Vanessa-Mae live in Brussels (October '97)

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Xanthippe

Post by Xanthippe »

Vanessa-Mae live in Brussels, October 29th 1997


On October 29th 1997, Vanessa-Mae did a free open-air performance in Brussels, capital of Belgium. This event was to promote her new album ‘Storm’ and the forthcoming ‘Storm on World Tour.’ A fan in the audience recorded the show. I bought a DVD of the performance recently via www.ebay.com and received it yesterday.

The show lasts about 22-25 minutes. Vanessa-Mae played 5 tracks of the new album and gave 1 encore. The DV has the following:

1 Intro
2 Storm
3 Retro
4 I Feel Love
5 I’m A Doun
6 Hocus Pocus
7 Encore (Storm)

Vanessa-Mae was wearing a long coat with a crimson collar and multi-coloured flowered design in red, blue, green and silvery. Underneath the coat, Vanessa-Mae had the same yellow silk blouse as she has on my avatar. She also had red trousers and shoes with very high heels. Vanessa-Mae had her hair long and freely hanging on her back. Her face was beautifully made up. I like especially her soft pinky lips, but her whole visage was perfectly complexioned and her eyes nicely accentuated with dark liner, shadow and quite some black mascara. The Red Hot Vanessa-Mae homepage has captures of the show in their galleries. To check how gorgeous she was indeed, see:

http://www.vanessamae.com/picture6.shtml

http://www.vanessamae.com/picture7.shtml

http://www.vanessamae.com/picture8.shtml

The DVD starts with the intro when Vanessa-Mae arrives sitting on the top of a car behind a large cardboard image of her acoustic violin. The audience welcomes her with applause, full of expectations. Vanessa-Mae stands up, plugs in her electric violin and tunes the instrument a bit. She signals with hand that the technicians should increase the sound level. This offers a sound proof that Vanessa-Mae played really live at the show, as did the whole band. Moreover, all the music played had minor to major deviations with respect to the versions on the ‘Storm’ album.

Then Vanessa-Mae plays ‘Storm.’ I think the quality of the sound was very good, as I can hear it from the DVD. Vanessa-Mae played this piece vibrantly showcasing her great technique. The dynamic character of the album track were well met here at this live show. During this opening number, Vanessa-Mae stood on the car that stood behind the stage, towering above her band.

Next, Vanessa-Mae played ‘Retro.’ Now some people find ‘Retro’ a piece leading to nowhere, but it is, in my opinion, great music for serving as intermezzo to connect different styles of music or genres. ‘Retro’ eases the transition between the lively explosive ‘Storm’ and vocals like ‘I Feel Love’ and ‘I Am a Doun.’ Retro, in fact, is very entertaining and it serves its role at his rather short show very well, During ‘Retro,’ Vanessa-Mae steps down to the main stage and takes position in front of her band.

After ‘Retro,’ Vanessa-Mae addresses the audience fluently in French. She spoke French because Brussels is largely a French-speaking city, in the two language federal state of Belgium. Belgium is located in between The Netherlands (in the north) and France (in the south). People living in the north of Belgium speak a language related to Dutch and people in the south speak French. French speaking Belgians form the minority and because of that they show great enthusiasm and thanks when they are addressed in their language. So Vanessa-Mae received great approval when she started to speak in French. She gave the audience her nicest smiles and by this showed her charming right-cheeked dimple quite a lot.

Then Vanessa-Mae sung ‘I Feel Love’ with a powerful voice. Actually, I haven’t heard her sing that good very often. Most of the time her voice is more tiny. The same hold for the next piece ‘I’m a Doun.’ She announced this piece with the words: ‘a different love song that is about a young girl crying in pine for her lover who had to go away far.

Then comes ‘Hocus Pocus.’ This music was composed by Thijs van Leer, flautist of the former Dutch band (70’s-80’) ‘Focus.’ Vanessa-Mae fully showcases her fabulous technique. She plays the very fast notes with such an ease; it amazes me every time again.

Then, Vanessa-Mae thanked the people for being ‘such a great audience at his nice square in beautiful Brussels.’ She then started to play ‘Storm’ again as encore.

A frightening incident happened during this last song. One moment, Vanessa-Mae turned around to look at the band; then she turned back to the audience and suddenly stumbled on her high heels to her right. Fortunately, she recovered immediately, but the incident once again underlines her clumsiness, which has resulted in these kinds of stumbles more often. Vanessa-Mae has been fallen several times during concerts or television shows.

All in all, the show was a very nice performance of a passionately playing Vanessa-Mae, who looked gorgeous as always. Only, I should have been there; unfortunately I had no idea the show was to take place at all.

I am glad to have this DVD in my collection. If anyone has any questions, please let me know!
Arioch
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Post by Arioch »

Great review Rijko :user:
Can you tell us what the picture quality is like.
-----Arioch------
(Lord of Chaos)
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www.vanessa-mae.co.uk
Xanthippe

Post by Xanthippe »

Well the quality is quite good, considering the fact that the show was filmed from the audience probably by a skilled and experienced amateur.

I was really shocked seeing Vanessa-Mae stumble at the end of the show. She lost balance almost completely. Those very high heels are very dangerous for our girl.

I like to see her have high heels, but she should be very careful wearing such shoes or boots. I don't want her to get hurt.
Arioch
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Post by Arioch »

Thanks Rijko,

I think that our girl should stick to wearing her Dr Martins whilst performing pop concerts.
That way any sudden change in direction that she makes her ankles will be well protected
and give her plenty of support.

Yes Vanessa-Mae surely looks great in high heels, but she should only wear them during
classical concerts where she is less active therefore less likely to turn suddenly,
which could result in a serious injury.

I'm glad that you like the video, I shall purchase a copy has soon as I can afford it.
-----Arioch------
(Lord of Chaos)
------Image-----
www.vanessa-mae.co.uk
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amQhr
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Post by amQhr »

dEAR Rijko,
Is the video of the concert in Brussel puchasable or downloadable? I would like to have it very much. Gaultier should have better boots for the brave little tailQhr.
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yQhr amQhr
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Ever an opnEAR
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