Eisteddfod - 10-15 July 2007

[postscript]

Part 5 continued from Part 4

THE CONCERT—PRE-HAYLEY

From an earlier cmment I could not understand how the Mount San Antonio College Choir from California could be printed in the programme as they had won their penultimate round that after-noon and I cannot find them as last year’s winners but it was announced they were performing tonight as part of one of the prizes, of which they have won many. Any comment, Gordon? A mixed choir of ages 18-25, they received more awards than any other competing choir, including first-place awards in the Youth Choir and Chamber Choir categories and a second-place finish in the Choir of the World competition.
They sang ‘Way Over in Beulah’ and ‘Kalinda’.

On the other hand the soloist Gordon mentions was only entered as ‘winner of competition 27, Celtic instrumental Solo’. His was an excellent performance.

Then an additional item, The Loughgiel Folk dancers who entered under three headings: Adult Folk Dance, Children’s Folk Dance and Choreographed Folk dance wherein in 2006 they had come first or second in all three categories. This meant they entertained us with a combination of the three groupings.

The easiest way to explain them is to say ‘Riverdance’ BUT…

I spoke to a lady with whom I had the wit not to assume she had children herself (she hadn’t) but was able to confirm my suspicion the youngest were possibly seven and eight. When they combined all ages there was a gasp from the body of the audience whom I assumed to be the cognoscenti of folk dance. Why, I am unclear. It could be a new movement (the choreographed section) or an extraordinarily superb rendition of an established movement. The picture is lifted from their web site which I assume, as it is promoting them and their skills, will be accepted as a fair use of their permissions. It also gives another view of the fantastic flower display and would appear to be of the teenagers. The younger children were dressed similarly but bare legs and white ankle socks.

I can best describe the movement as when the corps de ballet in Swan Lake enter sideways on points. They were not exactly on points as their shoes appeared to be what I believe would be a classic schoolgirl ‘sturdy’ shoe but they were frequently on tip toe and the movement was probably four times as fast as the corps de ballet and on the spot! This mix of the very young in the centre of older girls was simply phenomenal. It was an incredible performance.

An interesting aside. On each side of the stage was a screen as large as the outdoor one but this was composed of sections of what I assume were LCD or plasma blocks, whereas the external screen was composed of a complete matrix of small bulbs. The quality, therefore, was superior and lighter weight but there was an anomaly in colour rendition which seemed contradictory. Dave any suggestions? The dancers outfits are superb cherry red yet on the TV screens they came over as orange. Conversely when depicting Hayley’s ‘Celtic’ dress, which we all know is a yellow green, on the screens it was represented as a distinct blue green, yet at all times facial representation and other colours seemed correct.

Certainly the screens were helpful. I had forgotten to bring my opera glasses and I was only half-way down the auditorium, perhaps fifty yards from the stage. Then we had Hayley.

I remember once, in the early years of becoming acquainted with Hayley I had attended a concert when the pre-Hayley guests seemd of such high standard I feared Hayley would seem weak by contrast (which she wasn't, of course). Now I have no such fears and the best tribute i can pay is that Hayley was at her best, that the pre-Hayley entertainment was to Hayley's standard which meant the whole was an utterly incredible evening.

To be continued

Peter S.

[postscript]

Part 6 from Part 5

THE CONCERT—HAYLEY and FRIENDS

Then we had Hayley, but first the compère. This was Brian Kay. I cannot recall if Aled Jones took over from him directly or if there was someone between them. Originally one of the King singers who appeared regularly on ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ Brian Kay was for me ‘the voice’ of ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ for many years.

Introducing himself at the very beginning, pointing out that this was ‘Friday Night’, prior to introducing Hayley he advised us his son had emigrated to Christchurch New Zealand and that on one occasion when travelling in Christchurch he had come across ‘Westenra Terrace’. He wondered if Hayley had been named after the terrace or the terrace named after Hayley! I think we all knew which way round this was!

I am starting here by referring to Gordon’s post and then picking up from him.

Apart from saying she made the introduction to it that has been well-reported from other concerts, my comment on Pokarekare Ana is that there was just a light cue-in from Ian and she opened a cappella, then the guitar came in very quietly.

To me this was an almost a cappella concert. Wherever she could it seemed she used minimal backing, allowing her voice to be always dominant even when being sotto voce and making it seem as if there wasn’t any accompaniment even when there was. The same with The Water is Wide. With Danny Boy, the guitar lightly picked out a backing of individual notes with Fiona coming in lightly on the second verse. Whether it was solely her, or the slightly different arrangement with the guitar (which of course is down to her any way) I felt this was a particularly emotive rendition.

It seemed in every song she was reproducing the arrangement she had used on her CDs but I have not had a chance to check that out. What was certain is that she was interested in presenting complete simplicity. The addition of the guitar (and this guitarist!) made a world of difference. There was no noticed re-tuning of the guitar and the lady next to me observed that Joan Baez was continually re-tuning between her songs but she was tuning her guitar while she spoke, which is not the same thing as a ssecondary artiste tuning while the principal artiste is speaking.

Contradictory though it may seem, with the addition of a fourth component, in fact the effect of the collective whole was to seem lighter. Her voice sounded stronger not only in itself but in contrast to the arrangement backing her. These renditions enabled a re-distribution of the instrumental balance presenting an extraordinary evening: the vastness of a 4,000-seast auditorium stretching way back; a panoramic stage, extraordinarily wide; a young girl centre stage in command of all, with her accompaniment physically well-spaced; and total simplicity. We were in an enchanted garden and we were mesmerised for the rest of the evening, almost irritated by the interruption of the interval. An interval cut short by five minutes to try and balance the very late running schedule.

If Hayley is experimenting, then I would say 'Lady, this combination is superb.' The addition of the guitar just gives that variation that is uplifting and the whole concert seemed light and airy. So light, as I said earlier, one gained the impression there was only Hayley. That is indeed a compliment to her fellow musicians. It is the genius of the true accompanist: to be unnoticed but essential. Regretfully, too few people realise there is a distinctly separate art in being an accompanist and few artistes have the skill and th humility to achieve it fully. Therein lies the achievement of those who do succeed as accompanists.

Gordon says in his report, ‘At this point Hayley commented on the lovely smell of the beautiful flower arrangement on stage but said that she was allergic to lilies and could end up paying a visit to a hospital.’ My neighbour (a regular attendee) exclaimed, ‘How utterly stupid to have placed lilies there in the first place! They should have known better. It is well known that people can be allergic to lilies. Shirley Bassey is and when she was here she flatly refused to perform until all the lilies had been removed from the stage.’

So, a tip for Hayley’s management to amend her standard contract to ensure that lilies are excluded from any stage decoration! A note too for HWI members: don’t include lilies in any bouquet to Hayley!

As well as her allergy comment, Hayley also said that this was the finest dressed stage she felt she had ever been on. According to my neighbour that was exactly what Joan Baez had said on the first concert at the beginning of the week!

Following Pokarekare Ana, as the audience applauded, she suddenly projected a finger, her left arm fully extended, pointing straight to the middle of a row some half-a-dozen rows from the front. I’m not sure she wasn’t still singing the last notes when she did this! It turned out someone was waving a New Zealand flag on their lap! I was to encounter the flag wavers later on.

I hesitate repeating the jokes the compère gave, both main ones are old ones to many but I hadn’t heard one of them for awhile and the other not at all. He told them in a slightly different way and he told them well while the third I seem to have forgotten. Do I place them under the ‘What Makes You Laugh?’ thread? But then they are part of the concert and I wouldn’t be expected to describe the preceding acts under ‘Other Music’.

However, so people can continue in like vein I will add the jokes at the end and ‘yes, HI!’ to the lady who met up with me again on a later night (Saturday?) and asked, I did make an audible note on my Dictaphone as to what the third joke was!

She approached me to say she and her partner could remember two of the jokes but not the third. It turned out we could both remember the sheep two but not the same third one. I will reproduce it because I told her not to look in until the end of next (this) week (now vaguely passed!) because if I remembered it (and I have) I would reproduce it.. Hopefully the three or four people with whom I chatted and thought would be interested in this site will indeed visit and may perhaps join us here!

Since I have side-tracked myself, to the gentleman with whom I chatted on Sunday, ‘Hi!’ too. He had an interesting story to tell that should interest us all but specifically Roger who might like to ask Steve about it—there weren’t any Hayley management people around Hayley at the end of the show. Now that’s let the cat out of the bag, yes I did see her!

His story was that he and his wife had tried to get tickets but had been told Hayley was totally sold out. On the Thursday they were visiting when an announcement that some thirty tickets for fans had been released for Hayley the next night so they rushed in and obtained two of the few remaining ones. So, folks, for whom precisely were those tickets held back? It is not a question I would dream of asking Hayley, obviously.

Interestingly, the gentleman said that a friend of his would be most put out about his success as she had been told in February Hayley was sold out and she was a very keen supporter. I therefore gave him the HWI address and suggested she joined to ensure she kept herself up-to-date with Hayley’s engagements earlyenough to be able to book in time. So, if you do look in lady, ‘welcome, friend of the gentleman I spoke to!’ You’ll know who you are! I’m sure you will tell him if you do. Why not join us properly?

Now, following the interval, I will refer you back to Gordon
to outline the second part of the concert.

At the conclusion advice was given about driving out of the mud, effectively 'try second gear first'! On the Sunday night they advised there was a break-down truck available to tow anyone out, 'so don’t panic'!

Gordon said he left immediately because of the mud. I suspect what held him back would be the traffic! I was not aware of it on the Friday as I stayed late for Hayley. On the Saturday I was parked not in the field but in the back of the community centre which was hell getting out of on the Saturday. It took twenty minutes to drive across the car parking space. This was due to several traffic streams funnelling into one exit IN the tarmacademed car park; then into a public minor road; then into a major road and everything held back by the continually changing traffic lights in the centre of town.

Having learned from this on the Saturday I declined to be so parked on the Sunday. I was early enough, despite the rain, intending to partake of a meal in the marquee, for some spaces on the road above the festival to clear from ‘day only’ ticket holders and I parked there, saving myself £4 but more assuredly extricating myself far more quickly than on the previous two nights.

There were fifty-three reasons I thought she would not be available for signing afterwards. They announced that her CDs were available in two tents: one for cash sales and one for card sales. Since she could not be in both places at once, this seemed to knock any chance of seeing her on the head. The other fifty-two reasons were in the form of ‘The Tower New Zealand youth Choir’, one member of which was an old friend she had not seen for years. She would not want to lose the precious time she had for chatting with them.

However, in the usual HWI manner, we care for one expectation only, seeing Hayley! I traipsed round to the front. Since my night views are inadequate, here is a picture of the front of the administration block in daylight.

With a chauffered car outside, although surprisingly without insignia, it was obvious some form of reception was taking place. The dignitary in question turned out to be the Mayoress and consort of Wrexham.

There was already a group of around twenty plus waiting and enquiring if she was available. Security, in line with the nature of the event was properly uniformed, on the ball but very pleasant. Someone went to investigate.

Now this is solely me thinking aloud. I am guessing that had there been a hundred or so she would have declined (see why later) but as there was such a small group she would be available ‘shortly’.

As usual, I held back, taking the opportunity to chat to people generally which is how I encountered the flag wavers. ‘Are you from New Zealand specifically or are you here in London?’ Birmingham, it turned out. Then she appeared, wearing the black diamanté decorated dress with which she had opened the concert, so obviously there was some sort of reception or party taking place and as they prepared a table for her the crowd was ushered into the foyer.

The usual mêlée of folk passed through, some asking for a photograph—I had advised a couple of shy people that if they asked her she would indeed pose for a picture with them—and one individual seemed to have bought a shop full of items he wanted signed, carefully extracted from their cases for speed, including the DVD, otherwise it was programme signing.

Then it came to the flag wavers who hoped she would pose for them. Obviously she said ‘yes’ and looking for someone to take their photo saw me hovering in the background. Of course I said ‘yes’. Camera thrust into my hands, Hayley extricated herself around her table seeking a clear space and gathering one to each side of her. I waved one in a bit closer who didn’t wish to presume upon over-closeness with her and she put her arm round each waist

Until this point she had been preoccupied with finding location and dealing with the practicalities of the pose. Only then did she look into the camera and realised immediately who was behind it.
‘Oh Peter. You’re here!’
‘Hello Hayley’.
Normally Hayley is concerned the picture is okay before leaving. On this occasion she was about to shoot off and it was I who said, ‘Hang on Hayley, do we have an okay picture guys? She’ll do another if not!’ We had an okay picture and then she turned to me. I had hardly handed her the programme when she immediately flicked through it to the page where she was.

This would be a good point to describe the programme. At £12 it is very expensive. Well it is if, in your earnestness to keep it in pristine condition in pouring rain and you don‘t have a carrier bag with you, so you tuck it into your jersey, through which you then drop it into a puddle. I retrieved it quickly enough as to be virtually undamaged but then managed to lose it later in the day, so I bought a second one. The extra cost was worth it.

Inside there was a full page head and shoulders of Hayley introducing her programme ‘Hayley Westenra and friends’, listing them individually by name and the instruments they played. Overleaf there was a double-page spread starting with a full programme list, included two different small head and shoulders pictures, otherwise being devoted to a very lucid yet comprehensive biography. I won’t scan it—or may give it a try when I have a spare moment—because to do so properly will break the back—it was a square-back, perfect-bound book-format programme.

So when Hayley flicked through it to find her pages I said, ‘No, don’t sign inside, sign on the cover and I’ll scan it and post it.’

On seeing this I wondered about the photo's value and then thought, the colour ‘auburn’ has not been used in describing the colour of her tresses. How would that suit? There are several descriptions of ‘auburn’ in the dictionary and it is the ‘ruddy-brown’ I have in mind.

Well, clearly the following picture shows there is no need to scan the cover!

How more accommodating could she be?

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Then having posed for that photograph she stood there and looked at me, ready to strike up conversation.

Now I could be over-sensitive and reading far too much into seeming little tell-tale signs that only someone like one of us who have met her several times—and perhaps more able to keep their head around her—would interpret. I had wanted to tell her about the flowers etc as I have posted above (or previously) and one or two other comments that I would not have wanted nonHWI people to have overheard. I was, however, wholly conscious that by this stage there was but one thing between her and her 52 Kiwis, me and I wasn’t going to delay her further.

The girl who normally shoos away promoters anxious to get her away from her fans for once wanted to shoo herself away to her 52 fellow Kiwis and that was fine by me. This was an occasion for ‘us’ to give consideration to her.

‘Superb, Hayley. Superb evening throughout. See you at Woburn, perhaps?’ 'Woburn. Right!' She said with that nod of her head and emphasise of her hand to metaphorically drum the date into her head.

With that I stepped aside but even then she was waylaid. I am sure it had nothing what ever to do with the courtesy shown by the security people to us but unknown to me, until I stepped aside, three of them were standing behind me, each with a programme in their hand.

Of course she signed them and then with that usual ‘mass wave’ of her hand she dived behind the doors to the reception and her fellow Kiwis. At which point I have decided to place the jokes in the ‘What makes You Laugh’ thread and will provide a post to it for the lady whom I am sure will appreciate an ‘easy’ find, which is HERE.

And a Tail Piece!
Peter S

[Andrew]

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for sharing your very vivid concert reports with us!
Very informative Peter! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Incidentally that's rather a lovely photograph of Hayley holding your signed concert programme!

Andrew

[postscript]

andrew said:

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for sharing your very vivid concert reports with us!
Very informative Peter! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Incidentally that's rather a lovely photograph of Hayley holding your signed concert programme!

Andrew

Thanks for that Andrew. Yes, I was rather chuffed with that picture too. Its a very basic 'fit in the palm of your hand' digital and without stabilisation but when the lighting is right (this was flash) it delivers fine photographs. Everything taken on these posts was taken with it.
Peter S.

[dutchjoyce]

Hi Peter, it was a pleasure to read!!!THANKS joyce.

[Stephany]

Hi Peter,

What a fabulous report.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Thank you very much for sharing your comments and pictures.
Very much appreciated!!

Stephany

[Mark]

Hi Peter

Thankyou so much for your very detailed report and photos. I haven't yet seen Hayley perform in front of such a large crowd, I'm sure that in itself is fantastic to be part of I think you did absolutely the right thing when meeting Hayley afterwards in terms of being aware that she had a post performance reception with her fellow performers to go to. Those of us that have met her a good few times and know her well enough, hopefully can judge by Hayleys body language and her actions etc. when we can take some time with her and when we can't. I am sure we all are very sensitive to this and take our cues from her at all times.

Very well done Peter, I loved reading your report.

Best regards
Mark

[postscript]

Hello everyone. I'm running on from my poston the Eisteddfod at Llangollen 2007.

I had intended a 'tailgate' with a very brief account of the following two nights on the Photography thread but as I wrote more than I originaly intended I have kept matters under this thread, especially as three photos relate here directly and round off my post rather neatly.

Later photographs I wiil post under Phtoography.

Regarding Carreras I think there was an air of disappointment for the first half of his programme. Certainly such thoughts were positively expressed by my neighbour who was put out that his whole programme (except towards the end when he performed four encores) was Spanish-based rather than Italian.

Certainly I felt that disappointment, although there were aspects of the new Spanish-Incan music that I found intriguing. After all, we were at an Eisteddfod where new things are presented and should be tried so I was pleased with the experience of sharing new music from a distinguished singer whom I was unlikely to encounter again on stage live, unless he happened to be singing a role at Covent Garden. Or duetting with Hayley!

He played his audience long-time to determine whether he would be back but the audience did indeed increase their applause to make sure he did come back four times. So clearly, the fact that he was Carreras and they had seen him was a sufficient draw. However, it was interesting that literally only half the audience gave him a standing ovation and that was almost a dead split stage centre left and right.

Just for the heck of looking I went to see if there were any people hoping for a signature and did not notice any. Whether this was too early or whether regular fans know he doesn't greet people, I have no idea.

An interesting evening which I was glad to have experienced but only because I was there for a purpose I knew I would and did enjoy.

The same can be said for the choral finalists on the Saturday. I was glad to have experienced it but I doubt I would again,

As for the Eisteddfod itself, yes, I would be pleased to experience it again if there was a least one concert evening which I would go to see and then make a few days of the trip, as I have described and am happy to recommend to others.

So, to the photos.

Who else would queue for an Indian take away?

Is he watching over them or just waiting, but not a waiter I don't think, unless in an Indian restaurant?

As things should be, can be and were on the Saturday

Peter S.

[Stephany]

Hi everyone,
I found some great pictures of Hayley performing at Llangollen on this site : Water Gate Press.
My personal favourite is this one

Stephany

[Stephany]

More pictures :

[Stephany]

Hayley signing the flag!

[Stephany]

Last pictures!

[graemek]

What lovely pics Stephany.
I was wondering why you didn't post all 9 & was ready to do the rest & suddenly there they were. Well done. Always nice to see our heroine earning her daily bread.

The eisteddfod is really some event....fantastic.
........Our Hayley is really some event....out of this world.

So nice for her to perform with the Tower Choir & as a solo performer.

Sigh....Graeme

[graemek]

Peter,
Have read everything you wrote. Thanks for your depth & sensitivity.

A pleasure to have Hayley & the Eisteddfod unfolded.

Graeme

[Richard]

Many thanks for your great report, Peter!

The photographs Stephany posted round off the report perfectly. I like the one of Hayley signing the flag, but I've never seen her flagging! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes,

Richard