Barbican 21st Dec 2009 - Christmas with Hayley

[comet]

Thanks Karsten, Peter, Sandchimp and Artcorner,

Avid Lee Mead fans eh !
A Winter's Tale is such a lovely sentimental song. irrelevant if it has never happened to you, but a very saddening reminder if it has. I remember the David Essex version well (Wow, that was 25 years ago. How did that happen), I presume it is the song, rather than the Shakespeare

I am so pleased the evening went well, I am looking forward to more detailed reports.

[Richard]

Hello folks!

It was a wonderful concert last night. I'll leave the detailed reports to others, but the real highlight for me was Hayley's rendition of 'O Holy Night'. She sang this song so beautifully that several members of the audience shed a few tears.

I'd like to thank Hayley for jumping out of the minibus for a quick chat when she arrived, even though she was running late for the soundcheck.

Richard

[Mark]

Hi everyone

Thanks for your early reports and thanks too Karsten for the photos - supurb as usual. It sounds as though this was a spectacular concert - very special. I am looking forward to hearing all the details as reports and more photos are posted.

Best wishes

Mark

[Jillian]

Hi everyone,

A Lee Mead fansite has recordings of two of the songs he and Hayley sang together (Stars Go Blue and Sleigh Ride) as well as Lee's solo songs.

leemead-timeline.co.uk/files/events/hwconcert21dec09.html

[graemek]

Thanks everyone....Great work.

Did anyone record O Holy Night??

Graeme

[roro]

As one of the Lee Mead fans at last night's concert, can I just say ... wow!!! Wonderful song list, beautifully delivered - what a fabulous start to Christmas!

I see you've found the audios of Hayley's duets with Lee, I do have more audio of last night (including O Holy Night) which I will try and edit this evening.

[Colin]

Dec 22, 2009 10:58:46 GMT graemek said:

Thanks everyone....Great work.

Did anyone record O Holy Night??

Graeme

Hi Graeme

I've PM'ed you

Grant, Richard & Karsten - it was great to meet up with you and have a chat at long last!

Hayley said she wanted this year to go out on a high and I think we can certainly say indeed she did! A fabulous evening, and well worth the difficulties of the homeward journey back down the M3 past Basingstoke, though that did mean we had to leave straight after the concert.

Best wishes

Colin

[artcorner]

Apologies for not saying hello to you guys last night but I didn't have your faces memorised so I played safe rather than risk introducing myself to the wrong people!

[Martin]

Hi All
Well, what can I say? Was this the highlight of the Winter Magic Tour and was Hayley and all the musicians in top form last night? YES, is the undeniable answer.

Whilst the Barbican Hall may not have the superb acoustics that we experienced in some of the Cathedral and Abbey venues, there was a gripping atmosphere last night and with the small variations to the previous concert songlist, and the inclusion of an impressive Lee Mead, the whole evening was "magical".

The sound of 2000 concert goers giving the performers rapturous applause was very humbling for me and I'm sure for Hayley as well. If Hayley wanted to go out on a high last night then I can honestly say that all the boxes were ticked!

The highlights for me were, again, "O Holy Night", "I Know You by Heart" and Lee Mead singing the Anthem from the musical Chess.

It was great to see such a large HWI turnout (including wellington boots ) and many thanks to Gianmarco for tipping us off that Hayley was having a signing (note that this was not generally announced).

As this was the last concert, I am sure that all the other HWI concert goers would agree that Hayley's support should be congratulated for their contribution to the entire tour, most notably:

Tim Evans, for great musical direction and piano accompaniment. As mentioned previously, Tim had taken the concert arrangements to a new level.

Andy Moore (now known as AJ Moore!), for subtle and wonderful guitar. His interpretation of "I Know You by Heart" was a revelation.

Raven, perhaps the biggest surprise of the tour and have certainly gained a huge number of new fans. Their future looks promising given the opportunities.

GianMarco , for his discrete and caring support for Hayley and continuing to remain very patient with the HWI'ers. We all feel we have gained a new friend here and I personally hope we meet again next year.

The Sound Crew, for bringing the best out of the performers in, sometimes, very challenging environments

...and last but not least, Bedlam who were out in force last night. They kept the wheels turning effortlessly throughout the tour and the efforts of Hannah at the various venues did not go unnoticed. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

I now look forward to 2010 and wonder quite how Hayley will top this tour. But, of course, we all know she will.

Martin

[scrpuckref]

Once again thank you all for the wonderful reports and particularly Karsten for the magnificent pictures of Hayley and cast. I can only dream of how terrific the evening was.

Best regards & merry Christmas to all,
Steve

[comet]

welcome Roro,

people with your abilities are always welcome here,

The International Archive of all things Hayley,

Greetings to you from freezing Dublin.

[grant]

Hello everyone and thanks for the reports and first impressions so far.

Martin, I fully concur with your sentiments regarding all the people involved with this tour, they have been wonderful and looked after us in a way that we should not expect but have been privileged to enjoy.

..... and thank you Karsten for the first pictures, many of which I saw in the early hours of this morning whilst enjoying a few glasses of wine in our Travelodge i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

My report will follow.

Best wishes
Grant

[Martin]

Thank you also Karsten for your first batch of photos and I look forward to seeing more from Grant and Steve.

I am pleased to say that they confirm that Hayley was well last night and in good form although she had to lubricate the engine in between songs!

Martin

[grant]

After an uneventful journey down and a quick turn round at the Travelodge in Croydon, I headed back up to London. Changing underground trains at Kings Cross, I found myself face to face with Martin who is also en route to the Barbican. After a false start, we found the escalators up to the complex and made our way to the meeting point – the first time I have achieved this without getting totally lost! Gordon and Richard are already in residence and advise that we had missed Hayley’s arrival by about 30 minutes.

We whiled away the afternoon whilst the sleet and snow swirled around outside, during which time several members of Raven and some of Hayley’s management were spotted scurrying around the complex. We did manage a few words with Steve Abbott who seemed very pleased to see us. He told us that, although Hayley was much better, she still had a sore throat but that it wouldn’t affect her performance.

The auditorium doors for the concert opened at 7pm and we made our way inside; Karsten changing places with Colin in the hope of getting better pictures. The stage looked very festive with a large Star of David projected on the back wall and Christmas trees at the stage extremities.

The concert opened with two carols from the all girl Capital Children’s Choir. They sang beautifully and looked lovely in their pure white dresses and really got things off to a very festive start. Next the musicians filed onto stage and took their places ahead of the familiar ‘clip clop’ of high heels heralding Hayley’s approach to the stage – the audience erupted into spontaneous applause several seconds before Hayley came into view from where I was sitting.

In the main, the concert followed the familiar “Winter Magic” pattern, as per the set list already posted by Karsten and it was clear that Hayley was determined to enjoy herself, several time admitting with a giggle that she was loosing the plot although I doubt she was in reality! I very much enjoyed to duet “When The Stars Go Blue” with Lee Mead which I had not heard before after which the choir returned to stage to close out the first half with “The Coventry Carol” and an addition for this concert of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” – which I think maybe the first time I’ve heard Hayley sing it live?

After treating myself to a rather expensive organic ice cream in the interval, I returned to my seat for the second half of the concert which again, followed the “WM” pattern; Hayley removing her shoes for her piano piece “River”. I suppose, knowing that Hayley had been unwell, one instinctively looks for telltale signs in her performance but, if there were any, I didn’t see them, except perhaps for the slightly more frequent sips of water and the almost imperceptible clearing of the throat whilst she had her back to the audience, which few would have noticed. Any doubts anyway would have been completely dispelled with “O Holy Night”, once again one of the highlights of this series of concerts which Hayley sings so beautifully.

Now it was time for Lee’s solo spot, the first of which left me rather cold; almost certainly because I still had “O Holy Night” with me. Lee’s performance of “Anthem” from Chess was a different matter entirely. Chess has long been one of my all time favourite musicals and I had been looking forward to hearing Lee sing it from the moment I had seen it in the programme – I wasn’t disappointed, it was absolutely brilliant and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up – not many male singers can do that to me!

Lee also joined Hayley part way through Sleigh Ride and they seemed to be having fun singing it together. Hayley, though, seemed rather sad that she would have to relinquish ‘her prop’ – the sleigh bells – as she called it, for another year and reluctantly returned it to the table by AJ with some sadness. Two songs later, the concert was over and Hayley left the stage to tremendous applause. She wasn’t allowed to stay away for long and soon returned with something different – “How about a ‘sing-along? Have you all got programmes? There are some words in the middle” Hayley retrieved her copy of the programme from the table by the piano and held it up for all to see. I really enjoyed the opportunity to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” with Hayley leading, it felt very special.

The audience were still not prepared to let Hayley go and Hayley made no attempt to leave the stage. I’m not sure this was even planned as Hayley gave up trying to communicate individually with the musicians on stage and used her mic. To suggest “Silent Night”. That really was the end and it really is going to be ‘silent night’ for us for a while with no concerts scheduled before June next year.

[Jeff]

Well my extended-wear contact lenses certainly had a good workout yesterday ! I'd had a bad feeling about this day for a while and my fears were realised when our coach ground to a halt in a blizzard on the M3. We got to Victoria at 7pm (journey time 5 hours, average speed 20mph) only for further progress to be thwarted by cancellations on the Circle line. I'd intended to get to the Barbican without changing tube trains but it might have been better to take the Victoria line to Kings Cross then change to the Hammersmith & City. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Southwesttrains fared even worse with 3 hour delays due to frozen points in the New Forest.

Anyway as I arrived at a slushy Barbican (interesting design) people were coming out for the interval so I grabbed a coffee and headed for my seat. The one piece of luck I had all day was that Hayley sang three of my favourite songs at the start of the second half: "River" (with her usual shoe problems, no Hayls I wasn't offended by your stockinged feet but it was a shame you had your back to us), "I know you by heart" and "O holy night." I am still puzzled why that carol isn't on her album.

Given that my outward journey had taken 6 hours I thought it best not to hang around afterwards. On returning to Victoria I found our driver had managed to select the one coach in the entire station that failed to start. By the time the luggage had been transferred to a different coach it had gone 1am and the thought crossed my mind that by the time I got home it wouldn't be worth going to bed anyway ! There had been a certain symmetry to the night's events. At Salisbury I caught the start of the concert but missed the end. Here I missed the start and caught the end. Next time I hope to enjoy the novelty of seeing the whole show but it won't be in London. As I crawled into bed at 4.20am the thought was inescapable that there's no point in booking concert seats in the bleak midwinter if you're hoping to rely on public transport to get you there.