Page 54 - Phonebox Magazine September 2008

A Hayley delightful evening at The Grove Theatre A review by Steve Clark
Icommented last month on how fortunate we are in this area to have a generous selection of splendid venues and events that encourage
the performance of live music. One of my favourite haunts in the past was the magnificent Queensway Hall in Dunstable. The venue attracted virtually all of the top acts in the world of rock music, and many fantastic evenings linger in my memory to this day. However, around ten years ago, the powers- that-be in Dunstable decreed that the Queensway Hall was no longer fit for purpose and decided that it was to be bulldozed to make way for an Asda supermarket. The mechanism by which the site was acquired by
Asda seemed to be rather less than transparent, prompting a number of questions about the site in parliament during 1998. The eventual developers of the site were required to provide an alternative facility to replace the Queensway Hall, but quite a few years passed before the people of Dunstable had a new venue that they could be rightly proud of. The Grove Theatre finally opened on 21 April 2007 and forms part of the Grove Park complex, along with several restaurants, bars and a leisure centre. The theatre auditorium seats 780 people on two levels, although the seating in the stalls is retractable to allow the provision of a flat floor space which increases
the capacity to 1,000.
The opportunity for my first visit to The Grove Theatre came on Thursday 17 July this year. The occasion was one of a series of summer concerts by the incomparable Hayley Westenra. Regular readers of this illustrious missive may recall a rather glowing review I wrote following Hayley’s visit
to The Stables at Wavendon on 21 November 2005, albeit written under another name. Since that evening, Hayley has continued to blossom and is now firmly established as a major artist of international stature. At the Stables concert, Hayley had been supported by virtuoso violinist Fiona Pears with Ian Tilley on piano. I was absolutely delighted to discover that Fiona and Ian were also supporting Hayley for the Dunstable show. The line-up was completed by Andy Moore on acoustic guitars.
The first set opened with the now familiar acappella Maori song ‘Pokarekare Ana’, which loosely means ‘Come Back to me’. This was the first song I ever heard Hayley sing many years ago, and it still brings tears to my eyes now. A beautiful rendition of ‘Ave Maria’ was then followed by Hayley’s interpretation of ‘Scarborough Fair’. Hayley then left the stage for a while to allow Fiona and Ian to showcase a couple of instrumental pieces. ‘Tangisimo’ relates to a time when Fiona was backpacking in Prague, whilst the beautiful ‘Memories of Martin and Mary’ is associated with a visit to Ireland. Fiona, like Hayley, loves to explain the background to the various pieces she plays. It is also very clear that Fiona is beginning to establish a faithful and loyal following in the UK in her own right.
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54 Phonebox Magazine
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