|
Winding
Wheel Well, this is one concert report I didn't expect to be writing, I was certain that something was going to happen and this show was going to be cancelled at the last minute! Luckily I was wrong, and I have to say thank you to Elma Robertson for the part she played in bringing Hal to England.
At around 7.15pm we set off to walk to the Winding Wheel. Half way there, Sue realised she had forgotten her glasses, so Steve had to run back to the hotel while we kept on walking. We were waiting for him outside the theatre for a while, we thought he had got lost, but he arrived just in time for us to get a drink, buy a t-shirt and find our seats before the support act came on. We were sat on the front row, I think I had the best seat in the place, right in the middle, directly in front of where Hal was going to stand. Of course I couldn't concentrate much on the young man who came on as support, his name was Justin McGurk, and he was accompanied on the keyboard by James. Apparently, Justin had won 'Search For A Star' in Ireland and had appeared at Fan Fair (or CMA Music Festival as they like to call it now) in Nashville this year. He had a nice voice, although I wasn't that keen on some of the songs he chose to sing. I liked 'Love Me' by Collin Raye, and the songs he had written himself too. I have to say tbough, that it could have been Garth Brooks up there and I would have been wishing he would hurry up and finish so Hal would come on! I didn't have long to wait though, and at around ten past nine, on came Hal. He was looking great, I think he looks better now than he did when we saw him at the Boardwalk in Sheffield in 1999. He was introduced as the 71st member of the Grand Ole Opry, and the first song he sang was Past the Point of Rescue. He was wearing a jacket over a black t-shirt and black jeans. He didn't chat much between songs, and only told one small joke (so this dyslexic walked into a bra..!). After about three songs he took off his jacket, and introduced his band, I didn't catch all their names, but he called them the High Plains Drifters. Here is a full list of the songs he sang : Past the Point of Rescue The show finished about half past ten I think, Hal was picking up his guitar on stage when a few people ran forward to shake his hand, so I ran over too. That was unfortunately the nearest I got to meeting him but it was good enough for me. I took a
few (!) photos during the show, I checked with Hal's tour manager Eric that
it was okay to do so because on the tickets it said that photography was
strictly forbidden. They didn't come out too well and if anyone else
was there on Friday and took any better ones, PLEASE let me see them, or if
I have missed something out of this review that I should have added, let me
know! I have added my photos to my WEBSHOTS album, so
CLICK HERE to view them.
|
We
had never been to Chesterfield before, but it is a lovely place to visit.
We got there about 4pm and it took us a while to find our way to the Winding
Wheel, of course I had to make sure where that was before we found the hotel
we had booked for the night. The show wasn't due to start till 8pm so we
stayed in our room watching TV. My sister Sue and her partner Steve
were travelling up from Norfolk so she arrived later.