Bucharest - Martin Smith
Dec 20 2008There are days in your life that you just know somehow your going to Remember for a long time.
This week began in London at our big Christmas show at Shepherds Bush, we then got straight on our sleeper coach and headed across the channel on our adventure into eastern Europe. First Poland, then Prague (Czech Republic), then Hungary and now tonight Bucharest in Romania.
This is the very first and possibly the last time that Delirious? will play in this beautiful country and so you have to make these moments count. It's like doing a speech at a wedding, you only get one chance and this was our moment to bring our manifesto to the people of Bucharest. Actually the crowd was made up of many people who had driven for days from neighbouring countries too giving up 3 or 4 days of their life for 2 hours of our music. Someone in a press conference this week asked us how we kept 'humble' after so many years, well I'm not claiming any more points on the 'humble' ladder than anyone else but I'll tell you a few things that can keep you in that place.
When you meet kids that have waited 12 years for you to come to their country, who sing along to every word, who spend the little they have on a ticket, who say their life changed when they heard 'Historymaker', whose faces radiate with the love of God, people who have fought through the hardest of economical and spiritual times, who have fasted food for 21 days prior to this concert because they are desperate for God to visit their nation. That can keep a man humble. That can keep a man soft.
I have had the amazing priviledge of having my daughter Elle on the road with me this week. She is only 11 and has been hanging out with her dad, sightseeing, drinking hot chocolate and helping Lee our guitar tech! We also had the priviledge today of hanging out with the Mihais, a beautiful Romanian family whose daughter Flory is our au-peur at home. She is one of 9 children and we went laden with boxes of Christmas gifts from England. So we have a little bit of Romania in our home and that made tonight extra special for me, the tenderness of these people leaves you feeling refreshed and even after 5 shows in a row they brought sunshine in what can be a dark place to live. Somehow when people have had to fight for what they believe, it makes them sharper and more focused and being with them reminded me of the important stuff.
So, Chistmas holidays have arrived once more, I am confident that the child who was born in a manger 2000 years ago really is what he claimed to be, the saviour of the world. I saw this saviour on the faces of 3000 people tonight, and across the stage where my Elle sat wide eyed with a smile as wide as Romania.
Good times everyone, even in the struggle.
Peace to you all this Christmas.
Martin
This week began in London at our big Christmas show at Shepherds Bush, we then got straight on our sleeper coach and headed across the channel on our adventure into eastern Europe. First Poland, then Prague (Czech Republic), then Hungary and now tonight Bucharest in Romania.
This is the very first and possibly the last time that Delirious? will play in this beautiful country and so you have to make these moments count. It's like doing a speech at a wedding, you only get one chance and this was our moment to bring our manifesto to the people of Bucharest. Actually the crowd was made up of many people who had driven for days from neighbouring countries too giving up 3 or 4 days of their life for 2 hours of our music. Someone in a press conference this week asked us how we kept 'humble' after so many years, well I'm not claiming any more points on the 'humble' ladder than anyone else but I'll tell you a few things that can keep you in that place.
When you meet kids that have waited 12 years for you to come to their country, who sing along to every word, who spend the little they have on a ticket, who say their life changed when they heard 'Historymaker', whose faces radiate with the love of God, people who have fought through the hardest of economical and spiritual times, who have fasted food for 21 days prior to this concert because they are desperate for God to visit their nation. That can keep a man humble. That can keep a man soft.
I have had the amazing priviledge of having my daughter Elle on the road with me this week. She is only 11 and has been hanging out with her dad, sightseeing, drinking hot chocolate and helping Lee our guitar tech! We also had the priviledge today of hanging out with the Mihais, a beautiful Romanian family whose daughter Flory is our au-peur at home. She is one of 9 children and we went laden with boxes of Christmas gifts from England. So we have a little bit of Romania in our home and that made tonight extra special for me, the tenderness of these people leaves you feeling refreshed and even after 5 shows in a row they brought sunshine in what can be a dark place to live. Somehow when people have had to fight for what they believe, it makes them sharper and more focused and being with them reminded me of the important stuff.
So, Chistmas holidays have arrived once more, I am confident that the child who was born in a manger 2000 years ago really is what he claimed to be, the saviour of the world. I saw this saviour on the faces of 3000 people tonight, and across the stage where my Elle sat wide eyed with a smile as wide as Romania.
Good times everyone, even in the struggle.
Peace to you all this Christmas.
Martin
