Chris sat down at it and started
belting out some Beatles songs which he sang without amicrophone.From what
I remember he managed to get most of the audience singing along to 'Let it
be' until the power came back on!
Now back to the 1978 UK Tour .This was
Chris's first UK tour as the main act and the line up for the band at this
time was Jeff Phillips (Drums) Colin Vallance (Bass Guitar) Glen Morrow
(Keyboards) and Ken Allardyce (Guitar). On this tour Chris had a
supporting act, singer/songwriter Philip Goodhand-Tait who had written hit
songs for 'The Love Affair' and Roger Daltrey of 'The Who'.Before the tour
started we recorded a BBC television programme called 'Sight and
Sound' which also featured Gilbert O'Sullivan, a succesful pop artist from
the Seventies! The UK tour included all the major venues in: Bristol,
Exeter, Guildford, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton
and many others including Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland and
Belfast and Cork in Ireland.The last date of the tour was at the Theatre
Royal Drury Lane London and was recorded for broadcast by Capital
Radio.The tour was to promote the 'Perfect Day' album but we also
performed a lot of songs from 'Spanish Train' .
In the middle of the set the band took a break
having played an instrumental and Chris took a solo spot during which he
played a few songs on guitar and
some on piano - 'A Rainy Night in
Paris' was one of them. Altogether it was a very enjoyable tour and it was
good to be a part of it.Hopefully the 1978 UK Tour helped to bring Chris
de Burgh's music to a wider audience and establish him as a major
songwriting talent.He's certainly gone from strength to strength since
those early days and long may he continue!
Colin Vallance
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