Page 55 - Phonebox Magazine September 2008

Hayley Westenra – photo by Steve Hayter
Hayley returned to the stage for a further four songs before a brief interval of around 20 minutes. The second set opened with another instrumental offering from Fiona, playing a really stomping version of ‘Hava Nagila’. This produced some very enthusiastic audience participation! Hayley then reappeared to deliver a stunningly beautiful version of Enya’s ‘May It Be’. The original version of this song formed part of the soundtrack of ‘Lord of the Rings’, which featured the stunning scenery of Hayley’s homeland. Hayley then delivered a lovely rendition of ‘Songbird’, a song made famous by the late Eva Cassidy. Most of the songs in Hayley’s sets would have been familiar to those who have bought her albums in recent years, but she did include one song from her recent Japanese album. Many artists find it prudent to release ‘exclusive’ albums for
Steve with Fiona at The Grove Theatre – photo by Ian Tilley
the Japanese market and Hayley is no exception to this trend, although the title ‘Hayley sings Japanese Songs’ is a little unimaginative! (For a sample of the flavour of this album, I would recommend that you have a listen to ‘Nada SouSou’ on You Tube.)
The second set closed with a traditional Maori lullaby, ‘Hine e Hine’. This is a classic favourite that Hayley has been performing in concert for some time, and always goes down well with audiences. When Hayley finally returned to the stage for an encore, she sang a solo version of ‘Sonny’, accompanying herself on the piano. Sonny is one of a number of songs on Hayley’s album “Treasure” that hint at her Irish ancestry.
This series of summer concerts sees Hayley headlining the Killiow Festival near Truro, for five days from 2 to 6 September. Hayley will also be performing for three consecutive days at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst from 18 to 20 September. Hayley then launches into her ‘River of Dreams’ tour, starting in Stoke on Trent on Saturday 18 October. This tour is to promote Hayley’s new album of the same name. One of the venues on the tour is the Derngate Theatre in Northampton on Wednesday 5 November, although tickets are selling fast. I am not too sure what the musical line-up will be for the ‘River of Dreams’ tour as Fiona will soon be returning home to New Zealand to tour there throughout October and November. Whilst I am looking forward to
seeing Hayley’s performance at Derngate, I hope that it will not be too long before Fiona returns to the UK to perform again. I know that Fiona really enjoyed playing at The Grove Theatre and she has advised me that she would love to headline her own show there some time next year. In the meantime, I can heartily recommend Fiona’s brilliant DVD ‘Live at the Christchurch Cathedral’, which is available through her website. K
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For further information: http://www.hayleywestenra.com http://www.fionapears.com http://www.iantilley.com http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk http://www.newzealand.com