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Graeme Kay's Diary: Day 0 |
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Singing aficionado and Competition regular Graeme Kay brings the Competition alive with his daily diary of comment, reviews and gossip.
Click on the tabs below as the week progresses to find out what he makes of it all. |
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It's the day before the competition proper starts, but also the day of the meet-the-competitors party. I have in front of me a piece of paper which says, "GWAHODDIAD! Mae gwahoddiad cynnes iawn i chi i'r PARTI CROESO I gystadleuwyr eleni." My Welsh stretches to Croeso (Welcome) and I think Parti probably means the same in any language, but basically this is confirmation that I am cordially invited. (Yes, Graeme - gwahoddiad means invitation - Ed).
For the last 17 years I have spent two weeks holidaying in a northern, Welsh-speaking part of Wales, and as I enjoy languages I've always wanted to do something serious about learning. But there's never enough holiday time to do a proper course; however, this year I am determined to find a phonetic translation of the Welsh national anthem so that I can participate fully in the mass singing of it at the Final.
In the run-up to the competition I study the competitors' form through the competition website, which Online Producer Viv Goldberg cranks up in the weeks and months before the event gets under way. But photos-and-biogs only tell you so much - meeting the competitors face-to-face is the thing; in my own mind, when you're auditioning singers I'm not sure whether it's better to hear them first and meet them afterwards, or the other way round; I think probably the former - the audience in the concert hall or opera theatre doesn't usually meet the star until the first time they walk on stage, when the tasks are musical and dramatic, and first impressions count for a lot. Anyway, its great to meet the competitors who, don't forget, represent the tip of an iceberg of talent which music adviser Julian Smith has listened to in the course of his international audition tours.
As well as the usual paraphernalia of computers, printers, reference books and all the other stuff I bring to Cardiff with me for the competition, this year I have two extra pieces of essential kit: a portable DAT recorder and stereo mike, and a folding bike. I need the recording equipment because, in addition to all the reports I'll be writing on the competition, I'm compiling a diary feature for a BBC World Service programme. And I need the folding bike because I'll be commuting between the central Cardiff venues and BBC Broadcasting House in Llandaff, where the Online team are based (I'll be hot-desking for part of each day, checking emails, looking at messages on the competition website, and hoping to have breakfast with David Jackson, head of music at BBC Wales; this became a mini-ritual last time round - I can check that David is smartly enough dressed to appear in public (he always is) and David can try to find out exactly how controversial I am likely to be on the website!)
I've decided on the bike because I don't want to be beholden to taxis and traffic lights this year although at the last competition, the vagaries of Cardiff taxis, their drivers and the traffic lights, provided a good deal of material for my daily diary. Viv is sorting me out with a bosky route to Llandaff which avoids the traffic and takes me via the River Taff - I'm a water baby and always like to be close to water! I'm sure my cycle ride will be as packed with incident as those taxi rides; and yes, I will be wearing a skid-lid. It is really, really important that the fluorescent bicycle clips remain unseen, however, as I do not want them to make an appearance in Frockwatch this year. I'll be trying this route out for the first time on Monday, when I go to present my first competition report on BBC Radio Wales at 0845. However as I won't want to be late I may chicken out, take the bike in a taxi and cycle back later.
This year the schedule will be different because the Song Prize is a separate competition; and another big bonus for me in 2003 is that I'll be able to hear all the competitors in the hall and theatre. For those of you who followed my diary in the 2001 competition, during the heats I was introducing the webcasts from a hot and sweaty cubby-hole to the side of the St David's Hall stage; at the final I was in the bowels of the hall listening to the radio broadcast feed - I don't think this was a satisfactory way to hear the competitors. But this time I'll be in the New Theatre and in St David's Hall, equipped with a SILENT KEYBOARD which I have yet to meet...
So, it's time to get into my car at home in sunny Suffolk and take the A12, M25 and M4 to Cardiff, clutching the all-important GWAHODDIAD!
These can be slightly difficult occasions because you're meeting formally, for the first time, people whom a couple of hours before you might have been helping get their luggage into the lift and apologising to about the state of Britain's railways and inner-city grot. And everyone has to be on best behaviour because some seriously grown-up people from the BBC and the City will be there on official duty.
But Jury's Hotel is a welcoming space, and singers are always looking for things to do with their with their hands, and holding a wine glass and scoffing canapés is as good a purpose as any to put them to! But one of the fundamental aspects of the Singer operation is the friendliness of the welcome and the anxiousness of the staff to ensure that the competitors and all the potentially irritating hangers-on such as me are looked after and allowed to give of their best.
I met Tommi Hakkala, who's sharing the diary slot with me this time, giving the competitor's point of view; I found him warm, charming and taller than my six foot two! He's involved in one of the education projects this time round; I guessed that the kids would adore him and was proved right when I saw him on a TV highlights programme later on. Judging by the look on their faces, some of the Cardiff kids he was working with will follow this Pied Piper all the way back to Finland!
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