Christchurch Cathedral 7th March 2009It was a lovely hot evening in Christchurch. I arrived at the Cathedral at 6:30pm and the doors opened at 6:45pm. I got a seat in the second row by the centre aisle but I swapped it later as a couple wanted to sit together and so I got a front row seat next to the video camera
. There were two large screens at each side so we could watch the concert on screen as well. I met John the lighting guy who is in our forum. The concert started at 7:45pm.
The musicians for tonight were Ian Tilley Piano, Michael Ferrar Guitar, Peter Fleming Double Bass, Greg Donaldson Drums, Hamish Oliver Keyboards & Melodica, Susanna Campbell Cello, Tamara Smith Flute, Mark Hobson Clarinet and Bob Bickerton (part of the crew) on Uillean Pipes.
Fiona started playing before she arrived on stage followed by the flutist and clarinet. It was a new tune called
Happy Days , I think written after Ian proposed to Fiona. Fiona was bare foot as usual in a gold dress.
Fiona then played
The Piper's SonOn A BranchTangissimo
The next song was great with all the instruments involved
Whisper WaltzTurkish FantasieFar AwayAnother great song to finish the first set was
Tchavolo Swing.
Fiona mention that the Warners Hotel was available for us to get some refreshments so that is where I went for a nice cold beer.
After the interval just Fiona, Michael and Peter came onto the stage and they played
House By The Harbour. Then Greg, Ian and Hamish joined them and played my favourite
Firefly with Greg opening with his drums for a few minutes (sounded loud in the Cathedral). I forgot to mention that the choir stalls behind the stage were full of children and I think Greg woke them up lol. Fiona was wearing a new dress that a lady at the concert made for her. ( I think she is also doing the wedding dress).
Then the rest of the musicians came back and they played
Cinema Paradiso.
Then Fiona introduced the next song about her trip to Ireland, yes it was
Memories Of Martin and Mary.
The next song was a new one called
Cathedral Tango. It opens with the double bass followed by the clarinet. The flutist and the rest of the band join in and lastly Fiona starts playing. I loved this song.
Then a chair was put into the middle of the stage and Fiona introduced Bob (normally the sound guy) and he started playing the Uillean Pipes with Fiona joining him later,. The song was
My Song For The Motherland.
The next song was called
I Found A New Baby which included Hamish on the Melodica.
It was like a little piano that you blow into. Fiona said that he looked like the Muppets when he plays it and so Hamish started playing the Muppet theme which the audience loved lol.
The next song was
The Willow Tree and lastly the
Sabre Dance which takes a lot of energy to play but we love it.
For the Encore they play the
Czarist which we clapped to in the fast bits. But during the song an alarm went off and they stopped playing while one of the staff turned off the alarm. While this was happening Ian started playing a tune which we started clapping too lol. They then got around to finishing the Czarist song.
I took a few photos with my new camera. Most were all right. A couple of blurry ones but then Fiona does move quickly around the stage lol. I shouldn't have that problem with Hayley.
I will post some more photos tomorrow.
After the concert I saw Gerald and we talked about how much we loved the concert. He said Hayley will be shortly in Japan but she will get a couple of weeks break in NZ before she starts touring NZ.
I got Fiona to sign my concert poster and I later spoke to Ian before I left the Cathedral at 10:30pm.
While Ian and Fiona were on an evening walk on the New Brighton Beach in Christchurch a couple of days ago, Ian proposed to Fiona and Fiona said YES (She wondered why it had taken this long lol). 
so it is not a real surprise 
