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Meeting The Osmonds for the first time in Cardiff
June 3, 2008 by Sue Marshall (admin) · 9 Comments
I always love hearing from Osmond fans about what it was like to meet and/or see The Osmonds in concert, especially from these two types of people:
a) A first timer
b) A man!
A first timer because it reminds me of how it was for me the very first time I met them and it is so nice to hear this from a man’s point of view as well as you can guess, women outnumber the male fans when it comes to The Osmonds.
So here we go, I want to give a great big thank you to Dave Wyatt for his review and the lovely photo of himself with Jimmy and Marie Osmond. I love this review for another reason as Dave was at the same Meet and Greet that I was, so his review reminds me again how fantastic it was and I particularly love the bit about kissing Marie’s hand, how wonderful, you go Dave!!
Over to you Dave:
Wow what a dream I had. Did I really meet all the Osmonds?
My sister & I used to love watching the Osmonds on TV back in the 1970’s. We both had the Osmond World magazine and Jayne even had Osmond socks! Never in a million years did I think I’d get to see them.
Back last year when it was announced that all the Osmonds were going to do a World Tour I was so excited. Even more so when I saw they were coming to Cardiff which isn’t far from where I now live.
I asked Jayne if she wanted to come and for some reason she said no!! I booked my VIP ticket as I so much wanted to meet them. Unfortunately for Jayne when she found out that I really had bought a ticket she changed her mind but unfortunately the show by that time was “Sold out”. Never mind though being the nice brother which I am I told her I would ask Donny for his autograph.
It seemed such a long time for the concert though. I really was counting down the days. About a week before the concert I was getting really excited about seeing the Osmonds at last. I booked a day off work and also the following day to recover. Lol
On 28th May I caught the train into Cardiff and arrived at Cardiff CIA just after 12:00 hoping to meet the Osmonds as they arrived. It was awful weather and I looked like a drowned rat! I had spent lots of time preening myself especially for Marie. Anyway at about 14:45 I saw Jimmy & Marie (didn’t recognise her at so first. She is so petite I thought). I politely asked for a photograph and Jimmy was very obliging. The first Osmond I had ever met.
At around 15:30 myself and the other 100 or so fans went in and checked-in where we received our goodie bags which consisted of program, signed photo and framed display. We were also handed a card to write our question for the Q&A segment. As I’m a huge Elvis fan I made my question Elvis related and asked if they would have liked the opportunity to have recorded with Elvis.
Anyway time for the Meet & Greet. We were all told under no circumstances not to take photographs or ask for autographs otherwise we would be ejected! I pointed out that it clearly states that we can take photographs on the letter we had received with our tickets only to be told that the rules had changed!!! As my sister was unable to come to the concert I was hoping I could get autographs for her (especially Donny). We were all taken into the arena when the Osmonds appeared and came towards us. Now being a bloke even I was starting to tremble and going weak at the knees. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck start tingling. Whilst I appreciate there were about 100 people who had paid £250.00 for the VIP tickets we were quickly ushered around and only really had the chance to say “hello” to each Osmond before moving on to the next one! I shook all their hands except Marie’s. I politely asked if I could kiss her hand and she said how cute I was. OMG!!!
I found all the Osmonds to be extremely pleasant to talk too and so very polite. Personally I think it would have been better to have had a smaller VIP crowd and we would have had more time with each Osmond. But then again things are done to generate income (100 fans @ £250.00 each = £25,000.00!!) I must admit I did spend a bit of time with Donny telling him how my sister is a huge fan and she so much wanted to be at the concert. I was even contemplating asking for his autograph for her and risking being ejected!
After the Meet & Greet, Marie came over and spoke to all of us present whilst everybody else carried out sound checks etc. I did ask Marie if she would marry me (seriously) but she did say she already had 8 children and didn’t want anymore!
Next came the Q&A. Hey Donny read my question first. WOW. He even said my name too. Alan answered the question and I found it very interesting hearing about how they met Elvis etc. Donny kept on to Alan asking him to answer the question with either a yes or no lol. Thankfully we were able to take photographs in this part only and I took quite a few.
Next the sound checks which was a mini concert in itself. It was so funny watching Donny & Wayne dancing to The Proud One. Really wish we could have taken photographs though.
That was the VIP part over and done with. It only seemed like such a short time we were with the Osmonds. Luckily I had bought a ticket for the VIP lounge which included a meal which was very nice.
The concert itself was absolutely FANTASTIC. What a show. This was easily the best concert I have ever been to. I bought a few things in the intermission and also paid for a concert CD which I have on at the time of writing this.
Would I pay £250.00 for a VIP ticket again? No I wouldn’t. Whilst I can’t find any fault whatsoever with the concert or meeting the Osmonds, things were rushed and we certainly were not treated like VIP’s.
With all the video cameras about I really hope we get a UK DVD of the Concert.
Thank-you very much to the Osmonds for such a fantastic time. It was such a pleasure finally getting to meet all of you. I really wished Jayne (my sister could have been there too).
Fan review – The Osmonds 50th Anniversary concert at Wembley Arena
June 3, 2008 by Sue Marshall (admin) · 7 Comments
Today we have another delightful guest Author, Sandra Thomas, who attended The Wembley Arena 31st May concert by The Osmonds for their 50th Anniversary World Tour.
Thanks so much Sandra for sharing your experience with us, over to you:
I just had to write to your blog as I am still buzzing from the effects of seeing the Osmonds at Wembley Arena on Saturday!
Along with thousands of other (yes, sorry – mainly female) Osmond fans I turned up with my friends with great anticipation and excitement (I couldn’t sleep Friday night as I kept dreaming that Merrill had got me up on stage to sing with him!!).
I have been to many concerts at the arena over the years and I am always amazed at how “intimate” the venue feels, despite its capacity. The goose bumps started as soon as the lights went down and when the sound of the “crazy horses” music came on we all jumped to our feet and you knew that “this was it – the night we had been waiting for all our lives”!!
We were not disappointed! Every song, every second of that concert made me feel like I was in a time warp and I was a young girl again. Their voices, their smiles, the dancing – everything was perfection. The moving video footage of the old days with their family and the scenes of the screaming fans outside the Rainbow theatre were too much to bear and combined with the music, made a lot of us cry!
One of the highlights was when “little” Jimmy Osmond did a roaring rendition of Long Haired Lover from Liverpool – which had the whole crowd on their feet singing their hearts out – fantastic!!
(Admin Note: During ‘LHLFL’, huge bouncy balloons were released over the audience heads, as you can see in the image below, great fun!)
(Photo taken at Cardiff Concert on 28th May during ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’ and supplied by Sue Marshall, Admin of “Osmonds Galore”).
Before the concert, my one worry was that they might have thought it a good idea to get Donny to do some of the lead vocals on the “Osmonds” songs – but with the exception of one of my absolute favourites “Darling” (thanks guys!!) it was actually Merrill who sang them – as it should be!! Not that I don’t love Donny , I do, but for me Merrill will always be “the one” – wow that man can sing!
Marie looked and sounded fantastic – I wish her and Donny had sung “Morning Side of The Mountain”, but hey, what they did sing was amazing so I’ll let that one pass.
The second half of the concert just blew everyone away as they sang a medley of all the old hits and when they went off the stage at the end, you knew that with the whole crowd chanting “we want the Osmonds” they just had to come back for one more and when they returned to the stage and sang the encore, the tears flowed again and when we had to finally say goodbye, it was like saying goodbye to a dear, lifelong friend who you knew you probably would never see again but who would remain in your heart forever!
Thank you Alan, Jay, Wayne, Merrill, Donny, Marie and Jimmy – you have made an old lady very happy!!!
DVD for The Osmonds 50th Anniversary World Tour?
June 2, 2008 by Sue Marshall (admin) · 6 Comments
I have recently seen lots of Osmond fans asking the above question both here and on the various Osmond Websites.
The answer at the moment, from The Osmonds PA’s is that NO there will not be a DVD for sale later for any of the concerts in the 50th Anniversary World Tour. However, you have a couple of alternatives..
First of all you can buy “The Osmonds 50th Anniversary Reunited Live in Las Vegas” DVD – I bought that when it came out and watched it before going to the Cardiff concert on the 28th May. I highly recommend it and my particular favorite part of this DVD is when all The Osmonds, including their two older brothers Tom and Virl (who are deaf) go on stage with them in the line-up and whilst their brothers (and sister) are singing, Tom and Virl at opposite ends of the line-up sign the words to the song, that is lovely and I have to admit bought a tear to my eye because as we all know, the whole reason we even got The Osmonds was because they started to perform to raise money for hearing aids and so their brothers could go on their Mormon Missions.
Available now and possibly for a limited time, certainly via membership of donny.com you can buy, for $9.95 a “Pay Per View” of a live recording of the Wembley Arena concert, taped on Friday 30th May.
Go onto the store at donny.com and purchase your Pay Per View, then when you want to watch it, simply click on VIEW in your member area, please be aware though that once you click VIEW you then have 4 hours only to watch it, so make sure you have allotted a couple of hours where you know you will not be interrupted. This recording was made by Jeremy Hall, official photographer for the UK part of the World Tour. During filming for the Pay Per View, Jeremy even went on stage with The Osmonds.
Jeremy will be producing a photographic book (with blog style commentary) after the Tour finishes, no estimated date for completion yet. He has been giving sneak peeks of his work on his site Osmondmania.com. If you want to get a copy of that then also on donny.com a pre-sale for the book started this week. Doing a pre-sale means they get a good idea of how many print runs to do of the book later and of course it means you won’t miss out on this fantastic book which I know is going to provide so many wonderful memories of a great tour.
If you know you would like both the Pay Per View (PPV) and the book and you like a bargain, then you can buy from the store a special deal of the book and PPV with about $5 off the PPV.
I have not had the chance yet to watch the PPV so I am sorry, I can’t give any recommendations on that score.
