Pure Gold … Beverley Knight blows me away …
If you visit here now and again, you’ll know that I’m a bit of an advocate for Twitter – it’s such a great way to connect with people and I’ve made lots of friends for the 365challenge through my tweets.
Well, one of the friends I’ve connected with is the soul singer, Beverley Knight. Through tweets of friends of friends, over time, she’d heard about my 365challenge and been kind enough to pass my message on to others on Twitter through what we call Re-Tweets … listen, if you’re not into it, don’t worry, it just is what it is, and as a communication tool, it is great fun … so anyway, I’d tweet about something in response to a comment Beverley might make, or she’d respond to one of mine – and she just got to know about what I was up to and was happy to spread the word to her followers too.
When she started tweeting about her up-coming tour, I decided that as she was coming to Liverpool, which is about 30 miles away, I’d take Donna and I managed to get some tickets for last night, November 10th, at the Liverpool Philharmonic, a really lovely venue. So I tweeted BK, told her we were coming, and wished her well for the show.
As a little extra, I thought I’d also send a 365challenge t-shirt backstage as a “thank you” for her support and so when we got there (after a bit of hassle finding somewhere to park, I must say), I asked one of the venue staff if they could get the package backstage to Beverley, and they dutifully took it away, and we made our way to our seat (in a box, no less … no really, it was a good price, and I thought it would be fun).
The support band were excellent – Mamas Gun – a really tight, funky outfit who are worth a listen, I promise. Then, it was show time, and little Beverley came on with both guns blazing. High energy, high powered show from the start, with the whole place on its feet, singing and dancing. Brilliant.
Then, after about 30 minutes, she slowed it down, the band left the stage, leaving just BK up front with her keyboard player as accompaniment. And she started talking to us …
“… this next song is dedicated to a woman I’ve never met, who is no longer with us … but through the power of Twitter, I know her brother” (Gulp, what’s this, surely not …) … “Colin … who is doing amazing things through his 365challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK” (audience cheering, Colin going “Oh my God!!!”) … “I don’t know where you are sitting Colin, but this is for Brenda” … (Colin totally stunned, Donna staring at me, going “Did you know she was going to do that? Me: “No …”) … and then the wonderfully generous and thoughtful Miss Beverley Knight launched into a beautiful version of her song “Gold”, from her 2002 album, “Who I Am”. Please click through and listen, it’s a beautiful song, and in the context of last night, with a truly stunning live performance, I have to admit to sitting there with tears in my eyes … Brenda would have loved it!
And it got a standing ovation!
The rest of the show was superb, she worked that audience, sang her heart out for an hour and a half, and I’m not sure she actually wanted to stop, but all good things must end, and the show closed with the equally great “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda”.
Donna said it first, though i was thinking it “You have to go and say hello and thank her for that”. I wanted to as well, because what she had just done meant so much to me, so I went down to the side of the stage and tried to get word back to her that I was there. We ended up being shifted outside to the stage door, where there were a few autograph hunters waiting too, and I managed to tweet with Beverley to let her know that I was still around. However, we ended up waiting quite a long time, as she had some promotional things she had to do, but we both agreed that we should wait.
Eventually, she came out. I waited while she signed autographs and then introduced myself, to be greeted by a huge BK smile. Her manager was trying to get her away to her car, but she was saying, “No, this is Colin, the 365 guy, I sang a song for his sister tonight” … we moved back to the window for some light and Donna snatched a couple of photos on her iPhone (it’s a bit dark, I know … of all the nights not to have her compact camera with her!), and then Beverley was being ushered away, calling over her shoulder that she’d tweet me!
Well, it certainly was a night to remember … thanks to the lovely BK!
And, true to her word, the next day we were tweeting away again, and now even Donna has gotten into the picture, with BK now following her on twitter too, and commenting on her photo, which Donna put up earlier on her Blog (the title refers to the fact that she got her photo taken with Vincent Simone from Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday!).
Today has been quite special too, as I kept thinking about how generous BK was to do something like that … I know it took no effort really on her part, but it’s the fact that she DID it and wanted to do it, as she said in a tweet, “to honour Brenda”.
And then, she only went and invited us to her Manchester gig, and we got the chance to meet her properly and get a better photo.
What a special person you are, BK. Thank you.
PS – BK tells me the SMALL t-shirt I sent through to her was HUGE on her … well she is just Pixie-sized!
