Grönemeyer @ Roundhouse, London: Land unter

Herbert Grönemeyer -- review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian

For a good portion of London's German population, there's only one place to be tonight: Camden's Roundhouse, within touching distance of their homeland's biggest pop star. In Germany, Herbert Grönemeyer plays 20,000-seat venues; here, launching his first English-language album, I Walk, he's facing a crowd of around 2,000. But what they lack in numbers they make up in noise. As Grönemeyer modestly observes: "I think there is some screaming" -- which, of course, then increases tenfold in volume.

There are obvious parallels with Johnny Hallyday, who had Francophone Londoners in a tizzy when he played recently. But Grönemeyer, who looks like a black-clad Clive Anderson and stands behind a keyboard on a dimly lit stage, is very different. His nearest British counterpart is Chris Rea, with whom he shares a predilection for sighing, autumnal balladry.

His fans are as possessive as Rea's, too: when he reveals that the German hit Airplanes in My Stomach has been retitled Airplanes in My Head for the UK market, he's roundly booed. They're not happy about sharing their man with the Brits, and who can blame them? It wasn't us who bought 20 million copies of his albums, and saw him through the bereavements and heartbreak that inspired tonight's bleak highlights, Behind the Glass and Will I Ever Learn?.

The latter, which on record is performed with Antony Hegarty, is breathtaking even with a female backing singer standing in for Hegarty. Then, after a Magic FM-style take on U2's Stuck in a Moment, he at last breaks into German on Hurting Me. The whistling, shrieking response says Germany isn't about to hand over Grönemeyer without a fight.

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