Songs of Praise 50th Anniversary celebration

[dani]

I wonder if James M will be there.

[dani]

No news yet?

[fan_de_LoK]

Just arrived at my hotel

Great and pleasant evening at the Alexandra Palace

Andrea Bocelli has a magnificent voice, it was the first time I hear him live, I was amazed !!
Same for Katherine Jenkins !

Libera sung together with with the other choirs.They where 25 boys in white robes, including Jonathan.
I was seated a little to far to be able to recognize all of them, I can't says exactly who were there or not (James M was not).

The choirs were split in two blocks seats, located on the left and the right of the stage. Libera was at the bottom of the right block and they were very easy to focus on due to their white robes

Near of Libera was another well known choir : the Fuchsia choir from Sam Coates !
Also present in the choir right block, near Libera : Steven Geraghty and Simon Levis.


I think we may expect to see Libera several times on the TV show because they had often camera on them, including steady cams very near of them.

Libera was by far the choir having the youngest choristers.

The show was not a "concert like event" but a "recording event", the main purpose was to record the TV special that will be aired next week, so we had some songs that were redo 2 or 3 times, to correct technical issues or to motivate the public to sing with more energy

[fan_de_LoK]

My camera is very poor, being 5 or 6 years old and not good for dime light, so my photos are mostly very blurry.
I have seen much more better photos on Yorkie's and Yuki's cameras
So be sure to check Yuki's blog for better photos, anyway here's a few of mines :



Yorkie and I managed to change our tickets. Instead of being at the very back of the room, I sat at the middle of it, and Yorkie was at the first quarter ! (While Yuki was first row ! Lucky her )

The left photo above is the half-back of the room, just to let imagine the double of that, 7000 people singing together the same songs ! wow !!
The right photo is the stage seen from my seat, with the two choir balcony at each side of the stage. A few Libera boys are standing in white robes at the bottom of the right Balcony.



A little closer of the stage, this was took from Yorkie's place.



This is Libera when they were on the point to leave their seats at the end. This is my less blurry photo....
The taller boys were more easy to recognize : Jonathan, Sam, Liam, Sammy, Tiarnan were the 5 seated on the third row.
Below them were two rows of Ten, starting on the left with Josh and Ben, and then the sizes were decreasing and I was not able to see everyone.

[JimmyRiddle]

Thanks FDL - just got back myself from the long & lonely drive back up the M1/M6...but it was worth it!

I'm glad I decided to go, it was a fun event. I can now tick the fantastic 'Bocelli live' off my must-do list. His 'amazing grace' captivated the whole audience. Katherine Jenkins was excellent to, most of the acts were. Libera were pretty much setup as you explained. I also took a few video's but like you I was far back in section C. So hopefully those at the front will have taken some pics. Although Libera didn't have their own song, or any duet with the solo artists, I did hear them put out some trademark descants, particularly during the 3rd verse of Angel Voices. Be sure to watch out for that one next week. They had 4 huge screens suspended from the ceilings, so you could see the solo artists easily on the stage. However whenever they featured the two stage choirs, it was always a wide-angled shot, or a static picture of the SoP50 logo, so obviously they will be editing-in the shots of the choir for next week's broadcast. The stage choirs had their own little spot for 'O When The Saint's Go Marching In' and at the end they all had to punch the air, so that should be fun to watch aswell. I was tempted to video that on the second take, but didn't want to risk the wrath of security lol

More to come tomorrow, coffee's wearing off. Night.

[sweetangel16]

Thanks for sharing these great photos, FDL

Charmaine

[TullyBascombe]

Is there any chance that portions of this might show up on YouTube?

[dani]

Thank you for the reviews Patrick and Jimmy

It sounded like a fun afternoon out and a nice forum meet up .


Its a shame that it lOoks like James m has left as he was a quality soloist and a fun character to watch in interviews .

[YukiBOL]

Just wrote my review up. Hope you like it.
- http://dearlibera.wordpress.com/2011/09 ... y-concert/

[sweetangel16]

Thank you for the reviews Patrick and Jimmy

It sounded like a fun afternoon out and a nice forum meet up .


Its a shame that it lOoks like James m has left as he was a quality soloist and a fun character to watch in interviews .

I'll really miss that cute guy.

Charmaine

[mokkmonster]

I was there, too. I haven't been able to see much from where I was sitting, but it was really a great experience. So thanks for the pics! And at least we got the chance to sing together with Libera.

[maartendas]

Thanks for the reviews everyone Yuki, your blog stands out once again, you're a valuable Libera reporter Looking at those pictures - wow, just imagine being in that massive choir with Libera
And yes, I'm also joining in the chorus of people hoping for a Youtube appearance of the broadcast.

I really hope James M hasn't left, and will be there at the Philippines... And if he has indeed left (I hope not... ), that he is at least featured on the Christmas album......

[Yorkie]

Home Sweet Home. Mixed trip of highs and lows.

First surprise (pleasant) was that FDL managed to find a hotel that was clean and didn't have plastic sheeting covering the holes in the roof. First disappointment - chicken ramen at Wagamama's as recommended by Daniel in the interview for the Japanese Peace DVD. Giving a fat, hungry Yorkshire man a bowl of noodles and soup is not a good idea. Making him 'eat' it with twigs and a bamboo ladle It looked like the set of one of the Saw movies by the time I'd finished. What were you thinking Daniel

Sunday was a nice sunny day (as always in England) but the trip to Norbury revealed no choir On To the Ally Pally and FDL and I arrived 'slightly' early. We managed to sneak a peak at the score given to the choirs (FDL's photo is from the book that the Libera boys would have been given, not the programme us civvies got fobbed off with). We also heard Andrea Bocelli practising Amazing Grace by listening through the back door to the hall.

Things were getting desperate though when for excitement we wondered down to see the deer and rose garden! We started to queue for entry - mainly because we had checked out where to swap our tickets and wanted to be first. John turned up at this point and we spent most of the next hour avoiding the roving camera and SoP presenters who wanted to interview us

The rest has pretty much been said apart from the fact that during Amazing Grace with Bocelli they had a camera man witha steady-cam taking pictures on the stage. Some how he managed, whilst walking backwards, to fall off the side of the stage right by where the Libera boys were. I was sure they would stop and start again but they didn't

Anyway, the highlight of my trip was getting a kiss from Yuki and Momo whilst saying goodbye at Victoria station I was much further back than Yuki so my photo's are not as good but for those who like this stuff I'll post 'em. Also I was on extreme zoom for my pocket digital so some shots are not in focus unfortunately:





Next is my original seat and the one after my new seat

[FanInPlymouth]

Just wanted to add my little bit to the post-SoP show remarks. It proved to be a great day as I met the world-famous, much-travelled, Yuki and her friend Momo. I have to say that both ladies are adorable and so friendly. Yuki later introduced me to FDLoK - it was nice to meet you Patrick. Sorry I couldn't get to say hello to the other forum members there but my mobility is shot-to-hell and I just couldn't get around to meet you.

On leaving Ally Pally, I had to walk down a slope away from the Grreat Hall towards the disabled car park as the main steps were blocked off due to the sheer number of people leaving the venue and it was quite a walk to the disabled car park (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) and as I progressed slowly, I heard a lady's voice comment "be careful not to knock into the man with the crutches boys" (note: I use a walking-stick, not crutches!) and I turned and realised that Libera were overtaking me en-masse and just then, Eleanor Lewis walked by so I thanked her for her comment and she looked a little startled that I used her name! 10 minutes later, I reached the bottom of the slope and saw the assembled Liberaians* all busily jabbering away, nineteen to the dozen and I made a bee-line for a crash barrier to lean against to recover from the walk down. I realised they were there but couldn't speak for five mins or so as my problem is due to a lung condition (no, not cancer) and I get very breathless when I walk and so literally couldn't speak to anyone. As I slowly recovered, I wondered whether I should go over or not as I thought it may be considered by them as a little intrusive but I did summon up the nerve to speak to RP. I have to say, he was a perfect gentleman, asking me if I was alright and if I had enjoyed the show! My main question to him was whether there were any UK concerts coming up but I have to say that he is the master of the non-committal as he used phrases such as "you never know" and "watch this space", so make of that what you will. I did not speak to any of the boys as, a) it was very dark where they were standing and I realised there would be a security issue and 2) as I walked passed them earlier, Matthew Jansen looked at me with concern (as to whether I was about to conk-out I think!) and I knew that talking with them (even just saying "hello") very breathless would have concerned some of the younger ones.

I've no idea how long they would have waited where they were for their transport as Ally Pally & Muswell Hill suffered total grid-lock!!

You've already commented on the show itself - it's the first time I've seen Kathryn Jenkins or Andrea Bocelli live and I thought they were just stunning! I quite liked Beverley Knight but I thought Leanne Rymmes (no idea how to spell her name correctly - and I don't care!) plugging her new single was a bit too self-serving. I look forward to seeing the finished product next week!


* What is the collective noun, for a bunch of Liberians? How about a "descant"?

[Murkskis]

Fantastic reviews and pictures! Thank you to everyone