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North America -
2006 |
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Diary:
Well, another tour of North America has come to an end and, like previous visits it promises to yield a bigger and better tour next year.
Having previously shipped over hundreds of copies of our new album, Live ! ... n' Kickin', November 8th saw us jet-out to Newark from Edinburgh on Continental Airlines (one of the sponsors of our tour). The flight was uneventful apart from the sad fact that we didn't manage a bump-up this time around (sadly, no lovely Morag - the Continental international concierge from Glasgow airport - to sweet-talk us up to Business First).
Once landed stateside, we immediately installed ourselves in our digs and called Caledon supporter Ronan Tynan, who wanted to meet us for a famous NY breakfast. Over the last few visits to the US I have found it very difficult to ignore the indelibly etched words of my mother which were drummed into me at every meal time, "Make sure you eat it all up - you may not leave the table until you do !" and so now I do the unthinkable - I simply order less food. In any case the portions are so large that to finish them becomes a disaster for the waistline. This is not Ronan's motto, however and he put us all to shame by ordering big and finishing it too !
The first concert of the tour took place in Port Washington on Long Island courtesy of Robert Berens. Bob has become a great Caledon supporter over the last few months since he heard our programme On A Beautiful Scottish Evening on PBS. Not only did he invite us to sing at his summer concert at Sands Point Preserve, but he planned and promoted our concert at the Landmark Theatre in Port Washington so brilliantly that it was a sell-out (the first of many on this tour). Bob put us up in the sumptuous surroundings of The Mansion House Club on the grounds of the Preserve (that reminds me, I must mail the room key back to them) and wined and dined us in the way that Americans specialise - fabulously ! Thanks Bob !
After performing a corporate evening in Manhattan for the Royal Bank of Scotland, we were chauffeured by limousine to a new destination for Caledon : New Hampshire. In fact Portsmouth to be precise. Here we were the guests of The State of New Hampshire and its new Scottish Business liaison, Bob Creighton. Bob has been a great help to Caledon over the years as there is probably no-one in the American - Scottish community with so much experience ... and so many contacts. The concert in Portsmouth took place in an historic church wherein the late Dr Martin Luther King had preached and it was indeed an honour for us to be addressing an audience from the same stage where the great Dr King had stood. The concert was a great success and in fact we ran out of merchandising stock after the show and had to send a number of the audience home without a Caledon momento. However, the sad news of missing merchandising sales was tempered by a great offer at the meal afterwards. One of the concert sponsors, The Smutty-Nose Brewery, was so delighted that they not only offered to entirely sponsor a concert next year in the Portsmouth Music Hall, but they also want to honour us by having our picture on their new Scotch Ale; due to be released in 2007 - it doesn't get any better folks (unless of course you have a single malt whisky named after you).
From NH it was a short plane journey to Caledon's second home - Michigan, where the lovely Peg and Bill Dunlop (our US Mom and Dad) were having their Thanksgiving Dinner early in our honour. Peg had also arranged a Tuesday concert in Fraser High School auditorium, but not before arranging for us to work with the pupils of the Fraser Choir for a couple of hours on the Monday afternoon. What a great experience that was - not for the kids, but for us ! It was so refreshing for us to work with such talent and enthusiasm and the pupils were such an enormous credit to their superb Vocal Studies head, Pasquale (Pat) Pascaretti. Well done Pat and you should know that as I write this, I am wearing my Fraser Choir sweat-shirt !
From MI, it was over the border into Canada where our Canadian agency, Concert Showcase International had managed to secure a couple of high profile concerts in Manitoba and British Columbia. Both Sandy and Natasha from CSI in Toronto met us in Brandon where we were delighted to see a sell-out audience of nearly 1,000 people brave the Manitoban ice and snow to turn out for Caledon. Both girls then joined us the next morning for the long flight to Vancouver.
Now, not to put down any other city on our touring schedule but, Vancouver is one beautiful city. The scenery is breath-taking with the mountains, the islands and the ocean all in such close proximity : why it could almost be Scotland ! Mike Paul from the Scottish Studies Centre in Vancouver had promoted the concert for us and once again it was a sell-out; once again we had the offer of a return concert and once again we sold-out our merchandise. Of course, the fact that we had appeared earlier that morning on the Shaw TV Breakfast Show probably did us no harm at all. Neither did the fact that the previous day we had done another school choir session, this time with Dr Shirley Perry and the boys' choir of Mulgrave School. The parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles really turned out in numbers again !
The hours following on from the concert were spent in our hotel rooms, watching TV trying not to fall asleep as the limo was arriving to take us to the airport at ... 3.15am ! Yes, that was indeed ... 3.15am, so you can imagine that by the time we returned to Detroit we were somewhat exhausted. Why did we return to Detroit I hear you ask? Well, apart from Peg's fabulous home-baked cheesecake, Bill Baker's challenge to a game of Bocci and a night-out to see the new 007 movie, Casino Royale, there was the small matter of a concert in Port Huron to fulfil. The concert took place in the 1st Presbyterian Church and once again, it was a complete sell-out in both tickets and merchandise, and has already yielded a return invitation.
After a couple of days unwinding at Peg and Bill's and also at the home of Bill and Susy Baker, we took the 8th flight of our trip from Detroit to the Lone Star State where we landed in Houston. It was the second time this year for us in Houston : the first time was in February for RBS but this time it was for the British American Business Council, who were putting on a dinner to raise money for their ambitious scholarship programme. This programme was recently responsible for bringing Scottish students over to gain work experience in the US and in fact some of the lucky ones gained this experience by working at NASA of all places - they must have been over the Moon ! (yes, I know, it's a tired old joke, but keeping in the great Caledon tradition). Let me just say right now that we do lots and lots of corporate events, but this one was by far and away the best and this was largely to do with the organisational skills of the lovely Susan Howard, whose husband Kevin happens to be president of the organisation and also numero uno in RBS in Texas (and whose daughters Joanne and Jennifer happen to be absolutely delightful - thankfully they have taken their looks from their Mum : sorry Kevin but at least they did get their sense of humour from you). What with the British Consul's fabulous reception the night before the dinner and the BABC's marvellous lunch the afternoon after the dinner, the dinner itself could have been a bit of a let-down. Not a bit of it ! The audience loved the Scottish pop medley we gave them and then rushed the stage for 500 Miles, forcing us to do it twice.
And so it was back home to Blighty on a real high after Houston. Laden with Christmas presents, which we had decided to buy in the US (since the dollar exchange rate was so abysmal), we were met by our families who had missed us for nearly four weeks.
And now we look forward to next year with a number of visits to Germany, Canada and the US on the cards, it looks like another busy year for Caledon. May we take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal fans for your incredible support to date and to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
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| Author:
Alan Beck - Tenor |
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