Concert Hall Memories....etc

So Hamer Hall is 30...... Forgive me if, in the following memoir I get something wrong...Memories do twist a bit with time.

The Concert Hall in Brisbane was not quite ready to use when
I migrated from Brisbane to Melbourne. It must have been close to ready, though, as I had been involved with work on the restaurant signage (notably, the feet of the lyrebird, if that makes any sense to anyone... there's another story there).

When I came to Melbourne in 1986 there was a great big round thing called The Concert Hall and the first concert I went to there sure was memorable - how lucky was I to have heard the ever lovely Victoria de Los Angeles singing Spanish Songs accompanied by the incomparable Geoffrey Parsons.

I think I must have even had reasonable seats, by the quality of that memory. I remember this beautiful lady gliding out onto the stage (as if on wheels!) in a flowing, tomato red gown, massive sparkling diamonds on her wrist and neck. Someone handed her a bunch of roses which she tossed onto the piano...but can they have stayed there? Is this an unreliable memory? Wouldn't the piano lid have been open? Could they have rested on the music stand? Sigh. Please correct me about this, if you were there too. I also remember that after a whole program in Spanish the encore was quite a shock. Suddenly a perfectly plummy English accent emerged as she sang Blow the Wind Southerly...

Another Melbourne Concert Hall highlight was hearing, a couple of years later, pianist, Ivo Pogorelich...though I remember him being a very, very long way away (not-so-good seats that time, but I do believe they were comps). He was very tall. I don't remember the program (but I do remember what I wore and I still have that dress).

That was probably the same year in which I was employed (along with a few hundred others) as an extra in Aida in Princes Park. That was interesting...and fun. Grace Bumbry was Aida. We saw her close up (but I didn't get to see the elephants performing, or the acrobats and fire-breathers in action, or much of the opera). Our Italian costumes were great, especially the turned-up-at-the-toe leather sandals. I would have liked to have kept them...but we didn't get paid if we kept our sandals.

In between the concerts of Victoria and Ivo I do believe the Concert Hall had a birthday. Not just a birthday but a birthday party too, and we were all invited. It was 5 years old. That party seemed to be over catered and under attended (spare hotdogs). There were free glasses of champagne and slices of the huge Concert Hall shaped birthday cake, as well as the hotdogs. You know that black wave sculpture thing next to the Concert Hall? It was replicated on the cake, along with lots of green grass.

And another memory from that inbetween time - Eartha Kitt. For some reason I think the tickets must have been very cheap, because I went to both of her Concert Hall shows....yes I believe it was a short notice concert when Michel Legrand had to cancel his tour. Apart from  looking fabulous in a long, slender, black dress, and singing all those wonderful songs, Eartha made one unsuspecting usher bring her champagne on stage...and then teased him about his youthful age, and forced him to drink a glass.

I went to a lot more concerts in the Concert Hall after it turned 5. What a thrill it was to see my hero, Jordi Savall, there for the first time! How could I have known then that I would end up with a jar on my shelf containing the used green teabag of this master viol player (a true sacred relic - fact).

Confusion reigned for a short while when the Concert Hall suddenly became Hamer Hall...I do know of  some people who headed off in a different direction when they read Hamer Hall on their concert tickets....(they did make it back in time for the concert).
and when was it, what was the occasion that gave the Concert Hall exterior a dressing of flashing lights around the top, which made it look as though it might just take off at any minute??

It always seemed terribly big to me until recently. Maybe I grew, because when I took my daughter to a concert there a few years ago, just before the renovations started, I no longer found it so huge. On our more recent trips to the Recital Centre I've always made a point of looking to see how the Concert Hall renovations are going, and wondering about the big chandelier.... and I'm yet to attend a concert in the newly renovated Hall...