NOTP Fanpage

Archive for October, 2011

This is in every way a historical recording. The band, founded by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, thought never to be able to play live, this because of the complexity of the instruments and material. But, due to the introduction of the digital samplers they tried it once at Night of the Proms.
Woolfson wasn’t on stage, but he was there backstage. Alan Parsons was standing in the middle of the arena behind a panel with the samplers. On stage, behind the symphonic orchestra (!), the band was playing with amongst them, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum. This is pure instrumental music. It sounds dark, with the first messy tones of Lucifer. From 1:20, Alan Parsons starts using his first sampler, and from 4:59 the rhythm is intensified bt Mammagamma. Put your volume to the max for this.

Sir Henry Wood wrote the Fantasia on British Sea Songs in 1905 to remember the battle at Trafalgar. In this song, you can hear a part of the communication between the warships at that battle; question and response are heard during the first minute with a variation between violin and flute; next, all the violins take the theme, push the rhythm and Il Novecento plays towards a nice climax.
Who can remember that in 2004, Carl Huybrechts made every grandstand applaud separately to make some atmosphere in the beginning of the show? The second My First Night also started with this piece: Fine Fleur guided the applause when it came down from the stands of the Lotto Arena.

It was the end of the first show and the lights on stage were off. After a light stroke of the keys by John Miles, the 3 sisters start to sing a gospel song with a powerful voice. In the meantime, the quietly enter the stage. The tension is growing up to the point that John starts playing the tune of Happiness at 1:05. You can see that the Pointer Sisters are singing with joy. From 2:00 the medley continues with Slowhand; the audience is hooked and will start to go wild when, from 3:15, Trevor Murell pushes the rhythm for Jump. A nice medley which will put you in a good mood.

Nessun dorma is an aria composed by Puccini for his last opera Turandot. We knew it mainly in the version of Pavarotti; here we hear Nathalie Choquette, a Canadian soprano who came closer to the people by her dresses and charisma. During the first minute, she orders spaghetti from Carl Huybrechts and some wine followed by some information about the piece. And then she starts with a beautiful singing. Nathalie looks like a real Italian ‘mama’; Carl serves the drinks and she toasts with Robert Groslot. Around 2:20, Carl serves the spaghetti, some salt and pepper, Tabasco and the cutlery and from 3:00 she wastefully spices her spaghetti. Notice how smooth Il Novecento is guiding her. From 3:25, she boldly gargles the song that the audience is (correctly) going crazy. We doubt that the spaghetti was tasteful. But she concludes the song with a powerful vincerò, vincerò! I will conquer! Well, Nathalie, with this performance you persuaded many fans.

During the 2009 tour in Germany, the British band Heaven 17 brought their biggest hit from 1983: Temptation. Both men, singer Ian Craig March and the keyboard player Martyn Ware, made a big career off stage in the music business, but performed here for the first time live on stage. A few older guys in costume (straight and skew lines!), a good voice and a good song. Around 0:40 you can already see a gleam of pop of the beautiful black and white lines dresses of the backing vocals. When the chorus starts five seconds later, Liv Van Aelst steps up and sings the hard part where many singers would fail; I always admired her for that.
The song is provoking, especially towards the end: All I desire: Temptation!

	Now that all artists are known, the plans for the next NOTP shows are getting more clear.
	On youtube, the organization posted a few clips, like a review of the press conference and the trailer for the shows in Antwerp.
Here you can see a review of the press conference in Hamburg (Germany) with an interview of Alison Moyet and Stanfour. But there is also an other review with host Markus Othmer, where you can see and hear Seal through a satellite connection from Los Angeles.
Not many extra shows were announced for Antwerp, only Friday the 11 and Saturday the 12th of November. The problem seems to be the crowded schedule of the Sportpaleis and the Ahoy. Take a look into the schedule of the Sportpaleis! For Rotterdam there is an extra show on the 17th of November, besides this on the 18th and the 19th of November. The days before, there is still some space left in the Ahoy; after that is will be hard since the premiere of the German tour is planned for the 25th of November. Even if there would be a big demand for tickets, it looks a bit like trying but not being able to do it.
For the shows in Antwerp and Germany, none of the arrangements of Seal’s participation in Rotterdam 2005 are taken again; everything will be re-written!
James Blunt will perform three songs in Rotterdam, amongst them You’re Beautriful.
The two surprise acts in Antwerp are known for the organizers and they don’t want to tell anything about them. So neither do we!
During the fall shows, some classical pieces are dusted off and will be played again after many years. One piece will last for about 6:30, while the other, more humoristic, will not last for more than 2 minutes.
	Tickets for the show in Luxembourg on the 15th of December are between 54 and 112 euro and can be ordered here or here. The arena, d’Cocque, can hosts up to 8000 people. In Luxembourg, the full German show will be played. There even seems to be a Luxembourg fan club on Facebook.
Organizer Jan shares that the music from the movies could be played from The Lion King. The Circle Of Life with Seal, I Just Can’t Wait To Be A King with Mick Hucknall, Hakuna Matata with Angie Stone, Can You Feel The Love Tonight with DIV4s, and John Miles will acts as Scar???? Grrrr!

We’re starting to count down to the first show on the 28th of October 2011 in Antwerp!