2015 - A Bag Of Mixed Emotions

WOW! Where has the year gone? It seems like, even though the year went quite fast, I felt a mixed bag of emotions throughout the year. I've had a few down moments and crazy moments, but there were happy times too, probably not as many as I would have liked. However, life goes on and hopefully 2016 will be a much better year! I thought I'd share with you some of those moments as I do consider them to be worthy to talk about:

First of all, my dear Granddad passed away back in April. Mum did a very beautiful tribute to Granddad over on her blog back in April. I have many fond memories of Granddad over the years and I'll treasure those memories forever. Even when we used to visit him in the Aged Care Home, we had some good times that I'll never forget, and we visited him quite often. Even though we knew his time was coming, nothing would prepare us for the grief we all felt that day. I still think of Granddad and miss him everyday.

In November 2014, I'd gotten back in touch on Facebook with a friend whom I haven't seen since I graduated from high school back in 2002. Alyssa told me that she was running a couple of choirs and invited me to join one of them if I wanted to. In June, I really wanted to join a local choir, so I asked Alyssa if I could still join one of her choirs.  She told me that her choirs were preparing to sing in a major event as part of the Queensland Music Festival in August, so there wasn't much time left. When I joined, we went straight into rehearsing mode for the Queensland Music Festival songs. The event was called "Under This Sky - Logan's Musical Celebration", written and performed by the Logan community. I was told it was going to be filmed and broadcast nationwide across Australia, I was quite excited to take part in such a huge event.

Our choir would perform with the 300-voice Massed Choir (made up of several choirs around Logan, community choirs, school choirs, etc). The rehearsals took a lot of commitment and dedication, and I was mighty happy to be part of it all! "Under This Sky" took place at the Logan Brothers Rugby League Field on August 1 and 2, with a preview night on July 31 for the sponsors of the event! Mum and Grandma both came to the Preview and the first night opened to the public, my brothers came along with Mum on the Sunday night, August 2! Being the middle of Winter, we were all rugged up warmly as it was very cold. The show's theme was based around a day in the life of the people of Logan City. The show was a huge success! The Massed Choir was in the Finale, performing 3 songs; "Pachelbel's Chanson", "I Have A Dream" (no, not the ABBA song, this was totally original) and "Get There From Here". On both nights, I left the stage on a high. It was an awesome experience that will remain with me forever and I'm very grateful to Alyssa for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it all.

After "Under This Sky", the next big thing was my sister Michelle gave birth to another baby girl named Mackenzie Eve Hallmond! That makes me a proud uncle of her 3 girls! I always have fun with Mikayla & Maddy and look forward to many more happy times with all 3 girls as they grow up!

And to round off the year, Mum and I performed in the Mater Hospital 'Sing For Health' Choir. We come together twice a year and practice for 5 weeks performing on the 6th week, usually in the Mater Mothers Hospital foyer. Our Christmas performance entailed 7 carols; "Star Of Bethlehem", "Angel Carol", "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", "Jingle Bells", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", "Night Of Silence" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". We performed at 5 different venues around the Mater Hospital in the last week and they were all a great success! It's always a pleasure to sing with a great group of people! I look forward to hopefully doing more performances with the Sing For Health choir next year.

Photo courtesy of Mater Queensland

A couple of weeks ago, my brother Beau gave me his classical guitar that he's had for a while. Though I've dabbled in guitar playing in the past, I was a little scared of strings snapping, but I'm trying again and hopefully will get better as I keep going. So far, I've been enjoying playing it and have already tried playing a couple of songs! Thanks for the guitar, Beau!

I still love playing my Bongos though, so they will still get a regular workout.

As 2015 draws to a close, I have big plans for 2016, but I'll tell you about them in future posts. Until next time, please stay safe and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
May 2016 be a great year!

Why are European Elton John fans so lucky?

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

Not only did they have Elton John tour there for some of the 2009 year (that includes Red Piano concerts, normal band concerts and concerts where he is solo with percussionist Ray Cooper), but they also got to take the concert home with them on CD straight after the concert thanks to Concert Live!  I was just browsing through their Elton John lists (3 of them; The Red Piano, Elton John With His Band and Elton John featuring Ray Cooper lists) and counted 23 CDs in total!

The great thing about these CDs from Concert Live is that you get them pretty much instantly after the concert is finished!  They are 3 disc sets; Elton John and His Band is 2 CDs containing the full concert (whatever one you choose) and a DVD containing photos of the performance and back stage images, whereas, the Elton John Featuring Ray Cooper and The Red Piano CDs are full 3 CD sets (CD3 with the Elton John Featuring Ray Cooper ones contain encores and I think The Red Piano  Disc 3 is a continuation of the concert along with the encores); the first 2 discs you can get straight from the concert, but you get an “Encore” disc with 2 songs that can be downloaded, but only if you have a code that you get from the concert (well, the ones with Ray Cooper anyway, not too sure about The Red Piano).  However, when you order the CDs over the Internet through Concert Live themselves rather than getting the discs straight after the concert, the 3rd disc is included, meaning you don’t need to download it.

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

I really hope that when Elton comes to Australia again, he’ll have something like this at his Australian concerts.  If not by Concert Live, hopefully a similar Australian company!  If I wanted to, I could order these CDs through Concert Live myself as from what I’ve read on forums, you could be living anywhere in the world and buy them.....but I think it would be more fun if I got to experience the concert too.   I applaud Concert Live for doing this for Elton fans, especially for those who want to get the CDs straight after the concerts!  It is pretty cool!  When you go to the Concert Live website, you’ll find all 3 Elton CDs on their Home page; the Ray Cooper and Red Piano CDs are under New In and Elton John With His Band is under Recent Recordings!  The cool thing is at the moment, Concert Live is offering 3 CDs for £35 (AUD$63.35), which is a great deal!  If you’re an Elton fan like I am, or you want to hear what an Elton concert sounds like with no edits and cuts, just head over to the Concert Live website!  You’ll even find other singers and groups as well!

Picture courtesy of Concert Live.  Click image to go to their web site.

My Third Elton John Concert - Oh What A Night!!!

I am so sorry that it has taken so long for me to do this blog post, I will try not to let that happen again. You remember in my last blog post back in November that I couldn't wait to see Elton John live in concert again at Elysian Fields, Canungra, now I can tell you that I've been, and what a night it was too! I think Elton was in a very good mood that night, he done mostly his greatest hits, but a fair amount of non-single songs were played as well! I am so happy I went, as I always say, to me, Elton John is the best singer in the world! I've even got some pictures, taken by Reece, of the concert!



Well, I guess I'd better start from the beginning! Reece (my brother) and I drove out to Elysian Fields, which is a winery plantation, we actually passed a few winery fields on the way to the concert! After a 30 minute drive, we get there in time to hear the support act playing. The support act was Eran James and I say "hear" because Reece and I were in the food queue for the entire time Eran James was on stage (from 6:00-6:55pm).



By the time Elton came on and started playing the piano (15 minutes earlier than expected), Reece and I were heading to our seats. When we got to our seats, Elton was just about to finish his first song of the night, which was Your Song! That song is always great no matter when Elton plays it, with band or without!! We were in our seats when Elton started Sixty Years On, another great song, like Your Song, from Elton's self-titled Elton John album in 1970! I loved hearing the piano during this song as it is nice to hear this song sometimes without the full orchestra.



Elton then talked about The Greatest Discovery, the next song in the set list, as being about Bernie Taupin's little brother and he played that song nicely as well, The Greatest Discovery, was also taken from the Elton John album! I was a little surprised when Elton followed The Greatest Discovery with I Need You To Turn To, also from the Elton John album. I have to admit, it is nice when Elton doesn't do a show with just hits, it shows us that he can still sing those songs that weren't singles just as good as the hits, especially the songs from his 70s albums.

After Elton would do a song or two, he'd get up and wave to the audience and get a drink, but when he'd come back to the piano, there would be bugs in the keys, so Elton had to stand up and get the bugs out of the keys. He only had to do this in the first half of the show, because, I guess, that as it got darker, all the annoying bugs couldn't hang around any more. Throughout the night, Elton performed many great songs which I have listed at the bottom of this post.



Rocket Man is always a treat for me, especially Sacrifice, and Philadelphia Freedom. I was surprise that Elton did Ticking as I don't think I've ever heard Elton do that live! I love the way he did Carla Etude and Tonight together, and the extended intro's to Philadelphia Freedom, Levon, I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues and several other songs were so cool!

Later in the night when Elton was playing Bennie And The Jets, Reece went up to a security guard and asked why people were going up to the stage and asked if it was OK if we could both go up together! The guard obviously said yes because Reece then came back and said "Come with me, we're going up to the stage!" When we got up there, I went wild, being so close to my favourite singer was so cool! I wasn't near the piano, but I was close. I wasn't exactly right against the stage as there were people in front of me! Thanks to Reece, I think this concert is definitely going to be my most memorable!



We were up near the stage for the last 3 songs after Bennie And The Jets (from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road), which, in order, are Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (from the Caribou album), I'm Still Standing (from Too Low For Zero) and Circle Of Life (from The Lion King soundtrack). The last few songs were encores, but when Elton finished Circle Of Life, we all screamed for more, but that was it. It was definitely a concert to remember, especially when you're standing just a metre away from your hero! Reece enjoyed the concert too, but was a little disappointed, as was I, that Elton didn't do his favourite song, Someone Saved My Life Tonight. I was really hoping for Crocodile Rock too, but that didn't happen either. Oh well, there's always another time!



All in all, it was a fantastic concert! Hopefully next time Elton comes over, solo or with band, I'll be in the front row near the piano! I've actually heard that because Elton didn't do Perth or the Northern Territory when he did all the other Australian states in November/December 2007, he came back to Australia at the end of his Asian tour in May to perform in Darwin, Broome and Perth. I also heard that in 2009, Elton might be bringing his Red Piano show to Australia! Whether he tours Australia with the Red Piano, or just stays in Sydney or Melbourne (similar to what he does in Vegas), it all depends, but I hope he does the tour.



Here is the complete set list of Elton's concert at Elysian Fields, Canungra:

1. Your Song
2. Sixty Years On
3. The Greatest Discovery
4. I Need You To Turn To
5. Border Song
6. Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes
7. Daniel
8. Honky Cat
9. Rocket Man
10. Tiny Dancer
11. Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters
12. Nikita
13. Philadelphia Freedom
14. Sacrifice
15. Ticking
16. Roy Rogers
17. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
18. Candle In The Wind
19. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
20. Electricity
21. Carla/Etude
22. Tonight
23. Take Me To The Pilot
24. Blue Eyes
25. Levon
26. Bennie And The Jets
27. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
28. I'm Still Standing (encore)
29. Circle Of Life (encore)