The Top Floor Flat

Brilliant, so after a week I finally got YouTube to upload my video of last week’s concert in Hyde Park to celebrate Andrew Lloyd Webber’s birthday. To be fair, the fact that they were so far off on the date (even the man himself pointed out that we were all there about six months too late) had more to do with the fact that the massive stage from the BBC Proms in the Park the night before was going to be unused that Sunday and they had to fill it with something rather than the fact that BBC Radio2 and Andrew Lloyd Webber aren’t Facebook friends (honestly, how did we remember anyone’s birthday without Facebook?). In any case, I have to admit that I didn’t much mind who we were celebrating or what they’d be playing because I was going to see John Barrowman present.

Mr. John Barrowman is a television and stage actor who just happens to be one of the most fantastic characters in the Doctor Who universe and so I couldn’t pass up a chance to see him present the show, and sing. In my excitement to see the dashingly attractive (unfortunately gay) and talented John Barrowman, I had actually forgotten how much I do enjoy most of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music.

Ann and I, along with her co-Girl Guiding leader Ellie, packed a delicious picnic dinner (more difficult than you might imagine when Ellie is gluten-free, Ann is vegetarian and I like meat and bread) a bottle of wine, and made our way to Hyde Park. The concert area was enormous and we were quite far back but thankfully they had set up giant screens. Effectively, I was just watching the event on TV, but it was a lovely night and being outside, with all the other people at the event, was quite fun.

I was also amazed at the other stars who were in attendance that night – of course I hadn’t looked much farther down the playbill than John Barrowman’s name when I was reading about the event, but Joss Stone (the blurry person in white in the video below), Idina Menzel (the less blurry person singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”) and a bunch of people from the reality TVs shows here in Britain to find people to play the West End roles in Joseph and Oliver.

I had a great time, actually a lot more fun than I expected. The music was fun, everyone was having a good time, and I hope Andrew Lloyd Webber felt rather proud of himself when 3500 people all stood up and sang “Any Dream Will Do.” Happy birthday Mr. Webber. Thanks for some wonderful music.

You know, after the fact, I realised that I had recorded mostly the songs from Evita which is my favourite ALW music but were not the best performances of the night.  If you’re so inclined, there are so pretty bad quality (like mine!) videos of the performance of “Light at the End of the Tunnel” from Starlight Express which might have been my favourite song of the night.

Speaking of birthdays… I have a flatmate who’s got a birthday soon….