Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:31:05 -1000 (HST) From: Jackie M. Young Subject: Denver Report ;) --*LOOOOONG* OK, I'll try to make this one more complete (for those of you who didn't get my earlier reports; and apologies for the repeat info for those of you who did). I was only given about *2 days'* notice via an e-mail mass mailing before I had planned to fly to Denver that Barry was taken ill with bronchitis and had to reschedule the Denver concert. You can imagine my shock and panic when I heard about it! I felt even worse for those folks who were planning to see him the next day in Houston and the following day in Dallas, as they must've already arrived in those cities and found out only _after_ they'd gotten there. :( The original concert was supposed to be on Nov. 7, I was going to fly out Nov. 5, and I only found out on Nov. 3, late afternoon. I spent most of what was left of Nov. 3 and all of my non-working time on Nov. 4 trying to re-book my flight and rearrange my hotel and shuttle. Not to mention having to change my days off of work, and rearrange for coverage and permission from my boss. :=( Of course there was an airline penalty for re-booking, and then my agent couldn't get a red-eye flight out of Honolulu for me to LAX (I couldn't understand who would want to fly _out_ of Honolulu during the winter??!?), so I had to take an earlier flight around 7 pm to *Dallas*. ;( I had to *rush* home after work on Nov. 9, fight rush-hour traffic in a taxi to the airport, then hop a 7-hr. flight to Dallas, then back-track 2 states for 1 1/2 hrs. to Denver, to make the rescheduled concert on Nov. 10! The things we do for Barry......;P Not only that, I was on the rollercoster ride from Hell, both on the way there, as well as coming back, and I upchucked on the way over. Then the hotel didn't have my room ready when I got in in the morning, all beaten, empty, and tired from the flight over. ;( Luckily, *persistence* pays off, and about the 3rd time I asked them for a room, one just opened up. Good thing, too, because by this time it was around noon Denver time, and I had planned on waking up at 4 pm to get ready for the show! Although I had my concert things planned and laid out, I guess I planned things out a bit too much, because I had put my CSWY sign by my clothes to take with me, but forgot it there with some other things I _wasn't_ going to take with me.......:=/ *sigh* It was *freezing* and *snowing* that Weds. night in Denver, and the taxi didn't know which entrance to drop me off at, since my instructions were to go to a special "VIP entrance". It turned out to be just to the left of the regular entrance, so I would've saved time just going to the main entrance as the taxis usually do. However, there was a slight consolation in the fact that even the guy taking everyone's tickets at the door didn't know there was a "VIP entrance" that was supposed to speed things up, and he was going to make me stand in the regular line, just to get to the VIP line! They were searching all bags and purses, but the guy checking my stuff didn't check all the way down.....;) It was funny, he saw I had a camera on my shoulder, and said, "That's a camera. Just don't use the flash inside." *Riiiiiight.* Like in a darkened arena, we're NOT going to use a flash?!?? And when the concert started and Barry appeared, there were dozens of flashes going off. Were they planning on sending out the "flash police" to stop people from using their flashes??!? Ridiculous. Then when I finally got in, Kenny told me that I had to use my merchandise coupon before the end of the show, meaning NOW or during intermission. I couldn't see myself fighting the lines during intermission, so I hadda stand in line yet again for the merch. And the guy behind the counter wasn't servicing a "line", but he complained when I tried to get service before a lady who had come to the area _after_ me (and she had acknowledged that, too!). He claimed he was "moving _down_ the line", but there was just a big bunching of people, no "line" to follow! I complained to Kenny about that, but he said Stiletto had no control over how each venue handles their merchandising. ;( Then Kenny took me to my seat. I asked him if a lot of people had had to cancel, due to the date change, and he said some had to, but not all. I asked him if he needed my ticket to find my seat, and he said no, he knew where I was sitting. ;) When I got there, there were laser-printed signs with our names on them, saying "Reserved For...." First time I had my name on a seat! ;) Of course, it's the first time I've had front-row seats, period! ;) Then they had entry forms for a free trip to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janerio to promote the SCORES CD. If I had known about it earlier, I would've taken my neighbor's form for someone to have, since they didn't show up, because on the opposite side of the form, there was that nice photo from SCORES of Barry. ;) As I expected, around the stage there were the Stiletto "goons" guarding the area. "My guy" looked kinda bored, but it did seem he was checking for any unusual behavior, so I tried to be discreet in my ME-ing. ;) He actually was kinda funny, because as the concert wore on I could see him checking his watch and/or cellphone and kinda "harumphing" like Barry would joke about the "dragged" husbands in the audience, then when we started screaming in ecstasy he actually looked amazed, then when Barry sang my fave song, They Dance!, and I said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and jumped up and down, he stared at me like I was crazy. ;) LOL Like in LV, Barry started the concert about 20 mins. late. That turned out to be good, because I was just making it on time and needed space to get myself organized, plus there were a lot of latecomers. Here in Hawai'i, we usually call that "Hawaiian Time", because we are more laid-back and not so concerned about time. ;) It's good to know Barry shares in "Hawaiian Time", too. ;) LOL Then there was a looooong musical intro (about 10 mins.) after the announcer admonished us to not smoke in the auditorium and to turn off cell phones and pagers. That first one I could understand, but the second one I couldn't see it making a difference, since the concert was SO LOUD, a cell phone or pager probably couldn't've been heard anyway. ;P Lots of folks were looking off to my left side on the ground level, so I figured Barry was going to enter there, and I was right. My friend I was meeting in Denver was off to that side, and I thought she was *so lucky*, because she got to see him enter and exit, and was close enough to almost touch him! First the band came in, then the back-up singers: Debra Byrd, Keely Vasquez, Kye Brackett, and Monica Pege. The orchestra and the singers were on the opposite side of the stage from me, so I couldn't see them at all, but occasionally the video camera would cut to them, so I could see them on-screen. Then the "Right here, right now" and the fanfare started and a musical montage played on the video screens of Barry's recent appearance on the Oprah show, where he surprised some of his longtime fans in "everyday" situations. In between the video cuts the words "Music" and "Passion" were interspersed in kinda a screensaver fashion. There was also the same audio voiceover as in LV of different people commenting on their Barry fandom. When the female voice said "I'm the biggest Barry fan in America!", we all screamed. Then I _think_ Barry appeared out of the middle of the stage (?) to It's A Miracle. I kinda thought he might do that song as the opener, since it already has "Denver" written into it, so it would've been a good opener in that city (and it was, and is one of my fave songs). He was wearing a black duster and black and white striped pants. He didn't even sound like he had had bronchitis at all--his voice was very strong and he was even MORE energetic than he was in LV, if you can believe that! He apologized for inconveniencing everyone for the postponement, self-mockingly asked "What became of me?", then did his Clay Aiken joke ("This is what Clay Aiken will look like in 30 yrs.!"), and said he thought the world needed his sort of uplifting music nowadays. This segued into a somewhat funky version of Daybreak, then a medley of Somewhere In The Night and This One's For You. It was funny--he handled his earphones being not quite right differently in this larger setting than he did in LV in 2001. He just quickly said the audio in his earphones was too loud and could someone turn it down--he didn't call Harry out or make a joke out of it. As I suspected, when he feels the setting is more "intimate", he incorporates the technical probs into the show as a "gig", but in arena settings he can't do that easily so he doesn't. Then he did a rock/funk Why Don't We Live Together (one of my faves). He exited in the dark, then a video of Clive introducing Barry to one of his first performances of Mandy came on. That segued to Barry live at his piano, in a black jacket and black pants, rising out of the stage, taking over from the video. The takeover was a little rough--the live piano didn't quite mesh smoothly, but I don't think most people noticed it. He went right into Even Now. After that, he said he was glad we appreciated his music and that he hoped it would be "ruined in elevators for generations to come". This was followed by All I Need Is The Girl as an intro to his duet with Debra Byrd on I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again and comments about how she "cleared her schedule" to be with him for his last tour, in spite of her being busy with American/Canadian Idols. The look he gave her during their duet was extremely touching. You could tell he really feels very close to her and respects her singing. He went right into Turn The Radio Up, and as mentioned earlier, I could tell from his intro trying to explain the storyline of HATM that They Dance! would follow, so I was up and jumping even before he started it, saying "Yes! Yes! Yesssss!" Surprisingly, none of the other folks in the front row were rocking out as much as me, though in LV in 2001 most of the fans were?? I liked the way he keeps adding to this song: he had Kye and Keely come out to dance in the background, as an illustration. He did his "encore" to They Dance!, with the additional "Britney" lyrics. He talked about growing up in Brooklyn and writing jingles, sang a few bars of State Farm/Band-Aids. He talked about his highs/lows this past year, then he said he thought he'd croak through all the songs but he was happy he didn't sound too bad. He did his joke about taking all the cold meds he could find and how he "feels fabulous and you look fabulous". Then he blew his nose ("With this honker it could take some time") and chided Steve (?) for having a garbage can right on-stage in the middle of this "beautiful set" ("it looks like a hospital"). Then he joked about wanting to "borrow someone's ass" because he "had no ass" as he leant against the stage railing to sing Somewhere Down The Road. A *hot* Brooklyn Blues followed, then the vocal-only William Tell Overture with Kye, Debra, Keely, and Monica. He started with the slow version of Could It Be Magic, then segued to the upbeat version ("I do it because I still can!"), and did about 3 BAMS (not on my side, though)! Then intermission came (though they didn't tell us how long it would be), and Kenny came by to check on us. I'm not sure why, but the start of the 2nd act began cold, just like it was in LV in June?? It would make more sense to lead up to it, so folks would know to sit down, but it began right away with the CSWY video and duet. He picked Julie from Minnesota who had an "End The Torture" sign (he asked his singers to help choose). She said she had met him before and he had given her a kiss. He asked her if it was "good for you". She had a strong voice and did very well. Then came a real rock-out version of Jump Shout Boogie with his back-up singers. He actually jumped on top of the front portion of the piano and sang as they surrounded him! Then he did a jazz/funk version of I Made It Through The Rain as he continued to sit on the front of the piano, then segued into the ending of Looks Like We Made It. He did WINE, and gave us "the look" when people screamed out during the "when can I touch you" portion. ;) He was really strong on this and got tremendous applause at the end. Had to blow his nose again after this ("I'm a person, goddamit!"). He talked about how he was a "Broadway baby", did Give My Regards To Broadway to intro Every Single Day and talk about Harmony and the SCORES CD. The new Harmony poster came down from the ceiling during this segment. You can tell he gets so emotional when he does this song, it's so close to his heart. Then he did Dancin' Fool from SCORES, then a real pulsing Copa which segued into Shake Your Ass (with all the females grabbing him from behind--Keely had this *unbelievable* look on her face, like she couldn't believe how *sexy* he was! ;) ) and he did a "crotch grab" when he was following Kye while dancing! Then came IWTS. He said he hoped he had given all of us an "uplifting experience" and that we "should all come to my house" next time. Of course this was his false ending so he could come back out to his "encore" of Why Don't We Live Together/One Voice (rap version)/Dancing In The Aisles/Dancing In The Street/It's A Miracle. He pleaded with us to not be the "divided states of America", but to be the "united states of America", referencing the division of people after the red/blue states presidential election. He shot streamers out over the audience like in LV during It's A Miracle. He more than made up for the postponement and all the trouble we had to go through to see him--he was just *fabulous* and I'm amazed at how he keeps reinventing himself every time I see him!!! ;=) Here's the set list again, for those of you who didn't get it the first time I sent it: --------- Act I It's A Miracle Daybreak/Somewhere in the Night/This One's For You Why Don't We Live Together Mandy Even Now All I Need is the Girl/I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again (duet with Byrd) TTRU They Dance! State Farm/Band-Aids/his highs-lows/his cold/borrowing an "ass" (singing this nice ballad, but position uncomfortable against railing of stage) Somewhere Down the Road Brooklyn Blues William Tell Overture (with Brackett, Vasquez, Byrd, Pege) Could It Be Magic (upbeat) Act II CSWY (with Julie) Jump Shout Boogie I Made It Through the Rain/Looks Like We Made It WINE Give My Regards To Broadway/Every Single Day Dancin' Fool Copa (with crotch grab and all females grabbing him from behind--Keely had this *unbelievable* look on her face! ;) )/Shake Your Ass (this whole segment was *extremely sexy*!!!) IWTS Why Don't We Live Together/Dancing in the Aisles/Dancing in the Street/It's A Miracle (plea for us again to be the "united states of America", not the "divided states of America" --------- Of course, like my neighbor next to me said, the best part about having Platinum tickets was that not only did we get a *fantastic* concert from Barry, but we got even more afterwards, because we got to meet him! ;=) Kenny came around after the concert to gather us all together (too bad I couldn't get a photo of him--he was kinda cute ;) ), then he took us backstage, through the same entrance/exit as Barry went through. We went to what ostensibly looked to be a press room. It was somewhat "cafeteria-like", but had photos of famous singers and sports people on the wall. We went around to the back, through several adjoining rooms to get to a room close to the kitchen. The spread didn't seem to be as good as what some others have described. There were rich cakes and pastries, and then some "healthy" stuff like cut fruits, etc. There were sodas and bottled water to drink. But it didn't look like a *real* expensive selection, just an average dessert menu. Also, John explained that the room was a "funky set-up" and that we should just pull up chairs to where we were comfortable. The majority of the chairs were set up against the wall, in an audience section, so it was difficult to get food and find a table with a chair. You'd think that with all the money we were paying, they could've had the catering staff set up the tables and chairs so we wouldn't have to do the moving ourselves! Not only that, but the kitchen was next door, and the staff kept coming in and out to take out the garbage, check on the food, etc., so it wasn't very private and certainly wasn't very classy-looking. Kenny described the "rules" for meeting Barry: if we got tickets as a group, we'd see Barry as a group (this was an instance where it was good to be single ;) ); nothing else inside the room with him except ourselves; Kenny would "stage" us (someone asked what that meant, and he explained that he would call us ahead of time to prepare us for meeting him); and we couldn't ask Barry to sign other autographs other than the signed program we were going to get. Kenny said we'd have to wait a bit until Barry caught his breath after the concert. After such an exciting show, I kept asking to go to the bathroom, and Kenny for some reason kept asking us if we had OTHER questions than needing to go to the bathroom. Since no one did, he mercifully let us go! In the bathroom, one lady thought because her last name was towards the beginning of the alphabet that she would go first. She said she had heard that's how they had been doing it in other cities. When we came back to the room, she was one of the first called to go up, so I knew they were doing it alphabetically. Since I'm usually towards the end of the alphabet, I knew I'd be last or near-last, so I'd have time to prepare what I was going to say and do. Kenny made a point of mentioning that a portion of our tickets were going to the Manilow Fund For Health And Hope, and he thanked us for making that possible. My friend there said she thought she heard him say "$400,000" was raised, but I'm not sure. I was going to bring up the issue of getting a tax-deductible receipt for this, but I didn't want to spoil the moment. I was also going to ask Barry about how the charitable angle to the meet-and-greets came up when I met him, but I didn't want to waste my moment with him on this. Also, Kenny said that it was Barry's idea to meet his fans, and that it was also his idea to use the disposable cameras so that we could get more photos of us talking to him. Since I could see that people were only having a short time with Barry and were always catching their breaths after meeting him, and then saying "I meant to say this to him, but I didn't get the chance", I was determined to get the most out of my experience with him. I figured I should just plan the points I was going to cover with him and let him jump in if he was interested; otherwise, I'd never get to say everything I wanted to say to him, and I'd be "shooed out" just like the others. When it came to my turn, I stayed in a little partioned-off hallway with Kenny, while my friend before me was talking to Barry. It was interesting that I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could hear the outline of their voices very softly. As far as I could tell, they used shoji screens to partition the room into different sections, then curtains to give a "soft" look to the walls. I'm pretty sure all the furniture (couches, bar) were brought in by the tour, and the art work and flowers were probably brought in as well. There was a tasteful rug on the floor and I think that probably was carried with them, too, because the decor was matching. Kenny asked me if I wanted champagne from the tray next to us, but I told him I'm a teetotaler. He said he was too, so we had something in common. Then he asked me where I was from and I said "Hawai'i", he looked surprised and said their tour manager was from Hawai'i, too. I asked what his/her name was, and he said "Libby". I didn't recognize her, so I kinda shrugged. Then we could hear that Barry was finishing with my friend, and she came out of the partioned area looking rather shell-shocked. I smiled at her and then went in to meet Barry. I was nervous off and on before meeting him, but at the moment I met him, I was just excited and happy. I shook his hand and I remember it felt soft and he didn't give me a hard shake at all. He was really polite, and asked my name and I told him I was from Hawai'i. He said, "Hawai'i?" I was thinking "Yeah, remember the place you haven't been to in 15 years?!?" ;P, but I didn't want to get into the "Why don't you come to ____?" conversation (not yet, anyway ;) ), so I just went right on to say, "That concert was better than make-up sex!!!" There were about 5 other guys in the room (Kenny, Marc, Adam, John, and one other guy I didn't recognize), and they first were all shocked and then they all laughed, including Barry. I explained that I had heard that Barry usually tries to make up a postponed concert to his fans by giving an even better one than they'd originally get, and he smiled. Then I said that I *loved* how he did all my fave non-hit songs, like Why Don't We Live Together, They Dance!, and Jump Shout Boogie. He got that twinkle in his eye and asked didn't I like how good Debra and Kye were (he really does like to promote others). I kinda agreed, but didn't expand on it, because I would've just told him, "Yeah, but we come to see you, Barry". ;P I told him I had brought him some articles I had written about him in our student paper and he asked "You're going to be a journalist?", with kind of a defensive look on his face (I felt sorry for the guy, since he's been lampooned by so many critics). I nodded. I was going to mention my acting aspirations, too, but didn't, because I *really* wanted to get to my main point, which was that he should take Chinese herbs for his health. I told him how they had helped me get over Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and he kinda sympathetically groaned and said he had heard that that was really bad. Then I explained more about the herbs and he asked me questions about them. I told him I wanted to give him the articles on Chinese herbs I had brought, but that Kenny wouldn't let me bring him anything due to security concerns. Barry said to "just give it to Adam" or that he would go online to look up the herbs. He seems to be in self-denial because he said he doesn't "get sick that often", but let's face the facts: he's been sick on every tour recently. Then John called out to me to take our picture together. I kinda put my arm around Barry's waist, but I could hardly feel anything because he was heavily padded and everything felt very soft. He was also very lightly touching me, but I could hardly feel it, too. I didn't know it at the time, but he had leaned his head over mine to take our picture together. I thought that was *so cute*. ;) I also was unaware that someone else was shooting candid shots of us together with the disposable camera, because I was so keenly focused on Barry. I was really glad they did, because I could see how he was reacting to me from looking at the pictures afterwards. It was also funny to note from the candid shots at how loyally Marc was holding the autograph pen for Barry while Barry was talking to me. It's like, that was his only job at the time and that's all he was interested in. ;) Also, I could see from the candid shots that the program wasn't pre-signed as I thought it might've been, and that the way Barry remembers people's names is because there's a post-it note on each program to remind him. It's funny, but the lighting was so soft that Barry's jacket shows up as a dark brown color in the photos, but in reality his jacket was a light tan color. Then I mentioned that I was trying to get a fan club going here for him, and that I was trying to get our local promoter, Tom Moffatt, to bring him down here, but that Garry keeps saying Hawai'i's too far away, but then Barry keeps going to England, which is even _farther_ away than Hawai'i! Once I said that, Barry kinda groaned and laughed (I guess he's heard all the "Why don't you" pleas over the years) and then moved towards the door to end our conversation. It was at that point I had kinda wished I had brought up the other things I had wanted to say to him to keep his interest, rather than the "Why don't you" plea, but I think I had blanked out then. As Barry was going out with his "entourage" I asked Adam to take my articles with him. He did, but I have no idea if he chucked them later on, or if he actually gave them to Barry to read. I kinda came out of the room with a smile on my face. I couldn't believe I had actually had had a "normal" conversation with Barry Manilow!!! ;=) Before my friend and I left, I peeked my head in to talk to Kenny one last time and I could see they were tearing down the set of the room to the bare walls. It reinforced my feeling that the meet-and-greet was highly staged, as in a play, and that Barry and I were somewhat like fellow actors playing different parts. ;/ It still felt good to talk to him, though, whether it was "real" or not, for how do we know what "reality" really is, anyway? ;) And even if it's not real, what harm is there to fantasy, as long as we can keep the two separate? ;) On my way out of the arena, I saw Kye Brackett come out of the backstage area. I told him it was a good show, and he said thanks. I guess I could've asked for his autograph, but it didn't occur to me at the time. My friend and I had quite an adventure going back out because we were the last ones there. We couldn't figure out how to get back to the front of the arena, so some nice stagehand gave us a guided tour out. She was quite interested that we had both gotten to meet Barry, but she said she never had met him herself, even though she worked on his show. Once we got to the front, we didn't realize there wouldn't be any taxis left (it was around 11:30 by the time we were finished), so we had to knock on the door to get someone to let us use his cell phone to call one. Lucky the crew was still in there, otherwise we would've frozen solid into icicles, it was *soooo* cold outside! And I was just grateful that I didn't upchuck on the 10-hr. plane ride back home (though I probably wouldn't've cared, since I had just met Barry Manilow!!!)......;) ;=) --Jackie ****************************************************** * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * * * * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * * * * "Feel the fear and do it anyway." --Lucy Lawless, * * Evening Post, 7/4/98 * * * * "I LOVED forgetting it because it really made it * * so _live_ and so _immediate_...!!" * * --Barry Manilow, Manilow Talks CD, 1998 * * * * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * * * * * ******************************************************