Bouke Rocks Elvis, Hengelo 15 januari - door Jane Murphy

After the opening songs on the guitar, Bouke lifted his guitar and slightly lost balance with it.
Luckily Bouke's reflexes were good, and he caught the guitar without a problem.
There were several changes to the usual band line-up.
Tom on guitar, Menno on keyboard and Danny on drums and the lovely Noa 1 was back singing alongside Carolina and Noa 2.

Björn did a great solo during Polk Salad Annie.
He came to the front of the stage and played his guitar behind his back.
It is always amazing to watch.
How does he do that?
During Polk Salad Annie, and on his knees, Bouke paused for breath, looked towards the audience, and made a funny face.
The audience laughed at his facial expression.
He went on and finished the song doing his dance gyrating moves and jump in the air as always.

At the beginning of It's Now or Never, Bouke, always playing the joker, sung it his own way and changed some words.
He sung "It's Now or Never, Come hold My Tights" which got a big laugh from the audience as well.

Bouke had already talked about Walter's great smile and during the song It's Now or Never, Bouke pointed to Walter as he sung the line "When I first saw you, with your smile so tender" and started laughing and struggled to sing the next few lines without laughing.

There was some of Bouke's long-time fans in the audience and one of them, Bert had his birthday.
Bouke and the audience sang happy birthday to him and Bouke dedicated the next song to him, "I Can't Stop Loving You."
Bouke started to sing this song but stopped the band and turned to Danny and said after the piano intro, he wanted a drumbeat to start his singing.
They tried again and it worked on the second time and Bouke sung the song for Bert.

During the speaking part of Are you Lonesome Tonight, Bouke changed the words to this song as well and sung "The stage is bare and you're standing there, without any hair" and laughed as he turned to the band members who laughed with him, and of course the audience laughed too.

Although Bouke was suffering from a cold, you could see he hadn't lost his cheeky sense of humour.
As Bouke started to sing In The Ghetto, the audience applauded.
This seems to have become a tradition now in appreciation to his appearance on Battle of The Bands.
And you can see Bouke appreciated the applause as he did a slight nod to the audience in acknowledgement. 

Bouke ended the first half of the show with How Great Thou Art, standing at the front of the stage alongside Walter and Lume Voices.
They sung it beautifully and it is always amazing to hear giving goosebumps every time.
They received a standing ovation when they finished.
During the song, Bouke also mentioned Carolina's recent appearance on the TV show Winner Takes It All.

Bouke started the second half in the shadows with his back to the audience to the song Heartbreak Hotel.
The lights and atmosphere make this an amazing start to the song.
Bouke received a standing ovation at the end of My Way and the applause kept going.

Bouke smiled and kept thanking the audience.
You could see how he appreciated it and the smile on his face showed what it meant to him.
Bouke has performed the song Crazy Little Thing Called Love at many of his shows but tonight, as he was introducing the song, he forgot the band name of who sung it.
The audience shouted out "Queen" and Bouke grinned and introduced the song, this time saying Queen.
He went on to sing it brilliantly as he always does and walked around the stage strumming his guitar.
Bouke sung part of the song a Capela and gets the audience clapping along and the whole band joined in with the clapping as well.

Before Bouke sung the song Rubbernecking, he mentioned that the song had been remixed by an English DJ called Paul Ockenford, following the success of the remix of another of Elvis' songs, A Little Less Conversation a year earlier. 

Rubbernecking is new to the set list this year and it is good to hear Bouke singing something different. 
Bouke held his hand out at the beginning of Hurt ready to sing but Danny didn't do the drum roll to start the song.
Bouke turned to the audience and said "normally something will happen if I make this gesture, but we have a new drummer Danny  today so it is not happening".
Bouke and the audience laughed.
Bouke called to Danny and tried again. This time it worked and Bouke sung Hurt wonderfully.

When Bouke said he was happy to be in Hengelo, some of the audience gasped because of the way he said the city name.
Bouke said "I say it in a different dialect as I am from Emmen and whether you say Hengeloooo or Hengelo, it's all the same".

Some of the audience laughed with Bouke but some of the locals didn't find it as funny.
Bouke didn't do his usual walk out into the audience or sing Let it Be/Hey Jude because of his cold.
And there was no shaking hands at the end of the show either.
This is understandable as he didn't want to spread his germs nor does he want to pick up any more bugs.

As the music to Suspicious Minds started, instead of singing the song, Bouke started to sing Amazing Grace instead and said that other songs also fit the music too.
Everyone laughed with Bouke. 

At the start of Suspicious Minds, one of Danny's symbols fell over with a loud crash.
Bouke heard the crash and walked back to help pick it up, but Jacob was already helping and put it back for Danny.
Bouke continued clapping and started to sing Suspicious Minds which, as we know, ends with Bouke removing his jacket and doing an encore to finish the song.
This is always a crowd pleaser and many people in the audience were whistling and whooping to Bouke as he did this. 
You could see that Bouke struggled sometimes throughout the show with his cold, coughing, sniffing and sweating, but he still gave 110% and sung amazingly and it looked like he was still enjoyed himself as well.

Well done Bouke and The Elvis Matters Band for another great show.