Il Divo - UK - Birmingham NEC - 18th April 2006

[Dave]

Media previews/reviews and fan reviews/photos of Il Divo's third and final concert at the NEC, Birmingham, 18th April (preferably those mentioning Hayley!) should be posted in this thread, together with any follow-up comments.

Please stay on topic to this concert; off topic matters should be discussed in a more suitable thread or board.

[roger]

Hi everyone,

With grateful thanks to Dave for the lift, I have just arrived home from an amazing evening in Birmingham. Hayley's set was exactly the same as it had been in Wembley last week but there was no guitarist this time - only the backing track. Her performance sounded perfect but she commented later that the monitors were briefly cutting out! She coped admirably of course.

Steve Abbott had previously told me that he would endeavour to organise a meeting for tonight. Dave and I searched the huge arena during the interval (buy which time Hayley's part was over) but there was no sign of him. To cut a long story short, I eventually phoned him to ask where and when our meeting would take place. I got his voicemail!

Ten minutes later, he phoned me back to say that he was in London! However, he gave me the number of the tour manager, Ali and asked that I wait a few minutes before phoning so that he could call him first.

A few minutes later, Dave and I were outside the stage door and I was talking to Ali on the phone. I then heard him ask if I was Roger which seemed a bit odd as we had already been talking for several minutes! I looked up and saw him standing right in front of me!

Within seconds, Hayley was standing at the door asking us if we would mind coming in! Well, I suppose we might as well while we were waiting!

We later calculated that we spent forty minutes with her - longer than she had been on stage! She convinced me that she was really enjoying the tour with Il Divo and that they were all (including the crew) one big "family".

Hayley wanted me to say hi to everyone and is genuinely very grateful for the support you all give. I am sure Dave (who is still on the road) will have more to add so I will sign off for now as it is 3:30am here!

Roger

[Joe]

Hi Roger...

Thanks for sharing this news as soon as you got in. It really sounded like quite an evening. So glad that a meeting with Hayley was arranged.

I look forward to more news from the concert in B'ham...get some sleep! It's only 10.45 here and I'm starting to drop off!

Joe :zz

[Dave]

roger said:

Hi everyone,
Hayley wanted me to say hi to everyone and is genuinely very grateful for the support you all give. I am sure Dave (who is still on the road) will have more to add so I will sign off for now as it is 3:30am here!
Roger

Hi Roger, again LOL, and Joe and everyone!

Well it won't be much i add tonight I'm afraid as it's now 3:45 am and I've done a mile or two's late night driving. The South Downs aren't quite as beautiful to see at 3 am as 3pm and they are nowhere near Birmingham!

Yes it's true, we had to miss seeing Il Divo tonight although we did *hear* most of their act, we certainly did! And Hayley was very chatty, even though she was a bit tired - we simply couldn't get away! But most important of all, she seemed genuinely to be thoroughly enjoying the whole experience of the Il Divo World Tour!

We have a few nice photos of Hayley (with and without me and Roger) taken in that backstage corridor, LOL, but it's too late to get them sorted out tonight - more on them tomorrow and more from me then, too.

For now, I'm off to get some sleep, I need it but I don't mind at all!

Cheers, Dave

[Richard]

Hello Dave and Roger!

I'm so glad you were able to meet Hayley last night, and I can't wait to see the photographs. I'll be watching this thread like a hawk! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Bye for now,

Richard

[denis]

Hi Dave and Roger,
It is good to hear that you met Hayley and were able to converse at length. Particulary in relation to the Il.Divo concerts. We perhaps have a more difinitive view on the tour.



Richard how did you not go to Birmingham? I know you would have been their in spirit.

Regards,

Denis.

[roger]

Here is the first shot from our meeting with Hayley in Birmingham last night. I'm sure Dave will add more later!

Roger

[Andrew]

Hi Roger,

Many thanks for this lovely picture of beautiful roses!!! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

No- seriously... this is a lovely photo- you all look so happy!

I'm looking forward to seeing some more...

Regards,

Andrew

[Steve H]

Hi Dave, Roger

I am pleased that you did get to see Hayley at Birmingham, although it makes me even more sad that our plans were thwarted at Wembley, I so would have liked to have gone to Birmingham, but picked Wembley instead because of the distance, It just goes to show if we go that extra mile we are rewarded. I will learn from this!

The photo looks great, Roger has found his razer i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif, and Dave has his reward for all that driving! Well done guys, even if I am a tiny bit jealous.

Steve H

[Richard]

Hello again Dave and Roger!

That's a great photograph of you two with Hayley, so thanks for posting it so quickly.

Roger, I know you were disappointed by not meeting Hayley at Wembley last week, so I'm glad you only used the razor to shave!

Denis, I'm starting to wish I had gone to Birmingham last night, but I did manage to meet Hayley at Wembley, so now it's my turn to be green with envy!

Thanks for your lovely message to all of us Hayley! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes,

Richard

[Steve H]

Hi everybody, a few early posts from the IL Divo Forum:-

superpipposgirl wrote:-

Hayley was her usual gentle self...charming and with a voice
that could light a rainbow.....she sounded fantastic,as always but
we,in all honesty-we were there to see IL DIVO

cate wrote:-

Haley was great again and she was given lovely flowers of some Forum Divas which she really appreciated as i think it was the 1st time she had received any.

irene the besotted wrote:-

Hawaiian Trish, URSYBABE and Me, Irene the Besotted gave flowers to Hayley at the NEC on the 14th April 2006.
There is a thank you from Hayley in the MEN thread. Hayley was so grateful for the flowers, she is such a lovely person.

I have been looking for the thank you from Hayley, but its like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Steve H

[Stuart H]

Hi Dave & Roger

Congrats on success this time! - and the mobile seemed to be on your side this time. Glad Hayley is enjoying the tour. Its good to get it from her directly. Hope next time I am as lucky!

Stuart

[Steve H]

A few more ....

lilroo wrote;-

I went to the nec il divo concert last night, to be honest i have never really listened to them it was my mums birthday and shes loves them so we all went for her.
i thought Hayley had a lovely voice and her songs were nice

URSYBABE wrote:-

Quote: There is a thank you from Hayley in the MEN thread. Awww is there really ?? Ain't that real nice of her eh ?

Lotsa Love ~ Sue xxxx

Vanessa13 wrote:-

A quick question Did anyone manage to get a picture of Hayley being presented with flowers after her performance If so and you are happy to share the photo, could you let me know please Thanks V xx

Sojourner wrote:-

Cate and Irene, Hayley also received flowers in Minneapolis but they were sent to the dressing room, as we weren't allowed to do any 'presentations' at our venue. I'm glad to hear she's getting more and more appreciation as the tour goes on.

There seems more and more about Hayley with every show, and its all positive!

Steve H


Edit: I corrected size tags.
Richard

[Dave]

Hi Steve, yes it is all positive

Vanessa13 made that request for "flowers" pics after I asked her if she managed to get any pics of the flowers presentation, I wanted to surprise everyone if we managed to track one down! Unfortunately, it all happened so fast that neither Vanessa nor I managed to get the pic so we'll have to hope that *someone* did!!! The presentation was really great to see

I may have mentioned this in another thread, but anyway, I printed out what Vanessa had said in an email, I showed it to Hayley and explained to her that this was typical of the feedback we'd been getting from the Il Divo fans in here and their forum:

If you see Hayley in the interval tell her I think she is wonderful. My friend had a chaffeur take her to Birmingham and she bought him a ticket so he had something to do whilst he was waiting. The next day he bought Hayley's album, Cool huh!!

You would be right to assume that Hayley was pleased to see this!

I will post some pics I took later this evening, sorry for the delay!

Cheers, Dave

[Dave]

Here are some pictures I took at the NEC Arena - the on stage ones aren't as good as at Wembley, we were much further away from Hayley, off to the side and hand held pics on full zoom were tricky and with a lot of grain too (3200 ISO for the initiated) . And... the ushers were after me - I got spotted and interrogated!!!

My thanks to Roger for his help with the purple circle

Cheers, Dave

Hayley singing to the NEC Arena audience



Hayley singing to Roger and me



Hayley finishing for the evening



Hayley backstage in the depths of the NEC Arena

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