Southampton - 13th December 2007

[Stephany]

Hi again Dave,

What would I do without you
Many thanks for the suggestion - I'll do just as you said and take the train from the airport.

Cheers,
Stephany

[tonyw]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the info. I was relying on Traveline South West. According to that site the U1C service does not exist! I do not think I will be using them again.

I would have thought Stephany would have been better off using the U1C rather than the train? This goes from the central Station/Civic centre to Highfield Campus, very near Turner Sims.

Tony

[Dave]

Hi Tony,

Their website says U1C is the busiest of all their University services and they are the third fastest growing bus service in the Country. They even have WIFI Internet connections on the buses!!!

I got the impression that Stephany (please excuse us talking about you, Stephany! ) needed to get from the Airport to the City Centre first, perhaps to check into a hotel? In that case, either the train or the bus would do fine, the best being whatever arrived first at the Airport (or depending on the exact location of the Hotel). The same bus service connects the Airport, University (Highfield) and City Centre.

Cheers, Dave

[Stephany]

dave said:

I got the impression that Stephany (please excuse us talking about you, Stephany! ) needed to get from the Airport to the City Centre first, perhaps to check into a hotel?

Hi Dave,

Not at all - on the contrary, thank you very much for the very helpful advice. You are quite right, I need to check in my hotel first. It is situated on Landguard Road which should be in the city centre. If the train station is not too far, I think I'd rather take the train. Thanks again!

Stephany

[Jeff]

Thanks for the link to the bus info, Dave. Looks like it's bus U1C from Parkway to Highfield Interchange (shown on the back of the concert ticket) and bus U1A back again afterwards. Nice to see they run after 11pm. Could be a late finish. She's got a lot of books to sign !!

[Dave]

I've just had a look round the Turner Sims website and I saw the following message:

Hayley’s a Hot ticket!

Tickets for Hayley Westenra’s December concert at the Turner Sims in Southampton sold out in just 3 days after going on sale on Monday 3rd September. Phonelines were jammed and people were queuing at the box office to try and secure tickets to this very special concert. But the international singing superstar is just one of the highlights of an unforgettable season of music which is all selling fast.

Turner Sims Concert Hall Manager Kevin Appleby said:
“We expected this concert to generate a lot of interest and it certainly has. We’ve had a lot of Hayley’s dedicated fans buying tickets and they are coming from all over the country with some people even travelling all the way from Northern Ireland just for this performance.

It is completely sold out now but there are still lots of great concerts coming up from jazz orchestras to string quartets...”

So it's all your lot's fault that the locals like me had a hard time getting tickets!

I did suggest to Bedlam that they add a second concert but there is no room in Hayley's schedule. Could be something to do with Brunei, maybe?

I wonder if this is Hayley's fastest ever sell-out concert, or one of them? I think I shall have to pester Bedlam to try and put on another concert or two in Southampton next year...

Cheers, Dave

[Stephany]

Hello Dave,

Thank you for this very interesting piece of information. I wouldn't be surprised if this one is the fastest ever sell-out concert. I certainly hope Bedlam will consider planning more performances around Southampton next year. Anything near an airport is very handy!

Stephany

[roger]

Hi Dave,

That news is very encouraging. It seems strange that Southampton sold out so quickly when Croydon, which has London (and at least three airports!) within its catchment area, struggled. Maybe there was better publicity in Southampton.

Roger

[Stephany]

Here is an updated list of members attending the Southampton concert:

- Roger
- Dave
- Gordon
- Caitlin
- Jeff
- Tonyw
- Mark
- Grant
- Colin
- Steve H
- Stuart H
- James
- Ron
- Martin
- Stephany

That makes 15 of us. Not an international gathering...but one with a very British flavour

See you there,
Stephany

[Dave]

Thanks for the update, Stephany!

roger said:

Hi Dave,

That news is very encouraging. It seems strange that Southampton sold out so quickly when Croydon, which has London (and at least three airports!) within its catchment area, struggled. Maybe there was better publicity in Southampton.
Roger

I think, Roger, it's a combination of the smaller (cathedral-capacity - 450) venue and the fact that in the Southampton-Portsmouth area (and Bournemouth too, except in 2004) we have been Hayley-starved. It's the first opportunity most of her fans in this area have had to see her in person... ever! look at what happened when Hayley appeared in the fairly nearby Chichester Cathedral earlier this year... that one too sold out very quickly indeed.

I can't help feeling that opportunities have been missed by Hayley being absent from here for so long and I hope Bedlam will now realise this. I think they could fill a venue twice the size of Turner Sims down here... say 600 to 1,000 capacity - but I would be less confident about filling somewhere as big as Croydon Fairfield Halls so the bigger venues like Portsmouth or Southampton Guildhall would be risky unless the water was tested first at somewhere the size of Cadogan Hall (700-800). Ferneham Hall in my home town of Fareham has a capacity of 700! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

By the way, a hall like Turner Sims is going to be far better for most of the audience than churches and cathedrals of a similar capacity - everyone will be able to see - and the acoustics will be better. I suspect that Hayley will be back.

Cheers, Dave

[Stephany]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the explanation. It also seems like this concert sold out without much need of publicity so it's a shame they didn't scheduled a second concert in Southampton...or considered a bigger venue in the first place

Stephany

[Caitlin]

Add me to the list Stephany! I've kept quiet about going because I wanted it to be a surprise, but now I have to speak up. I'm needing to get back to London that night and I was wondering if anyone was travelling by car up that way? Please let me know, preferably by PM if you are as soon as possible. Thank you very much!

<3 Caitlin

[Stephany]

Hi Caitlin

I have now added your name to the list of HWI members attending. I also removed Chrisw from the list because unfortunately it appears that he can no longer make it That still makes 15 of us which is quite a big gathering considering that we are not close to London.

See you next week,
Stephany

[Dave]

caite said:

Add me to the list Stephany! I've kept quiet about going because I wanted it to be a surprise, but now I have to speak up. I'm needing to get back to London that night and I was wondering if anyone was travelling by car up that way? Please let me know, preferably by PM if you are as soon as possible. Thank you very much!
<3 Caitlin

Hi Caitlin, glad you will be there!

If all else fails, you can catch the 23:08 train from Southampton Airport (Parkway) station to London Waterloo, arriving at 1:02 am (there is a much faster train half an hour earlier, arriving at 4 minutes past midnight). If necessary, I (well any of us I am sure) would gladly drive you to the station, it's only 2 miles away from the concert venue... 5 minutes in a car.

Cheers, Dave

[Mark]

Hi Caitlin

If you end up taking the last train from the airport, i would be only too pleased to drive you as its on my way home.

Lots of love
Mark