André Rieu in Leeds, 2016

On Friday we set off over the M62 to Leeds to see the famous violinist from Maastricht, André Rieu perform with his orchestra, The Johann Strauss Orchestra.

We arrived half an hour before the show started and found our seats way up in the gods. A couple were sitting in the seats next to ours and he turned to me with a grin saying "We thought you weren't coming!"
"Yes," I said "we were worried we might miss you!" Hooray! I thought, someone with a sense of humour.

But then his wife, who was sitting next to me said, "Are you big fans of André Rieu?" She looked a bit surprised when we said yes and said "Oh... I'm not so keen myself - he wanted to come..." She sighed and added "I hope it's not all Oom-Pah music, I don't like Oom-Pah music. If it's all Oom-Pah music I'll probably fall asleep."
"I think you'll be alright," I ventured, "it's fairly infectious..."
"Have you been before?" she asked after a pause. "Oh yes!" we replied and her face took on a shocked expression.
"Oh, really? Well..." she said leaving a lingering impression she thought we must be somehow mentally deficient. I exchanged a sympathetic smile with her husband and proceeded to ignore her. He was already there before me...

You could guess it couldn't you? She sang along to every tune whether vocal or not with a frail, grinding, very high pitched "aaaahh" warble... "Are they always the same guest artists?" she asked as the first soloist left the stage (Frederic Jennignes playing the zither for Tales of Vienna Woods followed by the theme from The Third Man).
"No, we've seen the St Petersburg Trio and The Berlin Comedic Harmonists at different shows..."
"Germans???" Her lips pursed in surprise.
"Yes," I said, "Their finale was to machine gun the back circle..."

We were well away from the snow machine as it dropped a generous amount on the audience below. It's funnier that way...

Another wonderful night with a few surprises and the usual elongated ending, long after André has announced things are coming to an end. This is always a cue for the first punters to stand and shuffle along the rows to get out first to the car park. They miss a good half hour - probably the best half hour of the night... Godzilla was staying put though... "Ahhh, aaaaahhh aah, ahh a-aaaahhhh!"

Andre Rieu Concert, December 2014

On Saturday we drove over to Leeds as we were booked (since last February!) to see Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra perform at the Leeds Arena.

I was wondering who would be performing as soloist this year - Carla Maffioletti had left to work in opera. I was hoping, but no, Carmen Monarcha was sadly absent.

The Platin Tenors, Gary, Bela and Thomas were there though - unthinkable not to have them really!

Before the show started we saw a rather familiar face in a red dress take her place in the audience and sure enough the dramatic music of Espana Cani signals the arrival of a pantomime bull which subsequently chases her out of the arena! There's a fabulous postscript to this bit of comedy that I have never seen featured in Andre's videos. I shan't give the game away but it was very very funny!

With neither Carla nor Carmen on the bill, one of the soloist parts was filled by Anna Reker, usually to be found in the small line of the choir at the rear of the stage. Anna, originally from Ukraine, was joined on stage by the Trio St Petersburg and sang a rousing version of the Russian folk song that we are more familiar with in this country as Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days. This had everyone singing or at least "La-laa-ing" to and she received a huge round of applause for it. The Trio St Petersburg were back a little later with their breakneck speed playing of Zorba The Greek.

Familiar again from some of the videos we've seen, the Berlin Comedian Harmonists came on. This close harmony group have some fabulous voices and I like the touches of humour again and the rollicking final song with the ladies of the choir miming the rowing of boats at the rear!

Mirusia Louwerse was the most familiar of the female soloists and got a great reception from the audience.

Laura Engel, the Dutch-Chilean soprano, made up the third of the female soloists for the concert. She gave us a good performance of Besame Mucho early on in the evening.

We found ourselves sitting under the snow machine. So by the time the Christmas tunes had finished playing we were covered in the stuff! Everybody around us seemed to be throwing handfuls over each other, so we joined in! It doesn't half stick to you... Even having done our best before coats went on at the end, we got back to our hotel room after the show and soon the floor looked a mess! We tidied up as best we could... A brilliant night, I'll be waiting for next year's tickets to go on sale!

Andre Rieu in Leeds

On the 19th December we picked up my Mum and drove over to Leeds where we had tickets to see Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra.

The Leeds Arena opened this year and wasn't even built when I bought the tickets. It's a great venue more or less right in the middle of Leeds and we were three of 11,500 people heading there for the night.

It could do with a few more restaurants around it, as the ones we came across were hopelessly inadequate for the number of people in the area. We ended up snatching a meal in a very basic MacDonalds - any more basic and I'd have to call it "grotty". The venue itself could do with some feeding places, as otherwise too many restaurants in the area would be without custom on nights the venue was closed.

Anyway, the concert was absolutely wonderful. Carmen Monarcha sang my favourite aria, O Mio Babbino Cara by Puccini and melted every male heart in the place - and probably for several hundred meters around it... Certainly my camera seemed to want to take more photos whenever she was on stage!

Carlos Buono from Argentina played a couple of numbers with Andre on his bandoneon and brought a Latin touch to the proceedings. He cut a very dashing figure too in his pinstripe suit and with a white hat.

The most emotional and inspirational song for me was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, just stunning. But there was plenty of fun too in the sing-a-long songs, the snow falling on the audience during White Christmas. We just missed it. The final deluge at the end of the song reached the row in front of us, but left us dry!

We did manage to grab a couple of balloons when they were released though. Then halfway through the night Mum turned to me and said "I've lost a stone from my ring!" She had been clapping so hard that a yellow sapphire had fallen out. At the end of the night when the lights came up, against all expectations I saw it glint from the floor below us under the seat in front of me. So by waiting until the place had almost emptied I was able to go down a layer of the terrace and get it.

A brilliant night. It was always going to be a brilliant night - Andre does not give mediocre concerts! Plus the fact that out of 11,500 people, someone recognised me as a member of Creeping Bentgrass in the queue outside! The concert could have been cancelled and I would still have had a good night...

The Trans-Pennine Express

A more unlikely express is hard to find possibly, fast it is not, but there is something about the train journey across from Blackpool to Hull.

Not that I've ever travelled that far on it, but the other day I took the train to York and used the time to write up an activity scenario for a new workshop that we are planning to run at work.

The weather was a trifle wet - probably not quite as wet as it has been in lots of other areas of the country, but bad enough. Once you get to east Lancashire and then Yorkshire and are climbing up and over the Pennine range of hills, the views from the window on the Trans-Pennine route can be stunning.

Steep dark hillsides climb up and then engulf you so that the train has to travel through tunnels bored into the imposing crags and turfed peat and rock.

Particularly after rainfall wild tumbling streams flash past, most times only glimpsed as they have spent centuries cutting deep grooves and gulleys into the hill so that you just catch a quick flash of white and silver just a few yards from the window as you rush by.

It is Britain's answer to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, with station names like Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, then Halifax with the big signs for Eureka!

"What's that?" someone says and is immediately answered by a young mother.
"Oh it's a great place for kids - lots of interesting things to do and see and get involved with." It's a science playground.

Then Bradford Interchange, where the train goes in forwards but comes out backwards - a nightmare for anyone who likes to sit facing a particular way. Leeds is next, approached at high level on the viaducts, then Garforth and York.

During the latter part of the journey the steep hills are replaced by wide valleys. The wide rivers afford a different view. The Wharf in particular, is worth a moment to look up from your book.

There aren't many great train journeys in this country - feel free to suggest some. This is one.

Lost in Leeds...

Well it wasn't entirely my fault... Searching for a Premier Travel Inn when they have three along the same road (A58) is a bit confusing! Still, third time lucky!

The second one was murder to get to as well. The chap at the first said "Get back on the M621, you'll see it from the Motorway. Yes indeed you do... but try getting to it! Anyway, that was the wrong one too! I'm here now in my standard room which could be Leeds or London or Edinburgh or... But I don't mind that they all look the same. It means I know what to expect and I can work the heating!

There's a little smiley face on the side of the TV and a label that says "I've passed". Good for you - I think I will too... TVs in hotels always annoy the person in the next room and anyway I am ready to start the tenth volume of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Excellent stuff, though they get harder to follow all the multiple threads after a while and remembering who everyone is can be a bit of a bugger...

I'm running a Change Management workshop at the university tomorrow for people from the Yorks/Humber region's colleges and universities. Then it's home for a night and then do the same in Nottingham on Thursday. This series of workshops has been very well received so far and they have all been full with repeat bookings in a few regions.

I try to upload a new photo to my Flickr page every day. (This doesn't exist any more) Today's is a rooftop shot of Brighton's Royal Pavilion. It's from last year or the year before - I wasn't that lost...