Festival of Remembrance - 7 November 2009

[Caitlin]

Oh my goodness...that was incredible! I loved how Hayley duetted with the younger Dame Vera. And her waving at the end..it was beautiful. Thank you SO much for uploading this Dave

<3 Caitlin

[roger]

As other have commented, I also noticed it seemed a little low for Hayley and wondered why they hadn't transposed it up a step or two but the reason became apparrent when the video of Dame Vera was included. Of course, it had to be in the original key. I hadn't seen that coming and the effect was tremendous.

Well done to Dave for uploading the video to YT so quickly.

Roger

[Martin]

You're absolutely correct Roger but worth noting that Hayley also sang it in the same key at the Poppy Launch a few weeks ago. Admittedly, she invited Dame Vera to join in on the last verse but whether that was premeditated or not we will never know!

Cheers
Martin

[Karsten]

Hi Dave,

Thank you very much indeed for the upload - the performance was really overwhelming, as well Hayley's as your speed.

All the best, Karsten

[graemek]

Hi All,
May I also thoroughly recommend that everyone gives the BBC Radio
coverage a VERY good listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nrt54/Festival_of_Remembrance/

Excellent...It complements the visual material we've all just seen.

I have recorded it myself & would love to upload it complete but it would be a shame to hack the music contained in it to bits.
BBC is giving us until the 14th November to listen to it. Even us non UK ers.

It contains the following:
0-12 mins Intro
12-14 mins Hayley Interview and straight after Dame Vera Interview.
14-16 mins Hayley sings we'll Meet again
16-17 mins D-day comments & military music
17-21 mins Jamie Cullun sings Land of Begin Again
21-23 mins RAF Band Tiko Tiko
24-27 mins St Edwards School Choir
27-33 mins Navy Band
33-35 mins Faryl Smith sings Prayer
35-37 mins Hymn by everybody Praise My Soul the king of Heaven
37-50 mins Clergy address with John's Gospel Reading & Prayer.
50-51 mins Young children go to front
51-53 mins Hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
53-55 mins National Anthem by all.

Enjoy it,
Graeme

[Jillian]

I was just watching an episode of the comedy series 'Dad's Army' (Battle School, series 3) and the platoon burst into a rendition of 'We'll Meet Again' -- lol I think that Hayley sings it better!

[roger]

Hi Jillian,

I'm sure Hayley will be very relieved to hear it! Otherwise we're doomed, we're all doomed, I tell ye!

Roger

[Jillian]

Ha, ha -- or in the case of 'Asleep in the Deep': 'we're entoombed, entoombed'... But I just want to let ye know, Captain Mainwaring, that I always had the utmost faith in ye! Never doubted ye for a second!'

Okay, had better restrain myself before I get into trouble for taking this whole thread off topic! :rollin

Apparently Hayley had an interview on Sky TV this morning, but unfortunately we missed it! Oh well.

[amptique]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for getting the video posted on YouTube. It is fantastic!

Bill

[Dave]

Hello everyone,

There are some comments about the sound levels so I thought I'd add a few myself. If you want to ignore the waffle and skip straight to the answer, it's in bold at the end.

Yes Hayley was singing close to the lower limit of her singing voice. "Meet" is I think only a note or two above her starting note in "My Heart Belongs To You" on the US version of Pure, which I think is the lowest note Hayley has ever recorded and released. But as a commercial recording, they would have tweaked "My Heart" to raise the levels for the CD. If I do the same to the start of We'll Meet Again, her voice now sounds much stronger in that lowest part of her range but of course, nowhere near as strong as it is a few notes higher.

To fully correct for this on the fly, the sound engineers would have had to be very quick and accurate on her microphone feed as Hayley's power comes in quickly and it would have needed doing twice. I could do it now with the audio track but that would be cheating, wouldn't completely work (as I can't isolate the microphone track) and anyway I like it as it is!

The broadcast levels did indeed start on the low side and although I did some normalizing (for those who know) the applause at the end still kept the levels down at the start; a 6dB lift at the start and gradual taper to a 3dB lift at the end would have worked better, as the BBC didn't do it. If I'd realized this last night, I could easily have done it.

One advantage of using YouTube HD is that they encode the audio at 128 kbps in stereo, so it's quite good now (for them). And the lowish audio level does pretty well guarantee no distortion (with the right equipment and I don't mean cheap PC speakers) so the answer is... as one or two members have noted, turn up the volume at the start! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Dave

[martindn]

Not sure where to postthis, but Hayley had just tweeted about a new charity single that she is features on for the RBL and Help for Heroes

HayleyWestenra

Had an interview on Sky News earlier today...so did Mica Paris this am bit.ly/oLYJf -please download this charity single on itunes x

HayleyWestenra

...Proceeds go to the Royal British Legion and Help For Heroes...


HayleyWestenra

A link to the charity single: bit.ly/3e7thF



Martin

[martindn]

Oh, and incidentally, I have just Hayley's performance of I Vow to Thee My Country to YouTube. I find this a very moving perhormance that Hayley did unrehearsed and off the cuff on the night, in remembrance of servicemen killed in Afghanistan. It is from the Beaumanor Hall concert which was a fundraiser for the Royal British Legion. Please donate if you haven't already.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMHKtM7Jzrs


Martin

PS I will not mention this on twitter yet, since I don't want to distract people from downloading the charity single. So don't mention it there yet.

[Richard]

Hello Martin!

I posted all the information about the Royal British Legion's charity single in this thread.

Richard

[martindn]

Sotty Richard, should have looked before I leapt....

The Sky interview doen't mention Hayley by name of course, we all know that is byond the pale for the media is they can possibly avoid doing it, but hers is the first voice you hear.

On TV this mrning they played an extract from the show, and inevitably picked the worst )in my opinion) of the three solo performances. Jamie Callum. Again no mention of Hayley.

BTW, can't download the vid ATM, TY is "Down for Maintenance". I want to see that performance again. So I'll thank you in anticipation Dave. I'm sure it will be great

Martin

[Richard]

Hello Graeme!

Thanks for posting the link to the Radio 2 broadcast, which I'll repeat here:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nrt54/Festival_of_Remembrance/

The radio broadcast was taken from the afternoon performance, and I think the sound balance was noticeably better during Hayley's song. Scroll through to about 15 minutes to judge for yourselves.

Richard