Petula Travellers

The first time I travelled to London was actually not to see Petula; it was August 1987 and I was visiting my brother who was working there for a summer. But it surely paved the way for my continued enchantment with the city and all of the UK. On that trip I went to the West End almost every day and saw some monumental shows : Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Chess, Cats and Starlight Express –-the latter, not quite to my taste –the roller skates were a bit much! But the others were all extraordinary and some in their early runs.

Besides all of London’s tourist attractions, we ventured to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Stratford Upon Avon . Since I was still working as an English teacher at the time, I am sure I likely overdid the gushing tales to my students in September about having visited the bard’s birthplace. As well , we took train trips to Cambridge, Canterbury ,York and managed a few days in Edinburgh. My children still tell stories of Mom’s return from the UK when they were kids and how they had to watch hours of the videos I had taken, even videoing the grass to demonstrate how even the grass was somehow just greener there !

The next venture to London was not until 10 years later, in the summer of 1994, when my husband and I spent several days there enroute to a longer European tour to celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.We did all of the touristy things and this was the beginning of our shared affection for the city. Over the coming years, we came back as often as we could, including a trip to London while visiting our university aged son who was studying for a year in Leeds in 1996. Our youngest daughter,still in highschool , accompanied us as well ,and we all wanted to see a show at the West End –-since Petula was playing Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard , our choice was easy! We always felt so fortunate to have seen her in that role in London –the only time we got to see Petula play in musical theatre, until years later in Mary Poppins.

Our first venture to the UK to see Petula perform in concert though was not until April 2007. This was our first overseas trip to see Petula perform. On this occasion we spent most of our time in London and travelled overnight to see her show at Fairfield Halls in Croydon. It was a very special concert for us, because we met Petula for the very first time.But most of the time we were in London at a hotel on the South Bank, a wonderful location for exploring the Tower of London , Westminster Abbey, and the Globe Theatre, which had been reconstructed along the Thames a few years previously. Another first was a visit to to see Blood Brothers –we had never seen the show with Petula performing, even though she had toured quite widely with it. We enjoyed the London production,but always lamented never having seen Petula in the title role, especially since we so enjoyed Petula’s inclusion of “Tell Me It’s Not True” in her set in earlier years. The weather in April that year was warm and sunny, making this adventure a very memorable one.

On two other occasions we travelled to London for a week , once returning from seeing Petula perform in Paris in 2011, and the following year enroute to seeing her perform in Belgium. On both of those occasions we stayed near Grosvenor Square, within easy walking distance to Hyde Park and Oxford Street, and close to Buckingham Palace and managed to take in West End shows during both of those trips and revisit the tourist sites .

But our two greatest UK experiences ,connected to seeing Petula perform, were in in 2013 and again in 2016. During the first of those trips Petula did a ten day tour and my husband and I took in several of the shows.We began in Birmingham where we toured the city of canals and marvelled at the old and new architecture, and enjoyed learning of the city’s transformation .We stayed near the beautiful Victoria Square and browsed some of the shops at the Bullring shopping area on our way to the impressive Town Hall. The stately building with its Greek columns had undergone a recent transformation and we were very impressed by its amazing ecoustics . Since we had managed to procure VIP tickets for this performance we were treated to a pre concert Meet and Greet with Petula who was accompanied by John Williams, the producer of her Lost in You album, which was featured on this tour. Besides the title song and the ethereal “Cut Copy Me“, Petula included a new slowed down version of “Downtown” to the concert. Two of my personal favorites were her renditions of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and Peggy Lee’s “Fever” .Of course her programme included her sixties hits, a lovely new song about her childhood in Wales in “Reflections” and included Petula playing piano while doing a very poignant version of “Love Me Tender”.

Our 2013 tour also included seeing Petula at the Guildford G Live in Guilford, the Northampton Derngate, the Ipswich Regent and ending in London at The Theatre Royale. We thought we had managed to plan our trip from one venue to the next using the intertwining rail system. We were quite impressed with the ease of pre-planning our trips but since the concert dates were close together it was important that we made all of our connections. But ,of course, that did not always happen and so the trip from Guildford on the morning of Oct.10 to make the concert that night in Northampton proved a challenge. The trip required a return to London and a change of train companies . The trip should have taken two to three hours but because of a series of missteps, including exiting at the wrong station, it took much longer. Then there was a delay on the train from London caused by a problem on the line. We arrived at our hotel in Northampton with only time to drop off our bags and head immediately to the Northampton Derngate for the night’s performance. Our three hour journey actually had taken almost seven hours . So much for pre-planning! But at the end of the day it was another Petula concert –nothing better!

 I say that there is nothing better than a Petula concert as someone who has had the fortune to see most of the great artists of my time :Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel , Rod Stewart, Tina Turner,  Celine Dion , Neil Diamond, Peter, Paul &Mary, The Righteous Brothers,Sonny and Cher, as well as Cher solo, Bette Midler, Elton John, Diana Ross, Engelbert , Dolly Parton, Kenny Rodgers,Dionne Warwick, Tom Jones, Barry Manilow, Roy Orbison, Willy Nelson,Tony Bennett, Carole King and James Taylor. Needless to say, quite a few successful entertainers. Although my husband and I enjoyed seeing all of those great artists and saw some of them more than once , it was Petula whose concerts we came back to again and again. The reason I believe is because we came to love the intimacy and the authenticity of a Petula performance . It was just  the artist herself on stage with a few musicians –  her voice, still amazing, singing from a catalogue of hits , as well as  venturing into intriguing new songs and covers, enchanting the audience with her stories which revealed her charm , warmth and humour. Pretty gutsy , I think -using  none of the multi-media bells and whistles or elaborate stagings to hide behind , just Petula and and her music!

The stay in Ipswich was maybe the most memorable of all the places we were on this trip. The charm of the Salthouse Hotel right along the marina in Neptune Quay with its beautiful view of the harbour and close to so many lovely shops and restaurants made the two days there very lovely, not to mention seeing our fourth Petula concert in a week.

But the final concert night at the Theatre Royal in London was the ultimate ending.We had Meet and Greet tickets for this performance and the room where we gathered to chat with Petula was ,she said ,where royalty gathered pre performance. John Williams was in attendance as well. By this time we had met Petula on several occasions and because she is so easy with conversation I think we were probably less star struck and were able to talk about the Lost in You selections. She recalled meeting us earlier in the week and so we told her of our “Petula Adventures”. How surprised my twenty-year old self would have been to know about that conversation! The concert was stellar and with the opening chords of “Downtown “, signalling the concert’s approaching end,we knew as we always knew that we would want to do this again . We understood well the feelings expressed in a blog about a concert on this tour:

Well, have no fear. Whatever “it” is Petula Clark still has it in droves…We came out of the show, feeling elated and privileged to have seen a great performer. BY:The Real Chrisparkle.

The 2106 Tour will be the subject of another post.