Post by davidhr on Oct 19, 2008 13:47:37 GMT -5
A week of real substance (finally!)...
Lara had her fan club meeting at the circus location in Brussels Thursday night, and by all accounts she handled it extremely well. It began with her entrance surrounded by motorcyclists – as can be seen in a video on Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbeiBrZL128
Other circus acts were also included, e.g.,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcfraIuprvI
But the main portion of the evening involved Lara playing 6 songs from the new album, showing pictures relevant to it, Gerard showing pictures (including, perhaps inadvertently, one of Lara and Lou), and Lara answering questions, both written and live. Various pictures of the event are available at:
viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=97520089&albumId=2398562
and also on Hezia’s site, at:
forum.aceboard.net/38688-540-21236-7-Rencontre-Octobre-2008.htm
What’s more, surprisingly, the event was filmed, and will be shown on Saturday, November 1st, private access on French TV6. Hopefully, we will then be able to see everything they think to show us.
Of most importance, of course, are the songs themselves. They consist of 13 reprises, one new song from Lara herself, and one written text concerned with the rights of women. One listing is given below:
1- Amoureuse - Véronique Sanson
2- Babacar - France Gall
3- ça casse - Maurane
4- Gottingen - Barbara
5- L'hymne à l'amour - Piaf
6- Nuit magique - Catherine Lara
7- L'amour existe encore ? - Céline Dion
8- Libertine ? - Mylène Farmer
9- Nicole Croisille
10- Diane Dufresne
11- Nana Mouskouri
12- Mamy blue , Nicoletta
13-Lara’s original song TLFM
14- Text read by Lara on the rights of women
15-
While some or all of the songs can be heard accompanying several of the videos on Youtube, mp3 versions of them were made available by inlasco on laradom; the links given are:
dl.free.fr/getfile.pl?file=/NiXVQhCw
www.megaupload.com/?d=RQ9YKKFA
(all 6 songs are available from each link, compressed in .rar form)
[Note to the webmaster: if there is any question about the propriety of having these mp3 links listed here, please feel free to remove them. At least one complete song is already available on Youtube, and presumably some or all of these will be made available in the filmed concert, providing at least a little justification…]
Other news provided by Lara is that the album will be released, as expected, December 1st; a single has not yet been decided on; and a tour will begin in September 2009, to cover France, Belgium and Switzerland. (A listing of dates, yet to be confirmed, is given by larafabianweb.com; ironically, or perhaps meaningfully, this is the start date – and perhaps even the locales – that the so-called ‘false message from Universal’ of several months ago had indicated. It again makes that whole situation more confounding]. Why it will take 10 months from the album’s release to begin the tour is open to speculation: Time with her child? Another child? It certainly is not the ideal from a commercial point of view.
As to songs: for those who haven’t yet heard them, don’t expect to find Lara singing the way she did on Pure, or Nue. If one extrapolates how her singing changed from Nue to ETI, and then continues that extrapolation to this new album, one will get a much better idea, at least for the six songs available. A number of fans have noted that it is much more a ‘music’ album than a vocal one; one possible impression is that Matt Herskowitz mixed the album to emphasize what he was doing, rather than Lara. But that doesn’t really explain it, for Lara does appear to be singing softly (murmuring a number of fans noted, or even speaking the words in some cases). The songs are pretty, and the subtle renditions may well grow on us, but on first listening it does not resemble any previous album Lara has done. More than half of the album remains to be heard, so in addition to giving it time, a full accounting will have to wait until December. Oddly, advance sales of the album are not yet available from any of the major French music distributors.
One interesting aspect to the meeting was the appearance of the photo of Lara and Lou. An argument broke out on the websites as to whether Gerard meant to show that photo, and some fans threatened excommunication or even death to any fan who dared put a picture of it on a website. This shows that extreme stupidity is not solely the province of politicians! Apparently Lou has very blue eyes (something we know can change with time…); she was described as ‘charming, as are all children’.
As for other news, Lara has a potential upcoming appearance on the show “Ceremony for the rights of children” scheduled for November 3. However, while one site indicates she will be there, another does not list her; apparently, they are still in negotiation. We also know that Lara is (still) scheduled to be on the Star Academy show, and a tentative date given by Larafabianweb.com is for December 5th. That too has not been verified. Of more immediate interest, and the only events the official site lists, are the two concerts on Reunion Island next week.
Finally, one last comment concerning the official site: the dissatisfaction on the official forum that fans expressed last week toward Lara for one reason or another, was transferred in their eyes this week to the people who run the official site, for removing more than 3 days worth of messages. While the official site (and Hezia's) have always practiced censorship concerning Lara’s personal life, which many of the fans supported (note their reaction to photos of Lou), censoring the fans' personal opinions appears to be another matter (what this really shows is that once censorship is accepted, it can easily spread). Their comments about the inappropriateness of that action were still there on the official site as of this morning – which probably only means that Lara’s people have not yet noticed them. Some people writing into other sites say they will never post on the official site again. It’s possible that all this will be washed away as Lara’s career becomes more active, although the initial response to the new songs available so far has been quite mixed.
David
Lara had her fan club meeting at the circus location in Brussels Thursday night, and by all accounts she handled it extremely well. It began with her entrance surrounded by motorcyclists – as can be seen in a video on Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbeiBrZL128
Other circus acts were also included, e.g.,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcfraIuprvI
But the main portion of the evening involved Lara playing 6 songs from the new album, showing pictures relevant to it, Gerard showing pictures (including, perhaps inadvertently, one of Lara and Lou), and Lara answering questions, both written and live. Various pictures of the event are available at:
viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=97520089&albumId=2398562
and also on Hezia’s site, at:
forum.aceboard.net/38688-540-21236-7-Rencontre-Octobre-2008.htm
What’s more, surprisingly, the event was filmed, and will be shown on Saturday, November 1st, private access on French TV6. Hopefully, we will then be able to see everything they think to show us.
Of most importance, of course, are the songs themselves. They consist of 13 reprises, one new song from Lara herself, and one written text concerned with the rights of women. One listing is given below:
1- Amoureuse - Véronique Sanson
2- Babacar - France Gall
3- ça casse - Maurane
4- Gottingen - Barbara
5- L'hymne à l'amour - Piaf
6- Nuit magique - Catherine Lara
7- L'amour existe encore ? - Céline Dion
8- Libertine ? - Mylène Farmer
9- Nicole Croisille
10- Diane Dufresne
11- Nana Mouskouri
12- Mamy blue , Nicoletta
13-Lara’s original song TLFM
14- Text read by Lara on the rights of women
15-
While some or all of the songs can be heard accompanying several of the videos on Youtube, mp3 versions of them were made available by inlasco on laradom; the links given are:
dl.free.fr/getfile.pl?file=/NiXVQhCw
www.megaupload.com/?d=RQ9YKKFA
(all 6 songs are available from each link, compressed in .rar form)
[Note to the webmaster: if there is any question about the propriety of having these mp3 links listed here, please feel free to remove them. At least one complete song is already available on Youtube, and presumably some or all of these will be made available in the filmed concert, providing at least a little justification…]
Other news provided by Lara is that the album will be released, as expected, December 1st; a single has not yet been decided on; and a tour will begin in September 2009, to cover France, Belgium and Switzerland. (A listing of dates, yet to be confirmed, is given by larafabianweb.com; ironically, or perhaps meaningfully, this is the start date – and perhaps even the locales – that the so-called ‘false message from Universal’ of several months ago had indicated. It again makes that whole situation more confounding]. Why it will take 10 months from the album’s release to begin the tour is open to speculation: Time with her child? Another child? It certainly is not the ideal from a commercial point of view.
As to songs: for those who haven’t yet heard them, don’t expect to find Lara singing the way she did on Pure, or Nue. If one extrapolates how her singing changed from Nue to ETI, and then continues that extrapolation to this new album, one will get a much better idea, at least for the six songs available. A number of fans have noted that it is much more a ‘music’ album than a vocal one; one possible impression is that Matt Herskowitz mixed the album to emphasize what he was doing, rather than Lara. But that doesn’t really explain it, for Lara does appear to be singing softly (murmuring a number of fans noted, or even speaking the words in some cases). The songs are pretty, and the subtle renditions may well grow on us, but on first listening it does not resemble any previous album Lara has done. More than half of the album remains to be heard, so in addition to giving it time, a full accounting will have to wait until December. Oddly, advance sales of the album are not yet available from any of the major French music distributors.
One interesting aspect to the meeting was the appearance of the photo of Lara and Lou. An argument broke out on the websites as to whether Gerard meant to show that photo, and some fans threatened excommunication or even death to any fan who dared put a picture of it on a website. This shows that extreme stupidity is not solely the province of politicians! Apparently Lou has very blue eyes (something we know can change with time…); she was described as ‘charming, as are all children’.
As for other news, Lara has a potential upcoming appearance on the show “Ceremony for the rights of children” scheduled for November 3. However, while one site indicates she will be there, another does not list her; apparently, they are still in negotiation. We also know that Lara is (still) scheduled to be on the Star Academy show, and a tentative date given by Larafabianweb.com is for December 5th. That too has not been verified. Of more immediate interest, and the only events the official site lists, are the two concerts on Reunion Island next week.
Finally, one last comment concerning the official site: the dissatisfaction on the official forum that fans expressed last week toward Lara for one reason or another, was transferred in their eyes this week to the people who run the official site, for removing more than 3 days worth of messages. While the official site (and Hezia's) have always practiced censorship concerning Lara’s personal life, which many of the fans supported (note their reaction to photos of Lou), censoring the fans' personal opinions appears to be another matter (what this really shows is that once censorship is accepted, it can easily spread). Their comments about the inappropriateness of that action were still there on the official site as of this morning – which probably only means that Lara’s people have not yet noticed them. Some people writing into other sites say they will never post on the official site again. It’s possible that all this will be washed away as Lara’s career becomes more active, although the initial response to the new songs available so far has been quite mixed.
David