Our story goes back to September 2007 when my eldest son Scott gave my partner Lee an Andre Rieu DVD “New York Memories”. Prior to this the name Andre Rieu meant nothing, in fact we had never heard of him. That DVD changed everything; we absolutely loved the music and the way it was presented by Andre and his colorful Johann Strauss Orchestra. Needless to say we now have many Andre Rieu DVDs.

When we first heard Andre was bringing his orchestra to Australia as part of his world stadium tour it was not certain that Adelaide would be included, but when it became a reality Lee and I were first in line to purchase tickets at our nearest outlet. We purchased three tickets as we intended to take Lee’s eldest granddaughter Victoria-Lee an eleven year old. She really loves Andre’s music, and is learning to play both the piano and violin, she also sings with the Australian Girls choir.

Ian, Victoria-Lee, Andre Rieu, Lee
                                       (c)IanM

In the meantime I took up membership with a ticketing organization who subsequently emailed me a short period prior to the first Adelaide concert. I was told that for the first time commencing with the Australian tour people would be able to attend the exclusive after show party, mingle and meet artists and others associated with the concert. Food and drink would be provided, plus photos with Andre would be taken. The number of people able to attend would be limited to one hundred and the cost per person is AU$1250.00. After much discussion, I went ahead ordered and paid for the three of us to attend as this would be for us a once in a life time experience and I am glad I did. Tickets for the after party would not be issued, but we would receive a letter in the mail explaining what we were to do at the conclusion of the concert. The letter never arrived and after making enquiries I finally received a telephone call from the ticketing organization explaining a dedicated usher would look us up at the concert and explain what we were to do.

We arrived at the concert venue which is the AAMI Stadium located at West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide and proceeded to our booked seats. The sky looked threatening, however no rain eventuated. Within a couple of minutes I saw an usher nearby, went over to him and asked if he was aware of the after party. He did, looked at a printed document he had with him, smiled and said you must be Ian and are one of a party of three to attend the party. He said come with me and I will show where we will meet at the conclusion of the concert. I asked him how many were attending the party, I nearly fell over backwards when he said six. Unbelievable I thought, not good for Andre, but good for me, Lee and Victoria-Lee! I would suggest the high price had something to do with this, also the current economic climate and Christmas is just around the corner, people are watching their pockets.

The concert started on time with Andre leading the members of his orchestra through the audience to the stage, playing as usual, the crowd went wild. Although we had seats near the front we were to the right side of the stage and we had difficulty in seeing all the members of the orchestra, however the huge video screens nearby made up for that. After seeing so many of the Andre Rieu DVD’s, it was just great to be at a live event. Some of the night’s repertoire included 76 Trombones, Blaze Away, Roses from the South, my favourite The White Horse Inn, Granada, Bolero, My Heart will go on, I belong to me, many more plus a selection of Australian songs leading up to final piece Adieu.

The highlight of the concert for the three of us was the appearance of Suzan Erens whom we all thought would not be making the Australian tour, how wrong were we! Moreover, later in the concert when she arrived in the horse drawn carriage, Lee and Victoria-Lee moved a few paces forward to get a good glimpse of Sisi (Suzan),  Victoria-Lee received a smile and a wink as she passed by, as Andre might say, fantastic.

Following the concert we moved to the appointed place to wait for the person to escort us to the after party venue. She promptly arrived and after checking our identification we were issued with passes to wear and then off to the party which was held in a marquee back stage. Once there we were shown to a table and shortly provided with drinks and food. We were told Andre would soon be there to meet us and have photos taken, in the meantime we were free to move about and mingle.

                                  

We decided there and then to mingle and as we moved forward we saw Suzan walking in our direction, she immediately recognized our granddaughter Victoria-Lee as the girl she waved to from the horse drawn carriage, she came forward to talk to us. She was  even lovelier than we expected, she said all the right things to Victoria-Lee  having found out she is learning to play both the piano and violin, also her singing with the Australian Girls choir, Suzan certainly put the icing on the cake that night for us. I took photos of us with Suzan as she was happy to oblige.

Others we spoke to included Teun Ramarkers, Gary Bennett, Pierre Rieu and obviously Andre with whom we had a group photo taken with. Another person who impressed us immensely was Mirusia Louwerse who had quite a chat with Tori as well as giving her four hugs. Regretfully the photo I took of Tori and Mirusia together did not come out and that to us was a real disappointment.

Entertainment was also taking place by Scottish bagpiper’s right near us, so there was a far amount of noise, but very pleasant. I looked for others to talk too, there were lots of people there and as those from the orchestra had changed into casual clothes it was hard to pick out who was who.

The time went very quickly, in no time at all it was well past midnight and time to leave after a most enjoyable evening, one that would not be forgotten for a long time, especially by Victoria-Lee, this was something dreams are made of!

Both Lee and I suffered headaches some hours later from the French Champagne, a small price to pay.


*See report and more photographs
at Ian's Featured Fans page