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Never that easy to forget
They didn’t say it in the posters and advertisements, but it was, after all, a concert his fans had waited more than 30 years for. But then 30 years ago, Engelbert Humperdinck was the undisputed King of Romance, the superstar who was churning out chart toppers in rapid succession.

That was then; what of now? And as we waited to see him live, in this much-hyped single sell-out concert in Colombo, there was just that little bit of trepidation…what would he really be like? Would the famed voice still have that rich timbre that had melted so many female hearts and earned him legions of fans worldwide? No-one was certain…

Any doubts though, were rapidly dispelled and it was soon obvious why Engelbert Humperdinck at the age of 69 is still performing to packed audiences around the world even though he hasn’t had a Top Ten hit for years. Not just emerging from a well-justified retirement to perform the odd live concert but a gruelling 140 concerts a year.

The Hump had the magic touch. And a slickly executed, highly professional show, where he, backed by a very complete nine-piece band with guitars, trombone, saxophone, trumpet and even bongo drums, delivered that unmistakable stamp of showbiz. Yes, he was heavier, thicker round the middle and his hair was receding, despite the trademark sideburns still giving him that air of familiarity. But no matter that he was no longer pin-up material in the looks department, his voice more than made up for it. If anything, it seemed better than before and to give him credit, he pulled out all the stops, literally singing his heart out, for more than one and a half hours, only pausing to sing seated just once in a while.

The Grand Ballroom at Water’s Edge is not the best concert hall in town and probably one of the smallest venues the Hump had performed at. Yet with meticulous attention to detail, he had arrived all of two and a half hours before the start of the show to check out the venue and the sound. So the slightly delayed start, which saw the scheduled 7.30 time being pushed back to 8.10 was due more to the crowd logistics than any tardiness on his part.
After his band had settled themselves on stage, Engelbert’s long-time music director Jeff Sturgess appeared to start off proceedings, conducting the band in a jazzed-up version of ‘Release Me’ before the Hump made his grand entrance, dressed in a pristine white shirt with black buttons and black suit, a silver crucifix around his neck to launch straight into ‘It’s wonderful…it’s beautiful that you should care for me’.

An old favourite followed, the plaintive ‘Am I That Easy To Forget’ and you could visibly feel the audience melting. Maybe he did too, for he was quick to quip that his legs had been shaking backstage. To his credit there were no effusive words or platitudes about this long-awaited visit to Sri Lanka or the beauty of our tropical isle but just a ‘I’m happy to be here’ spoken with sincerity.

It was undoubtedly, a well-honed routine, the songs, familiar and not-so familiar, seemingly effortlessly interspersed with a bit of banter, some rather risqué jokes including a little episode with an item of ladies’ underwear being delivered on stage (he may be getting on, but lest you forget, he did have the fairer sex in a swoon in the good old days) and even the occasional Michael Jackson quickstep on stage.

After the first few songs, his jacket was dispensed with, and a red handkerchief (apparently another intrinsic part of his routine) appeared. This too he used to make a crack about a ‘singer who follows me around’ (Tom Jones we guessed) and mop his brow.

The wisecracks continued throughout; ‘You can call me Enge or Engel or Bert, but don’t call me Dincky’ he entreated sending the crowd into gales of laughter. There were songs from his new album ‘Let there be love’ released just earlier this year, including one he earmarked as a possible hit ‘No Good in Goodbye’ and a sprinkling of other hits, not all of them his own. Of course, the audience loved it best when the old favourites were sung. “You may remember this,” he said launching into ‘A Man Without Love’ following it up with the tender ‘After the Loving’. Later on with an ‘Everyone loves this song … he went into ‘The Last Waltz’ and inviting the audience to join in, added “around the world, they know the words”.

But it was not all ballads and mellow love songs. The tempo changed ever so often with ‘Ten Guitars’ and ‘Quando, Quando’ and he also struck all the right chords once again dedicating a song to “the people who have followed me for 39 years”_ ‘My Inspiration’.

“I’ve been lucky with the songs I recorded,” he told the audience, “I’ve left footprints in the sand”, adding finally, after a particularly sustained burst of clapping, “Applause is the food of any entertainer and thank you for not starving me”.

The closing medley of hits could not go wrong: ‘The Way It Used To Be’, ‘Winter World of Love’, ‘There Goes My Everything’, ‘Blue Spanish Eyes and ‘Love Me With All Of Your Heart’……

And when the audience half-wondered could he possibly leave without ‘Release Me’; he announced the song that had started it all, changing the lyrics in the end to sing ‘So release me and I’ll be back again’.
As shows go, it was hard to believe the energy and raw power he gave the performance not to mention his easy rapport with the audience.

And while the audience cheered and screamed, refusing to believe it was over so soon, he returned smiling with a ‘I was coming back anyway!’ to do a masterful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’. It was a standing ovation in the end; There was absolutely no doubt, Engelbert did it his way.

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