Petula Travellers

I’m about to wrap up this blog with two final posts—this one about ‘Our Petula-in-Vegas Adventures”, and the last will be  Part 2 of our Australia journey. I’ve truly enjoyed the process of remembering all the places we travelled and the wonderful concerts we were lucky enough to experience. It has been a surprisingly joyful project. I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to begin this blog  in the first place, but I’m very glad that I did. I never expected a large following, and in many ways it is a personal memoir—and much like sharing photos after a trip, they’re always more meaningful to the person who lived the moments than to the onlooker.  But to those who did take the time to read along, thank you. 

I wish I could report that we had been fortunate enough to see Petula in the heyday of her Las Vegas performances in the late sixties and seventies–at  Caesar’s Palace  and the Riviera . But, at that time ,we were a newly married couple starting our careers and then our family which were our primary preoccupations in those days. Actually, had you told me at  that time that  I would one day be recounting my multiple trips to wide flung destinations, including Las Vegas, to see Petula Clark sing, I would not have  believed you. But here I am doing just that.

I am not certain when we would have first visited Las Vegas but it was probably sometime in the mid to late nineties . Many of  the mega resorts that now line the Strip were just starting to be built. We usually stayed for three or four days at Bally’s but later often chose the Paris once it opened. We  were fortunate to see a lot of  performers at Vegas shows over the years : Celine Dion, the Righteous Brothers, Donny and Marie Osmond, Kenny Rodgers, Wayne Newton, Barry Manilow, Elton John, Rod Stewart , to name some . As time went on the shows became more like blockbusters with special effects, videos and elaborate choreography. Of course, they were all talented entertainers. We enjoyed the shows a great deal.

But for us, as I have mentioned previously, there was something more magical about Petula  when we got to see her there :alone on stage  with just  a five piece orchestra, without all of the dazzling accoutrements to enhance the presentation. She was able to enchant an audiencer often for more than  two hours or more, just with her beautiful voice and charming  anecdotes. It surpassed any of the other more spectacularly produced shows, in our view.

Our first Vegas Petula concert was in February of 2007 at The Suncoast Casino,  in Sumerlin, off the Strip. In an interview with the  Las Vegas Sun reporter, Jerry Fink, a few days before her three day appearance at the Suncoast, Petula spoke of her Vegas return and whether she would do more dates in the future:

“ I don’t really know. I’m kind of putting my toe back in the water. I haven’t been to Vegas for a long time. We will have to play it by ear. It’s going to be great fun for me. I know it’s changed a lot, but then I’ve changed a bit, too, so it should be interesting to see how we get on together.”

The showroom  at the Suncoast was an intimate one with old Vegas-style table seating. We were staying on the Strip and took a cab to the resort which was a lovely destination about ten miles away . The venue seemed to be  attracting mostly local Las Vegas patrons. Though, at the concert, we were seated at a table with a group who had travelled from the UK to see Petula. Our table was positioned right at the front of the stage and when Petula came on stage–she seemed to recognize the UK fans.. We had only brief conversation with them -and in retrospect  I wish I had asked their names, with FB fan pages prevalent now, they might be  recognizable to me on one of the sites.

Petula was in great form in her return to Vegas and the audience was appreciative. We only saw her performance on the Saturday evening show but the other ones  must have been equally good, because Petula returned  just six months later  to the Cannery Casino, owned by the same corporation as the Suncoast. So Petula’s wondering  “how we get on together” seems to have been answered very positively because she  did a third appearance in Vegas In September 2009 we again saw her perform, this time at the Rampart Casino at The Marriott Resort . 

We actually arrived in Vegas for that show having seen Petula perform at the Canadian National Exhibition, a few days earlier. The CNE was the first time we had seen her perform with her new musical director, Grant Sturiale. This time we chose to stay at the Marriott Resort instead of on  the Strip because this was part of a three destination “ Petula Adventure “ ending in Vancouver, Canada and we were only in Vegas for a few days.

 The Marriott Resort was quite lovely. It was actually also in Sumerlin, very close to the Sunquest Casino and a bit more upscale than The Sunquest,  but it did not have a real theatre. Instead Petula performed in one of the Ballrooms of the Marriott Resort which meant the acoustics were not perfect. Petula’s performance occurred in the afternoon and she joked that this was actually “tea-time”. An interesting thing happened during the show; Little Anthony from LIttle Anthony and the Imperials fame  was seated right  behind us and at one point after Petula had finished a song,  he stood up and made a shout out to her.  It could have been an awkward moment but Petula handled it with grace and charm, asked how he was and said how nice it was that he was there. And then it was on with the show!

 Petula had chosen a straw hat to wear as part of her ensemble -as she had done at the CNE previously  and the set list included “Starting All Over Again”, “Heaven’s Door” and “Here For You” , all songs for which Petula had written the lyrics and all beautiful selections which were all very well received by the audience and once more people left the room marveling at her performance. Petula was available after the show chatting with fans and signing memorabilia. I believe that Petula’s taking time to interact with her audience after performances enhanced the the pleasure of the whole experience of seeing her perform.

Petula’s  next Vegas appearance was in a proper theatre –quite a famous one, actually –the Las Vegas Hilton showroom, on May 1, 2010. The Hilton is a bit off the Strip but connected by the Las Vegas monorail system which as Vegas expanded became a welcome link to the major hotels .This concert was given lots of publicity and where the other venues mentioned in this post were mostly visited by local patrons , the Hilton had an iconic Vegas reputation and I am sure the theatre was filled with people like us, from near and far, happy to be seeing Petula perform at a major Vegas venue, even if it wasn’t the seventies!! 

One of the aspects to Petula’s shows that makes them memorable is her interspersing of personal anecdotes throughout. Of course , on this occasion , she told the story of when she and Karen Carpenter were both performing in Vegas and decided to come to see Elvis on the very stage where she was now performing . She then recounted the now pretty famous story of their visit to his dressing room. Maybe it was that story, maybe it was because it was the Las Vegas Hilton and the story harkened back to earlier times but Petula’s performance there  that night was very special and memorable. She demonstrated as she always does that she is  the epitome of a classic performer –with heart and humour and talent galore–what a pleasure it was to have been there.