And so, it is Saturday afternoon and I am sitting in the hotel bar with my laptop and a glass of Theresa’s favourite British tipple –including, naturally, ice and a slice. (Note, in the editing process it is now Saturday night, and I am now on dark rum and coke!)

My long awaited trip to London began when my alarm clock went off on Friday morning at 06.40, as I don’t like waking up on an odd number. Odd itself, I know. Anyway, Mum and I had already packed the night before, so a shower a shave and a cup of coffee later, my Uncle was at the door to take us to the train station.

Getting a train an hour earlier than expected proved a great boost to the start of the day, so armed with a newspaper and a coffee, I caught up on the daily news whilst Mum caught up on the lost sleep due to our early rise! The train pulled into Euston at 11.04, and we headed straight to the hotel to ditch our bags and plan the next stage of the day.

Our hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the train station, and incidentally is mentioned in the lyrics of ‘Cats’ –“Up, up, up past the Russell Hotel. Up, up, up to the Heavyside Layer.” A beautiful Victorian building on the outside –completed the same year as Gracie was born!- with rather modern interiors. Very nice indeed. So, we left our bags with the Concierge and headed off into the Smoke –well, not literally.

A few other errands before back to the hotel to check in properly, have a quick nap and wash and change before the concert. This done, we headed down to the hotel’s restaurant, where we had booked in early to catch something to eat before the show. First course was eaten successfully (watermelon on mascarpone cheese) and the second course of a rather delicious steak was just being enjoyed when something caught my eye...


A little mouse had joined us in the dining room and was enjoying the remnants of a fallen spoon across the room. I notified the waitress who screamed and almost passed out. Needless to say, we were clearly put of our food. This was just not to be expected of a Four Star hotel. We were the only ones in the restaurant at this point, which was lucky as undoubtedly others would have kicked up a fuss. We just left our meal and went for a taxi to the theatre.

Arriving at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank by Taxi gave us a fantastic view of Central London by darkness. The ghostly silhouette of Saint Pauls, the electric blue of the London Eye, the garish Red of the English National Theatre all combined a sensory experience culminating in the continental market outside the RFH, with oils, olives, breads, cheeses etc on display. A wander around here before we went into the complex to try to find the theatre –which looked like no easy task!

Sam arrived, informing us that Mandy and some others were upstairs, and a quick hello was said to Charlene and Hope who had once again made the pilgrimage to the UK to see their favourite performer. Moving en masse upstairs, a hello was said to Mandy, and I was introduced to Maria, Erica and her friend Christine and also the lovely Theresa. Her reputation preceded her, but thankfully, (I think!) she was sober at this point!!  Petra also appeared too at this point, I’m not sure where she had been previously. There were some David’s, but alas I didn’t have chance to speak to them.

There was no time for chatting yet –that was all to come later- and we shuffled into the theatre. Sat in the second row, with an unobstructed view of the stage, I took my seat next to Maria and we took in the view around us. The Royal Festival Hall (Google it if you weren’t there) is a truly epic theatre on a very grand scale. Built for the Festival of Britain in 1951, with the stage being Christened by none other than Gracie Fields. Oh, the coincidences!

Maria and I got to know each other a little whilst I sent Mum off on a programme hunt after Maria spotted that people had some, and we didn’t! I thought MY journey was an early one! It paled in significance compared to Maria’s! Time quickly passed and the theatre became full.

This gave way to the opening riffs of ‘Argentina.’ Goosebumped in excitement, Elaine’s entrance was here! Walking in a floor length whitey/grey skirt with silver clasp, a creamy coloured long sleeved tight top, diamond rings, chunky pearl necklace and a gorgeous new hair do, Elaine appeared at the top of a short staircase. Walking slowly to the beat in character as Peron, she took centre stage and similarly sung an abridged version of ‘Argentina’ –including, of course, Peron hands, AND she didn’t let me down when singing ‘Them in’. She’s never been able to sing that line properly!!

This then gave way to a counterpoint Argentina/Circus exchange between Jon at which they basically shouted lyrics at each other in the Argentina tempo, rather than the Circus tempo. (For those of you not ‘up’ on the musical, they are both exactly the same tune but Circus is three times the time signature of Argentina.)

This, I thought, worked well and finished with the singing of the ‘Argentina’ introduction from the ‘Requiem for Evita’ section of the musical. “Ride on my train oh my people, for when it’s your turn to die you’ll remember, they fired those cannons, sang lamentations, not just for Eva, for Argentina” etc etc. This was very nice to hear, as I’ve only heard her sing it live in a not very legal recording of Evita, and also on the Andrew Lloyd Webber 50th Birthday concert.

This followed with my personal favourite from the album, Mike Batt’s ‘Closest Thing to Crazy.’ Absolutely sensational on stage and as a solo performance. Second time (of four!) that evening when I got goosebumps. Elaine’s performance was of vulnerability at this point, and pleading. Gosh, I can’t express how beautiful the song was. One of the highlights for me.

The lights dimmed slightly during the applause and she moved stage left, turning her back on the audience when a very familar guitar strum sent shivers down me again. One of my absolute favourite Elaine songs which I’ve only heard ‘live’ on the Chess Tour broadcast and Elaine’s Royal
Albert Hall Concert from the mid-80s. ‘Nobody’s Side’. I think my expectations for this song were far too high, as at the end of it I felt quite deflated that it wasn’t what I expected. I think the ageing of Elaine’s voice may have been what did it, as I’m so used to the youthful vocals on the CD, especially as she holds the ridiculously long note in the middle of it before ‘Never take a stranger’s advice.’

She introduced the next song as a ‘rather sexy’ song for which she needed a ‘sexy man’. She settled on Jon Robyns who performed ‘A Mi Moreno’ with her. He did a better job of this rather than his Circus, even though I was blushing at some of the movements, gyrations and hand placements between he and Elaine. As the girls said, it’ll be X-Rated by the final performance. It did seem a little awkward, but as I’ve read on here that it is all in good fun, even if a little awkward.

Jon then began ‘Sunset Boulevard’ as Elaine slinked off for a costume change. Another song I’ve performed for examination to successful results, and more recently I believe Sam has performed. It was at this point I noticed Jon’s creased shirt and rather dirty shoes with his Tuxedo jacket. I would’ve at least worn patents to ‘woo’ EP, especially at a venue in London. His appearance was dishevelled, and his Sunset gained no power until he belted out the ‘Boule-VAAAAAAARD!’ at the end. Polite applause I’d say. I see the girls are following him on Twitter, so their opinion may be different, and he may be different at each performance. But as this is my review, I get to say what I thought! ;P

Erica, Petra and I then had a short discussion about some woman called Gracie Fields, as I took a photo of the staircase in the theatre as I have a video clip of Gracie in 1954 on those stairs (sad, I know!) We then chatted about Elaine and how we became interested in her work, and Erica told us about the past performances of Sunset and The King and I she had seen, and similar to Petra –who I believe saw ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ ten times, and Erica (alas) missed the show as it closed before the date on her ticket.  Although, she’s not bitter...!

Age also came into question here, and we realised that I would have been three when Erica first saw Elaine, and that Erica was three when someone she knew saw Evita. This, we realised, meant that somewhere there is someone who is three. I wonder though if Elaine will be performing still in 15 years? We hoped so!

Seats were taken again in anticipation for Act Two, on which Chris Egan and Elaine entered the stage together. Elaine now in the exact same dress on the album cover shoot and the black shawl/wrap. She climbed onto the piano, positioned herself comfy with a cushion and began Act Two with a slowed down version of ‘All That Jazz’ which was nice and enjoyable, with lyrics altered to ‘Martin here is gonna blow the blues’ – a nice touch as her saxophonist is called Martin!

She and Elaine performed a rather cracking ‘It’s Only Life’ together, which was very enjoyable indeed, with Elaine throwing a tonne of emotion into it, including the very touching exchange between them as they both sing in opposition at the end of the song. "Nineteen, eighteh".

After this, EP left for another dress change as
Hermione introduced herself, promoted her album and said that she was to sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ though no football connection attached. (Except she was wearing the colours of the particular team associated with the song!) A very, very strained performance of the song, holding her diaphragm through the most of it for support of higher notes, some which came out quite odd and disjointed. Again, polite applause. Not good enough to perform well enough on her own, and certainly nothing to upstage Elaine.

Elaine returned in a black velvety type dress with floral patterns in black on, diamante, and a large feather wrap which Maria and I were discussing previously, as Maria caught a flying feather in Ipswich. The lights on stage went a bid mad at this point, shining brilliant white and purple right into the audience’s eyes, to which Maria and I shut our eyes and had a laugh about as it was VERY very bright. Elaine came on and performed ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ from Jesus Christ Superstar, which was a little struggle for her getting some top notes, once or twice –dare I say- screeching a little to get them.