Special Events
10th Anniversary Gala concert
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Those of you present at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on 26th June 2009 will know just how special the night was. For those of you that weren't we thought we would just give you all a little run-down on how our day went.
We had actually met up on Thursday to check out the parts written for Steve Vintner, who we had drafted in on percussion. Mark our drummer had worked for hours on the parts, and it paid of because it all worked! Gordon (Giltrap) also turned up to run through his sections with BtB – and again, it sounded amazing even without PA and lighting!
We need to say a big thank you to Richard Kay, theatre manager at the Prince of Wales Centre in Cannock who let us rehearse there.
The lads all went to the pub for a well earned pint, and an early-ish night. It was a little later than expected because of course Michael Jackson sadly died that night, so we were up watching Sky News... in the pub...
Friday was quite an early start. Steve Clark and Mark camped out at Andy's and were busy tweaking the percussion parts, David and Andy were deciding on the running order – inspired by Mick Jagger who we noticed (watching the Shine A Light docu/gig) still scribbles the set on a piece of paper. Katie cooked breakfast for everyone – which as it turns out was a good job!
A quick conversation with Becky Vere and Gordon Giltrap eased any concerns that they would meet us at the Symphony Hall at 3pm to rehearse. However, as with all good plans, we then learned that Trev Heyworth, our sound engineer had left it a tad late to negotiate any (the usual) Friday disasters on the M25.. eta now 3.30pm.
The journey over to Brum was quite painless for us, and we set up what we could and waited for the PA to arrive. Ed Railton, our lighting technician rigged as much as possible, helped by Matt Mountier, his assistant. Anyway – we eventually sound checked at 6.10pm! So much for our chilled get-in – but we know these things happen.
THE GIG
It was simply a stunning venue, a warm friendly audience, and even though we say it ourselves – we rose to the occasion. David and Andy had decided to just go for it and give people value for money – it was going to be a longer show than usual!
Our usual Miss Saigon opener warmed us and the audience up quickly, and it just rocked on! Our assistant lighting engineer shot a video from the back of the theatre purely for archive use, but we have decided to upload segments of it to YouTube.
Gordon Giltrap did an amazing solo spot – treating the audience to an impromptu recording session live on stage with his rendition of his very own 'The Dodo's Dream'. Amazing!
Our second guest star spot introduced Rebecca Vere to the audience. Becky was integral in developing Beyond the Barricade 10 years ago, while she was playing Cosette in Les Miserables – with Andy as her Resident Director. Becky sang 'Only The Good Die Young', and Andy's arrangement of 'Out Here On My Own' with Becci and Katie, and also joined in with the Les Miserables Finale.
Perhaps one of the items which took the audience completely by surprise followed Gordon Giltrap's fantastic performance of his 'hit' track, 'Heartsong'. Gordon and Andy had met a few days prior to the gig and worked out a wonderful arrangement of 'Empty Chairs At Empty Tables'. The duet left the audience spellbound, you could have heard a pin drop... and also left the two artistes with food for thought!
There is so much to write about here, but words could not do justice to an amazing night. Its been a fantastic 10 years, and we celebrated in style. Here's to the next however many years!
Please also take a look at the Photo Gallery HERE.
Beyond the Barricade celebrate with great night of show songs
A review Jun 30 2009 by Andrew Coleman, Birmingham Mail
Beyond The Barricade - SYMPHONY HALL
SONGS from about 30 top West End musicals made an outstanding show to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this accomplished company.
In a three-hour extravaganza the singers and musicians delighted a full house with classy performances of wonderful songs from musicals that have run for years, from Phantom of the Opera to Fame and Cats to The Lion King. But it was the impeccable Les Miserables, the world's longest-running musical, which originally brought this group together, all of them having played major roles in various productions of Schonberg's outstanding work.
David Fawcett, Andy Reiss, Katie Leeming and Becci Morrell all have outstanding voices and, with first-class musicians, provided entertainment which surely matched any original West End production. Appropriately, this built up to a finale of some of the exceptional Les Mis material which earned a standing ovation.
VERDICT: *****
ROY GILLARD
Beyond The Barricade.
A review by Gordon Giltrap
There are times when sometimes an artist is required to step outside of his or her comfort zone and attempt something completely different to what they are known for. This was true of my performance at The Symphony Hall Birmingham on Friday the 26th with my friends Beyond The Barricade.I have to tell you that although I was only required to perform three songs from Les Miserableswith them, it was one of the most challenging and nerve wracking moments of my career. I had never attempted anything like this before and one of the songs was in E flat for goodness sake! I must have spent every waking hour trying to get to grips with three of the most beautiful songs written for the theatre: 'Bring him Home','I Dreamed a Dream' and 'Empty Chairs at Empty Tables'. I was terrified about the old nerves taking over and screwing the whole thing up for all concerned. I'm relieved to report that I didn't, and my contribution was received favourably by this warm Birmingham crowd. This packed Symphony Hall crowd were behind us all the way, and my two chosen solos of 'The Dodo's Dream' and'Heartsong' pretty much raised the rafters.
It was a joy and a privilege to be on stage with a great band and some of the finest singers to grace the West End stage over the years. My love and thanks go to the following people for allowing to grace the same stage as them. Andy Reiss, David Fawcett, Katie Leeming, Becci Morrell (vocals) Russ Kennedy (bass guitar) Mark Allis (drums)Steve Clark (keyboards) Trevor Heyworth (sound) Ed Railton (lights).
If you love musicals, great singing, great songs, a stunning stage show and a generally entertaining evening go and see them, you won't regret it.
Gordon
