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Our story goes back to September 2007 when my eldest son
Scott gave my partner Lee an Andre Rieu DVD “New York
Memories”. Prior to this the name Andre Rieu meant
nothing, in fact we had never heard of him. That DVD
changed everything; we absolutely loved the music and
the way it was presented by Andre and his colorful
Johann Strauss Orchestra. Needless to say we now have
many Andre Rieu DVDs.
When we first heard Andre was bringing his orchestra to
Australia as part of his world stadium tour it was not
certain that Adelaide would be included, but when it
became a reality Lee and I were first in line to
purchase tickets at our nearest outlet. We purchased
three tickets as we intended to take Lee’s eldest
granddaughter Victoria-Lee an eleven year old. She
really loves Andre’s music, and is learning to play both
the piano and violin, she also sings with the Australian
Girls choir.
In the meantime I took up membership with a ticketing
organization who subsequently emailed me a short period
prior to the first Adelaide concert. I was told that for
the first time commencing with the Australian tour
people would be able to attend the exclusive after show
party, mingle and meet artists and others associated
with the concert. Food and drink would be provided, plus
photos with Andre would be taken. The number of people
able to attend would be limited to one hundred and the
cost per person is AU$1250.00. After much discussion, I
went ahead ordered and paid for the three of us to
attend as this would be for us a once in a life time
experience and I am glad I did. Tickets for the after
party would not be issued, but we would receive a letter
in the mail explaining what we were to do at the
conclusion of the concert. The letter never arrived and
after making enquiries I finally received a telephone
call from the ticketing organization explaining a
dedicated usher would look us up at the concert and
explain what we were to do.
We arrived at the concert venue which is the AAMI
Stadium located at West Lakes, a western suburb of
Adelaide and proceeded to our booked seats. The sky
looked threatening, however no rain eventuated. Within a
couple of minutes I saw an usher nearby, went over to
him and asked if he was aware of the after party. He
did, looked at a printed document he had with him,
smiled and said you must be Ian and are one of a party
of three to attend the party. He said come with me and I
will show where we will meet at the conclusion of the
concert. I asked him how many were attending the party,
I nearly fell over backwards when he said six.
Unbelievable I thought, not good for Andre, but good for
me, Lee and Victoria-Lee! I would suggest the high price
had something to do with this, also the current economic
climate and Christmas is just around the corner, people
are watching their pockets.
The concert started on time with Andre leading the
members of his orchestra through the audience to the
stage, playing as usual, the crowd went wild. Although
we had seats near the front we were to the right side of
the stage and we had difficulty in seeing all the
members of the orchestra, however the huge video screens
nearby made up for that. After seeing so many of the
Andre Rieu DVD’s, it was just great to be at a live
event. Some of the night’s repertoire included 76
Trombones, Blaze Away, Roses from the South, my
favourite The White Horse Inn, Granada, Bolero, My Heart
will go on, I belong to me, many more plus a selection
of Australian songs leading up to final piece Adieu.
The highlight of the concert for the three of us was the
appearance of Suzan Erens whom we all thought would not
be making the Australian tour, how wrong were we!
Moreover, later in the concert when she arrived in the
horse drawn carriage, Lee and Victoria-Lee moved a few
paces forward to get a good glimpse of Sisi (Suzan),
Victoria-Lee received a smile and a wink as she passed
by, as Andre might say, fantastic.
Following the concert we moved to the appointed place to
wait for the person to escort us to the after party
venue. She promptly arrived and after checking our
identification we were issued with passes to wear and
then off to the party which was held in a marquee back
stage. Once there we were shown to a table and shortly
provided with drinks and food. We were told Andre would
soon be there to meet us and have photos taken, in the
meantime we were free to move about and mingle.
We decided there and then to mingle and as we moved
forward we saw Suzan walking in our direction, she
immediately recognized our granddaughter Victoria-Lee as
the girl she waved to from the horse drawn carriage, she
came forward to talk to us. She was even lovelier than
we expected, she said all the right things to
Victoria-Lee having found out she is learning to play
both the piano and violin, also her singing with the
Australian Girls choir, Suzan certainly put the icing on
the cake that night for us. I took photos of us with
Suzan as she was happy to oblige.
Others we spoke to included Teun Ramarkers, Gary
Bennett, Pierre Rieu and obviously Andre with whom we
had a group photo taken with. Another person who
impressed us immensely was Mirusia Louwerse who had
quite a chat with Tori as well as giving her four hugs.
Regretfully the photo I took of Tori and Mirusia
together did not come out and that to us was a real
disappointment.
Entertainment was also taking place by Scottish
bagpiper’s right near us, so there was a far amount of
noise, but very pleasant. I looked for others to talk
too, there were lots of people there and as those from
the orchestra had changed into casual clothes it was
hard to pick out who was who.
The time went very quickly, in no time at all it was
well past midnight and time to leave after a most
enjoyable evening, one that would not be forgotten for a
long time, especially by Victoria-Lee, this was
something dreams are made of!
Both Lee and I suffered headaches some hours later from
the French Champagne, a small price to pay.
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