Snowdrop

The 11 people have a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/11online which might be worth keeping an eye on.

What a shame for everyone who had made plans. I hope you will all manage to re-arrange, and that no-one bought unrefundable train tickets etc.

I can't be sure what it's like, but I think it's a bit of a leap to assume that because Gareth did one charity concert with children, that every other charity concert is the same unless it says so specifically. The evidence certainly doesn't point that way, and the children in "Children of Eden" are in face Adam and Eve - so not children at all! Of course, when we get more information they might say children are heavily involved, but even if they are, it's still going to have big name West End stars and is introduced by very big name writer, so I still think it would give the wrong impression to describe it as a children's concert. Perhaps it's worth editing your original post to reflect what we definitley know, and making it clear what is and isn't speculation? Not everyone reads the full details of threads and base what they think on the first post.

I think this is quite a big deal. Kerry Ellis is probably the biggest West End star at the moment, and Hannah Waddington is also very respected. I'm assuming you got your information from this twitter feed Val, http://twitter.com/#!/11Online and you'll see that they say it's to be an all star cast and hosted by "Stephen Schwartz himself", so obviously the "Children of Eden" they are talking about is the musical by the same name that he wrote. Stephen Schwartz is a very big name in song-writing and musicals, being the writer of Wicked (the show that made Kerry famous) as Godspell, and written music for films like Pochohontis, The Prince of Egypt (for hich he won a Grammy) and The Hunchback of Notre Damme etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Schwartz_composer The Prince of Wales theatre is the one where Mamma Mia! is playing, which is just off Leicester Square, and Wikipedia says it has a capaticy of just 1,160, so if tickets aren't hideoiusly expensive, you might need to be quick off the mark to be sure of a good seat. I know Kerry has a lot of hard-core fans and they'll be eager to see her. I really don't get why there is an assumption it's a concert for or by children as nothing that I can find suggests that. The people who tweeted about it describe themselves as a UK Youth Musical Theatre broadcaster, so I wouldn't be surprised if the chorus was made up of some of the more promising members of youth theatres, but that doesn't make it a children's show. When someone talks about a children's concert, I think of something in the village hall with an audience made up of family members. I think this will be far more like the Stiles & Drewe concert or the Broadway to West End ones. Both of them had musical theatre students in the chorus (albeit with some very proud family members in the audience), but they were very much professional productions to a very high standard.

Great photos, thanks. I bet Gareth's sisters love going on a night out with him, especially if he's DJing. It also seems they are friends with Terry too.

Thanks for posting Heather. I wonder if this is a DJ set or a singing one? They say he's performing, which makes me think it's the latter.

I don't think it's meant to be nice, but it is publicity!

Sounds brilliant. What a fantastic pre-Christmas treat. I see you can buy tickets here: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_midlands&query=detail&event=476077 Maria, if ever you are wondering where somewhere is, just go to google, click on the maps bit, and enter the place and it will show you exactly where it is. In fact, most of the time you don't even need to click on maps, because it will work out it is a place name you've entered.

I too wish Gareth would give the fake tan and bronzer etc a miss. It's not just that there is no need, it looks so unnatural. He might have felt tempted to have a top-up tan knowing he was filming, but when he's filming is exactly when he needs to look his best, and too much tan ruins his natural good looks. If it looked like a tan it wouldn't be so bad, but it doesn't. It's far too orangy. There's no need for make-up unless you are filming under strong lights, except perhaps a light dusting of powder to stop your nose shining. Unless everyone on the entire course had their make-up done for filming, he's going to stand out as being the most orange one there. It's a shame that so often when people meet Gareth, or see him on tv, their first comment is to say he looks orange. It totally undermines what he's doing, which is a shame, because what he's doing leading a McGuire course and doing the documentary is amazing.

That's great news - thanks.

Thanks for letting us know. It would have been a very fast turnaround time for them to film it, edit it, and then get it to air. I'd also have thought they might like to do some interviews/follow-ups with the new recruits in the weeks after the course.

Do you think it might be something to do with your firewall settings? I can't think of any other reason why they aren't showing up for you. Alternatively, you could use a website like this one to get and insert the sort of emoticons we have on here, and many more.

That's great that Gareth's work has been recognised by the Giving Voice campaign, although personally, I think his contribution to raising awareness and generally being an inspiration extends beyond being a "Celebrity Ambassador".

Brilliant - thanks Heather.

And in the course of writing that post, the listen again feature has become available. http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/p00kntk7 He's at 2 hours and 15 mins into it. Overall it was a good interview. I liked that Gareth was able to talk about having come from Les Mis, and that the interviewer did briefly mention that Gareth had sold millions of records. When trying to find the interview, I came across a message from a listener saying they wanted to hear AOU as they thought it was Gareth's best song. Unfortunately, I don't think that show plays much music, so all they had was a teeny-tiny clip of UM to introduce the interview with Gareth, but at least some listeners were reminded of Gareth's other music.

I managed to forget all about it too! But there is a listen again function - once it's ready, it should show up here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kntk7 It is tedious that some of these interviewers still bring up the Jordan thing when it was so long ago. At least we had some warning from the summary, and I think some of these people think that's what people want to hear. If they've not paid much attention to Gareth's career, that's one of the bits that got the most attention, thanks to her big gob and unrelenting desire to use anything for publicity. Gareth is so often promoted as someone who did Pop Idol, and now whatever he's doing now. If they are feeling adventurous, they might also mention Dancing on Ice. Four number one singles, three albums, international arena tours, millions of sales and everything else that went with that are apparently easier to forget than a brief teenage fling if you read the tabloids.

I think it's more to do with the licensing of the venue. Some concerts are over 18s, or over 14s because they operate a bar and are more like clubs. There will be different expectations of venues if it's to be open to Under 18s. This venue will be open to under 18s.

This isn't on tv. The twitter account belongs to BBC Radio Three Counties (Beds, Hearts & Bucks) and it will be their breakfast show Gareth's interview will be featured on. http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/programmes http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kntk7