André Rieu's "Romantic Barn" and More!!

Colin and His Aunt With André in Newcastle

Early in the year my Aunt asked if I would take her to André's Newcastle Concert, apart from our trip to Maastricht we had no further plans of travelling overseas again so I purchased "A Day with André" tickets for October 19th.

We arrived at the Entertainment Centre at 4:30pm to meet up with the rest of our group, a total of 32, around 4.45pm we were ushered into the concert area where André was conducting sound checks with the orchestra, tenors and sopranos and on completion, we were moved to the dining room for a lovely 3 course dinner and drinks (you name it) with Richard Wilkins as the compare, introducing our surprise guest ~ KERSTIN!!

Kerstin informed us of Pierre and Eefje's twin girls "Lieke and Linde" being born prematurely on the 13th and had this day been moved. She also advised us that the Schoenbrunn Castles were not going to Brazil in 2009/2010 and would not be used again until 2012 (where?).

At 7:45pm we were escorted to our seats for our delightful concert which we have all heard about from many people, so no need to say more. We waltzed to The Blue Danube and later moved down the front for the encores. During ADIEU, I mimicked all the movements of the sopranos which produced laughter from Mirusia, Carmen and several of the JSO members, many comments were made backstage that they had never before seen someone having so much fun!!

After the concert we moved backstage where the orchestra were having refreshments. Photos with André was first on the agenda, which of course was one of the highlights of the night. After the photo shoots were complete we all were free to mingle with the orchestra, socialising, chatting and taking photos etc.

The Mission: I had obtained a large poster of André promoting his CD "You'll Never Walk Alone" at his Mother's Day trip to Sydney, of which I required an autograph. An opportunity presented itself as André was sitting at a table with 8 or 9 of the orchestra members, opposite him was Arthur. Speaking in a low voice I asked "will the boss sign this??" [the poster was rolled up at this stage] I moved to Arthur's side, he asked what did I want signed. Unrolling the poster he pushed it in front of André, and asked "sign this please". André signed it, mission achieved.

The next step ~ my concert shirt. I moved amongst the orchestra with my black pen obtaining autographs, this started back in Maastricht with Mireille the drummer being the first, some were reluctant to put black ink on the shirt and others saying "don't wash it", it had already been washed after returning home from Maastricht. Captured almost everyone with the shirt being signed front & back.

We received our autographed photo plus a lovely leather case with "André Rieu" on the front and a bottle of wine , Cabernet Shiraz with André on the label ~ "Made in Australia". In conclusion, a fabulous night ended with leaving the Entertainment Centre on midnight ... my comment was ... "almost as good as Maastricht" ... Colin