Liblog: PHILIBLOG II

A continuation of the blog according to Libera.

Wednesday began at the AIM fairly late, so that we were refreshed. The first thing we did after breakfast was to go to the Manila Intl. Airport and catch a flight to Cebu. As we have learnt over the years, there’s no such thing as a quick flight! It was only an hour long; however checking in and out of each airport (plus getting our suitcases back and all that hassle) adds so much time to the trip that really half the day is spent on travel.

But that didn’t matter so much – when we arrived, we were greeted by a band singing the famous ‘Cebu’ song which those of us who had been before remembered so well. We all knew what was coming next, though – the Shangri-La. You could almost feel the excitement in the coach! Upon our arrival there, a band and dance group were there to meet us. Their performance was astounding, and after this we were given the keys to our wonderfully exquisite rooms. We had really forgotten how much we missed it: complimentary mangos, the infinity pool, balconies overlooking the sea – ahh, we could get used to that every day! In the evening we went swimming in one of the pools, and then we had a huge dinner consisting mainly of pizza and pasta dishes being relentlessly put on the tables. That evening we went to bed in that happy, Shangri-La state you feel when you stay there.

Thursday morning was another comfortably late start, with an enormous breakfast overlooking the infinity pool, beach and sea. This was mainly a leisure day, and we had a little time in our rooms before going back out to the swimming pools for most of the morning. After another huge lunch (I think you get the picture that every meal here is simply in excess) we went to the arcade area, which has loads of gaming machines, air hockey and snooker tables, and a big indoor adventure playground thing. This occupied us for some time! After this session we went to the big Shoe Mart shopping mall in Cebu for another meet and greet. We had a great reception, with lots of screams and applause (this will be of greater significance later) and were treated again to the welcome of the fans! That was a lot of fun, but what was more fun was what happened next!

We went up a few floors and into this large room, where there was a dinner held for us by all the people working on the tour. While we ate, the Mandaue children’s choir gave us a special and incredible performance of some traditional Filipino tribal songs, Christmas songs, and also a wonderful rendition of the Lord’s Prayer. It was truly astounding to listen to, and it was great because afterwards they taught us some of the moves they did in their performance, which was a lot of fun! After that we returned to the hotel and went to bed early, as Friday was to be a concert day.

Friday morning we got up reasonably late and had another filling breakfast in the Shangri-La, after which we went back to that arcade area again before, sadly, having to leave the resort. We were all weeping in our hearts at this, however the hotel we went to next (the Radisson Blu) was also very swanky! We had a big lunch here, followed by a trip to the Waterfront hotel for our second – and, unfortunately our last – concert in the Philippines this tour. Even when we arrived there were fans screaming and waving, and this was a few hours before the concert was to start! The theatre in the hotel was rather large, and it was a great venue for our concert; the stage was all set for us, and it all looked great! The concert itself went very well – the audience themselves were absolutely brilliant. Every time there was an announcement we had screaming and cheering and all kinds of noises going on; it was almost like performing at Glastonbury festival! But anyway, it was a very successful concert, and we were glad to hear afterwards at the signing from many fans how much they enjoyed it. When this was over there was a large meal prepared for us in our dressing room, and all the organizers of the tour were there for photos and signings of posters. After all of this was over, we arrived back at the hotel quite late. This was unfortunate, as the next day we had to get up early to leave Cebu, sadly.
Saturday was our last day in the Philippines! The end already? So sad! Anyway, that morning (as aforementioned) we got up early to get on a plane from Cebu back to Manila. When we arrived, we had a lovely, oriental themed lunch and made another quick trip to Balikbayan handicrafts store. Once we had bought all our items, we returned to the hotel for some swimming and other such activities before leaving. This is as far into the day as we are right now, but thank you for supporting us on our tour, and we hope to inform you when we arrive back in London safely!

LIBERA

Liblog: PHILIBLOG

Hallo! This is the blog for the October ’11 Tour of the Philippines. Mabuhay!

I think I’ll start off by saying that the person (or persons….) who writes the blogs is… still a secret, so you will have to guess! But we hope you enjoy our day-by-day analysis of the tour – and we think you’ll get a pretty good picture of what we got up to while here.

So we left on Friday 21st October, and we started our long voyage across the world, stopping in Dubai on the way. Some of us managed to catch a glimpse of the Berj while there, and it did look pretty cool! Our connecting flight was instantaneous, so we got the big plane rides over and done with quite quickly. We touched down in Manila quite late in the evening on Saturday, and were treated to a midnight dinner at the AIM Conference Center (yes, it should be CentRE, but there you go) and went straight to bed.

On Sunday we rose fairly late and had a rather large breakfast, despite the piles of food we had devoured only nine or so hours ago! This was followed by a rehearsal of some concert items in a large room somewhere in the AIM complex. Subsequently we left the AIM for a TV appearance on ASAP Rocks, the most watched Sunday TV show that lasts for about three hours. Anyway, we went on and did Carol of the Bells for live television, which was quite fun. We were surprised with the efficiency of it all – in fact, it was too efficient! We got there, changed into our robes, and rehearsed about half the song in the ad break, did it live, left the studio, got changed, and left again! We were done in under an hour, which was amazing! Carol of the Bells is rather a dramatic one to do, except because of the microphone placement we couldn’t do our trademark moves, but I think we managed to captivate the audience nonetheless. After this we had lunch in a restaurant called 145 oF, where they had lots of things out for us to eat, and it was delicious. It was quite a late lunch because of the TV thing, so we were all pretty hungry by then and ate practically everything!

An autograph signing in Shoemart Mall, which is apparently the third biggest shopping centre in the world, followed this. We love to do these meet and greet things, because it’s great to talk to our fans and see how happy we make them with our music. It’s also quite funny to see how excited they can get, and we love to hear the screams and applause as we walk around! When this had finished, we returned to the AIM and had a proper celebratory dinner, with an enormous roast pig and piles of profiteroles and barbequed chicken, beef, everything! We were also treated to some traditional Filipino music and dances, which was great fun. We went to bed that night with happy hearts – but maybe our stomachs weren’t so happy with the sudden overload of food!

Well, Sunday was a pretty busy day! We weren’t as busy on Monday, however we did do quite a few things. In the morning, as we had breakfast, our feet were measured so that Crocs (one of the sponsors of our concerts) could send us some… well, crocs! Having tailor-made flip-flops is pretty awesome! After this session, we went up a few floors to where there was a gathering to do with the charity program Children’s Hour. We are part of this, as some of the money we raise from concerts is put into this. The charity helps Filipino children living in poverty to get a better education, have better health, and be happier. We are proud to be a part of this. In fact, we met some of those children at the gathering. We then found out that a playground had been planned, and it is to be named after us! Yes, there will be a playground called the Libera playground! It is such an honour for us to have that named after us. After the unveiling of the plaque that will go up outside the playground, five of us were interviewed on the subject, and then on the concerts and the new Christmas album (WHICH YOU SHOULD BUY, by the way – thought I ought to plug it in somewhere). When this was over, we had lunch and then went of to the Manila polo club. We’ve been there before and, quite honestly, we’ve missed it dearly! We had a long swim in the pool until it began to rain, and then we went bowling. This was also really good fun, and Liam got five strikes in a row at one point!! Following this was a trip to the Shangri-La in Manila, where we had a mammoth dinner. The length of the bar was infinite, and there were colossal piles of food everywhere! I’m surprised the coach could drive off when we were done!

Tuesday was a concert day, so we had to take it easy. In the morning we had a bit of a lounge around after a photo shoot outside. We then had a thorough concert rehearsal (blindfolded, of course) to make sure we knew all the positions we have to find in the blacks outs, and harmony parts and things like that. This was followed by a trip to the famous Balikbayan handicrafts store. We’ve been there before on previous Philippines trips, so it was good to go back. Liam and Josh did a jazzy improv session on the piano they have in there, and we bought gifts for relatives and ourselves. We returned to the AIM for lunch, and went swiftly on to the PICC for our concert. It was gigantic on the inside! The stage, TV screens and lighting looked promising, and we were very excited to get on with the sound check and perform! We had a very receptive audience, and we felt very comfortable on stage. They applauded loads, and were ecstatic when we did Himig Pasko at the end! When we were done, we had another autograph signing, which was again very enjoyable. On the way back, Josh turned seventeen – as by the time we got back to the AIM it was Wednesday! We had a quick bite to eat before bed, and that was Tuesday!

This is as far as we’ve got so far, more blogging to come when more has happened!!!

Liblog: HOTEL LIFE

So here we are.
Finally, after 6 full concerts, a Starkey Hearing gala and some church services, we come to the end of our America tour 2011. The journeys have been fun. The performances were exciting, and wonderful. The support: AMAZING. But one thing seems missing: What about hotel life??

It all starts off when we are nearing the end of a coach journey to a different destination, sleepy. Everyone wonders what the next hotel will be like, what the breakfast buffet will taste like – Let’s point out that the hotel buffets were very tasty - and most important of all: who will be their roommate. We haul our suitcases off the coach and plunge ourselves into the nerve-freezing air-conditioned hotel lobby. I say “nerve-freezing” because in comparison to the heat wave, it was like being baked in the oven and then being chucked in a freezer. But of course our coach was air conditioned so it wasn’t that bad.

Then comes the wait for our key cards in the hotel lobby. Not only does that mean we can now get into our rooms, but it also tells us (This is the exciting part; although no drum rolls please) who we will be sharing a room with (taadah!). One by one, we all receive our rectangular gadget; which will open the heavenly door to our hotel room. After all the passkeys have been correctly distributed, we queue up for the elevator. Now we are just steps away from sleep. Finally, we reach our room.

The first step is to organise the room. I mean, even though we might be staying there for only a couple of days its nice to know where everything is. So we unpack our suitcase, get our toiletries in the bathroom and maybe use a drawer or two. Secondly, we get ready for S.L.E.E.P. So that means brushing teeth, getting some PJ’s on and physically getting into bed. And then it’s the sleep stage.

Sweet dreams. Because the next day starts when the telephone rings. We get dressed, refresh ourselves and go downstairs for breakfast. As I said earlier: the hotel buffet breakfasts are very delicious. Well I guess because it’s a buffet you choose what you want so its technically always delicious. The usual buffet items are seen: Bacon, Eggs, Sausages and many other things. Then it is eaten. Surprisingly.

Staying in a hotel room is a big difference. I mean, a hotel room is a major difference to say a bedroom at home. First there’s the minibar – which is out of bounds at ALL times – containing extravagant chocolate bars and drinks; unfortunately for the extravagant price.

Secondly, they make the beds for you (now that’s a luxury).

And one final point: They have MASSIVE televisions and a MASSIVE list of channels.
So this is where this blog ends. When we get back to the hotel at the end of the day, we repeat the going to sleep stages, and that’s usually how it always goes. But we always wonder what our next hotel might be like. Without them, it would be quite hard to go away on tours. It’s lights out for now.

Sweet Dreams.

Liblog: On the Bus

Eight wheels. A ton of metal. 28 choirboys.

And one moose.

This is… a day on the coach with Libera!!!

At the beginning of the journey we start off with around 1 hour of Mario kart (a Nintendo ds game) where everyone connects and races each other on, as we like to call it “The Ds Download connectythingy.” We all look forward to it as a comfortable but exciting way to start the journey. After that everyone breaks off and does their own thing, like listening to some calming music, playing on their consoles, or reading a book quietly. About an hour after that event we have another mode, which we call “off screens”: a period of time when we literally turn off all screens (excluding iPods/Mp3’s) and rest our eyes. We are allowed iPods because they just involve listening, not looking.

After “off screens” it’s usually time for lunch. Most popular is the old Libera favourite, the Cracker Barrel: an old country store in the middle of anywhere we go. Usually after lunch we have yet another mode: quiet time. During this time we allow their food to digest by passing out for a short time. We usually wake up to the harmonious cry of “screens are allowed.” Occasionally, the fluids consumed by the boys during the trip to hydrate their divine particularities take a turn for the worst; the toilet on the coach quickly emits a staggeringly stagnant stench. This means that everyone HAS to block their noses for a few minutes while the smell still lingers.

As we get about two thirds through the journey, we stop in the nearest town for those “emergencies” that always happen. While we are in the town we have a look around for cool souvenirs to bring home to our families.

The last part of the journey is by far the best. Everyone is singing and talking and having a good time and we’re really curious about what the next hotel will be like and where the next concert will be.

Finally as we pull up to the hotel, everyone stares in awe at the looming building in front of us. I say “everyone” but I actually only mean the people who aren’t catching up on some Z’s, everyone else checks it out the next day.

Then we all stagger upstairs lugging our suitcases behind us and we fall into our lovely beds and go soundly to sleep.

Liblog: USA Tour 2011 - Part Four

Saturday we spent all day in our Four Seasons amazing hotel/spa place, which was apparently the sixth best resort in the whole of the U.S! Well, it might as well have been first, with all the facilities available: huge tennis courts, about four swimming pools, many squash and racquetball courts, and of course the gym. There were also some saunas and Jacuzzis to look forward to in addition to these delights. So we spent the whole day making what we could of these sporting areas of joy, and we made use of the luxurious, cooling swimming pools – although, the Jacuzzi was WAY too hot, so we almost blistered in it! But at least it made the outside normal temperature seem colder, if that’s even possible (outside was above 110oF). Anyway, after the conventional splash about in the pool, we prepared for dinner at another buffet-ish place, but it had really nice ice cream instead of the usual fake stuff you get in those places. We had to go to bed reasonably early because tomorrow’s start was at some unreasonable, ungodly hour…

Being 6:30am in the summer may be quite bright, however the dark bags under our eyes did not compliment this. The reason we were up so early was because we were due to go and join in two morning services at the Stonebriar Community Church. We had a break between the services for croissants and juice. Between the services we went and handed flyers out to people who were leaving to advertise our concert there in the evening. After the services we went to an old Libera favourite – Barnes and Noble.

However, one curious novelty was that we did not have our blue shirts with us; we had left our hotel wearing our robes, so we went shopping around the bookstore in our robes!
Many a surprised and questioning look was directed at us, and we were asked by loads of people why we were dressed the way we were. Hopefully that attracted some more people to come to the concert that night! Speaking of which, in the afternoon we had a sound check, as per usual, and then the performance an hour or so later.
An interesting feature of this church was that was rather theatre-like in appearance. So there was not a massive acoustic like in the basilica! However, the concert went very well. In fact, it is possible to say it was the best one of the tour so far! We had a signing afterwards, which is always fun – and many of us got to write on people’s phones or bags! That was rather a new thing, however the craze soon caught on!
The next day was a travel day, meaning that quite a lot of it was spent on the coach. Although, in the morning we used the pool and sports facilities again before we left.

Anyway, we arrived in Houston to a pleasant surprise: the Cracker Barrel for dinner. You know, we wish so much that they had that food chain back home. Anyway, as we approached our hotel, we found out Four Seasons also owned this one! What rapture and delight exceeded the boundaries of the coach cannot be described as we pulled up outside.Oh, happy day! Well, night, as by the time we checked in and got to the rooms (which were outstandingly lavish) we just went to sleep. Ah, how comfortable those beds were! As you can see, the stresses of touring are just more than a man can bear.
We had a concert on Tuesday, however in the morning we went to a science museum and saw many fossils and skeletons of prehistoric animals. It was very interesting. We learnt all about the Triassic, Jurassic and Crustaceous periods before mammalian life forms. But anyway, lest you become a fossil from listening to this boring gabble, let me inform you that we also saw a 3-D film about the development of sea creatures, from the early days to the extinction of dinosaurs (that’s 65million years ago, just in case you thought we weren’t paying attention). It was really cool, though whoever wrote the dialogue for the narrator should be locked up. It was drivel. Anywho, later on we went to the Tallowood Baptist Church to sing our final concert of the tour.

But before the performance, we had a look behind the scenes at what goes on. So we had a look at the lighting desk, and we were told all about what buttons do what to create that fantastic light display you see at out concerts. We also got to have a look at the microphone pickup-type thingumajigs, and the different wave frequencies for each separate microphone used on stage.Lastly we got to look at the sound-mixing desk, the biggest of them all, which is where all the sound levels are controlled. After that we prepared for the final concert of our third US tour. A sad and yet glorious moment. We said thanks to all our fans afterwards at the signing, and had to wave goodbye for the last time that tour. A perfect end to an exceedingly successful tour.
Wait, did you think it was over?! Just like that?! NO, we still have one more day to cover; our traveling day, our journey home! It actually started pretty dramatically – two rooms received wake-up calls from reception at absurd hours! They were Sammy and Jakob’s room, and also the room containing Liam, Josh and Sam. What was worse was that, at 6.30am, the latter room got dressed, had showers and everything, and went down to reception and waited for ages for the rest of the group! Then, with a horrible sinking feeling, they realised that they weren’t coming, because they weren’t awake yet! So they complained of this misfortune bitterly at reception, then went up to their floor again to catch some sleep before being woken up at the proper time. However, it was only a short amount of time before this actually happened. So after that bothersome escapade, we packed our suitcases for the last time and left our rooms. Then we boarded the coach and drove to the airport. The notoriety of the amazing security system at American Airports is well known amongst us Brits, however it wasn’t as bad as we expected it to be. We managed to get the whole ordeal over and done with in about a half hour. And so, after a short delay due to circumstances beyond our control (the plane was late) we boarded and began our flight to Dulles Airport, Washington D.C. Going back to the main story, that’s where I started writing this part of the blog. I’ll be adding to it, of course, as the day progresses, and I should finish by the time we get home. But for now I think I’ll go back to my Sherlock Holmes Collection (which I bought in beloved Barnes and Noble!)…

Liblog: USA Tour 2011 - Part Three

Hello again, people of the webworld! This is part the third of the Libera Summer Tour blog! It has been a fair few days since the last blog update, so here we go…

The day after our Chicago sightseeing was a travel day to St. Louis, Missouri. So we spent most of the day in our beloved coach (or car, bus, or whatever is your version of the big elongated car that can hold a lot of people and luggage). As road trips go, this wasn’t so bad. We were all just “chilling” in the coach – literally, as the difference in temperature outside and inside the coach were astronomical! Some of us slept in there, others watched a film, and most of us were playing on DS or PSP consoles. What a cluster of noise we have on coach journeys! Nothing like the sound in our concerts, rest assured!

Wednesday was a slightly more eventful day. In the morning we went to Grant’s Farm, a lovely – well, farm – with lots of different animals. We saw deer, elephants, bald eagles (America’s mascot – and they aren’t actually bald!) giant turtles and camels, one of which we managed to feed without being spat on! But probably the most memorable attraction in that place was the baby goat pen. You could buy loads of bottles of milk to feed them with, and once you got into the pen, at least ten goats would crowd around you to get at the bottles! It was all very good fun; Liam had three at once, and we all thought the goats, which went crazy the moment they saw a plentiful supply of milk, were attacking him! Anyway, after that fun morning, we went to perform in St. Louis’ Basilica. What a beautiful building. There are so many mosaics on the ceiling it’s astonishing! The effort that went into piecing all those little glass shards together to make the huge mosaics is astounding; they used to think they had the biggest quantity of these glass bits in the Western hemisphere – until the Vatican kindly pointed out that they had a few more! Although St. Louis’ Basilica can still boast that it has the largest amount on the ceiling – for that is where all the mosaics are found, nowhere else. The concert itself went really well, and because the basilica is so large there was a huge delay in sound, making the music even more ethereal. One really fun thing was that we surprised the audience at the beginning of the second half by placing the older boys in a gallery way higher up above the stage for ‘Te Lucis’. It was really funny to watch all these heads turn to look and see where the sound was coming from. Afterwards we did our first signing of the tour, which was really fun. It even surprises us to see how fast we can write our autographs!

Thursday was another day spent travelling. However, in the morning we went to the pool for about an hour. The water was so refreshing in the heat! Anyhow, after that we started our drive to Frisco. In fact, it was so far away that we had to spread the journey over two days! What a trek! So, we started it, and we had to stop in Arkansas for the night. There are so many locusts in that part of the world it’s unreal. Everywhere we looked there would be some sort of insect, be it giant butterfly or tiny moth. But even Ben managed to over come his “insectophobia” for the night, for our motel was very cushy. But the next day, straight after breakfast, we continued our voyage to Texas. Although we did stop off once to look at a really cool, Wild West type town. It was really cool – it would have made it even more real had Clint Eastwood appeared out of nowhere in a poncho to have a shoot-out!

Tune in next time for the next instalment of the Summer Tour Blog…

Liblog: USA Tour 2011 - Part Two

Friday was a ‘concert day’ for us. A ‘concert day’ consists of relaxation in the morning, followed by a big lunch and a sound check in the afternoon. In the morning we went to the Minneapolis Media Institute, where we saw loads of iMacs, mixing desks, and tons of electronic music gear where students learn how to mix a song for release on radio or CD. It was really good and interesting, particularly for us boys who are interested in carrying on and using these for our own ends eventually. We were also treated to a mini jazz concert performed by Paul Peterson - who had been the conductor at the Starkey concert - playing bass, his mother (an amazing jazz pianist), Simon (our drummer who specialises in jazz), and the famous singer Tom Tipton! So it was a great, music-packed morning. But the afternoon yielded only our musical fruit, for we had a sound check and a concert to do. The venue for this concert was the Cathedral of Saint Paul. What a beautiful building. Honestly, it was so grand, so spacious, and the acoustic was fantastic. It really added to our ethereal sound; plainsong-based songs like Lamentione and Te Lucis really stood out and sounded magical. And we had an excellent turnout, considering the size of the place! It was a very successful concert. Well, that was two concerts down, and a gala performance. The next day we drove up to Chicago, Illinois. It took most of the day, but it wasn’t so bad; we had Happy Feet on DVD to watch, besides many more films, and a few people (like myself) slept throughout. Except for lunch, where we stopped off at our beloved Cracker Barrel. If it has not been aforementioned, the Cracker Barrel is our favourite stop-off place on long-haul coach journeys. Anyway, when we got close enough we could see the Willis and John Hancock towers peaking out over the horizon. Another amazing thing we experienced in Chicago was the Ritz Hotel where we stayed – whose chain, Four Seasons, have given us a lot of help for the whole tour. Even luxury is not a luxurious enough word to describe the place! It was posh down to the shaving cream and little tubs of complimentary shampoo! And the view from every window was amazing – but that is because Chicago is a beautiful city.

We woke up quite early on Sunday morning to go to the Moody Church. It was a spectacular and unusual church; it’s shaped like a big tent, like the ones D. L. Moody used to preach in in the 1800s. It’s got quite a low ceiling, but it’s very wide and sort of domed. And it’s also made out of brick, which are a very humble material to make a church out of. We were there to sing a few things in the service: Gloria, Exultate, Glory to Thee and How Shall I Sing. They all went down very well with the congregation. Everyone there was so welcoming and it made us feel less nervous when up on stage. The rest of the day was normal ‘concert day’ routine, and we did a concert in the Rockefeller chapel, near where President Barrack Obama grew up. We saw some faces from the service in the morning at the concert, which was encouraging, and also our faithful fans who are always there. That concert went smoothly as well, and the grandeur of the place certainly enriched the atmosphere.
The next day was a fairly late start, followed by a trip to the big Science Museum in Chicago. We spent most of the day there, because it was so big – and we STILL didn’t manage to see everything! One really cool part was a toy-making machine, and you could make your own gyroscope-spinning-top-type-thing (I don’t really know what it is, but when it spins on the inside the outside remains still and it can balance on a fine tip). That was really cool. There was also a really interesting exhibition on the U-boats used by the Nazis in WWII, and there was an enormous one in another room, which the Americans had captured. It was all really interesting and lots of fun; most of it was interactive, so you really felt like you were a part of what was going on.

After the Museum we went on a 90-minute boat ride down the Chicago river. It’s amazing – if you’re in Chicago, I would recommend it! To your left and right there are fantastic buildings, and then you go out from the lock into the lake where you can see the whole of Chicago – we went just as the sun touched the horizon, which was really beautiful. Afterwards we went to a buffet where two women had an argument towards the end, and one threw a chair so the police were called, which wasn’t so beautiful. But it was funny from a safe distance!

Liblog: USA Tour 2011 - Part One

Good morning/afternoon/evening etc., wherever it is you are right now. And welcome to the Libera Summer 2011 US Tour blog! Here, as you know, we give you all the behind-the-scenes details you don’t usually get to hear about. So do tuck in to the glorious feast of words that shall now be laid before you, on this, the sweeping buffet of the Internet.
On Friday 22nd July, at about 10:30 in the morning, the coach left for Heathrow airport, a buzz of growing anticipation aboard it. Two plane journeys later, and we were in Minnesota. It was very late in the evening when we arrived at the hotel and were tucked up in bed soon after. The next day, we had some rehearsals to do.
The tour had begun!

First, we had a trip to the Cathedral in St. Paul (not ‘St. Paul’s Cathedral’, as was the basis of much confusion for us London boys), a beautiful building where we were to sing at morning mass the next day and perform our concert on Friday. This was when we first realised just what a sweltering pit of heat we had walked into, by scheduling a tour in the mid-West during something of a heat wave; the church was like a furnace. Fortunately, some fans were bought, to our great relief.

From there we went to the venue for the Starkey Foundation Gala concert, where we would also be performing on Sunday. While we were there, we were fortunate enough to see Miley Cyrus rehearsing and we got a look at the masses of items up for auction for the charity – some had starting prices in the six-figure region!

That evening, we took a trip to the Science Museum where we watched a film about King Tut. The screen was absolutely ginormous, so that there was nothing that could possibly distract you from the action. On Sunday, the mass at the Cathedral went very well, as did the Starkey event. We saw loads of famous faces; Jon Rich (with whom we performed), Whoopi Goldberg and Bill Clinton were among them. Not to mention Miley Cyrus, who had a photo with us in our dressing room, and took us on in a round of Top Trumps of all the famous people we’d met… (or not. She would have won anyway)

For the next two days, we stayed at Maddens Resort taking a short break… before we’d even done our first concert! It was great fun though. There we played tennis, croquet, basketball, football, badminton, volleyball and darts, essentially burning off all the weight we would put on though eating at the numerous buffets, as is customary on tour. Overnight we happened to be at what seemed like the centre of a thunderstorm, just for added entertainment before we departed.
On the Wednesday we returned to our first hotel, and performed at the Basilica, St. Mary’s. The concert was great, and it was a relief to get the tour off to a good start. The next day we took a trip down the Mississippi and got to have a good rest before the next day’s concert. In the evening we had a swim in the hotel pool, which was very refreshing. One concert, down five more to go. The mid-West (which could easily be titled the mid-East too) would be our home for the next two more weeks!

Liblog: Preparing for a Tour

As you might be aware, we are going on another tour soon. For most of us, we have the end of term to get through first, and many rehearsals on the side, followed by a whirlwind of last-minute packing!

Rehearsals for a tour are usually quite intensive; hours of practice for both music and choreography are the backbone of our stage show. We spend a lot of our weekends learning the order of songs, our positions, and also all our parts. We have booklets containing all this information, and sometimes a CD is issued to us so we can hear the songs and practice at home, to our parents’ dismay. I practice in the shower, and my parents show their appreciation by telling me to be quiet as they’re watching T.V.

Rehearsals can be fun for us boys, although I’m not sure what the adults think of us! We usually get quite a few breaks, as rehearsals can sometimes go on for the majority of the day. But by the time it comes to the actual tour, all our hard work should be visible on stage. And hopefully for you lot, the interval won’t last longer than the show!

The musical sides of rehearsals are normally us all sat around Rob, who is on the piano, just learning our parts and seeing how we all blend together. Our ethereal blend doesn’t come without a lot of concentration! We have to work really hard to get the balance of all the parts perfect, so when it comes to the live performances you get that perfect Libera sound.

The choreography is equally as important. This is a stage show, so it’s got to look interesting and exciting for the audience. We try to have fluid movement to keep up with the fluid vocals within our songs. We have to practice diligently; we even practice our moves blindfolded, so we become perfect at finding our places in the dark, in blackouts.

Of course, the lighting and back projection are important in our show, however we only get to see these in our dress rehearsals. We are always excited to see these elements of the show!

As I said, for some of us packing is always a bit last minute. We prepare diligently for the show, but maybe not so diligently whilst packing – even though we know weeks before that we are going on tour. We always find that all of us are always missing something on tour, from toothbrushes to T-shirts!

We all love going on tour. It is hard work, but a lot of fun. We can’t wait for this now; it’s only a week or so away!

Liblog: Canada Tour Blog - Finale

Hello! Here I am again, for the last time until the next tour! So sad, so sad.

Anyway, after the Niagara Falls visit on Thursday, we had a concert quite a way away from Toronto in Hamilton. We were performing in a nice church called West Highland Baptist Church.

It was quite big, and so was the audience! It was a great concert, and it went really well.

The next day was a rather interesting one. We got up late, had breakfast etc., and then we relaxed in rooms for a while. The next day we had to sing at a service in Our Lady Immaculate Church in Guelph. So we had to have a practice for that as well. But, later on in the day, we went to the CN Tower!

It was so high, even Big Ben could not tower above it! Anywho, we bought the tickets, and once we got inside we saw… A MOOSE! Not a real one, but a plastic moose near the lifts. My word, those lifts were terrifying! You got inside, and then you whizzed up to the top in no time at all. It was like reverse skydiving! But at the top it was beautiful. You could see for miles around; it was really great. And there was also a glass floor, which was probably the most frightening thing I’ve ever witnessed. Ok, there is one in the Tokyo tower too – but that’s not 1, 400 ft high, with a curve! Oh wow it was scary. Although saying that it was a great experience, and on our way back down from the lithosphere we saw signs for record-breaking attempts from the tower – for example, one person yodelled for 7 hours 29 mins from the top of the tower! How useful that informations going to be to you I don’t know… We also went on a boat trip to Central Island. Sadly most of the attractions were still closed for the winter but we did some serious tree climbing and the view of Toronto was impressive indeed.

The next day was packed with lots of things to do; it was Easter Sunday. In the morning we sang Mass in the Church of our Lady Immaculate in Guelph – at the end we sung the Hallelujah chorus with the cathedral choir - plus a full band of strings, brass and organ - up in the loft. It was great fun – and the congregation clapped for a long time at the end! After that, we were treated to a delicious lunch by the church helpers, followed by a few hours of relaxation before having a sound check for our concert – which was in the same church. It’s a lovely building; it had a fantastic acoustic – and it was a near full house, which is amazing considering the size of the place.

At the end of the concert, equipment was packed away for the last time and we said our farewells to the crew – our Canadian roadies called Sean and Anthony who brought all the gear we had to rent, and our own crew who were going back to England on a different flight to us boys and chaperones.

We got back to Toronto at about half-midnight-ish, only to get up again at four to go to the airport. That was great – for once, the coach was silent! Anyhow, when we got to the airport we had a short break (with a Tim Hortons breakfast) and we were on our way. At the time of writing, we are currently over Ireland, and soon it will time for us to be going home – well yes, really! Thank you so much for supporting us in our first run of concerts in Canada; we hope to come back soon!

Liblog: Canada Tour Blog part 2

Previously, you heard of our arrival, and of our various trips and concerts. Well, here’s some more info for you on the Libera Canada tour.

The day after the St. Andrew’s concert was pretty calm. We got up late after a well-deserved sleep, and had our regular over-intake of food. We later discovered something you don’t see in England often. Underground cities. The Necropolis is probably the closest you could get to one of those in Europe. Anyway, there was this passageway under the hotel, which led to this fantastic complex of underground shops and restaurants. It was strange and amazing at the same time! But there was nobody around, so for about three quarters of the way it was spookily empty. When we finally found life, we discovered that we were slowly creeping back up to the Earth’s surface from the mantle. And also that Big Ben’s scarf could swallow Barney completely whole. And also that it was raining outside. A lot. Oh dear. So we sped across the street to the cinema to watch a film called Rio. It was better than we thought it would be actually – quite worth seeing if you haven’t done so already. Anyway after the film we just stayed in the hotel, because it was raining so heavily. So that was the rather damp end of Saturday.

The weather continued to be overcast on Sunday, however instead of raining, snoww and sleet was falling from the sky. It was quite spectacular; it actually looked like a snowstorm from the hotel! Anyway, we went to a bowling alley for a bit. It was pretty fun, actually. Many people scored strikes, and there was a lot of slipping and sliding on the overly polished floors! Meanwhile, our tech crew had to gear up the van for the concert that night – in that weather!

It was a huge struggle, but because they are so fantastic they managed it, and the concert at ’Islington United Church went very well indeed. It may have been a small area for our different formations, but we thought we pulled it off very well. We even managed to fit everyone on the stage, whilst also finding room for Steven and his keyboard, the string quartet, Simon his percussion stuff, the speakers, mixing desk, microphones and the grand piano!

Monday was equally eventful. In the morning, sadly, we left the amazing Fairmont hotel and boarded the coach. We had quite a long journey up from Toronto to Kitchener, where we performed a little demonstration to school kids aged from about 8 to 16 in St. Mary’s Church at half past one. The place was pretty much packed! We received a great reception from them, which was especially important to us because these people really appreciated what we did, and they were our age so we could think of them as our peers. Anyhow, after that we went to the hotel, dumped our bags, and then left to go to Music Plus, which is a huge music shop in Kitchener. Bill, the man who owns it, helped lots with the tour, and also organized a delicious Mexican-style lunch, with wraps, tortillas, and spicy salsa! It was very tasty, and filling. We then had a look around the shop. Some people bought manuscripts and novelty music things, while others decided to get the loudest percussion instruments they possibly could.

The noise in the coach afterwards was deafening. Anyway, after that musical interlude, we drove to the Centre in the Square theatre to perform our only theatre concert.

This place was enormous, and so was the stage. We now had the opposite problem to the previous night’s concert; we had too much space! But any road up, the concert there went really well, and we filled up quite a lot of the theatre.

That puts another great concert in the bag.

The next day we packed our bags again, said goodbye to Kitchener and travelled to Chatham Congregational Church. It had a really shiny black floor, and that really made the lighting look extra effective! It also had balconies, so the string quartet was on one side of the room, whilst Steven (on the various wind instruments and the keyboard) and Simon (on percussion) were on the other side.

This gave the music a cool panned effect that really added to the Libera sound. That concert also went really well, and the pastor even told us afterwards how good he thought it was. Luckily for us, our new hotel was just up the road so we got home pretty early and went straight to bed; we had to drive back to Toronto the next day.

I think now is a good point to say that some of the older ones like myself and JB have been revising for exams throughout the entire trip. I know, it is very very dull. However, it has to be done – the exams are quite important. But coach journeys are great opportunities for us to do work, and so the five-hour trip back to Toronto on Wednesday didn’t pass too slowly. When we got back to the beloved Fairmount hotel, however, we dumped all our stuff in the rooms and went for a swim in the pool. That was pretty fun, and also very refreshing after such a long journey. It was quite late when we finished, so we went to a buffet-type place for dinner and went to bed. A week run of concerts is fun, but really tiring!

Yesterday we got up at a reasonable time, for we were going to Niagara Falls! Yes, it is spelt with an extra “a” after the “g”. I didn’t know that either until we went there to see the Falls! They were beautiful. Seeing them from the Canadian side is much better as you’re on an elevated viewpoint away from the Falls. We went up the Skylon tower (which looks like a miniature CN Tower) and from the top you could see the Falls and the entire area around them.

It’s all really confusing in that region – the land curves a lot and you’re not quite sure what’s Canada and what’s America. Anyhow, after going up to the sky deck, we went down a level to the revolving restaurant. This was even more confusing. The middle was stationary, the next part moved, and then the outside – i.e. the windows – were stationary. I had a seat by the window, so it was really cool seeing everything as we turned and dined. One funny little thing was that there was a ledge by the window, so if you put anything on it like a camera or something, one minute it would be there and the next minute it would be some table on the other side of the room, because you have moved! That was really cool, having revolving lunch. After that we went down into the Falls. There was this place where you could go behind the falls and look at it crashing down from the other side. That was quite worthwhile. What was odd, however, was that the spray of water coming off the Falls and onto our faces was so cold that it was ice! It was also really wet behind the Falls, so we didn’t spend too much time there and we came back to he gift shop where we found Murray the Moose. So our moose got to meet a real Canadian moose. And James met a seagull.

Before we left to get back to Toronto, we went to the IMAX near the Falls and watched a video on all the crazy stunts people have done by the falls, or in the falls. It was really interesting, and the screen was so big! And the sound system was all around, so you really felt like you were there. That was a really pleasant day out.

To be continued.....

Liblog: Our tour in Canada

On Tuesday we got on the coach at about 10.30 am in order to get to Heathrow. Some two hours later we arrived, deposited our luggage, waited round for a bit and then boarded our flight to Toronto, Ontario. It was a seven-hour flight, and it was easier to stay up for the whole thing because by the time we arrived at our destination it was quite late at night. We then had dinner at a sort of Swiss-themed buffet place. A lot of food was eaten that night. So we had quite a long Tuesday, but our hotel had lovely squishy beds that we just flopped onto and fell asleep within seconds.

The next day we got up and had a gigantic breakfast; most of us had things like omelettes, pancakes, waffles, eggs benedicts, and the like. Quite filling. We then went to an ice hockey museum, which was pretty interesting. Ice hockey isn’t as big in England as it is here in Canada, so it was interesting to see what the sport was like. There was even a sort of simulated game you could play, which was really cool. A few of us bought souvenir hockey sticks and pucks. We then had lunch at Tim Horton’s – fine Canadian cuisine indeed. Really nice doughnuts and sandwiches. As you can see, Libera is very food-oriented. Several of use had to go off to TV and radio stations to do interviews which we hoped would let people know about our concerts. On one morning live TV show, the host asked us to set a question for the viewers to answer and win tickets. There was a little hesitation when no-one could think of anything sensible – but then Kavana piped up with, ‘ what is the name of the place we all come from’ ! (Answer – London, England, UK, Earth, Near Moon, Universe etc etc)

Anyway, in the afternoon we went to see ‘Hop’, the film about the Easter bunny – it was pretty funny, actually. We then went back to that Swiss buffet place for dinner, and a lot more food was eaten that night. We then went to bed at quite a reasonable time, as the next day was concert day.

Thursday morning started quite late, and with another huge breakfast. So far we seem to have eaten a lot! We then had a relaxing period in the rooms, so we were well rested for the concert. We arrived at St. Michael’s Cathedral in the afternoon to have our sound check. As we came across from the rehearsal, we walked though the enormous queue of people waiting to get in. There were hundreds and hundreds - and the queue snaked its way round the block. St Michael’s is a really nice big building, and it had a good acoustic. That helped add to the atmosphere of our songs in the concert – which went very well, by the way. The next concert had a lot to live up to.

The next morning was pretty much the same as the one before. Except we had to drive from Toronto to London. Not London, England, that would have been the shortest tour, and also the longest (and wettest) coach journey. That being said, the drive to the Canadian London was still quite long, about 3 hours.

On the way we stopped in a car park and looked out at the sunny weather and several of use decided we didn’t need our coats. And then we went outside …..and came running back. It was bitterly cold with a strong icy wind. We went to eat at a restaurant, which had a moose theme.That is particularly relevant to us, as we are in the homeland of the moose, and also, Moose is the name of our mascot – who, coincidentally, is a moose. So we posed with an enormous wooden moose which was standing outside the restaurant. But we did not have any chocolate mousse (pun intended) for dessert. That would mess around with our vocal cords. No, we had ice cream for our sweet, and then we were on our way. The concert in the evening at St. Andrew’s Church yielded good musical fruit.Unfortunately though, after the concert finished, we had to get back to the hotel, which was three hours away. We got back at around half past midnight, which was pretty late. But thankfully we did not have a concert the next day, so we had a nice lie-in.

To be conitinued.....

Liblog: Libera Boys Talking About Video Shoot

by Liam Connery, Sam Leggett, Joshua Madine, Jonathan Barrington

When we sing directly into the camera, it feels like there’s someone staring at you while you sing! The only way to get over it is to imagine that it’s a mirror, and you’re singing to yourself.

It’s no good being a bit shy – the camera picks up how you feel and makes it more. Actually the camera can take your concentration because it moves. This one was on railway lines and rolled along while we were singing.

Make-up smells really weird not that I need much cough cough…. When they pamper you, the dusty stuff goes up your nose.

We really have to concentrate – obviously on singing – but also because often it takes ages and millions of years to get the lights and camera and technical stuff OK, so that when its our turn, some of us have drifted off daydreaming so we have to think hard about what we are actually doing!

We wear our robes nearly all the time on concert days and video shoots. They may seem heavy and hot, but really they are quite comfortable and cool. We don’t have the frilly ruff and collar things some boy singers have!

We had a lot of fun filming, because while some were being filmed, others were able to watch them in the director’s small screen.

After we finished one of the two songs, we had lunch. This consisted of burgers, pies or omelettes – so there was messy eating with vinegar, ketchup, and salad dressing making our back‑to‑front coats we wear to protect our robes no longer blue, but a pinkish-brown colour.

The hoods are like horse ‘nose-bags’ and collect spilled food in them – but not me of course

We don’t get much idea of what the video will be like while we are filming it. There are so many different takes. But it’s fantastic when we see it all put together – really amazing.

It’s just completely brilliant doing stuff like videos – even though it takes a long time, there’s so much to watch and do in the gaps - we might do homework…..or play psp/ds games…or just talk. We go all over the place in Libera, the world really sometimes, so we are quite used to being together for long times and are good friends and have our special jokes and things to fill in boring time on planes and coaches.

The director, after we had finished shooting, gave us a chance to do a “mess‑around” version, which consisted of some ballerina twirls, sunglasses, scarves made out of ivy, fireman’s lifts and a big cardboard box. Quite mad, really. Don’t know whether the director kept it or not!