Libera Dreams

It was a case of planes, trains and automobiles to get to the concert venue nestled on the banks of the Thames in the heart of London. I made it over from Ireland with about 40 minutes to spare and had time to sit out on the waterfront and sip a coke with hundreds of other people in this popular, busy area on what was a scorching sunny, summers afternoon. ‘The Queen Elizabeth Hall’ is the second largest of 3 venues that comprise the Southbank Centre. The other 2 being ‘The Hayward’ and ‘The Royal Festival Hall’ and all 3 have excellent facilities and are designed for concert music. The hall itself is very well laid out and even though it holds approx 900 seats, it seems quite cosy and intimate and I would speculate that there were about 700 people there. I had a fantastic seat in the 3rd row just left of centre and was no more than 10 feet from the stage. Glad to report that the seats were very comfortable and spacious . I was quite apprehensive before the start of the concert as I really did not know what to expect. You listen to the CD’s and you watch the videos but they seem somewhat surreal (not sure that’s the right word) whereas this was the real deal; a live performance. One of the things I noticed before the concert even began was the number of foreigners in the audience. There were people from France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland and even America. In fact the gentleman sitting beside me had also attended the concert in Pittsburgh and was in the UK on vacation. He reliably informed me that the programme for this concert was the same as for the one in Pittsburgh.


The line up of songs was:

Glory to thee my God this night
Gloria in excelsi Deo
Far Away
Lacrymosa
Love and Mercy
Sacris Solemnis
Adoramus
Always with you
Sanctus
Ave Maria
Libera
15 minute Interval
Orinoco Flow
I vow to thee my country
Hymn to Beauty
Rest in Peace
When a knight won his spurs
Salva Me
Stay with me
Going Home
I am the Day

This seems to have mirrored the US concerts right down to who spoke and what they said between the various songs. I think the ensemble here were joined by a couple more new boys; Ralph Skan, Daniel Fontannaz and James Threadgill. There were a couple of exceptions (I think) to the US programme: ‘Ave Maria’ was sung by Ed as opposed to Tom and ‘Stay with me’ was sung by Joe Snelling instead of Ed. I must say that Joe has a fantastic voice and handled his solo exceptionally well. This is the first time I have heard him sing such a solo. For me, the outstanding performances were ‘Love & Mercy’ ‘Sacris Solemnis’ ‘Sanctus’ ‘Stay with me’ and ‘Orinoco Flow’. Love & Mercy (not particularly one of my favourites) was flawless and just seemed to be full of life which sounds strange for a down beat song! When the lights dimmed after that number and the boys were getting into position for the next song; I noticed a few of the boys purposely went over to Josh and give him a pat on the back as if to say ‘well done, good job’ It really was a wonderful rendition. ‘Sanctus’ was incredible!! The boys seemed to relax a little singing it because they are so familiar and comfortable with it. This resulted in a wonderfully powerful performance that was truly uplifting. The only problem I had was that time seemed to go twice as fast inside the hall as it did outside!! Before you could even blink and take stock the interval was over and they were belting out a fantastic rendition of Orinoco Flow with Josh to the fore and before long little Kavana Crossley was, very sweetly, introducing the final song of the night; the climactic ‘I am the day’. It was over all too quickly !! The boys were given a tumultuous standing ovation which lasted until they re-appeared on stage for an encore of ‘Libera’.

After the show all of the boys set up in a row, 3-4 boys to a table, to sign autographs as part of the 'meet and greet'. I had to queue up for approx 40 minutes for the ‘meet and greet’ but it was well worth it as all the boys signed my programme. They were soon whisked off as they had to leave to get home as the next day was a school day. Back to reality!!!

Random thoughts: I was actually surprised at how small some of the boys were (being the father of 4 boys you’d think I would know better ) but we only ever see them up on the screen and it somehow masks how young and vulnerable they actually are. We have all heard on various sound bites that these are ‘ordinary boys’ living ‘ordinary lives’ but you know what? These boys are far from ordinary. They are extraordinary. It really brought it home to me at this concert how amazing these boys actually are and how extraordinary it is what they do. I cannot praise them or indeed their director, Robert Prizeman, enough. I have nothing but the utmost admiration and respect for them.
I headed off to my hotel very contented. I only had a few hours sleep before I had to head back to Heathrow to catch my flight home. Back to my own reality!

All in all; I am delighted I went to this concert to see these amazing boys, it was a wonderful experience.

Great job boys, well done.

....Forgot to mention that Jonathon Barrington (or JB as he is refered too) moved to the back row and sung there with Callum and Mike Horncastle.

One other thing that I noticed is that Kavana Crossley is the boy that Tom Cully is teaching to sing in the 'Libera in there own words' section of Angel Voices DVD. But you probably already knew that.....

Great review Jude. It's amazing you managed to see so much detail, the way you talked about how some of the boys, acknowledge their fellow members after a song they have sung solo in, really demonstrates what a close unit they are. Probably why they are so successfull too. Thanks for sharing you thoughts.

it's strange the stuff that catches your attention, for instance; 8 or 9 of the boys (Tom, Josh, Liam, Ed, Ben, Joe, Sam, Michael) are miked up and also have ear pieces and during some of the change overs between songs I could see a few of them fiddling with their ears like it was irritating them. I took me awhile to realise what they were doing but it makes perfect sense. Some of the boys take out there earpiece if/when they are not performing a solo in the upcoming song. Tom for example does this and thats why you can sometime see it hang down out of his ear when they do some of the other songs. He would then plug it back in when he had a solo to perform. Josh and Ben on the hand don't take theirs out at all. I presume (feel free to correct me here) that the earpiece only plays back your own voice?? and obviously some of the boys don't want to hear there own voices when they are part of a harmony. However, i could be completely wrong

Hi Jude
your review was excellent giving a feeling of being there i also took a look at the photographs which were good to see glad you enjoyed the concert thanks again
jim

Jude,
Thanks for the excellent review and for the photos!

Couple of questions. There are some new faces I did not recognize. Could someone identify the two lads in the foreground in the second-to-the-last photo? (is one of them Flynn??) Also, the lad in the last photo is . . . ????

Regards,
Rich

It's a great review! Thanks for telling so much into detail for the benefit of those who didn't attend the concert. ARGH. I wish I could be there to listen to them live. Gosh, I wish I was there myself!

Hi Rich - I am not 100% sure who 1 of the 2 boys in the foreground of the second to last photo is but the one on the right is Joe Snelling and the other is either James Threadgill or Ralph Skan but definitely not Flynn Marks. The Last photo is of Thomas Cole.

Awesome review. Your description almost made me feel as if I had been there.

Thanks for the great review Jude. I was at the Buffalo concert and had the same impression about how big (or small) the boys actually are. They looked pretty much as I expected when they were on stage, but they looked smaller than I expected up close in the meet and great session. Since that concert I look at their pictures on album covers etc. with a different perspective now.

You mentioned the mater of the earphones the soloists use. These are often referred to as Personal Monitoring Systems or wireless monitoring systems. Only the boys know for sure what they are actually listening to. However, I know as our church’s sound operator that a big problem is providing the singers with a high enough volume level for the instrumental, accompaniment track. They typically want the accompaniment at a higher level than would be correct for the audience so they can hear it over their own voices. Libera uses monitor loudspeakers for this purpose on the stage. They can hear the accompaniment music as well as their voices with these. Because they use stationary speakers and microphones when singing as a group, the level settings before feed-back (squeal) occurs are fairly well defined.

Feed-back is a bigger problem with the soloists. They use personal microphones (small boom type in the recent concerts in the U.S. and lapel types on the DVD produced in the Netherlands) during their solos. As they move around and get closer to the monitor speakers, there is more tendency for feed-back. When they use the Personal Monitoring Systems earphones, this problem is eliminated.

If you’ve ever used in-ear type earphones for an extended period of time, you know how uncomfortable they can get. Along with wanting to better hear the whole ensemble, I suspect this is a reason for taking them out when not doing solos. I noticed that some of the boys seemed to be adjusting their earphones quite frequently. If they slip out of position even a small amount, it can have a significant effect on the level of sound they hear.

Thanks for the review Jude.

I attended most of the US concerts and Joe was the soloist for Stay with Me in the shows I saw. I believe Ed did the solo on Ave Maria here as well but I am not as sure about that. I am sure about Joe because it was his only solo.

Thanks also for sharing the pictures. I went looking to see if I could answer Rich's questions and instead came up with one of my own.

Does anyone know who is sitting to the right of Joe in picture 1?

I am sure whoever it is he did not come to the US.

What I can tell Rich is that Flynn is sitting to the right of Liam in picture #13/33. James Threadgill is signing the program in picture #21/33 (to the left of the unknown chorister from picture #32/33). Hope this helps and that someone can figure out who the two new kids are.

The boy walking with Joe in picture 32/33 is definitrly not James Threadgill, so is he by default Ralph Skan?

Thanks to those who identified some of the lads for me. I didn't even recognize Joe or Thomas Cole. I guess when you're that age, you can change a lot over the course of a year, whether it be hair styles, growth, etc.

Thanks again,
Rich

Speaking of current hair styles. I have longed since passed the age, where I know what's 'in with the times' so-to-speak amongst the younger generation, but have we entered a popular phase for boys growing their hair quite longish again? Josh and Jacob have their hair quite long around their ears. And Joe S and Thomas Cole have let their hair grow quite long. Even Tom who supported a 'military haircut' at one time, has now let his hair grow a bit. (I think it suits him) They all look great, but I just wondered if we are entering a 'fashion craze' phase again for boys growing their hair abit more than usual, or is it just a Libera code

Again I am tagging this reply onto a completely unrelated topic, because for some reason I cannot create new topics.

Yes, I believe we have. Both my brothers have long hair now. I would too, but my hair is so poofy so that when it gets long it just becomes a mess and I have to gel it every morning which get's quite annoying and time consuming.