We arrived in good time, parked the car in the adjoining underground car park and made our way to the entrance of the RNCM. The concert was billed to start at 7:45 pm but there was no sign of the doors being opened to the Theatre. Rob (UK), who we'd not met before, spotted us waiting outside and we had a good chat with him before being allowed in to the Theatre at 8:05pm to take our seats. Beau Jarred was still on the stage sorting things out - so many wires! - tuning the guitars and making sure everything was OK. RNCM staff were milling about, Melanie's 'remedies' were brought out and we even caught sight of Peter Shekeryk - we'd not seen Peter on any of Melanie's other tours outside of the USA. Beau Jarred left the stage and there was a quiet air of expectation.
Then from stage right Melanie appeared, she picked up her guitar, adjusted the microphone and began saying her hellos as the overhead announcement was still being played! She launched into 'I'm Back In Town' and then began to introduce Beau Jarred to the stage... but he didn't appear! She then walked, still with guitar on, to the front of the stage telling the audience how it feels to be on stage on your own. She suggested she might do another song and there were shouts for 'Lay Down'. She began singing and playing but unfortunately the sound man didn't have the foresight to turn down her guitar. Unbeknown to Melanie, Beau Jarred had now joined her on stage and began joining in. She made her way back to the microphone and continued with a magnificent version of 'Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)' including at the end 'Give Peace A Chance'. The audience cheered and she joked 'well that's my encore done'. At this point we knew we were in for a great night. And great it was. We won't go into detail about which songs she sang, this has already been covered by others, but we must echo what Rob (UK) said about 'Momma, Momma' - it was just superb! The gentler version of 'I Really Loved Harold' was wonderful too and her first new song of the evening, 'Love Doesn't Have To Hurt', was great. Beau Jarred finished the first half with three pieces, yet another dazzling performance.After the short intermission they both returned to the stage and began with a great rendition of 'Ruby Tuesday'. And so it continued... Melanie was in great voice, strong and powerful. 'Leftover Wine' was just magical. During the first encore Peter came on stage and whispered something to Melanie, and she told the audience 'I don't want to leave, it takes me so long to get up here'! Melanie and Beau finished with 'Extraordinary' and extraordinary the whole evening was.
The only downside for us was that the PA/sound was not as good as it might have been which meant that Melanie's guitar sounded a bit 'scratchy'. But Melanie and Beau Jarred more than made up for this with their wonderful performance.
We won't get the chance to see any more of the UK concerts this time but we're already looking forward to her next UK tour! Peter promised at the after show signing that next time they come there will be 2 new cds. We had waited behind to have our ticket signed by Melanie (we already have almost all our Melanie collection signed) and she said a 'warm hello' remembering us again (we had first met when we visited the US in 2004 and were were staying in the same hotel). Beau Jarred had come to the signing later, no doubt he had been charged with putting away the instruments, and he too warmly welcomed us, with each of us having a hug!
We were also pleased to see Dia there (we'd not seen her since Holland in 2004), we had a good chat with her, and it was good to renew our acquaintance.
So, by midnight we were on our way back to the car and the long drive. Happy and contented, we got home at 3:00 in the morning having had a great day.
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Melanie website
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