Laura's Bosnia Blog-Part 5 - 9/12/09

Bosnia Blog, Saturday, September 12, 2009, 11:15 pm

For all of you who love or even like Barry Manilow, you're going to love this blog post. For the rest of you, it's going to be agony....but please give it a read....it's not ALL about Barry.

Angela and I had a bite to eat in the lounge at my hotel and then headed over to Hyde Park around 5:30 pm. As we entered the park through Marble Arch, we were amazed at the thousands of people we saw before us. We walked and walked and walked and finally entered the very civilized mass of people who were attempting to enter the queue to get into the gated concert area. One of my British friends told me that queuing is a national pastime in England.....sometimes they "queue-up" for days!

When we got to the top of the queue, we could finally see what we were about to be thrust into.....there were more people than I've ever seen in a park before....FOURTY THOUSAND, to be exact. They were all sitting on the grass on blankets, having picnic dinners. They were in "loose" rows of about 100 people and we entered from the back. There were probably, well, you do the math.....100 people x ? rows = 40,000.....there had to be well over 300 hundred rows at this point....

My friend from France, Janet called me just as we were walking in, our mouths gaping open at the sight before us. She told me that they had saved a spot for us.....near center-stage and about 3 rows back!  We couldn't believe it!  I had told Angela how very kind the Barry fans are and that once you meet them, you have lifelong friends, as I have found with Janet, Maria, Karen, Diane, Mary, Lana and so many others.

After a long trek to the front, we finally found them.....Barry shirts, banners, bags, and all. It was an absolutely gorgeous, balmy evening, probably in the low 70's. We thoroughly enjoyed the company and made some new friends from all over England, Scotland and the UK. I met a woman, Leslie who had seen Barry when he performed at Blenheim Palace in the early 80's before a crowd of 35,000!  I had read about that concert, and had seen the DVD, but it was fascinating hearing about her experience first-hand.  She also had the opportunity to be picked by Barry at another show to go up onstage and sing Cant Smile Without You with him, which was fun to hear about.    

There were several groups that performed beginning at 6:00. The first was a "Rolling Stones" group who dressed, acted and sounded much like the real thing. Then a "Queen" group played and the Freddy Mercury look-alike was amazing!  He was all over the stage and did a great job!  They played We Are The Champions, We Will Rock You, and Bohemian Rhapsody, among others. Then the Temptations played, as well as several others, including Catherine Jenkins, a mezzo-soprano, as well as a wonderful young tenor.

The evening was MC'd by Terry Wogan, a beloved radio personality here in Britain. Whenever he would mention that Barry was there, the crowd would go wild!   

Finally, around 9:00 pm, they rolled a grand piano out onto the stage and everyone started cheering....we all knew what that meant. The music started playing (Barry's band) and his backup singers came onto the stage. Ron Waters conducted the orchestra....oh my, the orchestra....they were magnificent!  They had been playing for the past hour and all I can say is that there is nothing quite like listening to the beautiful music of an orchestra under the stars....but I digress....

The music started playing, and out he came, in all his glory.  He practically skipped across the stage, he was so happy to be there.  He looked great and sounded even better. The crowd went wild.....cheering, clapping, singing along and screaming.... (yes, screaming)!  I'd heard that the British fans LOVE Barry and it was so evident tonight. I've never been part of a crowd like that and Angela and I had so much fun.  Listening to his catalogue of songs performed with a live orchestra was so moving.

Now, I'm going to indulge my Barry fans here for a minute. His set list for the evening was:

It's A Miracle

Daybreak

Somewhere In The Night

This One's For You

Bermuda Triangle (a British favorite)

Weekend In New England

Could It Be Magic -Ballad & Up-tempo

Even Now

I Made It Through The Rain/Looks Like

  We Made It (duet sung with John

  Barrowman, a successful pop artist

  here in the UK)

Can't Smile Without You

Copacabana

I Write The Songs

It's A Miracle Reprise

Encore-One Voice

He played for 50 beautiful minutes and at one point I turned around, looked behind me and all I saw were tens of thousands of people, waving flags from all over, singing clapping and having a fabulous time.

It was, of course during that final encore, while Barry was singing One Voice that I knew what the title of my blog was to be. I knew before I left for Bosnia that my intention was to create an official blog once I returned from my trip as a way to get my stories "out there", but I couldn't think of a name for it.  Several ideas came to mind such as "Life begins at 48", "It's a whole new world", "Complacency sucks...", etc....but none of them really worked for me.  This song came to Barry in a dream.  He woke up one night and he had dreamed the entire song, so he got up, sat down at his piano, hit "record" on his tape recorder and played and sang the song.  He then went back to bed and in the morning, the song was there.  It became the title song to the album of the same name and I have always been moved by the lyric.  Although he sings, "Just One Voice....all it takes is One Voice....SINGING so they hear what's on your mind...." I have always believed that the lyric could be interpreted as "...all it takes is One Voice...SPEAKING so they hear what's on your mind..."   So there I stood, in London’s Hyde Park with 40,000 other people and I just knew it.  I knew the title would fit the content and purpose of my blog.  I AM SPEAKING what's on MY mind and I DO feel honored to be telling the stories that I will hear. 

As Angela and I were saying goodbye to and hugging all of our friends, I heard her telling two of the ladies that they could stay with her when they came to San Francisco for a visit. On our way out, she told me that I WAS right....the fans were just "lovely" and were so very kind.

The concert ended with a sing-a-long of British patriotic songs and finally fireworks. It was such a great experience and one that I'll never forget.

.....now that wasn't SO bad, was it?