Mini Ben's Blog
Monday, April 16, 2007
Some words from Asia
Hello, Mini Ben here.
Today we landed in South Korea after an exhilaratingly splendidiferous few days in Japan. We've been busy bees and haven't had a moments rest. Concert, after concert, after interview, after interview. After the last concert we even had an autograph session before we could eat. There were so many lovely fans that we had to split the group into two teams. I've never met so many people all at once, and I feel really guilty because I could never remember all of their names.
Tom and I were working as a team, actually let me rephrase that, we were in fierce competition. Tom had a handful of catch phrases to say to the fans, and I kept stealing them. Everyone loves a compliment from time to time... At the beginning of the session my signature was perfect, and I even sneaked in the occasional smiley face. Three hundred people later (over 1200 fans came through in 40 minutes) and my wrist was aching, trying to write three syllables in half a second feels like hard work after over an hour.
When the pens had run dry and everyone had been seen it was time to eat. We waved goodbye to the masses and went to collect our robes. However, by the time we had gathered our belongings the fans had swarmed our taxis. I made sure to say hello to everyone again but by this time I was thinking about my stomach. However, I needn't have feared, the meal to follow was enormous! I felt full just looking at all the food on our table. Everyone was really excited at the end of our last concert in Japan. I partially added to the excitement by accidentally ordering an alcoholic cocktail. I thought it was a fruit smootie and was grateful when the chaperones very kindly took it off my hands.
Over and out.
Ben (Mini-Ben)
(Libera staff note: There are supposed to be some pictures with this Blog, but we are in Korea without all our normal technology - so please go to our Pictures section to see some images from the signing that Ben talks about here)
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JB's Blog
Monday, May 07, 2007
High Rise Swimming Pool
Hi, I 'm Jonathan and this is one of the happenings that happened on our tour:
While we were in Japan, we came across a building but it wasn't your every day building. This one was special because, on the roof of it, there was a swimming pool - maybe the architect of the building got the wrong end of the stick when the owner said that he liked to high dive! My little joke there.
Of course us being the easily entertained type, a few of us started up a kind of mild relay race around the edge of the pool (cos it was a publicplace) while the others listened to the unusual music that came out of the sides.
The climax of the entertainment was these metal benches that seemed to be put there just to annoy people because they sloped down so when you sat on them you slid off!
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Liam's Blog
2007/5/10
Arundel Concert Blog
When we got ready for the Arundel concert, I wondered two things: would it be as good as the concerts we had just done on our tour of the Far East, and where is Arundel anyway?
The second bit I found out straight away. Arundel is in West Sussex. And there is a great story about Arundel. During World War II a pilot from the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe) was shot down over Arundel. He was put to work on a farm. The farmer liked the pilot a lot, and the pilot liked him. They worked together really well, and when the war was over the pilot stayed on the farm, got married and took over the farm. That German pilot married into my Nan's family! I had no idea I had some relatives in Arundel.
But that was a long time ago. For us, coming off a big tour, it was all too present. The day of the concert came and although I was wondering how it would go, I had a whole pepperoni pizza for lunch. It would take much more wondering than that to put me off my food! I met up with the other Libera boys and we got on the coach to Arundel.
It took a long time to get to Arundel from South London, over two hours. Then I got my first look at Arundel Cathedral. It was incredibly, amazingly huge! So spacious and vast! Could Libera fill this space with our music? It had fantastic acoustics, really echoing. The sound here should be phenomenal.
We had tea in the parish hall just before the concert. I say "hall", but this was a room half the size of the cathedral. We had jam and bread, and lemon cakes and grapes, which I had a lot of. All we could think about was the concert. And our tea. But we simply ate our tea and talked about the concert. Japan and South Korea had seen us playing to big audiences. What would a home audience make of us? This was our first concert here since our pre-tour concert at St John's in Upper Norwood. Had we got any better?
We had another look at the Cathedral. It really was enormous. Then the people started arriving. Now, Arundel Cathedral, I may have mentioned, was big. But so was the crowd that came! The Cathedral was packed. We went in through a secret passage, having got into our robes in the hall. We were all very excited. Some of us were nervous. We all passed around our pre-concert two words: "Good luck!"
The concert started. As I have said, the echo effect was amazing. I love it when we sing. We all know what each other should be doing, and when we all sing our parts and move into position you can just tell that it is working. There was only one small hiccup. A tiny one. During our concert we move about the stage a lot, and have to be in certain positions for certain songs. For one song I just knew I had to be in one part of the stage, but when I looked up everyone else was in the wrong position! Now, either all the other boys had made a mistake, and I was right, or… Hmm. When the music started and our fantastic lights came on I realised that not only were all the other boys wrong, but so was the lighting and the music… Or maybe it was me. Yes, it was me! I quickly moved into the position the song demanded, startling Michael H with my sudden appearance next to him. It did not matter and we sang the song.
The reaction from the audience was incredible! We were given standing ovations! When we are onstage we have too much to think about, but afterwards we can talk about what works. I think our lighting is brilliant and really sets the mood, and our choreography means we do more than just stand and sing. But for me the thing I will always remember about Arundel Cathedral was the sound. It was brilliant the way it bounced around. We really did fill that cathedral. And the people watching us really did fill it with their applause.
Arundel was a big show for us and we all loved it! Thank you to all the people who came. We were so thrilled to play there, it was great!
After the show we did the usual Libera thing – getting back to South London. We are often quieter on the way back, but we still laugh. We got back at 1 a.m. and of course I was thinking about food again! Being in Libera you get to sing with your best friends in the most fantastic places to brilliant audiences. Arundel Cathedral was something I shall never forget. Thanks again to everyone who came and made it such a special night. What a welcome hone!
Liam
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Josh's Blog
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Hoods
You may have noticed that we have hoods on all of our robes, tops and t-shirts.
It probably looks quite weird that this really angelic boys choir our wearing hoods like gangsters or rude boys!!
They've sort of become our trademark and they give a bit of spice to our act. The make our songs look quite mysterious and also atmospheric.
One of the many jokes that we have received about our hoods is that we would not be allowed into Bluewater!!
Bluewater is a massive shopping centre in England which has banned people from wearing hoods for those of you from other countries!!
Josh
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Big Ben's Blog
Doors
When Libera go on tour, we go on tour in style! We travel behind tinted windows and we stay in luxury hotels. It's great! For one week only we are treated to enormous flat-screen televisions with countless channels, showers more powerful than weapons of mass destruction and the luxury of heated toilet seats. However, in the eyes of the boys these things count for very little. This is not because they are spoilt or because they've seen it all before. This is purely because hotels only mean one thing to the young Liberas – revolving doors!
Revolving doors have some kind of magnetic control over Libera boys. None can possibly be responsible for his actions in the presence of a revolving door. At first sight the eyes widen in sheer delight, followed by a beaming grin, then the fingers start to twitch with excitement until eventually, with a sudden burst of energy, the performer is propelled headlong into the door frame. There are no exceptions, not even the quietest of Libera boys can resist the powers of a revolving door. No amount of self-control can suffice - even the most well behaved boy of the bunch becomes instantly reunited with his mischievous side at the first sight of a revolving door.
Typically a hotel might have seven or eight entrances, including one central revolving door. Typically twenty Libera boys decide that the only route out of the hotel is via the revolving door. (What's a five-star hotel without a revolving door?) Instantly the lobby is thrown into a sense of disarray. People stop and stare as twenty miniature-people ambush the revolving door screaming shrill squeals of delight. The revolving door quickly spirals out of control contending with the speed of light. All aboard the revolving door rollercoaster! Halflings cling on for dear life (still grinning inanely). All eyes turn in the direction of the horrified lobby porter as gleeful Liberas are thrown in all directions. The mission is not to exit the hotel (as one might expect), but rather to maintain control of the exit for as long as possible without missing the coach and getting left behind. Typically, the somewhat simple procedure of exiting the hotel (which should take a matter of seconds), can take up to three working days.
BigBen
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Liam's Blog
Water
I go to Libera rehearsals after I go swimming. My ears are always full of water when I get to choir. This has two effects on me. The first is I tend to wander around unable to hear what anyone is saying to me, but that isn't really a change as that is how I spend my time at school. The second is I cannot compare my voice in rehearsals to the other boys until the water has left my ears which takes a very long time. I have no idea why it takes it so long. You would think water would just fall out of your ears, but it doesn't, it slooshes around for a good half hour before suddenly disappearing. When it does go I can suddenly hear clearly which is usually a total surprise as someone is invariably shouting at me to pay attention. I can also hear ants crawling on leaves and dust blowing through deserts, or so it seems, but that might just be my imagination. Going swimming also gives me red eyes which makes me look like those little creatures in cloaks in Star Wars who build things out of scrap metal. If we are doing photo shoots I look like a creature from a science fiction film with red eyes and pruned skin on my hands and water slooshing around my ears. I quite like having the undersea world in my head, so long as there aren't any fish in there.
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Animo Libera!
-cayleb101
