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Author Topic: Ancient Land DVD Recording Anniversary!  (Read 2544 times)
CWazyTom
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« on: September 12, 2019, 11:09:01 PM »

One year ago today was the first night of the Celtic Woman: Ancient Land taping at Johnstown Castle in Wexford!

It seems hard to believe it's already been a year, yet so much has happened since then, it also seems long ago.

Here are some things I remember most...

The planning for my first trip to Ireland on relatively short notice was frantic and a bit exhausting, but things worked out very well. The weather while I was in Ireland was incredible! Only a day or two of rain the entire trip (although one of those rainy days destroyed my old phone). I saw a lot of awesome things while I was in Ireland: Powerscourt, The Guinness Store House, Trinity College, The Cliffs of Moher, The Giant's Causeway, Edel Murphy in Riverdance, Lisa Lambe in Jimmy's Hall ... but as you may have guessed, Celtic Woman at Johnstown Castle was the highlight of the trip.

I was able to sleep for almost the entire flight to Ireland, so I managed to experience practically no jet lag!

I packed in so much sightseeing before the DVD recording that I was a bit worn out by the DVD recording. I got dropped off at the back entrance so it was a bit of a walk to the entrance, where a line had already formed hours before they started letting people in. Standing in line I got to meet a lot of awesome forum friends for the first time! Tracie, I will always remember the first time you came up to me all excited and recognized me. :D

The anticipation was crazy as we stood in line in front of the castle, knowing we were hours away from a show we had probably dreamed of but never thought we would actually be part of.

The first night of DVD recording was pretty cold, though not as cold and foggy as night #2. I got to sit in the second row to stage right (first row stage right on night #2). I had a great view of the stage. The castle was lit up beautifully. The show was a little late getting started as people had to be re-arranged in the bleachers before they started the show, but it was worth every moment of the wait!

I was excited out of my mind when Tara came out onto that stage and the singers followed, Megan for the first time as a member of Celtic Woman! Megan was a bit nervous, but who wouldn't be? She powered through it though and she was an amazing presence on stage!

The whole experience was incredible!

The day of the second show, a group of us went to the castle early in the afternoon to walk around the gorgeous castle grounds before getting in line. We saw PBS recording some footage for pledge segments, but we didn't find out until later that Celtic Woman (including Meav) had been behind the castle doing their interviews and chatting with fans a few hours before we arrived. We got to watch the girls doing sound check from the line. They ran cameras up and down the line and got some volunteers to do interviews. In the excitement of the moment, I volunteered. Fortunately, those interviews never aired, since I've never been so disappointed in my communication skills. That was my moment to express how much Celtic Woman meant to me and I couldn't say anything coherent. I'll have to have something prepared in advance if there's a next time.

Before the show on night #2, I got to meet Susan again, who was all bundled up in the crowd. I also got to meet Glenn, Ronan, and Anto. Meav was hiding somewhere in the crowd too, but I unfortunately didn't spot her while I was there.

The second night was damp, foggy and really chilly, but thankfully there was no rain during either show. The stage had to be mopped after every few songs because of all the moisture, but it was still pretty "slippy." Mairead was hilarous between songs. I'm still waiting for Celtic Woman On Ice to be announced though. ;)

We stuck around after the show both nights, but didn't get to meet any of the lead performers post-show. We saw the girls come back out of the castle to take some photos with friends and family. Tara saw us watching and waved at us from a distance (yeah, the not-so-subtle Susan reference there was fully intended).

I actually got pretty sick the morning after the second show: probably a combination of the crazy mist from the night before and the energy crash after the most amazing concert experience ever but I still got to see a few more things in Carlow and Kilkenny before flying back home from the most treasured adventure of my life.

What are some of your favorite memories from the Celtic Woman: Ancient Land DVD recording and your time in Ireland?
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Tracie
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« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2019, 11:55:44 PM »

Wow, the one year anniversary of the Ancient Land filming!  I had floods of memories coming over me throughout the day today and as I watched the DVD tonight.  :)

I still find it unreal that the DVD filming dropped so perfectly into the Ireland trip that Gregg and I had booked nearly two years in advance.  We had been hoping that they would do a show somewhere while we were there, but had kind of given up on that thought a few months before our trip since no Ireland shows had been announced.  But then, only about 6 weeks before we were to fly out, the announcement came that a new castle special was going to be filmed!  We immediately sent in our request for tickets, only knowing that it would take place in September, and it was the longest week and a half until we found out that the filming was while we would be in Ireland (we just had to change our flight home by two days - done!) and that we could have tickets.  We were going to see our favorite musical group film a DVD at a castle! Wow!

We spent two weeks taking a bus tour of Ireland that looped around the entire country, including going into Northern Ireland.  We had the most amazing time.  Ireland is such a beautiful country.  Even being there at the end of their very hot, dry summer, it was still gorgeous.  We look back at our pictures and always say that they just don't do justice to Ireland's beauty.  We loved everything on that trip, but some of the highlights were Connemara National Park, Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Kilkenny Castle, the Ring of Kerry, Dun Laoghaire harbor, Galway, and the fabulous music and dance show Celtic Steps, among many other things.  Cliffs of Moher was rained out, and our tour group went to Giant's Causeway the day we took the train to Wexford for the filming, so those are high on our list for our next visit!  The first day of filming was the final day of our bus tour so the timing was amazing!

We arrived at Johnstown Castle and within 10 minutes we met Tom and David.  We had been excitedly waiting to meet our forum friends in person (well, I was a forum member, but Gregg knew how much I enjoyed making friends on here).  We had so much fun talking about our favorite ladies and how awesome the filming was going to be.  We had a little fan gathering lunch the 2nd day, after which Gregg, Tom and I went to the castle and wandered around the lake and gardens.  We had such a great time!  As I've been sappily telling these guys through various social media posts today, their friendship over this past year has meant so much to me.  Johnstown Castle was just the beginning, as we have since gotten together at more Celtic Woman shows (including Red Rocks!) and we are planning more adventures together for the Christmas and Celebration tours.  Meeting you guys is one of the greatest things that happened on that Ireland trip!  ;D  We also met Matt, Laura, Rob and Leanna at the filming.  We've met so many amazing people through a mutual love of Celtic Woman, and Johnstown Castle was the starting point of those meetings.  I have loved meeting so many other fans, and would still love to meet more!  Let's get together at upcoming shows!

The two nights of filming were epic and phenomenal!  I loved experiencing every moment of it!  Some of the standout memories from the filming are:

- On the first night, the most incredible feeling of joy came over me the moment Tara stepped on stage to begin what I knew would be a beyond amazing show.  I'll always remember that feeling.  Then Eabha came on stage, then Megan, then Mairead, and the magic began.

- Eabha was the first of the ladies to spot me in the audience.  It was during Homeland on the first night and she was scanning our section and when she saw me, she gave me the biggest smile.  I got smiles from Mairead and Tara throughout the filming as well.  I loved that they recognized me, as I had only met them a couple of times at that point.  Megan of course didn't yet know who we were, but she does now :)  A few months earlier on the Homecoming tour, I had written them a letter telling them how excited Gregg and I were to spend half of September in Ireland.  We didn't know about the Ancient Land filming at that point, but I'm sure they did.  I like to think that when they read my letter, they knew we would be in that audience.

- During County Down, when Mairead sings "I still need you, the most of all" she looks directly at us and smiles and nods.  We always love watching that moment on the DVD.

- It was so amazing to hear so many brand new songs and to instantly fall in love with all of them.

- When the stage manager announced that Mairead and Megan would be singing a duet of Over the Rainbow, Gregg and I turned to each other and both said this is going to be incredible!  We were right!

- When Megan sang Faith's Song, me, Gregg and Tom all looked at each other and went woooooooow!

- Eabha's incredible Garden of Eden sounded so familiar and it was later that night back at our b&b that we realized it was because we had previously seen a youtube video of her singing it from before she had joined Celtic Woman.

- There were adorable moments that didn't make their way onto the DVD, particularly with Mairead.  The second night when the stage was so slippery, she welcomed the audience to Celtic Woman on Ice! She also explained Ireland's ballrooms of romance by saying that they were a place to "have a little boogie."  If you weren't there, just imagine hearing that in her adorable accent!  The ladies talked to the audience and gave song introductions so much more than what is on the DVD.  I wonder why they cut all that stuff out?

- Tara's Love and Honour made me cry tears of joy.  She has the most incredible way of reaching all the way to my heart and soul with her performances.

- It was so cool just to experience being at a filming for the first time.  Things like at the end of Follow Me when the guys dip the ladies backwards, production had them hold that pose for awhile so they could send a drone up to film it.  How they did re-takes of 5 songs over the 2 nights and each time they announced a re-take, we were so excited because we totally wanted to hear the songs again! 

- Over the 2 nights, we met Susan, Anto, Ray, Glenn and Ronan.  We got pictures with each of them except for Ray.  He walked along the front row and shook our hands and spoke with us briefly.  The coolest thing was that when we were talking to Glenn and Ronan and telling them how much we love their album Horizon, Ronan, who we hadn't met before, asked me my name.  As I started to answer, Glenn chimed in and said "this is Gregg and Tracie".  We had met him before, but it had been more than a year prior on the Voices of Angels tour.  So cool of him to remember!  We also randomly walked past Carl, Alan, Colm & James in town in Wexford the morning of day 2 and called back to them that they were amazing and we loved the show the prior night!

It's been a lot of fun reminiscing today and as I write this up.  Being in the audience for the Ancient Land filming was the most phenomenal experience of my life!  ;D
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CWazyTom
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« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2019, 07:25:03 AM »

Thanks for sharing those memories Tracie!

We need to travel together next time we go to Ireland. I would definitely do Giant's Causeway again and Powerscourt. Newgrange is still on my list along with a bunch of stuff in Belfast (which hopefully isn't complicated by Brexit).

I agree with you: one of the best things about that trip to Ireland was meeting you, Gregg, and David. You are the best friends and I'm so lucky to know you.

It always amazes me how some of the performers know who we are before we even meet them. I'm pretty sure I hadn't actually met Glenn or Ronan before Johnstown Castle and they both recognized me (just like Chloë did the first time I met anyone from Celtic Woman, just weeks after I actually started using Twitter and Instagram). One of the craziest things was when one of Mairead Nesbitt's friends recognized me earlier this year at a show in Ohio. Like...what???

Having the girls make eye contact with us during the taping was fantastic! I think Tara noticed me first and did one of her adorable "smile-and-nods" at me during Homeland.

Megan kept making eye contact with me while she was on the stage right wing and I kind of wondered if I was freaking her out or something.  :D

I was going crazy inside when Eabha started performing Garden of Eden. That's the first original song I actually knew before Celtic Woman performed it, from having seen Eabha's NY show in support of Kylemore Abby on YouTube a bunch of times.

I think Over the Rainbow was one of several songs where we just look at each other after the song, mouths open in amazement, and were like: "did we just hear that?" I did that after Mairead's "County Down" on the second night too ... and "I still need you the most of all" gets me every time. We still do, Mairead. <3

I was hoping I would get to hear her perform it live. I think dreams came true for both Eabha and I that night when she got to perform her incredible song at a concert special in front of a castle in Ireland.  ;D

One of the things I forgot to mention in my Ancient Land memory lane writeup was how much emotion Mairead showed during the dedication before The Parting Glass, especially on night #1. I've seen a few people go posting nonsense online that this group doesn't have an emotional connection to the audience like Classic Celtic Woman did. I guess those people don't know Mairead and didn't see what we saw at Johnstown Castle.

Who knows if we'll ever have that kind of experience again: seeing our favourite group perform at an outdoor venue that spectacular. I would certainly go see an indoor DVD recording though should the opportunity present itself. We got REALLY lucky with the weather while we were there. We may not be so lucky next time.

I'm still amazed that I got to see those two unforgettable shows live at Johnstown Castle and I'm so glad that I got to share that experience with a wonderful friend like you.
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Tracie
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« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2019, 09:21:58 AM »

Absolutely yes to us traveling together the next time we go to Ireland! Say, the next time our favorite ladies film a DVD there!? We would totally go back to Powerscourt and we also would love to go to Newgrange, which we didn't get to.

It does amaze me how well these ladies know their fans, even before ever meeting them. When meeting Megan for the first time on tour this year, she already knew who we were which was ridiculously awesome. I know David has had the same experiences too. And I completely agree with you about how it's nonsense that this current group doesn't have an emotional connection with their fans. They absolutely do! They are soooooo sweet and friendly to me every time I meet them. And they display so much emotion in their shows. There's one particular guy on social media who is very obviously only a fan of original Celtic Woman. He just posted in a fan group recently that he thinks the current members don't like him. I read that and thought well probably because you have such a negative attitude towards them. Geez, treat them with kindness and respect and they will be so warm and friendly to you in return.
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CWazyTom
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« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2019, 11:50:19 AM »

There's one particular guy on social media who is very obviously only a fan of original Celtic Woman. He just posted in a fan group recently that he thinks the current members don't like him. I read that and thought well probably because you have such a negative attitude towards them. Geez, treat them with kindness and respect and they will be so warm and friendly to you in return.

I saw that one. It's also quite possible their negative reaction to him is imagined. Anxiety and depression play extremely cruel but convincing tricks on our minds, as I well know.
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