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Our review for the 2010 edition!

24 artists that are on stage all the time are the members of Fine Fleur, lead by Edwig Abrath, their conductor. A small talk during the preparations for the fall shows.

NOTPfan Edwig, at the end of September, the choir starts their rehearsals. If we’re not mistaking, there is one rehearsal a weak until about 10 days before the first show. It doesn’t seem much.
Edwig Four separate choir rehearsals are indeed no luxury. To start rehearsing much earlier doesn’t really matter, since each song is handled by the NOTP arrangers. Before that, there aren’t any scores ready.
NOTPfan Do you expect the members to practice a lot on their own? Is there that much discipline in Fine Fleur?
Edwig The members of the choir indeed have to practice a lot on their own outside the weekly rehearsals and they are very disciplined in that. Some of them get together outside in smaller groups to study their scores, others prefer to work at home with the necessary recording materials. Wanting to be on the NOTP stage again give each member the spirit to look forward to the first rehearsal and makes them go fully to accomplish that.
NOTPfan Which specific choir pieces will there be for Fine Fleur? In Charleroi 2010 they sand the Slaves- and Gipsy’s Choir of Verdi. Will they return in the fall?
Edwig The Verdi-choirs won’t be there this editions. There will be an arrangement for the choir and orchestra of a less known overture of Carl Maria von Weber: Abu Hassan. A nice, sparkling discovery, brought by Robert Groslot himself.
NOTPfan Last year, in the Ahoy, you conducted a few songs instead of Robert Groslot. Are there any plans that you will take the role of Robert Groslot in the future?
Edwig Absolutely not. Last year I conducted a part of the show since that is part of my job as assistant-conductor when Robert Groslot isn’t available to conduct the show. That I enjoyed it, is not a secret.
NOTPfan How do you look at your work with Night of the Proms? If your name is commented at classical shows, Night of the Proms is never mentioned.
Edwig If that is true, it’s not on purpose. The resume that I send to those organizers mentions a broad spectrum of activities, both serious items as the lighter ones. What happens next with that? I’m not really concerned about that.
NOTPfan Are the shows rather a hobby then a real job?
Edwig I do want to argue that it’s not a hobby. The whole proms concept is a detailed professional machine.
NOTPfan Also with Fine Fleur a joke on and off the stage isn’t far away. What are your best recollections?
Edwig At the song ‘Fire’ of the Pointer Sisters, we went on stage in a full firemen gear at the last show in Antwerp. The ladies didn’t knew anything and, as I recall, were shortly off guard. But they got themselves together very fast and after that the temperature only went up further!
NOTPfan Thanks a lot for this nice conversation!

Website Fine Fleur
Weblog of Maurice
Ouverture of Abu Hassan (C.M. van Weber)

	A wonderful message: it is decided that the first Polish NOTP will take place on the 17th of September 2011 in Warschau. More news will follow at the end of this month. Untill then, you waon’t find much more news on this website.
	Grace Jones will bring four songs but promised for each song an other ward-robe. so probably, she will bring each some seperatly.
This big John Fogerty fan from Hasselt (Belgium) has bought tickets for each of the Night of the Proms shows in Antwerp. We don’t know if that is a record, but dear sir with the nickname itcameoutofthesky, we wish you lots of fun.
If you’re coming to the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, you’ll notice the new blue roof; more about the realisation and the benefits can be found here.
Here, you can see an interview with organizer Jan on the press release.
	On the 9th of Ocotober, Geert Vanhout and his light crew started the preprogramming in the backstage lounge and on the 14th of October they will start with the real setup in the Sportpaleis.
	The trailer for the Dutch shows can be seen here. The rather dry trailer for the Nokia NOTP tour in Germany can be found here.

From the 7th of October until the 7th of November, Dirk Hohmeyer tells about his memories about 15 years NOTP in Germany on Delux TV. His first contribution can also be seen on YouTube.

Surfing on the web, the artists don’t seem to want to know each other. On his website, John Fogerty has cut and paste all the information about Night of the Proms, but without any notification of Grace Jones, Boy Georges or John Miles! Let’s look at Grace Jones: you have to search on her MySpace page to find the shows. On the websites of Charlie Siem and John Miles you also don’t find any reference to other artists.

So it seems that Boy George is the most engaging, since he at least makes note that a list of artists are joining, but only Grace Jones is mentioned by name. Do they know each other? Two eccentrics, sure they do, but this is the only photo we found, from 1985.

Boy George and Grace Jones in 1985

Boy George mentioned in an interview that he looks forward to the NOTP shows, the co-operation with the orchestra and choir, and mostly the routine, touring and the audience; his German is not perfect but he likes to laugh.

On his own website Boy George lists four songs that he will bring. Which ones? If you like to find out yourself, take a look to the Boy George Mix, but two songs can’t be left out: Karma Chameleon and Do you really want to hurt me? There’s a lot of rumour about his recent works like Amazing Grace or older ones like Bow Down Mister. From a review of a show at the end of December 2009 seemded that he got the most reaction on his two biggest hits and on Victims which he recently also placed in Moskou and Rome. Lately, Boy George also brings a lot of songs from others, like his wonderful sing-a-long in Moskou Always on my mind, but hopefully he will also bring his own work like the recent When will you learn?

If you want to know more about the live of Boy George: on YouTube you an find the documentry ‘The Madness of Boy George’ from 2006, but can also take a look at Top Ten Moments of Madness on video. Interesting man, and we’re looking forward to it!

You’ve seen the publicity for the 4th DVD on the website and wondered: is it worth to buy? We bought the DVD through the NOTP web shop on eBay (20 euro).

Die hard NOTP fans (like us) saw the videos of the 20 songs before on the Belgian, Dutch, German and French television; yet this DVD is an added value due to the high quality of the video and the sound (stereo or surround). With this DVD you can enjoy for two wonderful hours, perhaps during the laundry, a winter night, or as a nice memory that you would like to share with others.

Nine songs are from 2009 and five from 2008; none of them are over ten years old. Four artists only performed in Germany (10CC, Kim Wilde (although she also performed in Charleroi), Heaven 17 and Dennis DeYoung) but four others have never performed in Germany (Live, Toots Thielemans, Sharon den Adel, Kid Creole). And this is nice: Germany can get to know the impressive entrance of Sharon den Adel with Ice Queen, and the Netherlands and Belgium can enjoy Kim Wilde or 10CC.

A big miss in the videos of 2008 and 2009 is Sinéad O’Connor. For Heaven 17 we rather had the song Temptation with the wonderful contribution of Liv Van Aelst. The nice intro of Let me go makes up for that, but the combination of shirt and tie of Martin Ware is horrible.

the 20th track is the version of the Bolero as played in 2009; nice is that you can choose between normal video or the combination with the projected photo’s, for each country, of the artists and crew.

Finally, the DVD ends with an extra: the guys from Heaven 17 made an hilarious clip during the German tour, The hours in Between, dedicated to the waiting time backstage, with at the end a few bloopers.

Tracklist

The question is often raised about how many Night Of the Proms shows took place. According to official numbers there were 722 shows between 1985 and Charleroi 2010. We don’t count the unofficial shows like: the celebration of 1000 years Saarbrücken, the show in the football arean of Standard de Liège, My First Night,…

The 3rd show in Antwerp will be the 725th (shedule is still evolving)!

The 750th show, we hope a real celebration show, will be played in Germany this year.

Who is playing all those 750 shows? We only know Jan and Jan who were there from the start.



Patrick De Smet = 717

But who performed in the most shows? We think it’s Patrick De Smet. The likable percussion player took part at the first show in 1985, didn’t play during two shows in 1986 and three shows in 1988. So he misted five shows which brings his total up to 717! Patrick will play his 750th show this fall!



Robert Groslot = 709

And Robert Groslot? He conducted since the 16th NOTP show in 1991. His total as conductor come ups to 722 – 15 = 707. But we can add the two shows of 1987 when he was a guest as piano player, former laureate of the Queen Elisabeth contest. At his 500th show on the 4th of March 2005 in Charleroi, John Miles lit a candle for him, and the counter of Robert Groslot is on 709. Maybe he can still celabrate his 750th NOTP show in 2010!



Carl Huybrechts = 459

What about Carl Huybrechts, he was there from the start? Indeed. The fun host has hosted all shows in Antwerp, except oone (when Marc Pinte was the host)! That brings his total up to 277 – 1 = 276. Carl als hosts all the Dutch shows since 1999 and that are 128. Added to that, we also count the German shows in 2002, 2003 and 2004, French shows of 2003 and 2004 (except the television recordings), all shows in Charleroi and the 2 Spanish shows in 2008. A total of 459! Soon the 500th one, Carl!



Fine Fleur = 643
The choir of Fine Fleur was founded as such in 1995 but sang along without a name during the editions in 1993 and 1994. Fine Fleur was almost every time present; with exception of the fall shows in 2008 (Angels in Harlem Gospel Choir) and the shows of 2008 and 2009 in Charleroi and Spain. The counter of Fine Fleur is at 643 for now.

John Miles = 579

And of course John Miles? So far, he’s at 581. His 500th was celebrated at the 4th of November 2007 where he got some flowers from the Coconuts of Kid Creole! And since then, he was always there, except for the fall shows of 2008, Spain 2009 and Charleroi 2009 and 2010. Your 600th will be in Germany this year, John!


Per country

In Antwerp, NOTP played already 277 times; in 2011 there will be the 300th show!

In The Netherlands, they will soon get up to the 175th show! So far, they are at 173!

And in Germany, the will start at the 193th show; which means that the 200th show will be played on the 4th of December 2010 in the O2 World Hamburg!

We met Charlie SIEM during the press release for the fall shows. Charlie played as a solo a Capricio of Paganini, and at the end, together with Geert Keysers, Rogier van Wegberg and Patrick De Smet, ‘Mac the Knife’.

Caught by his performance, we first asked Patrick De Smet if this guy really is such a talent. ‘Indeed’ he confirmed, ‘if you look at his techniques, the flageolet and the double grips, he is indeed very talented. As he touched the strings with his fingers at the end of Paganini, is an absolute class”.

	With that, Charlie Siem really honored Paganini. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Paganini made a lot of craze with violin performances throughout Italy. He was an unsettled and colorful person, absolute virtuoso and very much appreciated guest in the higher circles; although some claimed he possessed evil powers.
	His violin concerts and capriccio’s are famous and notorious. Throughout a century they were almost unplayable. but with the current control of techniques and the perfect instruments, top violin players know how to handle them. And it’s clear Charlie Siem is such a top player.
we present the biography of this 24 year old violin player already before. So, time for a little interview.
NotPfan Mister Siem,…
CS Call me Charlie…
NotPfan Do you know the NOTP shows? Is this famous in the United Kingdom?
CS Not really. I’ve seen some video clips, but that’s all I know.
NotPfan In 2002, David Garrett was a guest on NOTP. Do you know him?
CS David is about 5 to 6 years older than me, but I do know him since we had the same teacher, Yehudi Menuhin.
NotPfan During the show, will you play with the violin of the Elderberry Foundation, trusted to you by Yehudi Menuhin?
CS No. I will be playing with a specially build violin, and specially after what I just heard about Roby Lakatos (editor’s note: he dropped his violin just before his performance at NOTP and smashed it to pieces!).
NotPfan Today, you played Paganini. Congratulations! It a very difficult piece; will you also bring this during the Proms?
	CS Most definitly. Probably I’ll be bringing the Caprices numbers 1 and 5.
	NotPfan Did you select the pieces you will be playing yourself?
	CS Of course we discussed it together. But naturally you end up with the most important pieces from the violin art. Monti’s Czardas for example can’t be left out (editor’s note: The beginning of Czardas is played as ‘normal’ but later on, the piece is full with natural and unnatural flageolets).
	NotPfan Meditation from Massenet’s Thais was also mentioned.
	CS Indeed. A very tender piece. And as a contrast, we’ll be sparkling with the Summer of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
	NotPfan Will you also be playing with other artists?
	CS That’s not decided yet. Perhaps I will try something with Patrick De Smet, but that’s not sure yet.
NotPfan Well, we’ll be looking forward to the NOTP shows and wish you lots of luck.

Meditation from Thais (Massenet)
Paganini on Wikipedia
Caprice nr. 1 (Paganini)
Caprice nr. 5 (Paganini)
The Summer from the Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
Czardas (Monti)(NOTP 2002 and interview with David Garrett)

The crew for the shows remains more or less the same; still we like to present you two new members.
	Replacing Laurie Wisefield, playing guitar for the Electric Band, won’t be Roxette’s Jonas Isacsson, and also no Rob Winter who played in Charleroi 2010. It will be the guy who marked Rob Winter as the best guitar player of the Netherlands, namely Leendert Haaksma. Not only is he a teacher at the conservatory of Rotterdam, he’s also a session musician for different artists.
For example, he played for Loïs Lane and Soulvation and he’s one of the fixed members of the band for Anouk. Other example, he also played at some recordings of Natalia. Leendert is much appreciated amongst the musicians, not only for his music but also for the construction of his amplifiers, HOOK AMPS.
Except Leendert, the Electric Band will consist of Geert Keysers (keyboard); Rogier van Wegberg (base), Trevor Murell (drums) en Patrick De Smet (percussion and member of the orchestra). John Miles is, as last year, no member of the Electric Band.
	Herlinde Ghekiere will replace Hille Bemelmans as backing vocal for the shows in Antwerp. There, you will hear her with Marjolein Cneut and Liv Van Aelst. During the shows in The Netherlands and Germany, Hille Bemelmans will replace Liv Van Aelst. Herlinde Ghekiere was one of the backing vocals at the French NOTP shows a few years ago but for the rest we don’t know much (yet) about her; she’s coming out of the folk world but you might have heard and seen her with more classical pieces or even on You Tube as contra-alt with the performances of Wim Mertens.
The presentation in Belgium and The Netherlands will again be brought by Carl Huybrechts.
The design of the set and light show are still in the capable hands of Geert Vanhout and Bjorn Tagemose.
For the arrangements, Franck Van der Heijden, Dominique Vanhaegenberg and Geert Keysers will again be present.

Does John Fogerty match with a symphonic orchestra? We think so; Franck van der Heijden already made the (almost) impossible true by combining Status Quo with Il Novecento. So John and NOTP will match as well.

But that wasn’t alway the case.

	For the American National holiday in 2009, the Los Angeles Symphonic Orchestra played three shows in the Hollywood Bowl with American music; both marches as big band, opera and ballet, Broadway and Hollywood were brought up. The Hollywood Reporter seemded to like it.
One of the guests was John Fogerty and first played twelve songs with his band, and after that four more (Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Broken Down Cowboy, Don’t You Wish It Was True, Proud Mary) with his band and the orchestra. The reporter wrote: For his first-ever performance with a symphony orchestra, Fogerty picked “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Things didn’t mesh during the song’s dramatic intro, so it seemed at first as if the pairing was a mismatch. But work it did, though he would have been better served to leave his band in the wings.
On YouTube you have the image and sound of Have you ever seen the rain of the show of the 2nd of July 2009; you can’t be impressed by the stiff conductor who seems to have difficulties with the rhythm. Jan Vereecke wrote that the orchestra already mentioned after the first show that they didn’t want to do it again, so it ended after the first four songs. On this video you can see that John Fogerty played the next day, 3rd of July, Have you ever seen the rain without the orchestra on stage.
The communication between band and orchestra wasn’t too good as well (as prove, this bad video of Proud Mary). A spectator on the “rd of July wrote that he did played a tender love song as an encore with the LA Philharmonic.
An hilarious review of the show by a non-fan you can read here.
John, as told by Jan, wanted to make something special at NOTP; his band isn’t present and he specifically asked that his hits would sound different to his solo performances and so the symphonic orchestra should have a leading role. That’s very cool!
	We expect that Fogerty will play the following hits: Down On The Corner, Bad Moon Rising, Rockin’ All Over The World, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Long As I Can See The Light and Proud Mary. Indeed: you know Proud Mary of course in the version of Ike & Tina Turner but John did write the song; same goes for Rockin’ All Over The World which you probably know in the version of Status Quo. This only means that John Fogerty is a legend.
Unfortunately, no I put a spell on you on which many couples performed their first dance steps; again unfortunate but also no Suzy Q. but both songs are’t written by John.
Surprisingly, he still sings his songs in the same key as which they were written 30 to 40 years ago! Is it the music that keeps the 65-year old guy on his feet? John, I’m a fan!

The show of the Night of the Proms show in 2009 were spectacular since they had to celebrate something with the 25th edition. In 2010 the show won’t be made by extras, pyrotechnics or special effects in the arena, but on the stage itself.

There will be a new stage with fully new LED eauipment, which they use to light up six parts: the choir Fine Fleur (24 people), the Electric Band, 2 parts for the string instruments, the wood wind instruments, and of course the big stage in front for Robert Groslot, the artists and the backing vocals.
The artists will get an extra entrance to the stage: left, right and now also in the center in front of Robert Groslot.
	In Antwerp and The Netherlands, the catwalk will remain unchange; because Grace Jones will fully use it!
	The show, will be spectacular again, as promised by Geert Vanhout (genious behind the light), but totaly different compared to last year with the moving flowers. In the background, they will be using relief displays, where five video screen are moving and each capabe of showing different images; or used together as one big projectory screen.

It is already decided that the Sportpaleis of Antwerp will host nine Night of the Proms shows (each starting at 20h30):

	Friday 22nd of October 2010 Saturday 23th of October 2010 Thursday 28th of October 2010 Friday 29th of October 2010 Saturday 30th of October 2010 Thursday 4th of November 2010 Friday 5th of November 2010 Saturday 6th of November 2010 Sunday 7th of November 2010 (privat show for Cera at 15:00)
The organizers took some options with the artists for other days, based on the sales of the tickets. The program of 2010 is legendary so we hope that the Sportpaleis will be filled 13 times like in 2009!
	In the Gelredome of Arnhem (3x the size of the Ahoy) there is only one show booked for now on Saturday 13th of November.
Ahoy (Rotterdam) is already booked on:
Thursday 18th of November 2010 Friday 19th of November 2010 Saturday 20th of November 2010 Monday 22nd of November 2010 (privat show for Sligro) Tuesday 23th of November 2010 (privat show for Sligro)
Each show in The Netherlands will start at 20:00; there are options available for both location for possible extra shows.
Tickets for Antwerp and The Netherlands: www.teleticketservice.be (and let us be clear: we don’t get a precentage)
In Germany, Night of the Proms will perform on the already annouced places (and no extra shows will be added):
Friday 26th of November 2010 (Köln – Lanxessarena – 20:00) Saturday 27th of November 2010 (Köln – Lanxessarena – 20:00) Sunday 28th of November 2010 (Oberhausen – König Pilsener Arena – 18:00) Tuesday 30th of November 2010 (Frankfurt – Festhalle – 20:00) Wednesday 1st of December 2010 (Frankfurt – Festhalle – 20:00) Thursday 2nd of December 2010 (Erfurt – Messehalle – 20:00) Friday 3th of December 2010 (Berlin – 02 World – 20:00) Saturday 4th of December 2010 (Hamburg – O2 World – 20:00) Sunday 5th of December 2010 (Hamburg – O2 World – 18:00) Tuesday 7th of December 2010 (Mannheim – SAP Arena – 20:00) Wednesday 8th of December 2010 (Stuttgart – Schleyerhalle – 20:00) Thursday 9th of December 2010 (München – Olympiahalle – 20:00) Friday 10th of December 2010 (München – Olympiahalle – 20:00) Saturday 11th of December 2010 (München – Olympiahalle – 20:00) Sunday 12th of December 2010 (München – Olympiahalle – 15:00) Tuesday 14th of December 2010 (Bremen – AWD Dome – 20:00) Wednesday 15th of December 2010 (Hannover – TUI Arena – 20:00) Thursday December 16th 2010 (Hannover – TUI Arena – 20:00 – privat show) Friday 17th of December 2010 (Dortmund – Westfalenhalle – 20:00) Saturday 18th of December 2010 (Dortmund – Westfalenhalle – 20:00)
Tickets for Germany: www.eventim.de
For Italy or Poland there won’t be any shows in 2010.

	Of course, Il Novecento doesn’t only supports the pop artists but will also, with or without Charlie Siem, take care of the classical part during the fall shows.
Standing out without a doubt, will be the Wedding March of Bartholy Felix Mendelssohn. Conductor Robert Groslot married during the summer of 2010 and so he proposed to play this well known piece. This wedding march, is the overture that Mendelssohn wrote for the performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. To support the musical piece during the show, the organization would like to address all married couples to send their most beautiful wedding pictures to bruiloftsmars@notp.com; the digital images will be shown during the shows.
	In Charleroi 2010, Il Novecento brought a suite with music from John Williams from the movies of Harry Potter. Organizer Jan announces that this suite will be played as well during the fall shows, with images from the two new Harry Potter movies. Here you can listen to parts of the suite, commented by John Williams himself.

Il Novecento will play some Vivaldi with Charlie Siem: The Summer from the Four Seasons.

Naturally, Robert Groslot’s favorite, Tsjaikovski, won’t be left behind, as well as the classical waltz. For now, we don’t have any news if Il Novecento will play Glazunov’s Chopiniana for the 200th birthday of Chopin, as they did in Charleroi. This year, we also celebrate the 150th birthday of Mahler; perhaps they choose something out of his repertoire.

Both before, during and after the press release on the 9th of September 2010, we receive a lot of information from official and ‘less official’ sources about the fall shows. We’re not looking for scoops, but we like it to bring you nice (sometimes less) relevant news. But we don’t publish everything because each show still has to surprise you!

That is why we will often bring you news regarding the preparations for the fall shows. And we’ll start with some general info, the press release itself.

	You could read almost the same in news papers or on different websites, as it was written in the press document. Some more information could be heard in the two interviews with Jan Vereecke and Charlie Siem on ATV TV
	We don’t want to brag, but, careful as we try to be, we heard something more than that. That is what we will write about in the next news items in the upcoming month.

The roots of the Night of the Proms can be found with two guys (supported with a wonderful team) of whom Jan Vereecke is standing in the spotlights the most and also leads the press release. Jan likes to explain with his hands.





Jan always wears a shirt with stripes, no tie which, as you can see, seems to be the dress code for several NOTP crew members.

(from left to right Dirk Hohmeyer (NOTP Germany), Fred Int’Panis (press guy), Jan Vereecke (during interogation), Charlie Siem (performing), Robert Groslot (conductor).

Only trombone player / arranger Dominique Vanhaegenberg stood out with his choice of clothes, but because of his many talents, all was forgiven.

The press release is a good opportunity to bring the staff together; so a lot of plans are founded. Here we see Dirk Hohmeyer, Philippe Lengele, Dominique Vanhaegenberg and Geert Vanhout discuss the plans for the new stage.

And as always, the good and relaxed mood is noticed with which the musicians on and off the stage can bring out the best out the artists (even those with a difficult charisma).
Smiling for you are Robert Groslot, Geert Keyser and Patrick Desmet.



We promise that the next messages will be more serious.