As you probably all know, Lee's mate Stephen Rahman-Hughes had a concert at the Pheasantry on Sunday night. He had dangled the carrot that Lee might be one of his guests, and confirmed it the day before.
We knew Lee would be multi-tasking that night, as he was appearing at the Joseph tribute at the Oliviers as well. We had bought tickets when the concert was first announced, as we like Stephen and love the Pheasantry, so we lived in hope of Lee making it to Stephen's gig, which would be the icing on the cake.
Stephen was in fine form, with a very jazzy set and a couple of other guests, but time went on. They were supposed to finish at 10.00, and at 9.45 one of my partners in crime whispered, "he's not going to make it." 9.50 came, then 9.55, and by then I was afraid she was right. Stephen sang what should have been his final song, but was persuaded to do an encore. He seemed to take ages deciding what to sing (was he playing for time? We will never know!), and finally chose "A Case of You", a firm favourite with the fans. It was during this that someone spotted a curly haired figure standing on the stairs just by the door - Lee had made it!
Without further ado Stephen called him on stage, and after a hug and some friendly banter they launched into a totally unreh e a r sed version of "Did You Evah!" from High Society (which Lee has recorded as a duet on Dan Burton's album). It was such fun, and the audience went mad! And that was it.
We understood that Lee had been at the RAH since early afternoon, what with rehearsals for the Oliviers, then the red carpet, and finally singing in the finale, so it was hardly a surprise that he was starving, and fascinating to see him tucking into pizza shortly afterwards. :innocent: I bet it tasted good!
Thanks A/Liz. It was so funny when the staff at The Pheasantry saw us (we've been so often they know us well by now :grinning: ), the quizzical look on their faces as they said 'Lee's not here tonight' obviously wondering why we had turned up :grinning: . We said we knew but we also know Stephen. Also, Lee might pop in later if he could make it from the RAH in time. The Pheasantry staff seem to like Lee and two of them had their photos taken with him. From what we heard later, the reason why Lee was later than he expected was because the Oliviers speeches went on and on! (how typical:wink: ) and, as the Joseph performance was the last one on stage that evening, Lee couldn't get away early. Still, he made it in the end (there was a bit of a buzz around the area we were sitting as we saw his curly hair come in the door:grinning: ) and, as A/Liz says, the duet with Stephen was brilliant.
This is one of those lovely events that happens now and then. The 'oh no, he's not coming' changing to the 'Oh wow. He's here!"
I did find myself thinking (while watching the Os on TV) that some of the O winners were going on a bit! The organisers maybe need to be a bit stricter about speech length (the Oscars organisers are - don't they get the orchestra to start playing if someone's speech overruns?:laughing: ). Glad Lee managed to make it to the Pheasantry.
I think it would be fairer to everybody if they could keep to a set time limit.
Hi ladies,
I was lucky enough to be in the RAH to see Lee do the Joseph finale. I got last minute tickets which turned out to be fabulous and directly opposite the stage albeit the furthest away but they had a surprisingly good view. It was a really fun evening despite the quite heavy rain outside. I watched some red carpet arrivals and managed some good photos despite being across the road and struggling with my bag and an umbrella! Lee didn't arrive until 5.30 and the audience had to be in by 5 so sadly I missed him but I had a friend who got me some lovely photos so I was happy.
Lee did amazingly well in the finale. It was so exciting to see him on stage in the RAH which the first time I had seen him there. Most of you have probably seen the footage so I will just say that I was instantly transported back to Lee's time in the Adelphi as soon as the orchestra started. I came over all goose bumpy, it was quite a moment and I did get emotional too. It was really nicely done and they all looked very happy. Lee's voice soared above the others in places which seems to have been altered in the clip but it was very noticeable live.
I realised from the time at the interval that the show was going to run over. They have a traffic light system for he speakers and although I couldn't see it, I'm sure it flashed red for at least half of the winners!
I didn't wait at the stage door because I had driven into central London (another first for me) and had to leave straight away to pick up family from Heathrow airport but I know Lee left fairly quickly after the show.
Its interesting to hear the other side of the story and I hope to see him do the duet with Steve at a ***ure event.
