2012 TOUR REVIEW THREAD-PLEASE SHARE YOUR 2012 MB CONCERT ADVENTURES WITH US HERE!!!!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaana Stenberg on July 2, 2012 at 1:54pm

Hi Meggy/Mary!

About this...*And excuse me but did one of you say they Hit you, OMG*...! You will read What I said and did, when I got finally 'angry a bit' for one of the ladies, lol! She never came near me after that!! :))

I'm going to send an e-mail to the Concert Hall, about guard's behaving...will anyone who were the enjoy me???

Jaana

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by robin rehder on July 2, 2012 at 4:48pm

I agree with everything Meggie/Mary said. Go for the gusto. Boltonnut from L. A. CA who loves life & Michael Bolton :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kathy Rosario on July 6, 2012 at 9:50am

Good idea Mary!! Something has to give because we all KNOW the routine and why security doesn't.... is soooo wrong!!!

Kathy and LAFD Bob 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Astrid Kretschmann on July 3, 2012 at 12:13am

Hi BBs,

 I am very sorry, but I can't keep my promise to post my review today. Due to hours of overtime at work I haven't finished yet and it is already 00.15 am. I will try to be back tomorrow.

Best wishes from Germany

Astrid

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robin on July 3, 2012 at 12:56am

Take your time Astrid..I'm sure it will be well worth our wait!!!! LOL  Looking forward to the rest of your reviews..the fun stuff!

Robin in MD :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sylvia doughty on July 3, 2012 at 10:24am

Know this is not in the tour schedule but as we have information about it from admin thought some may like to read this article about the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg that Michael is attending.....sounds like some beautiful events being laid on for the guests and I, for one, hope Michael thoroughly enjoys every moment and I hope we get some pictures.....hint, hint Michael !!! lol

 

"Anastacia will be one of the star performers at this year's White Nights of St. Petersburg festival, which takes place from Friday July 6 to Sunday July 8 at the Russian city's Ice Palace.

Anastacia will be one of the star performers at this year's White Nights of St. Petersburg festival.

The 'Left Outside Alone' singer is one of the star acts at the International Music Festival in the Russian city, which takes place from Friday July 6 to Sunday July 8.

Other big names to take part in the festival include Michael Bolton, Simple Minds, Joss Stone, Natalie Imbruglia, David Hasselhoff, Mika and Spandau Ballet.

All the singers will help introduce the international song competition which sees entrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States compete for the coveted prize, while the jury includes former 'American Idol' star Paula Abdul.

One of the favourites for the prize is England's Rick Guard, who has been hailed as the British Michael Buble and has performed in front of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and several soccer stars.

The festival will take place at St. Petersburg's Ice Palace and as well as great music, participants and guests of the festival will also enjoy excursions to the city's museums, palaces and a country night cruise on the Neva river and the Finnish Gulf.

For more information about the festival and its history go to http://wnfestival.com/."

Sylvia.   Your wee Scottish friend.

27

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jaana Stenberg on July 3, 2012 at 8:58pm

Hmm...put the poster was about the concert in MOSCOW!! Both cities got 'Ice Palace'!?! I don't understand anymore...is it going to be in St. Petersburgh...or in Moscow?? And will Michael attend...and in which one?? I just found this info today:

Pietarissa järjestetään yksi suurimmista klassisen musiikin, oopperan ja baletin festivaaleista ajalla 25.05.-15.07.2012. International Stars of the White Nights Festival pitää sisällään noin 100 esiintyvää taiteilijaa, joista nelisenkymmentä on kansainvälisiä vieraita. 

 

It says in St. Petersburgh festival includes classical music, opera and baley!!!

Jaana

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sylvia doughty on July 4, 2012 at 12:03am

If you look at Michael's home page Jaana Admin have added it to Events and it is quite clearly St. Petersburg and Michael is attending.  A lot of the pages that advertise about the opera etc. if you go further on in them they take you to pages where you can or could purchase tickets and all of those events are in other venues not the Ice Palace.   I do not know but I would not be surprised if this competition, which is part of the Music Fesitval at which MB will be performing and judging, will be televised and therefore audience selection is probably the same as here for a television show and it is by selection of those who indicate that they want to attend, not ticket sales......I may be totally wrong but seems, for what it is worth, logical to me for as I say that is how the majority of TV show audiences are chosen here in the UK !!! LOL.

 

Sylvia.  Your wee Scottish friend.

27 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by robin rehder on July 8, 2012 at 5:29am

Awesome about these events this weekend. Awesome Michael's there. Boltonnut from L. A. CA who loves life & Michael Bolton :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ivana on July 3, 2012 at 7:44pm

Hey,

here is my review:

As some of you might know, no one of us who travelled in order to attend Michael´s concert in Copenhagen some days ago come from Denmark. A few of us arrived by train, the others by plane. We were very happy to meet each other after 1 year and were looking forward to seeing the best singer ever .

The city of Copenhagen is gorgeous, more bicycles than cars, fresh air, water canals, many cafes, a romantic old port with ships, polite and beautiful people and everybody speaks English…..

The concert hall was located in the outskirts of Copenhagen. It was an extremely huge building with many balconies around the stage. As to the atmosphere, this concert hall was, in my opinion, built for concerts of classical music/philharmony and less for concerts by pop music singers.

I admit, it must have looked great from Michael´s view while standing on stage, as the hall was nearly sold out and the audience was sitting on many balconies almost up to the roof. But people who have ever attended Michael´s concerts in London (RAH), Prague (Lucerna), Sicilly (Greek theatre), Stuttgart (open-air-arena), Vienna (National theatre), might ask themselves if this was the right place for Michael´s concert. I personally prefer smaller concert halls where the audience "boilt" as it makes me feel as if Michael was singing only to me, you can see his facial expression, he can communicate with the audience in a closer way, make jokes, you can smile at him and he can look in your eyes…..

Some minutes before the concert started, Jaana (from Finland) came in and wanted to meet and greet us. As Jaana, Christine and Astrid had their seats close to the stage, they wanted to take pictures of themselves. But a female security guard rushed forward from nowhere and asked them to stop taking pictures immediately.

Michael entered the stage at 08:10 p.m. dressed in blue jeans, black shirt and black jacket, grey hair, with a slow, feline walk. He looked gorgeous! He said some nice words to the audience, that he felt happy to find the way back to Copenhagen after 25 years had passed, that he was taken by the hall acoustics and that he was pleased to be performing together with the amazing Michael Lington whose parents were present at the concert hall too. The whole audience stood up and welcomed Michael Bolton with a standing ovation. Actually a promising start…...

Even though the stage was very wide, Michael´s band occupied only the middle third of the stage. Me and Martina had our seats in the 5^th row, seats 9 and 10 on the left side (the “piano-side”) and often saw more of Michael´s back or profile than his face, as he was performing either in the middle of the stage or further to the right side (the “saxophone-side”).

While Michael was sitting on a “bar chair” on stage and played guitar, I tried to take my first picture. But a Danish women sitting next to me instructed me not to take pictures any more as Michael Bolton might prohibit it !!! There was a rumour that people who were going to continue taking pictures would be thrown out. Did anybody make this warning before the concert? I did not notice it at all, I definitely did not hear it. Maybe it was said in Danish????

The next song was a faster one and Michael Lington and one of Michael´s guitarists motivated us to clap to the rhythm. I started clapping, moving in rhythm in my seat and waved at Michael when he looked in my direction to let him know a fan of his was sitting there. A woman who was sitting next to me looked at me with her cold and piercing eyes, hoping I was old enough to behave “appropriately” during the concert. As she was repeatedly looking at me and poking into me with her ellbow, I did not feel free enough, I was not sure what was allowed and what was against Michael´s wishes. Are we allowed to clap? Are we allowed to sing along with Michael? Are we allowed to take pictures? Are we allowed to move? To tell the truth, I missed some parts of the concert as I was being permanently disturbed and observed by somebody.

I saw that Jaana got up, went to the stage in order to give a gift to Michael. But she was asked by the security guards to go back to her seat. As she did not want to follow them, they called a male security guard who man-handled her back to her seat. Seeing it, I felt discouraged.

Everytime, when camera flashs appeared in the darkness of the concert hall, no matter if in our section or on the balcony, there was immediately a security guard who threathened the person with taking their camera away.

Michael sang “Make you feel my love”, “How am I supposed to live without you” and “The prayer” with a blonde haired singer, Kelly. Even though she is a great singer, I personally prefer to hear the song “How am I supposed to live without you” sung only by Michael and not as a duet as THIS song is a very special song with a very special meaning to us – his fans. And I think, this is also a kind of song which Michael loves to hear sung by the audience for him. As some of you might remember, the whole audience in RAH (London) was able to sing this song (or at least a part of it) for Michael and he only sat, listened to us, and enjoyed it with closed eyes. Michael gave Kelly a space to sing a medley of his songs which he has written for other artists “We are not making love any more”, “I found someone” and “Forever”. He also gave space to Michael Lington to play a solo on the saxophone, which was great (standing ovation), and Cameron, the nice blonde haired girl from his band, to play a solo “You are so beautiful”.

Michael sang a lot of his best songs including my favourite “You do not know me”. And his “Nessun dorma” was as always heartbreaking (standing ovation).

Michael did a very short walk for “When a man loves a woman”. He went only a few steps downstairs accompanied by 2-3 bodyguards. A woman who was sitting next to Helen from London (I guess she was British too) followed Michael to the stage like we used to do everytime and everywhere. She hoped other people would follow her to the stage. But nobody from the Danish audience did it. She stood alone there and was asked to go back to her seat.

The Danish audience was, in my opinion, very distinguished. They clapped after every song though, but I was surprised by the general restraint. Just a bit of moving to the rhythm, no dancing, no singing along with Michael. I felt like I was attending a concert of classical music !!

I had a small present for Michael which I wanted to give him. I was desperate as I did not know when and how to do it. The security was everywhere and we were observed from every corner. You see the singer you love, a man you admire for his singing and his charity activities, you have been waiting to see him for about 1 year, but you cannot “touch” him. I felt like a child, who licks an ice cream through a window. While Michael was singing “Steel bars”, I realised, that the second part of the concert had just begun and the end was going to approach. This is when I told my neighbour Martina that this might be MY moment. I told her: “I have to do it now or never. Am I supposed to do it now?” And she encouraged me to stand up, to ask about 10 people who were sitting next to me to allow me to pass by them with my white lie “I have to go to the toilet”.

So I stood beside the stage, went to the middle of the stage where Michael was performing and gave him my small gift. He took it, said “Thank you” and shook my hand. It was such a short moment and I was (as always being so close to him) so excited that I CANNOT remember the moment clearly. I felt like I was in a trance. The only one thing I can remember is his gentle hand…...I can feel it even now.

I decided not to return to my seat but to keep standing at the stage until the end of the concert. Some other fans followed me and went to the stage too, it was the part of fast songs like “Steel bars”, “Time, love and tenderness”, “How can we be lovers”. This small group of fans started to sing along with Michael and dance. But what happened? A rude female security guard and one more extremely rude female visitor pushed me away with strong force to the side, so that I was in danger of falling down. They pushed me about 3 meters to the side and about 5 other fans together with me as well. Some fans were asked to go back to their places. I stood in shock.

Nevertheless, I smiled at the security guard, sat directly on the stage with the tall loudspeaker behind my back as the stage was pretty low and kept sitting there until the end of the concert. I tried to convince the security guards that I do not pose any danger. Just 1 meter behind me on the stage stood Michael´s bodyguard. When I am thinking about it now, I still have tears in my eyes. All of us only wanted to make Michael feel our love and admiration, nobody wanted to hurt him (even though women can be animals sometimes ).

After the encore, Michael held just a few hands. I looked at him, prayed to God to help me make my wish come true, and it really suddenly happened: I had the pleasure of being the last one whose hand Michael held before he desappeared backstage forever…..

Anyway, I was able to enjoy the concert as I am a pacifist and do not like any conflicts. I still think that the best weapon is a smile. And it worked sometimes, not always. I would like to thank Michael for coming over to Europe, to give us the chance to see him, to be closer to him than we can be when we only listen to his CD´s at home. I found peace in my soul, flew home with a nice feeling in my heart and have still been thinking about him and his band…..

How was the concert? Like a delicious apple with some bees that have been threatening to sting you. But the apple was sweet enough and was worth the trip to Copenhagen.

Thank you, Michael!

your fan Ivana from Prague

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sylvia doughty on July 3, 2012 at 8:19pm

Thank you so, so much Ivana for a wonderfully written review but I am just so, so sad to read what it was actually like as you most certainly have managed to make that concert and all its faults, come alive !!! :)   Thanks for that Ivana but I have to say that you were all lucky I did not manage to Copenhagen, as I would love to have done, because under no circumstances would I have stood, sat or anything else for behaviour like that from anyone and that woman who poked you with her elbow would have done that once to me and then never again because I would have been on my feet screaming at her and telling her in no uncertain manner what she could with her elbow  and I am pretty sure I would have been loud enough that Michael would have heard and if anyone had come near me to throw me out..... I would have been shouting to Michael for help and telling him what was going on.......I know myself too well and I know what I have said would be fact and I know too if I had seen Jaana being man handled I would not have been sitting in my seat  !!!

Thanks again Ivana for a great review and I am just glad that the parts you were able to enjoy you did so and delighted to read that you managed to give Michael your gift and to hold his hand .....glad you have special memories that may eventually wipe out the others or at least let them pale into insignificance.

 

Sylvia.   Your wee Scottish friend.

27 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nicolette on July 3, 2012 at 8:37pm

Thank you Ivana for the beautiful written review!! I hope as time passes, you have only happy memories and forget all the rudeness.

Liebe Grusse!

Nicolette xx

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 144
• 145
• 146
• 147
• 148
• …
• 326
• Next ›
• Page