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Post by James on Jul 16, 2008 18:42:02 GMT
Hi Drew, At first I thought you had posted the picture because of the street name on the pub wall but then I twigged what you were really getting at. You need good eyesight to answer this one.
You also need to be a reader of the acknowledgements to Hayley's albums, or alternatively be able to right click on your image, select properties and see what title you have given the picture
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Post by drew on Jul 16, 2008 20:30:39 GMT
You also need to be a reader of the acknowledgements to Hayley's albums, or alternatively be able to right click on your image, select properties and see what title you have given the picture Well spotted James. I have never seen such an insignificantly signed public house. You can just about imagine "Alfie's Bar" in red paint over the door above the no-smoking sign if you squint. If you did not know where to find the pub you could be driving around the streets of Luton for weeks. It would be great fun to see Joe Enright up on stage with his accordion alongside Hayley tomorrow night at the Grove.
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Post by dutchjoyce on Jul 16, 2008 21:01:01 GMT
To everyone going to this concert, have a nice time and enjoy it!!
Looking forward to your reports and pictures, Greetz JOYCE.
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Post by thomas on Jul 16, 2008 21:12:57 GMT
Have fun everybody tomorrow! Hope you all will have a great time. Thomas
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Post by comet on Jul 16, 2008 21:35:49 GMT
Alfie ?
Thanks for all the pics an reports...........
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Post by grant on Jul 17, 2008 10:30:49 GMT
Hello everyone In the absence of Richard, I'd just like to say ...... 8 Hours To Go!!! Best wishes Grant
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Post by drew on Jul 17, 2008 22:18:24 GMT
Just how much better can she get?
Songbird.
I am a thousand winds.
A few tears in the house. And what a house.
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Post by graemek on Jul 17, 2008 22:27:20 GMT
Thanks for your review Drew, Now all I have to do is get my imagination going.... Graeme
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Post by drew on Jul 17, 2008 22:33:30 GMT
An eventful evening. I am sure that Grant and Richard will fill you in with details in the morning.
The biggest surprise was Ian and Fiona, hired for the evening from lastminute.com.
And of course, Steve's Mum. Apparently the first time that she has met Hayley. A great big family affair (in the Green Room).
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Post by drew on Jul 17, 2008 22:43:17 GMT
What's it all about? This venue will become famous to followers of Fiona and Ian as Fiona has promised to perform here soon. Now, unbeknown to me, this was in the correct thread as I learned tonight (according to that nice man at Bedlam) that young HDW has actually been seen pulling pints behind the bar at Alfie's. Hayley admitted to being behind the bar but perhaps was not actually qualified to pull the pints.
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Post by grant on Jul 17, 2008 23:32:44 GMT
Hello everyone Thanks Drew for your 'teasers'! I have been back about 30 minutes from one of the best Hayley concerts ever and certainly one of the best acoustically. I will be putting my review together within the next hour or so, hopefully, but just to keep you going, here's Hayley in the Green Room after the concert. Best wishes Grant
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Post by Colin on Jul 17, 2008 23:33:31 GMT
Hi everyone A great concert again from Hayley, and as Drew has mentioned she included Songbird and I Am A Thousand Winds in her playlist. They were beautiful, as was an a capella piece in the middle of Both Sides Now which really lent resonance to the song. The camera police prevented me from taking any photos though I'm sure others will fill in on the concert in due course, but I'd like to give Ian Tilley, Andy Moore and particularly Fiona Pears a mention. Andy was the guitarist I first saw with Hayley at Buxton a couple of months ago, and he's now more in the front than he was then. He was sole accompanist for Hayley singing Santa Lucia. Although known to many people, it was the first time that I'd seen Ian and Fiona with Hayley - and what a revelation! They are both superb musicians and Fiona particularly has an engaging nature and plays with real joy and zest. So much so, that I bought her DVD after the concert Kind regards Colin
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Post by postscript on Jul 17, 2008 23:35:17 GMT
Hi everyone! I thought of doing this on Sunday while sitting in the car waiting to gain an exit but we fell into general conversation, also grabbing an unexpected moment with Hayley thanks to Ray, so was not the first to post then--and still haven't. Perhaps this time?
I'm not going through the play list. I am sure someone made notes but I don't like making notes when slap bang in front of Hayley--although I was four rows back. Hayley commented on how nice the theatre was (as did Fiona) who said that she had played in some pretty dreadful ones so she should know.
I am ashamed to admit I did not even know of its existence six miles from my doorstep. It is one of those quirks of valley dwellers. It used to be said (and Grant will know this as it is a railway connection) that it was easier for a Welshman to meet a fellow Welshman from another part of Wales on the platform at Paddington station (in London, England for the further afield)than to go to another part of Wales.
I am orientated westwards across those hills into leafy Buckinghamshire than eastwards where lies, Luton and its airport. Dunstable lies in between.
The Grove theatre is magnificent. Perhaps 800 seats in multi-tiers of different heights and differently shaped segments. From the stage it gives a very welcoming aspect of an intimate, warm place awash with people.
I don't disagree with Grant's comment that Hayley simply walks on a stage and it is immediately hers but tonight I felt there was something else. She had hardly taken a few steps and there was immediate and sustained applause. My impression was that this was an audience that were already Hayley fans, they knew her, knew what to expect and were eager to receive.
Passing one area on my way to my seat I stopped to take in a strong aroma of freshly carpentered wood. Perhaps a small repair? It gave me the impression of a brand new theatre. The seats are in a mushroom plush and very comfortable.
I was also impressed by the stage. This was one of the best presentations yet (for a small grouping). Total black drapery, black stands and usual black piano and the monitors. The microphone and monitor cablings were far better draped than usual. What I particularly noted--full applause for whomsoever responsible--was a neat chrome restaurant waiter's table on which Ray placed an opened bottle of water from which he half-filled a GLASS tumbler. A rare occasion when Hayley was not going to drink out of a bottle! I APPLAUD.
It was also great having our 'original' Fiona back (Pears) and Ian with a new to me Andy on guitar. Andy is a superb guitarist in two important ways. He is a good guitarist but just as important is his ability to be totally motionless when his playing is not required. Still as a statue as attentive as the audience on the star. This is true artistry.
On Fiona I'm going to stick my neck out. In my early days of watching her I commented that her gyrating seemed out of place but then the whole Hayley show has gone through a complete metamorphoses over the years. Tonight, in her performance of her 'Prague suite' I understood her movements in relation to her to me newly composed music. For me, she made Prague come alive. Musically and in her physical rhythmic movements she showed the characters she might have seen in the market square. Visually, her performance was like bringing a painting of Césanne alive.
The prequel to this post I will deliver in a day or two under the Orwell thread. May be a second part here then. As I tried to say to Hayley but the Green Room was overly hectic with diverse conversations on myriad subjects with different people, succinctly is this.
The combined effect of Sunday and tonight gives me the buzz of excited aniticipation for the second half of this year. I build that on nothing more than that I usually notice some difference in Hayley's voice between six month gaps of hearing her live. This time It was only three months! I seemed to notice more than usual... and it was heady stuff. Now let others voice a view and may be I'll expand on this thought if I don't coveer it under Orwell.
Peter S.
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Post by graemek on Jul 17, 2008 23:54:50 GMT
Thank you all & greetings. Lovely shot Grant. Peter, I loved your word picture .......unique !! I'm already warmed up..... Graeme
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Post by grant on Jul 18, 2008 0:25:21 GMT
Hello everyone
Part 1 For the second time this week I guided my car off the drive with “Hayley Sings Japanese Songs” for company. This should have been a fairly easy drive – virtually all motorway – but I managed to get lost on the outskirts of Dunstable and had to ask directions. Turns out I hadn’t gone far enough down the A505 but I won’t bore you with all that.
Once parked, I found Richard and Gordon already in the Weatherspoons and also discovered that they had seen Hayley arrive about 4pm (new I should have left earlier!). Drew arrived a little while later, having collected the flyers for distribution, followed by Martin.
Just before 6pm, we drifted across to the Theatre and promptly bumped into Steve Abbott who was talking with the duty manager. He acknowledged us and eventually came over for a chat whereupon we discovered that Hayley would not be doing a signing after the concert “but wait over in that corner and I’ll take you up to the Green Room to see Hayley”. Well, that was a pleasant surprise – thanks Steve!! With the ‘afters’ sorted, we made our way into the magnificent and very modern auditorium and took our seats on the front row.
It was an immensely pleasant surprise to hear from Steve that we have Fiona and Ian playing for Hayley tonight along with guitarist Andy Moore, and they came quietly onto stage to await Hayley who, as Peter has already commented, arrived on stage in her Celtic green gown to rapturous applause and a few whistles. For which Hayley thanked them graciously, then, with the traditional Hayley giggle, added “We like a few whistles”. There was no doubt that this audience had already decided they were in for a very special evening and they were not going to be disappointed.
Hayley opened with Pokarekare Ana which seems to be the norm lately. But was it just me or did she put slightly more emphasis on “Pokarekare”? Caccini’s Ave Maria and Scarborough Fair followed to complete her first set before she handed over to Fiona and left the stage.
Fiona, wearing a knee length sparkly dress and boots, began by talking about her time in Prague, thus introducing the piece written especially to commemorate her time there “Tangisimo”. This is a superb piece requiring much animation from Fiona – she even managed a circuit of Ian and his piano, playing all the time. It is easy to see how she has grown as a performer, even during the time I have known her, and richly deserves her own headline concerts. Fiona’s second piece was the ever popular “Memories of Martin and Mary”. Fiona told us that she and Ian had recently returned to Ireland and had managed to catch up with Mary.
Hayley now returned to stage with four very familiar pieces beginning with one of my particular favourites “Prayer” followed by Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” Hayley explaining that she sees different things in the lyrics each time she sings it depending upon how she feels at the time. Shenandoah came next and nice to see the “100 verses and the doors are locked” tease back in Hayley's repertoire. Danny Boy took us nicely up to the interval.
Part 2 to follow shortly
Best wishes Grant
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