Starting with overture to 'Candide' (to celebrate what would have been Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday)
'Mary Poppins' medley by the orchestra and chorus
Lee's first performance of the night - 'Feeling Good'! Sounds fab with an orchestral accompaniment!:grinning:
Just seen a screencap of Lee that someone tweeted (from the TV coverage) - black suit jacket and trousers and white open-necked shirt!:heart_eyes: Only one button undone by the look of it - well, this is the BBC!:laughing:
Blimey, 16 year old pianist - Lauren Dan. Brilliant! Apparently, she's just about to go into the Sixth Form!:astonished:
Katharine Jenkins sounding good. Ooh, singing 'Never Enough' from 'The Greatest Showman'!
Lee - singing 'Dancing Through Life'! Ooooh, that was good!:heart_eyes:
Only Kids Aloud singing a medley from 'The Greatest Showman'. Very good!:relaxed: The GS songs sound great with choral arrangements.
Katharine Jenkins again. Singing in Welsh. Lovely song.
'Oliver!' medley by the orchestra and chorus
Brief interval chat with Lee. Talking about the past 10 years. Proud to be performing at the Proms. Chitty. Lofty. The part was written for him. Chat about the tour.
Back to the concert.
Starting with a song called 'I Was Glad' performed by the orchestra and chorus
'Happy' performed by the orchestra and chorus
'The Firebird' by Stravinski, performed by the orchestra
Only Kids Aloud singing 'Spirit Of Hope'
Lee singing 'From Now On' from 'The Greatest Showman'! Wow! Excellent!:heart_eyes:
A member of the audience could be heard then, shouting "I love you Lee!":laughing:
ADWD!:grin: Oooh, the big ending! "Give Me My Coloured Coat.....!!!!!" Love it! That looooong note at the end!:heart_eyes:
Live link up with London/Ireland/Glasgow/Colwyn Bay for WWI ending commemoration
Hornpipe/Rule Britannia
Katharine Jenkins singing 'Time To Say Goodbye'
Medley of Welsh songs to end proceedings!
Great stuff, and Lee was fab!
We have the radio clips on the home page if anyone couldn't watch. Lee was spectacular!
Both the actual broadcast from last night and the highlights programme broadcast tonight are now on iplayer.
It's great to see the visuals after hearing it on the radio last night. Lee was looking good as he smouldered his way through 'Feeling Good' and gave us his gorgeous, mischevious prince in 'Dancing Through Life'!:heart_eyes:
Pity they didn't broadcast the second half on TV. I'd like to have seen the visuals for 'From Now On' (which sounded amazing on the radio) and ADWD.
We were fortunate / dedicated / mad enough (delete as applicable!) to make the journey to Colwyn Bay for the Prom - a journey not without incident, as is par for the course with us.
Having scoured Colwyn Bay for accommodation as soon as Lee's parti****tion in the Prom was announced, and discovering almost everywhere had no vacancies, we finally found somewhere a couple of miles away. Imagine my horror on Friday morning, receiving a phone call saying there had been an accident with some water (burst main, pipes, I didn't really take it all in), and that the bedrooms were uninhabitable so they couldn't possibly let us stay there! A mad hour or so ensured, trawling around the various hotel sites - in the end we found somewhere in Llandudno, which is about five miles from Colwyn Bay - again, a lot of places were already fully booked. That meant another travel hiccup, in that our train tickets were booked to Colwyn Bay, so we would need to somehow add on the extra bit while in transit.
Anyway, the day dawned, and we managed the six trains involved without too much hassle! We sorted out the tickets in Crewe, where a very (but too) helpful man insisted on trying to sort out our tickets in the most economical way - all we wanted was a single from Colwyn Bay to Llandudno, for the princely sum of £3.30! In the end we prevailed, and caught our connection by the skin of our teeth, racing up stairs, over footbridges, and down stairs, with the train all set to leave. We made it.
The hotel was a stone's throw from the station, which was most helpful. On arrival, we were informed there was entertainment every night, comforting to know, should we not be able to get to Eirias Park! Nothing like a bit of bingo! We asked reception to book us a taxi for 4.30. Before that, we went for a walk along the sea front - it was beautiful!
4.30 came and went, no sign of taxi. Reception chased it up, and it arrived a mere 20 minutes late. The driver had no idea about the Prom - in fact, neither had the lady on Reception - apparently, advertising and communication between Colwyn Bay and Llandudno is nil! This became apparent when our driver arrived at our destination. We wanted to book him for the return journey, but the roads were going to be closed off at the end of the Prom to let everyone out of the park. Obviously we didn't know the area, and neither did he (well, he was from Llandudno!). He was very good, and drove around asking the stewards the best place for us to be picked up. We finally settled on the road that led to the disabled car park, as they would have to let cars through to pick up their less mobile passengers.
Whoopee! We were there! Found the box office, collected tickets, made our way in. Some rehearsals were going on - and whose voice was the first we heard? Leeeeeeeeee! Suddenly all was right with the world! After he'd finished, we wandered off to get some food and drinks before claiming our seats - we'd wimped out, and booked seats in the stand. We couldn't really join the picnicking promenaders, though, imagine dragging chairs and tables on the train(s)! Our seats were a long way back, and unfortunately the big screen was partially obscured by the BBC camera scaffolding and tent, but the atmosphere was terrific. We met some more ladies who started whooping when Lee's name was mentioned. We didn't know them, but struck up a great rapport within seconds!
There were some warm up acts, and then the main show began. I expect you've all seen or heard Part 1, and hopefully heard Part 2. Lee looked gorgeous on what we could see of the screen (and looked gorgeous in the distant, real version of course!) and sounded brilliant and we all cheered and whooped like mad at the end of each of his songs. Katharine's dresses were to die for, she looked beautiful. The children's choir were fantastic, and in fact sounded far better live than on TV. The 'Welsh Celebration' songs at the end were lovely, where we all sang along. I knew all the tunes, as my Dad was Welsh and used to sing them - but the words defeated me. I sang along anyway!
After the fireworks finale, it was time to make our way out through the crowds. You've guessed it - the taxi didn't arrive. Several phone calls later - the driver had no idea where the road was that we had arranged for pick up (in fact had no idea where anywhere was, by the sound of things - don't think they've heard of SatNav out there!) - in the end we made our way back to the main road and had to flag him down! But we made it - and arrived safely back at our hotel (sadly to find we'd missed the bingo), where all was in darkness. The coach parties staying there had long retired to bed. We let ourselves in with the thoughtfully provided key, and made our way upstairs to one of the rooms, where we had made provision for such an eventuality with a suitable alcoholic supply, and where we could reminisce over the day's events.
It was a long old day, and next day we had the multi-train journey in reverse. Would we do it again? Definitely!!!!
Edit: Meant to add, the weather was kind to us, and apart from the odd brief shower, the rain held off!
Thanks for that, A/Liz!:relaxed:
It sounds like you had quite a journey!
Oh, my dear A/Liz!!!! What fantastic Meady adventures you have - I must admit it makes me a bit nervous about being with you lot on a big boat in the middle of the ocean but no matter. Lee will be there! :sparkling_heart: :sparkling_heart: :sparkling_heart:
Video is now on the home page - Gosh, he is gorgeous! Sings pretty good, too. :heart_eyes:
Haha, don't worry Lin, we'll be there to protect you...... from yourself:wink: .
Great review from A/Liz, just to add that Lee's voice sounded so much louder in the Arena than it came across on the TV, not sure if the BBC twiddled with the knobs and 'turned' it down a bit. It was a fantastic evening and am so glad I went. Hope he is asked to do another Prom somewhere next year:smiley:
If you can get on to the Events Conwy facebook page, they have a BBC Proms in the Park album, with quite a few gorgeous pics of Lee in action!
Brilliant review A/Liz, i soo wanted to be there but it was not to be. I love the description of all your adventures, nothing stops Lee fans going anywhere! We watched as much as possible on tv, recorded second half on radio, watched highlights and Sunday's programme hoping to see Lee singing From Now On, frustrating that it wasn't shown. I agree AnnieB, something wasn't right with the sound, it didn't do Lee justice, imo.
Hopefully he will be invited to sing at another Proms in the Park next year.
