WHITE ASH'S RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CONCERTS

I want to be clear that I am paraphrasing. I am doing my best to convey the idea of what was said, staying as close to the essence as possible. I do not claim to have exact recall of the words spoken, so please do not treat what I am sharing as gospel. Also, please excuse me in advance for repeating what others have said - I just wanted to have my own fleshed out account. With that understood, some of my recollections:

Ron and I hooked up with Donald, Barry, Tim, and Joanne on Sunday night. I showed up a little late on Monday night, and Donald was there a little after I left, and I don't think we missed anyone - if we did, I apologize! Luckily, the audience was encouraged to move down and fill in seats, so each night we ended up with greatly improved sightlines. Joanne and Tim were able to hold seats for Ron and I right in front of them. Then I was able to hold a seat for Donald on Monday night. So at least a handful of us fans got to stick together.

I didn't know what to expect of the concert. I knew that Richard wouldn't be on long. I knew Petula Clark only for "Downtown", and "Don't Sleep In The Subway Darling" in the 60's, as well as her role in Broadway show Blood Brothers in the 90's. Lou Rawls is great at what he does but has never been a favorite of mine. The whole event turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise, and I was therefore anxious to see it all again on Monday night.

Petula gave first-rate performances for such an undertaking. It was being filmed for a PBS fundraising special to be aired in December and released on video and DVD. The concert was the finale to a several month-long event known as the Virginia Arts Festival. It seemed like at least a gazillion entities were involved to make the event happen. It came off with very few glitches. There was an orchestra, a band, backup singers from Canada, the equivalent of dancing Christy Minstrel singers, Petula's musical director at the piano where Richard played, and a set that was breathtaking. Pet was quick to quip when she had to improv between scenes - she had us in stitches several times. The three hours (!) went by relatively quickly.

Richard appeared relaxed and focused. He first played "For All We Know" with the orchestra, much like the PACC version. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and I was on the edge of my seat. For those of you who don't know, that is my favorite song.

He bantered freely with Pet as she joined him on stage. She complimented his many marvelous compositions. When she said, "I thought so much of your sister Karen...", there was much applause, and Pet added, "...as I'm sure millions of people did." Standing ovation the second night to that comment.

They sang "Top of the World" together. Richard really seemed to enjoy their performance, and would grin at the audience every now and again, much à la video version. Then Pet stood and sang another of Richard's compositions and Karen's favorite, "I Know I Need to Be In Love". The audience appeared to be enraptured. Richard got standing ovations both nights as he left the stage. Lou Rawls unfortunately only got a standing ovation on the second night.

At the "finale" (Pet went on to sing more) the three stars sang. Anyone there know which song exactly this was? "Here For You"??? The first night Richard held the microphone around his chest area, made lots of grimaces at the audience and the other performers. I was under the impression that there had not been a lot of rehearsal, and he was playing the buffoon to cover up the awkwardness - I don't really know what the story was. The second night he seemed more comfortable with the song and to have a really good time.

About a dozen people each night stayed after to meet Richard. I couldn't get over how easy it was, how openly this all happened, how well-behaved the fans were. There was a mother (Mable) with her son from Fredricksburg, VA.

An assistant to Richard (how do I get this job, please?!) was handing out photos the first night when he arrived. Some were already signed. Mined looked like a reject with a tear and a white out like smudge. I had Rich sign my program instead. When another fan handed him the photo to sign, Richard said "Oh, is this for me?! Why thank you!" [crowd laughs], Then he jokingly groaned in that inimitable Richard / Karen style about where he was going to sign the photo. He obliged the suggestion to use the margin (lots of negative space on this photo).

Mary was there too - she had a great doo and was in all black. As usual she was so patient and supportive. He often would stop himself and look the person in the eye, shake their hand, and ask their name. I interpreted this to be like, "Whoa, let's slow down here a second and formally connect with each other first before I launch into this autograph thing." One fan said, "I would first like to shake hand the hand of a genius." Richard quipped, "Well, you've got the wrong person for that!" The whole crowd laughed.

Richard didn't respond to the compliment on his haircut - he was multitasking with meeting people, answering questions, and signing all at the same time. He looked good with the short hair. Richard did talk about a Christmas album coming out. He said, "Obviously not for this Christmas. As you know, you have to be finished the summer before you want to release it!" None of us had the nerve to ask if there were any Karen tracks floating around for this new Christmas project.

When I thanked Richard for playing such a heavenly rendition of "For All We Know" that night and that it was my favorite of their tunes, he said, "Yes, it was always one of our favorite tunes as well..." trailing off into multitasking as he signed my program.

When Richard spied Tim's copy of Offering, he said, "Oh my God, the Offering album! They didn't even retouch these photos. Look, you can see all my zits - here's one!" Lots of laughs in the crowd...

On Monday night, I don't know what the question was, but Richard was responding with, "Oh yes, we've got another album coming out. It's call 'As Time Goes By'. It's going to include some unreleased tracks, some from our specials, some medleys, and some demo tracks." Another fan was commenting that he would like to hear Richard performing orchestral versions of Carpenters hits to which Richard graciously replied that he had a CD out called "Pianist-Arranger-Composer-Conductor" that had just that and something to the effect that it wasn't exactly getting a lot of circulation. Those of us who know the CD of course we chuckling along with Richard.

In response to one fan placing Karen above Streisand, Rich said that they had different styles, but were definitely of the same caliber of excellence. Someone asked how he knew Petula Clark. I didn't get it all, but essentially he said Karen and he were crazy about her, and when a certain song came out, Karen started emulating the sound of her "o's". Then at some concert, Pet heard Karen's voice but couldn't see her, and was like, "Oh my, what a beautiful angelic voice - where is it coming from?" and someone pointed her to the drum set, and Pet was dumbfounded!

Pet and Lou drove off in large black cars with tinted windows. The Carpenters party drove an upscale family car with clear glass (for your car buffs, it was beige - does that help?!). They all waved goodbye as they pulled out.

When the car turned around, Richard waved again - of course none of this was required and was greatly appreciated by us all!