Benny on Hampstead Heath

This is written by Sara Russel who was lucky enough to attend Benny Andersson Bands' concert.

Well this wasn't as fantastic as I had expected - it was way, way better!
       Truly, one of the best concerts, events, atmospheres I've ever been too. I feel quite emotional today having experienced a magical evening.
      We were in the presence of brilliance and I don't just mean Benny. The whole of the BAB are just incredible - they exude, fun, warmth and musical brilliance.
      I'm no good at all the song titles but we heard all the main songs. I had heard they played for 4 hours the other night in Stockholm but we had "only" 2.5 hours. Still, we managed to get home at a decent hour.
     
Benny clearly had a ball ... he was laughing out loud, smiling broadly, the likes of which you never seen in photographs and he looked great. He was revelling in the reactions of the audience and from the piano he looked like he would occasionally look into the audience and smile for peoples cameras.
      They started off with Glasgow Boogie and straight away you can't keep still. I am sore and stiff today from dancing so much! Every now and then Benny would announce the next batch of songs in a certain style - these are polkas, these are schottis or whatever it was.
       I knew it was Tommy's birthday but so did a louder bunch at the front who started to sing and then the band joined in and so we were able to sing Happy Birthday to him properly.

     

Benny pointed out where the dance floor was supposed to be but that the dance floor was still in the truck! He asked people to move to make space as he knew there were some people who wanted to dance ... one of them was Görel! She led the dancing in a small clearing of people on the grass with a little flower garland around her head. Ian Jones and I joined in just trying to copy them ... good fun but energetic! The trouble is we're not taught "social" dancing in this country - I think we should be.
      Helen is such a fantastic vocalist - but she also moved energetically throughout the show and spoke to the audience with humour. Her voice was incredible. The whole band seemed amazed by the reaction from the audience.
       When they played Hasta Manana everyone sang along, it was a wonderful moment and an honour to be part of it. Helen, Tommy and Benny seemed shocked by the sound of so many voices singing the whole song with them. The crowd was enormous and stretched back as far as the eye could see. The view from the stage must have been amazing. I hope we get to hear somewhere, somehow what they thought of the concert themselves.
      Another show stopper was Cadillac ... it was great to see Benny standing up playing piano and bouncing around.
      When Benny picked up his tiny little guitar thing I knew we were going to get Det är vi ändå which is one of my favourites. We also had You Are My Man and The Last Dance.
      The audience didn't want to let them go! They could have played all night! But the time went for them to leave and a small group of fans behind me started to sing The Way Old Friends Do which soon got louder and louder as more people joined in. Now that for me was very emotional and fantastic. Oh for Benny to come back out with his accordion but he didn't. He can't have not heard it backstage ... I wonder what he thought? I wonder if he was touched, or was he itching to come back out for us but thought it would take the glory away from the band? It was lovely as it was even though he didn't come out. Great to be part of that. I did see one of the Moraeus brothers at the back of the stage with Lars Rudolfsson while we were singing The Way Old Friends Do and they looked very happy and curious - like they were witnessing something they'd never seen before.
     

It was great to see so many friends, old and new there.
      It was especially special to experience last night with so many friends, everywhere you turned there was a familiar face. So special.

Comments

[mikespeir]

Wish I could be there.